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 n ri I - Q 4'I'o1F Vs ' E uioP 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 . . m - m m n n n