88 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - February 10, 1997 Women's track fires like Canon By Chris Farah Daily Sports Writer Explosives are extremely dangerous if they aren't handled with care. A short fuse is all it takes for a helpful tool to be transformed into a deadly mistake. If the Michigan women's track team were a time bomb, then Saturday's Canon Classic in Indianapolis proved that the Wolverines are destined to go off at just the right time - ideally at the Big Ten and NCAA champi- onships. Michigan is a relatively young team which is still exploring the potential of its talent. The Canon Classic was the Wolverines' first exposure to compe- tition of national renown and their first chance to see how they would respond to opponents they will face in the Big Tens and NCAAs. Competition included national pow- erhouses such as Stanford and Cornell, as well as Wisconsin and Illinois, the Big Ten's two most dominant teams. "A significant number of the young ladies continued to step up and improve," Michigan coach James Henry said. "They passed with flying colors. We are only two or three steps away from where we need to be. The steps we need to take include having a relaxed weekend followed by some hard workouts, which will put us, as a team, where we want to be in two weeks." The level of the competition meant that, even though many Wolverines recorded personal bests, few won their actual events. Junior Tania Longue was a portrait of consistency, placing second in both the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump, as well as third in the triple jump. Sophomore Marcy Akard finished fourth in the 5,000 but recorded an almost-unheard-of improvement of 42 seconds on her personal best with a time of 16:45. Henry attributed much of the team's positive attitude to Akard's inspiring performance. "Her run really lit up some eyes on our team," Henry said. "She helped provide some added motivation." Akard's fellow distance runner, freshman Lisa Ouellet, contributed her own outstanding performance. Ouellet qualified for the NCAAs with a time of 2:09.47 in the 800. Her seventh-place finish is indica- tive of the kind of athletes - against whom she was racing - competition which she feels pushed her to make the NCAAs. "It definitely helped me," Ouellet said. "With them running, I knew I could hit the time. I was very excited. I don't think it was intimidating for anyone on the team. Our results were really amazing considering the com- petition. I think because we're young, we're definitely going to surprise some people." Michigan did record at least one victory, however. Sophomore high jumper Nicole Forrester extended her unbeaten streak to four meets with a winning height of 5-foot-11 3/4. Forrester's performance and mentality seemed indicative of the entire team. "When she is on, she is more relaxed and jubilant," Henry said. "I forced her to start at a lower height in order to build her confidence." - The meet seemed to have served as a confidence builder for the Wolverines, and Henry expects it to show when the big competitions come around. "To me, this was a mini-NCAA championship," Henry said. "We were right in the mix, so we were pleased. If my squad is on, they can be one of the top two teams (in the Big Ten)." The Michigan men's track team fell short of a first-place finis yat this week- end's Central Collegiate Championships. The Wolverines finished second with 139 points, 9.5 points behind first-place Eastern Michigan. JEANNIE SERVAAS/ L Men's track falls short of first dise By Kim Hart Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - Michigan men's track coach Jack Harvey doesn't look like a scientist, but one must won- der how he came up with his experi- mental lineup for the Central Collegiate Championships. He took a portion of the team, added a high jumper, sent one runner through an obstacle course, and came up one vic- tory short of first place. Michigan finished second at the meet with a total of 139 points, as points behind first-place Eastern Michigan with 148.5 points. "We knew it was going to be close coming in," Harvey said. "The guys came back, and they ran hard. We had some second places where we should have had some first places, like Neil in the hurdles, but we ran him in the 55 dash and the hurdles as an experiment, and it didn't work." Gardner competed in four events, run- ning a total of eight times in the two-day period. He finished second in the 55- meter hurdles with a time of 7.41 sec- onds and 12th in the 55 (6.64). He ran on two relay teams. The distance and middle distance run- ners were a key component of the Wolverines' success this weekend. Don McLaughlin had the only indi- vidual first-place finish for the team in the 800 with a time of 1:54.45. He was followed by Jay Cantin, who finished sixth (1:57.39), and Jeff Beuche, who finished seventh (1:57.52). The Wolverines grabbed second-, third-, fourth- and 10th-places in the mile run. McLaughlin finished in 4:132.71, Scott MacDonald in 4:13.07, Jay Cantin in 4:15.80 and Steve Lawrence in 4:18.20. McLaughlin, Cantin, MacDonald and Gardner also comprised the first-place distance medley relay team, which fin- ished with a NCAA provisional qualify- ing time of 9:48.95. "I was really happy with the 800," McLaughlin said. "The mile went out real slow and would have been better if it had come out quicker. Overall, we had some real good performances, and now we really want to do well at Big Tens." Lawrence and MacDonald also ran in the 3,000. Lawrence placed second with a time of 8:35.63, and MacDonald third at 3:39.15. Dave Barnett also came through for the Wolverines with a second-place fin- ish in the 5,000 (14:45.92). Damon Devasher finished second in the high jump after clearing 6-feet-9. Don Stenger finished second in t* pole vault (15-feet-3 3/4). Brian Wildfong finished second in the shot put (52-feet-9 1/2). And Martin Bowman placed seventh in the long jump (22-feet-1). Taiwo Okusanya jumped a distance of 44-feet-10 1/4 in the triple jump, and Alex Lengemann finished ninth in the long jump (21-feet-3 1/4) and eighth in the pole vault (14-feet-4). Michigan had strong performances the sprints as well. The Devasher-Steve Jenkins duo in the 55 finished third and sixth, respectively, with times of 6.44 and 6.56 seconds. Jenkins, along with Edzra Gibson and Brian Theisen, had strong performances in the 200. Gibson finished fourth com- ing in at 22.10 seconds, Jenkins was fifth at 22.15, and Theisen took seventh place at 22.43. Dwayne Fuqua finished in seco place in the 600-meter run with a time 4 1:20.15. Ground Floor of the Michigan UnionJ Spring Commencement 10 Student peaer Call For Entries 0 01 Me Office of University Relations is making a Call for Entries for a Student Speaker at Spring Commencement Saturday, May 3, 1997 9:30 a.m. Michigan Stadium The student speaker mustereelving bachelor's degree during Winter Term 1 Summer Term 1997 0 7 or Submit " Curriculum Vitae (or resume) highl scholarship and campus leadershil " Typed draft of speech (no more thai minutes in length) " Audio cassette tape of yourself read speech ightii p n 5 U-M Av .......................__._ _.._.__.._._._..__. ........................... ..................... .... . .:-:::>