C1s® wA.%Jr-_ The Michigan Daily -- SPORTSMonday - March 32, 1997 -- 7J3 W AE 53 E * Te ihianDilm-SORSInay- ach31O99M-7 Senior leadership key to Michigan tankers' success By John Friedberg Daily Sports Writer MINNEAPOLIS - Leadership is not that important in such an individual sport as swimming. Yes, the team score is the bottom line, but individual scores dictate_ team performance. If coach Jon Urbanchek read that para- graph by itself, he would laugh out loud. The performances of strong individuals ease the nerves for the rest of the team. This year's Michigan team was led by what Urbanchek called "the best senior class Michigan has ever had." That state- ment was never as evident as it was dur- ing this season. Tom Dolan gave up his last year of eli- gibility to profit from his Olympic expe- rience. Shoulder surgery ended junior Jason Lancaster's sea- son and sopho- more Joe Palmer suffered a heart ailment that ended his year. Urbanchek must have wondered what would hap- . w - - - - 00MMENTAi he swam, he knew the team was counting on him for more than just a victory. He had to prove that everything was in order. The Big Ten championships saw other seniors come to the forefront and lead the team. Rumley put aside the opportunity for a high finish in the 500 free to help the team in another event . Rumley's third-place finish in the 200 individual medley at Big Tens gave Michigan valuable points towardsregain- ing its hold on the conference champi- onship. As a result, Rumley was forced to enter a time from January for the 500 for the NCAAs and was seeded 38th in the prelims. Rumley overcame swimming in the slowest heat to post the second-fastest qualifying time en route to a third-place finish. Instead of talking about what his finish meant to him, Rumley would only talk about the team. "I was pleased," Rumley said. "It was a good swim for me. It was good for Michigan to go one-three and get some points.' Another Wolverine senior who stepped up this year was Toby Booker. Booker finished third at the Big Tens in the 200 back with a personal best 1:45.24 and seventh in the 100 back. Booker capped his season by swimming his best when it counted the most- at the NCAA championships. Booker shaved almost a second off his personal best in the 100 and qualified for the consolation heat for the first time in the 100. In the 200, Booker took 11th swimming the fastest last 50 of the heat. The heart he showed in that last quarter of the race was evident of his season. "The leadership of Piersma, Rumley; and Toby Booker were the three guys who carried this team," Urbanchek said. "Hopefully, the younger people look up to them and come through for us in the future with senior leadership. I am very proud of the three seniors who participat- ed here and led this team. They kept us in the top 10." The torch is now passed to sophomore Tom Malchow who may be the most pressure-tested Wolverine. Piersma, Rumley, Booker and Tom Almeida did an incredible job as seniors, now someone else must take over the leadership of the team. MARGARET MYERS/Daily Michigan senior captain John Piersma raises his arm toward the sky as he looks at the scoreboard after winning the 500-yard freestyle. Piersma, who had finished third ,nd second in the event the previous three years, also won the 200 free. He was also the anchor of Michigan's first-place 800 free relay team. reseason losses jump up to bite swimmers By, T.. Barka Daily Sports Writer r. -MINNEAPOLIS- Seventh place was hardly heaven for the Michigan 9men's swimming and diving team this weekend. + The finish was the, lowest for the tlverines since 992, when Michigan came in iQth place. In fact, before this season, thc. Wolverines were the only school to place in the top three at the NCAAs during the past four seasons. "This whole season has been up and down, and this meet was definitely up ind down," Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said. "There were proba- bly more downs than ups (at the meet)." Much of the Wolverines' subpar performance can be attributed to the losses of Tom Dolan and Jason Lancaster. SDolan, a gold medalist at the Atlanta Olympics, turned down his final year of eligibility to collect money for his &edal. Meanwhile, Lancaster's career NCAAS Continued from Page 1B "I just wanted to go out and show ,fhem this was my race, and I think I did that. Reich was seeded 24th in the prelim- inaries, but the sophomore was the sur- rise of the morning, qualifying for the Wfinals by swimming a personal best 1:36.49 in the event. The Woherines' most successful night was not over until the 800 free relay. Michigan came from behind to win the relay an unbelievable fifth straight year., Sophomore Tom Malchow swam lead and finished in fourth place, more tban two seconds behind the swimmer f the meet, Neil Walker of Texas. Rumley followed Malchow and nar- i.wed the gap by a second, which moved Michigan into second place, still more than a second behind Texas. Reich swam the third leg of the relay and gave Michigan a lead that Piersma v ould bring home in 6:23.51. When the times were posted, Michigan had beaten second-place Auburn by over two seconds. "That was a sweet victory," Piersma d. "I've been on that team since I was a sophomore, and Rumley's been "' a it since his freshman year. It feels amazing to win it (the relay) three years ii3 row." 'This is definitely our event," Rimley said. "It's a credit to Jon Urbanchek's program that he is able to fmd guys who can win this every year." Sophomore Andy Potts finished 10th 'nthe 400 individual medley on Friday. otts placed fifth in the event last year and was touched out for ninth as he fin- was ended with a shoulder injury he suffered this fall. "It would have been nice to have (Dolan and Lancaster) at the meet," Urbanchek said. "No one would have beaten Auburn, but we would have been a close second." BRIDESMAID No MORE: A big story at the meet was the near misses of Michigan captain John Piersma at the NCAA championships. Piersma finished third behind Dolan and Arizona's Chad Carvin .in the 500 freestyle during his freshman and sophomore seasons and second to Dolan last season. With Carvin gone with a heart con- dition and Dolan finally out of the collegiate picture, Piersma kicked down the barrier on Thursday by win- ning the 500 free. But he wasn't done. Piersma added a victory in the 200 free and anchored the 800 free relay Friday, putting to rest three years of near misses. A WEIGHTY ISSUE: Last month at the Big Ten championships in Bloomington, junior Derya Buyukuncu was the second-highest scorer with 57 points. Buyukuncu took three individual titles with victories in the 100 and 200 backstroke and a sec- ond-place finish in the 100 butterfly. But that was four weeks and 15 pounds ago. This weekend in Minneapolis, a big- ger Buyukuncu was arguably the biggest disappointment of the meet. Ranked no lower than seventh going into those three events, Buyukuncu did not make the finals. Buyukuncu finished 11th in the 100 back and 15th in the 100 fly. The biggest disappointment was yet to come, however. Buyukuncu, seeded third in the 200 backstroke, did not even qualify for the consolation heat, finishing 17th. Indiana's Greg Ruminski, who fin- ished behind Buyukuncu at Big Tens, took seventh. Predictably, Urbanchek was severe- ly disappointed in his top short-dis- tance swimmer. "When you come in 10 to 20 pounds overweight, that's really sad, and I think (Buyukuncu) needs help," Urbanchek said. "You don't gain 15 pounds in four weeks unless some- thing is really bothering you." SCREAMING TREES: Despite a sub- par meet, Buyukuncu did take part in the funniest part of the meet. Buyukuncu tied for 16th in the prelim- inaries of the 100 back on Friday with Stanford's Tate Blahnik with a time of 48.63 seconds, necessitating a swim- off. During the swim-off, Buyukuncu swam his most inspired race, swim- ming a 47.97. When asked why he swam so fast compared to the prelimi- naries, Buyukuncu cited inspiration from Stanford's mascot. "I hate that damn tree," Buyukuncu said. WARNING: FRAGILE: The theme from Friday could be backstroke frac- ture. Both Texas' Neil Walker and SMU's John Simmons fractured a bone in their left hands, leading off the finals of the 200 medley relays. The fracture interrupted a stellar meet for Walker, who set the NCAA record in the 50 free and the American record in the 100 back at this meet. The backstroke carnage was not limited to fingers, however. In the con- solation race in the 100 back, Buyukuncu broke the underwater time pad on a flip turn. With the computerized pad left use- less, a discrepancy between the two manual timers of .36 seconds dropped Buyukuncu from ninth overall to his final placing of I Ith. pen to this Michigan team. The loss of three All-Americans did affect the Wolverines, but not as much as it should have. Michigan lost only two dual meets all season, and whenever the seniors were needed, they were there. The Ohio State meet was much closer than anyone thought it would be. Sophomore Tom Malchow was unable to swim his specialty, the 200-yard butterfly, so the meet came down to the 400 freestyle relay. Ohio State had a legiti- mate chance to upset Michigan for the first time since 1962. Definitely nervous time for Michigan, right? Nope. Piersma and Rumley time. The two seniors, along with Derya Buyukuncu and John Reich, won the relay, with Piersma making the finish look easy. "I didn't really think that it would come down to the last relay, but there is no way I'm going to lose the last race as a Michigan senior in our home pool," Piersma said at the time. Piersma's attitude carried the team at times this season. Whenever or whatever r Ricrd~son's ~ptica GIORGIO ARMANI (0 POLO RALPH LAuREN Calvin ALA. 144 Klein, f P1 AA A ! L-A.- ^A. 320 S. State St. (lower level of Decker Drugs) 662-1.945 EAT-IN EW YORK TAKE-OUT CATERING 605 E. William St. " Ann Arbor 669-6973 * 669-NYPD Free Deliviry (min. $6.50; L Cr-e 18" a eum 14" I La e 8b 1 " ""h "" """""v" "h" " '! ? ' 1 *op o 1 coupons cno opons canotE coon anno L mbin ed ecobined.--b--ombied .- m MARGARET MYERS/Daily Senior Chris Rumley turns his head for a gasp of air as he competes in his last NCAA championships. Rumley went out with a bang, notching a personal-best third in the 500-yard freestyle and swimming the second leg in the 800 free relay team. ished in 3:50.45. The surprise of the day came from senior Toby Booker. Booker, who was not supposed to qualify for the evening session, placed 16th in the 100 back for Michigan. The biggest disappointment of the night for Michigan was the perfor- mance of junior Derya Buyukuncu. Buyukuncu was expected to make the finals in both the 100 fly and 100 back. Instead, he placed 13th in the fly and I ith in the back. Saturday was much like Friday for Michigan as strong performances out- numbered disappointments. In the 1650 freestyle, freshman Mike McWha was able to score a sixth-place finish in a personal-best time of 15:09.66. Potts finished ninth and Rumley placed 12th. Malchow had the top individual fin- ish of the night for Michigan as he placed third in the 200 butterfly in 1:44.85. Mortar Board, Student Alumni Council, and Senior Days are sponsoring a I '.2 C 50 Years of Independence i I 1 /tom,