UEbe Aichigan ailg Sports Desk: 647-3336 -, --,' -~ ~ s.A ~ ~~sOg. ~;Nc<~>~-*t.~ r d LOUIS BROWN/Daily n a sight familiar to Michigan cross country fans, John Mortimer and Kevin ullivan finished first and second this weekend at the Wolverine Interregional. Dynamic duo rolls wn at Wolvennmeorse edge Nden, women have home--course edge y Chris Duprey nd Rick Freeman laily Sports Writers John Mortimer and Kevin Sullivan are avinga lot of fun with cross country hi ear, and yesterday's Michigan nterregional at the Michigan Golf Aourse was no exception. The duo ammed it up, "raising the roof" as they pproached the finish line well ahead of he nearest competition. Mortimer and Sullivan sewed up a dichigan victory in the men's race. The throughout the 1997 season. The Wolverines' third, fourth and fifth men have been interchangeable this year, and yesterday was no different. Steve Lawrence finished 11th in a time of 25:15, heading up a large Michigan pack. Todd Snyder finished 13th (25:18), and Jay Cantin rounded out the top five with a 14th-place finish (25:21). While Sullivan and Mortimer gave the Wolverines a great start, Lawrence, Snyder and Cantin closed the door on the opposition. iomen's team was pstaged but finished hird in a disappoint- s rformance. men's victory vas an impressive ne. The Wolverines efeated three ranked pponents - No. 17 ashington, No. 19 4issouri and No.23 ernes Madison. The in was their fourth nvitational champi- np of the year, ontmnuing a perfect treak. The Michigan men's :am was defending its 4 i c h i g a n nterregional team not completely Depth has NCAA rankings Men's poll Team Points 1. Stanford ........394 2. Arkansas.... .390 3. Michigan ........365 4. Colorado.. ...354 5. Oregon... ...327 Women's poll Team Points 1. Stanford. .......225 2. Brigham Young......215 3. Wisconsin.............208 4. Oregon.... .....194 5. Colorado.......... 184 Providence-.......184 14. Michigan.............109 been a factor in the women's season as well, but not in the same way. The wom- ens' fourth and fifth runners finished 45th and 47th overall, weakening the team's score. The separation between the third and fourth runner has caused trouble for the women all season. "A lot of people got in between (Elizabeth) Kampfe and (Lisa) Ouellet," McGuire said. "That's where the work's got to be done" The Wolverines did not sweep the top three Sloppy play gives way to comeback By Nicholas J. Cotsonlka Daily Sports Editor As linebacker Sam Sword squeezed the football to his chest with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quartet Saturday, three hours of mayhem came to an appropriate end. Sword's intercep- tion iced No. 5 Michigan's 28-24 victory over No. 15 Iowa on a day the Wolverines' defense saved them from themselves before 106,505 at Michigan Stadium. Sloppy play on offense and special teams put the Wolverines behind,.21-7,.at halftime. Two of quarterback Brian G r i e se's N Michigan 28 three inter- ceptions led ,owa 24 to Iowa touchdowns, and the Wolverines watched Tim Dwight return a punt 61 yards for a touchdown as time expired. But none of that mattered in the end because of a defense that allowed a lone field goal in the second half- a defense that put Griese in position to throw the game-winning, two-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jerame Tuman with 2:55 remaining. The Hawkeyes' field goal was just the third the Wolverines have given up in the second half this season. No team has scored a touchdown in the second half. No team has scored a point in the fourth quarter. "Most of the reason we were down was because of me, and I knew I had to come back and play well," said Griese, who rushed for a one-yard touchdown and finished 15-for-23 for 165 yards and three touchdowns. The first half was "my worst half of football since I've been here, but I never lost confidence in myself or my team. I know what we have here." Except for tailback Tavian Banks's 53- yard. touchdown run with 13:29 remain- ing in the second quarter - the longest run of the season given up by a defense that had been allowing just 68 yards rushing per game -the Wolverines (3-0 Big Ten, 6-0 overall) shut down the Hawkeyes (1-2, 4-2) in a battle of bests. The Wolverines entered the game with the nation's top-ranked scoring defense, giving up 5.2 points per game. They were second in total defense at 211,8 yards per game and allowed the Hawkeyes, who had the league's top offense, t87 yards. Banks, the league's leading rusher, finished with 99 yards rushing. Tim See HAWKEYES, Page 4B WARREN'ZIN,/UdUJ Jerame Tuman, Michigan's All-America tight end, eluded Iowa defenders all day in Michigan's 28-24 victory over Iowa. The senior made seven catches for 85 yards, but none were bigger than his touchdown catch with 2:55 to play in the game. Ugly vict co Poetry it was not, but championship teams need to have a few ugly performances every once in a while to keep them in sight of their goal. Each of Michigan's six victories thus far has proven something about this team that was in doubt leading up to the game. Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's ... uh, well, you know. Sometimes the lesson learned is of great consequence, sometimes it's one of the lit- tle things that you can't describe any other way than just that. But most important, the Wolverines have retained what they learned from each victory as the season has progressed as they target the Big{ Ten title, which makes these accomplishments all the more impressive.A The season-opening victory over Colorado proved that starting the season later than every- one else didn't affect the focus on this Michigan The B nts just as much show that the previous week's victory didn't drain it of all of its emotion. This Michigan team is clearly focused on this year and this year only as evidenced by last week's seemingly methodical victory over Lloyd Carr's nemesis, Northwestern. hampionship, scoring a mere 38 points places - a o'defeat the field. Mortimer and Sullivan Instead, the rossed the finish line as a pair, with the McGregor, J ictory given to Sullivan. Both posted a ished secon m of 24:12, destroying the course The women l by 22 seconds. Washington The individual win closes out a solid Hoyas suc iome career for Sullivan on the Michigan I ichigan Golf Course. points. "(Our course) is intimidating," Several w+ ullivan said. "It's maybe the toughest are middle-d ollege course in the country" cross countr Not all visiting runners saw the course their reperto an intimidating presence. gressed, then "I loved it, our last three meets were mous fourth a lly flat, boring courses," said Erin ten stronger. ler, a runner from Missouri and the on their p bird-place individual finisher. Wolverines The course played a negligible role in rest of the se etermining Michigan's fate. "They ju Depth has been the men's strong point Froud said. fh Colgate brush yred Unk *ports Writer The Michigan hockey team will have to start over gain. The Wolverines came into this weekend's action gainst Colgate riding a 36-game home unbeaten streak, ut they lost to Colgate, 2-1, on Friday night at Yost Ice rena. "It's a tough loss, but we start another streak tomor- ow (Saturday)," Michigan forward Sean Ritchlin said. To start the new streak at home, the Wolverines had to oefrom behind to beat the Red Raiders, 6-4, on iday. But early in Saturday night's game, it looked more ike the Wolverines would start a home losing :treak ather than a new winning one. Less than one minute into the game, Colgate's Andy cDonald skated down the left wing and beat Michigan oaltender Marty Turco to give the Raiders the early ead, 1-0. first for the team this year. usual top trio of Katie ulie Froud and Kampfe, fin- d, fourth and sixth overall. 's team finished third, behind and Georgetown. The cessfully defended their nterregional title with 69 Yomen on Michigan's team distance runners now adding y - a distance event - to dire. As the season has pro- Se runners, usually the infa- and fifth runners, have got- They will need to improve past performances if the want to be competitive the eason. st have to run like hell," N DENB ronx >er I But this week, Michigan showcased the sec- ond component of a champion, that second char- acteristic that coaches lust after, that second thing that gives the chills and makes you start believing that this is a special team - the ability to look adversity in the eyes and make it run for cover. " Obviously, that lesson does not come easily. And Michigan's first half was anything but easy. How do you begin to describe that first half ACH without using any of George Carlin's seven words that you can't say on television? Three interceptions, a fumble, a blocked punt, six penalties. Just send the brown paper bag over this way, please. Instead, let's let Carr offer his take. team. The following week against Baylor, Michigan showed that it could put away teams early with B~omb( the killer instinct that is present in all championship teams. That was the first championship component this team showed. Defeating Notre Dame indicated that lack of emotion on this team will never be a concern. Knocking the socks off Indiana proved both that Michigan is quite a capable team on the road as well as "We got a little bit away from our game plan in the first half," Carr said. "Our game plan was to eliminate big plays, don't turn the ball over and it will come our way. But we decided to give a lot of plays, we turned the ball over and I don't know how we won it." See BOMBER, Page 4B es off Blue, can't do it twice advantage didn't last long. Thirty seconds after Brokaw's goal, with the Raiders' Jeff Potter in the penalty box for charging, Michigan's Josh Langfeld took a pass from teammate Mike Van Ryn. Langfeld put in his own rebound to bring the Wolverines back within one. For Van Ryn, the assist was the first of five he recorded on the night. Another power-play goal by Langfeld tied the game, 2-2, at 15:52. After Michigan and Colgate traded shorthanded goals in the second period, the game stayed tied until Bill Muckalt beat Colgate goaltender Shep Harder with a slapshot with 6:54 left in the period. After Michigan's Andrew Merrick scored to give the Wolverines a two-goal lead, Colgate's Dru Burgess reduced the Raiders' deficit in the third period. But another power-play goal by Muckalt put the game out of reach. Michigan's success on the power play was a major reason for its offensive success. On the night, they con- on both ends of the ice. Colgate opened the scoring in the first period when Rob Mara outmuscled Michigan defenseman Chris Fox on the boards, walked out in front of the net and beat Turco top-shelf. Michigan's only goal came early in the second period, when Ritchlin scored on a breakaway to tie the game, 1-1. The Raiders pulled ahead with a little more than a minute remaining in the second. Harmon beat Turco stick-side, giving Colgate a lead it didn't relinquish. "They played a good game and a great system,"Turco said. "There's no excuses. We got outplayed. They just wanted it a little bit more than we did." One reason for Michigan's lack of offense was its fail- ure to convert any of its seven power play opportunities. "Maybe the difference between this game and a game we would have won last year would be our power play, Berenson said."Special teams can be the difference in a close game." m - - wk I