12A - The Michigan Daily -- Thursday, September 18, 1997
Sc
Today
No events scheduled
hedule
Tomorrow
Women's Golf at Lady Northern
Invite, State College, all day,
Soccer at Indiana, Bloomington, 7
p.m.
Saturday
Feld Hockey vs. Louisville, Ocker
Field, 10 a.m.
Football vs.Baylor, Michigan
Stadium, 12:30 p.m.
Women's Cross Country at Spartan
Invite, East Lansing, x11:50 a.m.
Women's Golf at Lady Northern
Invite, State College, all day (contin-
ues Sunday)
Softball at Traverse City Fall Tourney
(exhibition), all day (continues
Sunday)
Men's Tennis at National Clay Court
Pre-Qualifier, Baltimore, all day
Flat terrain should benefit
'M' harriers in East Lansing
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By Nita S ivastava
Daily Sports Writer
Running on the flat, hard and fast-paced fairways
of the golf course in East Lansing this weekend
could make all the difference for the Michigan
women's cross country team in the Spartan
Invitational.
The Wolverines are accustomed to the hilly and
relatively slow-paced Michigan golf course, where
footing, due to recent rain, has a tendency to be soft.
In turn, times become slower.
"On a scale of one to 10 -10 being the most dif-
ficult - our course is a nine and Michigan State's
course is a two or three," Michigan coach Mike
McGuire said.
That should prove beneficial for the Wolverines
as they run against Ball State, Ohio State, Toledo,
Macomb Community College and host Michigan
State. The toughest competitor will be Ball State,
which has been running well early in the season.
"Our pace will be faster, so we will be more
aggressive, and that will show a pronounced
improvement in times," McGuire said..
Michigan has not competed in East Lansing for
two years. Since the terrain is not overbearing, the
course should not pose a problem for Michigan.
"Two years ago we had a strong performance on
the course," McGuire said.
The competition should allow the Wolverines to
focus more on improving the younger and less
experienced members of the team. The meet also
should provide an opportunity to return injured run-
ners from last year.
"Our theme for September is just to get better,"
McGuire said. "We want to get the new freshmen
into the loop of what we are doing, and we had a
lot of people just getting their feet wet in the first
meet, so hopefully they will be much improved."
The Wolverines have been training with normal
workouts for the upcoming competition, since the
course does not demand any extra preparation.
McGuire stressed that even though Michigan has
been improving steadily and training hard, the
Wolverines need to get better.
Last year, due to injuries late in the season, the
Wolverines did not make it to the NCAAs. So now,
their focus is directed toward qualifying for Big
Tens and regionals.
"We need to get back our national ranking and
truly contend for the Big Ten," McGuire said. "We
just need to keep getting better and that can't be
stressed enough."
9~
INDO09 $OCD:EA
Fall Season: Oct..20th " Dec. 15th
I
Register now for Men's, Women's and Coed Leagues.
Registration Deadline: Octoter 14th
Register by September 30th and receive a $20 Discount on Team Fees.
Individual Registrations are welcome.
Call (313) 913-4625 for Details.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
The Michigan women's cross country team travels to East
Lansing to compete in the Spartan Invitational this weekend
and hopes to take advantage the course's hard surface. 0
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