8- The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - September 8, 1997 CROSS COUNTRY Redshirt freshman Froud first* to finish line in season opener By Chris Farah Dale Sports Writer One of the secrets to gaining the upper hand in any kind of competition is to understand the ways and strategy of your opponent. at came easy to the Michigan wcien's cross country team Saturday -yVolverines just had to look in the mit p >5 of the competition at Saturday's Mitgan Open at the Michigan Golf Coirse consisted of the Wolverines theislves - along with some Mi4li' an State and independent run- net rinkled into the mix. i: e end, though, even the little out- sid; ompetition the Wolverines did havet- their first race of the year didn't maleamuch of an impacts Michigan sw 'ihe top three places and took sevwl~op-l 0 finishes in the unscored :,shirt freshman Julie Froud cll. first for Michigan with a time of+ 25 for the 5,000-meter course. "uhe's time was outstanding for the fir, meet and the conditions," Micigan coach Mike McGuire said. "I th(;11t she looked really good." .dud was followed by two of her ted iates ... well, sort of. ti or Katie McGregor took sec- ondfor the Wolverines at 18:34, but thr-pi-place belonged to Elizabeth Kapfe, a Michigan runner who was off 1ially listed as unattached - rep- re fng only herself- for just this m;,. Wnapfe's third-place finish is even m impressive considering the cir- cuwstances she was running under. Aowding to McGuire, Kampfe recent- y.l 0fered from an illness comparable to6nonucleosis. It's not as intense as mnIo but has the potential to become more of a chronic condition. "She looked really good," McGuire MIrtimer B oin Braunstein D' orts Writer while the Michigan men's golf team was holding tryouts, the men's cross country team hosted a meet. The only tli4iunusual about this is that both eV%,were held at the same place. _e Wolverines placed three runners irt top four Saturday at the Mjigan Open, held at the Michigan Gt;-Course. The meet was non-scor- in4 ,id served mostly as a warm-up ani chance to solidify the roster, mn4.the same as a preseason football gam. Anyone can compete in an open meet, and consequently, many Wolverines ran unattached, allowing said. "We're really monitoring her training and a lot of other things right now. We're monitoring her pulse rate several times at night and in the morning. "She didn't wind down, she was real- ly strong throughout the entire race. Those are good signs that we'll have her with us throughout the fall." Spartans took the fourth and sixth positions, but aside from that, the top 10 was entirely Michigan. Michigan's Eileen Fleck finished between the two Spartans for Michigan, while Katie Clifford, Lisa Ouellet, Erin White and Sarah Hamilton rounded out the top 10. Despite the lack of competition, the Michigan Open was hardly a walk in the park for the Wolverines. Although weather had looked promising the week before the race, with temperatures hov- ering rather consistently in the low 60s, Saturday held more traditional August weather. The heat and sunshine combined with the rolling, hilly terrain of the Michigan golf course added up to some difficult conditions - especially con- sidering it was the Wolverines' first meet of the season. "It's Michigan, so we were due for it," McGuire said. "I told the kids the other day that it wasn't going to stay nice and cool. It's tough enough open- ing up out here on this course. Everyone says, 'The breeze is great,' when you're a spectator, but it doesn't really do you much good when you compete. "The bottom line was the kids com- peted pretty tough. They overcame those conditions pretty well." McGuire was also pleased with the first outing of his top freshmen, Clifford and White. Not only did the two Wolverines have to suffer through the same conditions as their team- mates, but they also faced the anxiety that naturally accompanies an athlete's first collegiate race. "The freshmen, it might have been a little bit of a quick early pace for them," McGuire said. "They fell off a little bit, but then they hung in there pretty well." Although Michigan hardly had any difficulty outdoing the few oppo- nents it had, one of the top Wolverines was busy, not running, but riding around in a golf cart as she observed the race. Redshirt sophomore Marcy Akard, Michigan's only representative in last year's NCAA championships, is out with a stress fracture she suffered at the end of the outdoor track season. "Her hard workouts right now are in the pool," McGuire said. "Hopefully, she'll be impacting our team the next meet here, which is Oct. 19. She's behind training-wise, but she's also one of our best racers. We'll integrate her back into the picture - I think she'll be fine." Even though a couple of Michigan State's top runners didn't compete in the open, McGuire got a good look at the Wolverines' in-state rivals. Not only is Michigan State a Big Ten opponent, but it will also contend with Michigan in the NCAA district compe- tition. The district meet determines which teams will receive an NCAA champi- onship bid. "Their first kid (Leah Nilsson) was 1 th last year in the Big Ten, so she's a good runner," McGuire said. "We need to close our gap to our fifth runner, but we go to State in two weeks, and we'll be two weeks fitter. "The course is a lot more forgiving up there, the conditions will hopefully be a little better and the times will be faster." WARREN LINN/Uaily Michigan's Julie Froud found her stride at the Michigan Open on Saturday, winning the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18:25. The season-opening meet consisted mostly of Wolverines, along with a few runners from Michigan State. follows wrong route, wins Open anyway the team to enter as many runners as it wished. "I don't think (this meet) really has any bearing on our season," Kevin Sullivan said. "It was kind of a warm- up, but it was more for trying to figure out which guys are going to be running each week." Despite some unexpected heat and a few wayward golf balls, John Mortimer grabbed first place in the eight-kilome- ter race. He finished with a time of 26:26, despite a slight directional error. "Mortimer went the wrong way up there," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "I told him to take off his sun- glasses so he could see the white line." Pushing Mortimer the entire way was former Wolverine All-American Gerard Donakowski, who tied Mortimer for first place. Sullivan, who seemed to be holding back most of the race, showed a glimpse of his three- time All-American form with a late surge to finish a close third at 26:33. Tom Snyder came in fourth at 26:51. Sophomore Steve Lawrence and senior Don McLaughlin crossed the finished line 19 seconds later, followed by Tom Stamboulian. "None of us were out there killing ourselves," Snyder said. "But it's hard to take it too easy on this course." This race decided which runners will compete in the Jayhawk Invitational in Lawrence, Kan., on Sept. 13. Warhurst said he had a good idea of who he will send. "The top five people are going to Kansas, and I'm going to make a des- ignation as to who the next seven are going to be," he said. "I pretty much knew who the top five or six people were" beforehand. The 85-degree heat, however, was a problem for many runners, with at least one Michigan runner collapsing from exhaustion. The Wolverines do not get many chances to train in warm temper- atures, so they suffered the conse- quences Saturday. "The course is tough, and on top of that the heat sucks," Snyder said. "As soon as I found out it was going to be 80 (degrees) this afternoon, I just start- ed chugging down the water. Other than that there's not much you can do." This was the first meet for many freshmen, and the conditions make their debut any easier. Mike Wisniewski was the top rookie, finish- ing eighth with a time of 27:41. "We've been training hard for two to three weeks, and a few guys did not respond well to the heat so they were not up in the top 10 or 12," Warhurst said. "I thought Sam Dorri would run a little bit better, but I think the heat got to him, as well as redshirt freshman John Bustic. Other than that, every- thing was standard." Kouchner-. kavich: A last name proud to: finish last By Chris Farah Daily Sports Writer Michigan has served as the fertil: training ground for some of the finest - athletes in the history of men's colie giate cross country. " In the past, there were greats such as Chris Brewster and Brian Diemer. In the present, there are stars l*Ii John Mortimer and Kevin Sullivan, All-Americans and Big Ten chanpf.' ons. In the future, there will be ... D -vi Kouchnerkavich? Kouchnerkavich, a freshman in Michigan's School of Engineering, isn't highly touted. Kouchnerkavich holds no college records, has won no college races. He's not even on Michigan team. In fact, compared to even the most minor contributors on the Michigan men's cross country team, Kouchnerkavich just isn't very good. And he'll be the first to admit it. But none of that stopped Kouchnerkavich from competing at Saturday's Michigan Open at the Michigan Golf Course, where he ran against Michigan's cream of the crop in an unscored meet open to all comp tors. Did knowing he would get smoked by the other runners stop him from run- ning the 8,000-meter race? Did the idea of getting embarrassed in front of spec- tators - in public - make him hesi- tate? No. You see, Kouchnerkavich just didn't care. He just wanted to have fun. "I've been keeping track of the (Michigan) cross country team over summer, just seeing who's . "Ig~ Kouchnerkavich said. "I've a :rn. ning some races over the sump; rit ning with a friend back homer I) "A friend of mine told mIn yMn, can run the races at the college 1eveso I just thought I might as well try it out." Kouchnerkavich didn't have high expectations before the race, and his expectations were confirmed. He cam in last, after taking an unpan't detour. "I screwed up somewhere when was running the race," Kouchnerkavichi said. "Somewhere I missed a turnoff on. the last loop, and I actually ran almost' an extra mile. To this day, to this minute, I have no idea where that. turnoff was. "Actually, by the time I was done there was no one there at the finish line. I just kind of crossed it, and a coupl my friends were there, but that was about it." Kouchnerkavich's time? According: to him, somewhere over 35 minute. The time of Michigan's John Mortimner, winner of the race? 26:26 minutes. Kouchnerkavich finished at least five minutes behind the runner ahead of him, but nobody will ever know the exact time. "I asked a guy if I could run'efor the race, and he said, 'Just talkto coach, I'm sure he'll let you r-gi, Kouchnerkavich said. "Then g sticker and wrote my name on it. I guess at the end you were supposed to turn it in (for an official result). "But since there was no one there at the end, I just crumpled mine up." Does Kouchnerkavich have any: hopes of joining the team? "I seriously doubt it," he laughed. Two of Kouchnerkavich's frien ' also attempted to run the race -" Michigan student Kevin Jackson and Brian Swanson, who resides in Grand Rapids. Neither finished. "They dropped out at the beginning,"' Kouchnerkavich said. "Kevin hadn't run all week, so I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up. Also, they had run all the way from the C.C. Little bus stop and got to the golf course just five mil- utes before the start. "They were toast:' Ultimately, though, Kouchnerkavich was satisfied with his performance. "It was a really hot day," Kouchnerkavich said. "But I had fun. It was fun to see some of really good run- ners, too - to see what the University; has in their program. They've got a really talented team. "For the first 30 seconds I could at least I could see them. After th, they kind of took off." He had fun. And for Kouchnerkavich, that's all that really mattered. "... 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