The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - February 24, 1997 - 78 Forfeits benefit Blue Badgers beating ends grapplers' regular season By Tracy Sandler Daily Sports Writer It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game. But if you don't play, it's pretty hard to win. This was the lesson learned by the Wisconsin wrestling team in its Saturday ight, 31-10, dual-meet loss to ichigan. The Badgers had to forfeit matches at 118 pounds, 158 and heavy- weight, because those wrestlers failed to 'make weight. After two tough home losses to Minnesota and Illinois, the Wolverines were in dire need of a strong performance, as they prepare for the Big Ten tournament to be held March 8-9. "It's nice to finish the season with a Big Ten win," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said. "We finished 10-5, winning of our matches, and we're happy with that. It's nice to finish on a positive note with a win." Despite back problems all week, 167- pound, No. 4 Jeff Catrabone defeated the No. 2 wrestler in the country in his weight class, Kevin Wilmot, 4-0. "It's a real tribute to Jeff' Bahr said. "On Tuesday or Wednesday, after sleep- ing funny, he couldn't even walk." Part of Catrabone's rehabilitation *cluded wearing a 24-hour stimulator that sent a slight electric shock to his back. The stimulator was so effective that by Friday's weigh-in Catrabone was feeling well enough to go on Saturday. "He wrestled his best match of the year,' Bahr said. "He's back. He slumped a little towards the end of January and the beginning of February, but he looked good Saturday, beating the second-ranked kid in the country. It was a good win for Jeff" Catrabone recognizes that he has not been wrestling to his full abilities. "I've been slumping since January," Catrabone said. "Now I'm seeing the light and striding towards it for the Big Tens. Before, it was the down part of the season, but now's the time to turn it on." At this point in the season, the whole team is turning it up a notch to prepare for the conference championship. "Everyone's starting to focus more on the Big Tens," wrestler Bill Lacure said. "We're going to continue to push hard in practice. They'll be shorter but harder to get us in the kind of condition we need to be in. Hopefully, we can out-condition anyone in the nation." Although it will not last as long, the Wolverines will practice in a more intense atmosphere. "We have to get them in the best shapd of the season," Bahr said. "We don't do any good by trying to wear them down. We want to keep the kids in a positive frame .of mind. We'll have more explo- sive running and more explosive weight- lifting. We're trying to simulate short, quick types of practices. It keeps the kids in shape, and we have to keep them fresh." 'M' men aren't abl to burn the Flames By Jacob Wheeler Women's Daily Sports Writer G m n tc There's a silver lining in every dark cloud. For the Michigan men's The Michigan women's gymnt gymnastics team Saturday, that silver team's streak of 10-straight wins w lining was improvement and the real- like a ripe grapefruit last weekend ate ization that its first victory was Magical Classic in Orlando, Fla. almost a reality. And like that tangy morning breal- Illinois-Chicago defeated the fast, the bitter-sour taste of defeat i Wolverines by a slim margin, shadowed any sugar on top. NaturatIi, 221.35-221.2. Michigan led after the Michigan's streak was stopped bya four events by 0.7 points, but it menace from the land of citrus: N.3 couldn't hold on. The Flames relin- UCLA. The Bruins defeated Nl.:) quished the lead on the parallel bars Michigan 196.925-195.975. IrontQ4IZ and the horizontal bar, handing UCLA only scored higher than - h Michigan its fifth loss in as many Wolverines in one apparatus. But tQ contests. balance beam did the damage. "We Ail "Although we didn't win today, n't do a bad job," Michigan coachi i4 we've exceeded the expectations I Plocki said. "But I'm not real thril. had in September," Michigan coach We were a little bit flat overall." Kurt Golder said. Nikki Peters' score of 9.375 left i b!l "Our goal was to reach 220 points ter taste in the mouths of Michigan faith! by season's end, and we've already ful. The sophomore's streak of four con; reached that. I think we've improved secutive perfect scores on the apparatus to the point where we're capable of ended yesterday. "Her performance had scoring 225." nothing to do with nerves," Plocki said Jose "LaLo" Haro, Michigan's "She just can't be perfect every time."_ anchor all year long, won the all- The split grapefruit was not without a around with a season-high score of little sweetness, however. Freshman 56.75. Haro also topped all competi- Sarah Cain pulled down another aW1- tion with a 9.4 on the still rings and around title, her sixth of the season. scored a team-high 9.55 on the par- Cain's 39.575 was the eighth highest allel bars. in Michigan history. JUL WYLTIITEumy Senior co-captain Flavio Martins and the Michigan men's gymnastics team came close to defeating Illinois-Chicago this weekend, narrowly falling, 221.35-221.2. It would have been the Wolverines' first victory of the season. .4 F I " CLIMB HIGH FAST AS AN AIR FORCE OFFICER. Bring your college degree to the Air Force. Then find out if you qualify for Officer Training School. You can become a commissioned Air Force of fi- cer following successful completion of Officer TrainingaSchool. From the start, you'll enjoy great pay, complete medi- cal and dental care and 30 days of vacation with pay per year. And as an Air Force officer, you can enjoy profes- sional growth and management oppor- tunities. Learn what it takes to qualify. Call AIR FORCE OPPORTUNITIES TOLL FREE 1-800-423-USAF ............... m.... .,-_ -m mm ~ - -~ ~~~ ~~-- AND LET US QUENCH THOSE MUNCHIES' WE'RE OPEN LATE NITE HOURS'! BURGER L AT E NIT E HOU RS: SUN.-TU ES.: OPEN TI L M/DNIT E, WEDNESDAYS: 'TIL 1 am, THURSDAYS TIL 2 am, FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS TIL 3 am , m m mmm m -m - -m - - m I _. OFFER GOOD ONLY AFTER 8:00 PM at 7 I 1214 SOUTH UNIVERSITY, ANN ARBOR, MI BURGERi I Ex~pires April 15, 1997 KN Limit one coupon per customer per visit. Not good with any other food offer. No substitutions, please. Cash redemption value: 1/10w. mm m - mm m m - m -m M m mm mm mm mm 1214 S. UNIVERSITY ANN ARBOR, MI .; - . F .. y EVER HAVE THAT DREAM WHERE YOU CAN FLY? g, .yt . . 4 I