14A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 29,
First victory up for
grabs in Champaign
State foes converge
on Track Building
By David DenHerder
Daily Sports Writer
if there is such a thing as the perfect
match-up, then the Michigan men's
gymnastics team can make a strong
case for it when the Wolverines travel to
Champaign this Saturday night.
The Wolverines (0-2 Big Ten, 0-2
overall) are tied for seventh in the
national rankings with conference rival
llinois (0-1, 0-1) heading into this
weekend's dual meet. Both teams have
identical high scores on the season
(223.80), which also places them in a
tie for fifth in the Big Ten.
But when push comes to shove,
something will have to crack.
"We'll need a real consistent perfor-
mance to get by them," Michigan head
coach Kurt Golder said. "We're going
to have to be mistake-free."
The Wolverines and Illini are closely
matched right down to the individual
events. The still rings will be particular-
ly interesting, as only a tenth of a point
separates the team-highs.
Last weekend, freshman Kenny
Keener led Michigan on the rings with
a personal-best 9.65. The team will
have to continue such strong perfor-
mances to maintain their slim edge in
the event.
The only case where Michigan doe-
n't mirror Illinois is on the high bar. The
Illini have recorded a team-high 38.00
in the event, while Michigan's best is
36.75. Adding to that problem is the
injury of sophomore Bryan Pascoe,
who dislocated his finger on the high
bar last Saturday in a trn-meet with Penn
State and Iowa.
"If the first four guys do well then
we'll be all right, but we don't have
Bryan to fall back on," Golder said.
Pascoe is expected to compete in at
least two events this weekend but will
not participate in the high bar.
Key to Michigan's all-around lineup
will be freshman Kevin Roulston. With
three personal-bests last weekend,
Roulston accumulated 56.15 total
points to place second behind Iowa's
Todd Strada.
Sophomore and co-captain Jose
"LaLo" Haro is also expected to com-
pete in the all-around this Saturday.
Haro recorded 55.70 in Michigan's last
outing.
Recovering impressively from an
ACL injury, freshman Justin Toman
will be an important factor as Michigan
tries to make up a quarter-point deficit
on parallel bars. Last weekend Toman
See ILLINI, Page 15A
MARGARET MYERS/Daiy
The Michigan men's gymnastics team will meet its match Saturday night when It
faces Illinois. Both the Wolverines and ilIni are ranked seventh nationally.
Spartans smoke Indiana
By Kevin Rosenfield
Daily Sports Writer
The first leg in the battle for state
supremacy begins this Saturday
when the Michigan women's track
team hosts a six-team field in the
annual Michigan Intercollegiate at
the Michigan Track Building.
Looking to conclude an already stel-
lar opening month, the promising
Wolverines will be tested by an in-
state field that includes Central
Michigan, Detroit-Mercy, Western
Michigan, Michigan State and the
defending champion, Eastern
Michigan.
While Michigan has recently been
cast among the favorites to contend
for a Big Ten title, Michigan coach
James Henry warns that the team
cannot look past the schools lurking
in its own vicinity.
"We lost the Intercollegiate crown
last year for the first time, so we'd
really like to bring it back to Ann
Arbor, to where it really belongs,"
Henry said. "But Eastern's a real
good program, so it's actually going
to be quite difficult. We're going to
need to capitalize on our distance
strengths and then match up well
against their own strengths -
specifically their sprinters and hur-
dlers."
Showing off the depth and versa-
tility that has marked their opening
month, the Wolverines captured six
events last weekend at the non-scor-
ing Red Simmons Invitational. Tania
CAVS
Continued from Page 11A
a vigorous fall season, competing in more
than twice as many tournaments as the
Cavaliers. The results showed as the
Wolverines dominated almost every com-
petition. But, the action caught up with
them in a poorer showing this past week-
end at the Big Ten singles championship.
But those tournaments were individ-
ual-based competitions that had no bear-
ing on team record or standing. The dual
match season begins where teams face
each other one on one.
Incredibly, the Wolverines might have
an even greater advantage.
First, there might not be any team in
the nation that is so balanced. All eight
Wolverines performed well in the fall
tournaments - each player's winning
percentage was more than .500. The dif-
ferences between the strength of their
play are also minimal - five players
earned rankings in Michigan's region,
with three others not far behind.
"We all know the pluses and minuses
Longe led the way with an all-around
performance that, in addition to a
fourth-place finish in the shot put,
was highlighted by a Michigan
indoor track record time of 7.89
the 55-meter hurdles. Katie
McGregor continued her recent suc-
cesses by posting a time in the 3000
meters (9:32.94) that qualified her
for her third event in the NCAA
Indoor Championships.
McGregor had already secured
NCAA provisional qualifying times
in the 800 meter and mile runs dur-
ing earlier meets.
Other victories were posted la
weekend by Nicole Keith in the s
put, Nicole Forrester in the high
jump, Lisa Oucllet in the mile, and
Tamika Craig in the 400 meters.
The Red Simmons Invitational
was the Wolverines' third meet of the
season, following an 82-67 victory
over Indiana and a dominant perfor-
mance in the Michigan Open.
Based on the events to date,
Trackwire Publications has unoff
cially ranked the Wolverines 24th
the nation,
"We've had three real good steps
in the right direction thus far and
have begun to establish improvement
and consistency across the board,"
Henry said. "But we still have a lot
of work to do and, in the upcoming
weeks, it's important that we start
getting things together."
The meet begins at 10:30 a.m. on
Saturday.
our team has," Blain said. "We're very
deep - a lot of good players across the
board.
"It's going to be tough for teams to
come and beat us up and down the line-
up on a given day because everyone is so
equal:"
Secondly, the home-court advantage
takes a new meaning for the Wolverines.
Last weekend at Michigan State,
court speed -- the quickness the ball
bounces off the court - was much faster
than at home. Now, teams will have the
disadvantage of adapting to the
Michigan's slower courts.
"We are at home on our own surface
and our own timing," Michigan coach
Brian Eisner said.
Michigan believes that its first home
dual match is vital to the Wolverines'suc-
cess, especially after a long road seas*
"When you get six guys lined up next
to each other on the court for a dual
match - the way that you play when
your teammates are next to you all cheer-
ing you on -the performances will def-
initely change," Blain said.
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EAST LANSING (AP) - Charlie
Bell matched his career high with 17
points Wednesday to lead five double-
figure scorers for No. 22 Michigan
State as the Spartans stayed atop, the
Big Ten standings with an 84-66 victo-
ry over No. 25 Indiana.
Michigan State (7-1 Big Ten, 14-4
overall) outrebounded the Hoosiers, 48-
30, and the Spartans capitalized on 22
Indiana turnovers to score 30 points.
Andre Hutson added 13 points,
Morris Peterson had I I and Mateen
Cleaves and Antonio Smith each scored
10 for Michigan State.
Cleaves also had a career-high 13
assists.
Indiana (5-3 14-6)had a five-game
winning streak snapped. Luke Recker
led Indiana with 16 points and Larry
Richardson added 11 before leaving the
game midway through the second half
with a shoulder injury.
Michigan State was ahead 51-43
when DuJuan Wiley triggered a 19-3
run with a jump shot with just over 15
minutes remaining.
The Spartans' lead eventually
reached 82-53 with 3:46 to play after
Cleaves' jumper capped an 11-2 spurt.
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