The Michigan Daily - Tuesday. December 10. 1996 - 15
Men's swimmers to train
Down Under over break
By John Friedberg
Daily Sports Writer
Australia seems like the perfect
place to spend the holidays. Summer
is in full swing as temperatures are in
the 90s. Sound like paradise? Well,
what if you had two workouts per day
and had to spend most of your time in
Perth rather than Sydney or
Melbourne?
The Michigan men's swimming and
diving team will leave for their annual
winter training camp Dec. 21. Usually
the camp takes place in Colorado
Springs, Colo., at the Olympic
Training Center, but once every four
years, coach Jon Urbanchek likes to
take his team somewhere different.
"The 1998 World Championships
will be in Perth, so it's a good chance
to see the area," Urbanchek said. "Plus
I like to take them somewhere differ-
ent as a reward."
That would be a reward for the
Olympics, the 1995 National
Championship and a stellar fall sea-
son.
Senior captain John Piersma likes
the idea of a trip, but has other ideas
about the overseas location.
"No matter where we go," Piersma
said, "we always seem to be about as
far away from civilization as possible."
No. 4 Michigan won its two fall
meets over Eastern Michigan and
defending national champion, Texas.
The upset of No. I Texas will carry the
Wolverines into their annual training
camp Dec. 21 through Jan. 7 in Perth.
After the three-week camp, the
Wolverines return to action against
highly-ranked opponents No. 3
Stanford January 10 and No. 10
California on Jan. 11.
The training camp is an annual
event that is used to build team unity
which is essential to top teams.
"Every year it is important to take
this kind of trip," Piersma said. "It is
an opportunity to integrate the fresh-
men into the team with no outside dis-
tractions."
Freshmen such as Mike McWha,
Scott Meyer and Francisco Suriano
Siu have already played significant
roles in the Wolverines' success this
season.
McWha won the 1,650-meter
freestyle against Texas and big things
are expected all year from the young-
ster.
"All the freshmen this year are
good," Piersma said. "Mike has swam
well for us so far and we only expect
him to get better."
Meyer and Siu took the top two
places in the 100 breaststroke against
the Longhorns and were separated by
only .28 seconds. Performances like
that will ensure that the freshmen will
build confidence as the season weas
on.
The other major purpose of the trip
to find who the leaders are on the
team. This should not be a problem as
four seniors make up a strong class.
"Teams are only as good as their
seniors make them," Urbanchek said.
"Our seniors are a great group and I
think that we will see that down in
Perth:'
Indeed, Michigan does not plan on
this to be a sightseeing trip, but there
will be a few exceptions.
The team will tour for a day in
Sydney to visit the site of the 2000
Olympics. All the swimming facilities
have not been completed, but the trip
could serve as motivation in the next
couple of years for swimmers such as
sophomore Tom Malchow who won a
silver medal this summer in Atlanta in
the 200 butterfly.
Malchow won the 200 butterfly
against Texas by over three seconds.
He needs to keep up those kinds of
performances for the Wolverines' to
meet their expectations this season.
By the time the Wolverines return
home again, they should be more of a
team. They also should be much tan-
ner.
us
SARA STILLMAN/Daily
With half the season done, Michigan forward Matt Herr has helped the offense receive high marks. The rest of Michigan's
report card was exceptional as well. Now the Wolverines just hope those good grades translate to success in the classroom.
Blue approaches halfway
No. 1 Wolverines make midseason grade, rate high in
By Dag Stillman virtually unscathed. demic concer
Daily Sports Writer Michigan played its first six Despite the
Thy~ Michigan hockey team has games away from Yost Ice Arena Michigan do
4reacWid what's basically an extended which was under renovation. The weaknesses on
All-Ar break - their next game is Wolverines went 5-1 in those games. Too often
De' 27 at the Great Lakes Then there were the disqualifica- taken unnece
Invifabional. tions. Three times this season the cially when t
Looking back at the first half of Wolverines have been down as many man, like Satu
the season, the country's top-ranked as three players due to disqualifica- "When you
;team and defending national champi- tions. Michigan went 2-0-1 in those twice in a ga
;on has shown several tell- luc
'tale signs of repeating. Report Card win
With Saturday night's 7-3 With the semester ending and finals /
win -over Ferris State, the approaching, most students are fixated with qui
:Wolverines are 15-1-1 on grades. To satisfy your cravings, Daily Sports so
the season. Their only blem- Writer Dan Stiliman offers his report card on the
ishes are a one-goal loss to the Michigan hockey team: Sa
now first-place Michigan Go
*tate in East Lansing, and a gan
tie, also on the road, against scot
Bowling Green. the
'The numbers are impres-
siVe, but they don't reveal Mi
all of the champion-like of-(
qualities that the an
WoVrines have displayed 'in
thi4ar.
ing into the season up
the lvermes were count- tic
Ag::on arguably the ska
str st senior class in the po
couimy. And so far, the
seniors are certainly doing asi
their job. tol
John Madden has led the do
charge, single-handedly pom
taking control of several .
games this season, includ- 19
ing Saturday night's with a liv
career high six assists.
After a slow start in the the
gd goring department, on
ca| Brendan Morrison has come games, including a victory over themselves,"
om flate and looks primed for the Michigan State without Bill think a lot o
secbhd half. Muckalt, Jason Botterill and Bubba exceeded thei
Seniors like Warren Luhning and Berenzweig. The Wolve
Mike Legg have also made major Saturday night against Ferris State more moment
contributions. the Wolverines played without a sus- time last year,
"(The seniors) are leading this pended Blake Sloan and won. "It's nice t
team," Michigan coach Red Just before Thanksgiving, the good game be
Berenson said. "And they're doing it Wolverines swept two games from (before) the 1
by the way they're playing, not just Brown with relative ease, despite "That'll mak
'the way they're talking." playing one game without a hot Christmas tha
But there's much more to the Madden, and both without Mike lost 5-0 (to
Wolverines than just the senior class. Legg. Berenson sat them out for aca- Dec. 9)."
Night after night its a different guy
making the key contribution.
Last Wednesday it was junior goal-
tender Marty Turco who kept the
Wolverines in front of Western
Michigan, amidst a barrage of
Bronco power play opportunities.
The weekend before that it was
*1orrison who earned CCHA
Offensive Player-of-the-Week hon-
:ors with five points, including an
overtime winner to beat Minnesota.
Junior Matt Herr earned the same
award the previous week, fueling,the Ti
Wolverines with four goals in two
mam es.
"What makes it tough is you can't (adjacent to BK dining room
zero in on one guy and say 'Hey, let's
C1 hh1t this one guy down,"' Ferris
$tate coach Bob Daniels said.
!There's a lot of different guys that
can hurt you."
While the stars on any team are BURGER
Important, its the role players that
yften make championship teams.
mark
all categories
ns.
se numerous strengths,
es have a couple of
n which it can improve.
the Wolverines have
essary penalties, espe-
hey're already down a
urday night.
u get two men short
me on the road, you're
:ky to escape with a
n," Berenson said.
An area that hasn't
ite lived up to last sea-
n's standards so far is
power play - until
turday night at least.
ing into Saturday's
me the Wolverines had
ored on 27 percent of
ir power plays.
Against Ferris State,
cehigan scored on five-
cight man-advantages,
d now leads the league
power play percentage.
"We sort of got a wake-
call this week in prac-
e,' said Madden, who
ates on Michigan's first
ewer-play unit..
"(Berenson) took us
de individually and
d us that we weren't
ing our part (on the
wer play)."
All in all, however, the
96-97 Wolverines are
ing up to expectations.
"It seems like before
season started every-
e had expectations of
Madden said. "And I
f the guys on the team
r expectations"
erines will even have
urn than they did at this
r.
o see our team have a
cause it's the last game
break," Berenson said.
ke for a little better
an last year when we
Western Michigan on
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