The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday, March 9, 1998 - 3B Lack of depth holds back men's track m BIG we I'll !I I-~RI1rT~i1 I r " By Josh Borkin Daily Sports Writer The results of the men's indoor track and field Big Ten championships were no different than the results of the Central Colletgiates, Red Simmons Invitational-or any other meet Michigan participat- ed in this year. The distance team carried the load while the sprint squad failed to earn many points. Michigan coach Jack Harvey summed up the Big Tens and the entire season in one line -"We did as well as we could, with what we had." The Wolverines finished "a disappointing and underachieved sixth-place;' Harvey said. Michigan scored in only five events and captured three con- ference titles. The Wolverines finished with 62 points, while Minnesota won the title, scoring 108. "We don't have Minnesota and Wisconsin depth," Sullivan said. "We do not have the depth and experience as a team to really compete and win against those teams. We are still far away from that." This season the Wolverines had the best tandem of distance runners in the country. Kevin Sullivan beat recent American mile-champion Paul McMullen at Notre Dame. John Mortimer finished second overall in a field of international runners. Jay Cantin finished on the heels of Sullivan and Mortimer all year long. The sprint squad, on the other hand, looked sharp on occasion but failed to be consistent. Although Michigan captains Brian Theisen and Dwayne Fuqua tried to revitalize the team, the sprinters were out-performed by their opponents. "Solid performances were what we were looking for," Harvey said. "A lot of guys came in with too much confidence and were expecting to do better than we were actually able to. Sullivan succeeded in delivering two confer- ence titles. He won the 3,000-meters with a time of 8:19, and captured the mile - without much competition from his opponents - in an even four minutes. Sullivan will be running the mile and distance medley at this weekend's NCAA championships. "I can't say that this meet was one of the biggest disappointments in my career," Sullivan said. "Of course I'm graduating soon, and this champi- onship would have been one of my greatest mem- ories at Michigan, but the final score of a meet doesn't always reflect the hard work and talent that a team possesses." Mortimer, one of the top distance runners in the nation, also prevailed. After losing by five-tenths of a second to Sullivan in the 3,000 (8:19.88) He came back the next day to record the third-best Big Ten indoor 5,000 time ever, with a 14:04.30. "John could be the next best distance runner, behind Kevin, in the nation," Harvey said. "I am confident that he will do very well at NCAAs, and I think that with John and Kevin, we have one of the best distance tandems in the country." Michigan's only other point scorers were Cantin, who finished second in the mile (4:05), Fuqua who placed sixth in the 600 (1:20.51), and Steve Lawrence, who re-emerged to place seventh in the 5,000 (14:24.77). LOUIS BROWN/Daily Michigan's John Mortimer and the distance crew couldn't do it themselves at Big Tens. The Wolverines finished sixth. TRACK Continued from Page 13 field in the long jump with a distance of 19-feet-11 3/4. The NCAA provisional qualifying jump was sweet success for Longe, who has been impatient with her performances in the long jump throughout the year. And Longe wasn't done. She domi- nated the triple jump with a season-best 41-10 3/4 to earn first place. To round out'her day, Longe won the pentathlon, scoring 3,807 points. Longe's three vic- tories, coupled with a fourth-place fin- ish in the 55-meter hurdles, accounted for more than a quarter of the *Wolverines' total point output. Nicole Forrester was another Michigan athlete who found herself peaking at the right time. At the start of the season Forrester's high jump was around 5-10. But her steady improve- ment paid off in a 6-2 jump that earned her the Big Ten title. Forrester's jump also qualified her automatically for NCAAs and set a Big Ten Championships record. Sarah Hamilton, this season's silent killer, struck gold for the Wolverines at Big Tens. Hamilton has been the anchor on Michigan's middle distance squad this season, and she turned in a solid first-place finish in the 800-meter run, posting a time of 2:09. Freshman Erin White chipped in as well with a sev- enth-place finish. Young guns Maria Brown and Kenise READ THE DAILY IN CHEM LECTURE. JUST DON'T GET CAUGHT. T-SHIRT PRINTING LOWEST PRICES! HIGHEST QUAUTY! FASTEST SERICE! 1002 PONTIAC TR. 994-1367 Night Owl Special 20 %off all food purchases from 9:00pm till close Sunday through Thursday $2 off pitcher of Labatts Bocage turned in solid performances in the 55. Brown, a sophomore, captured third place in 7.01 seconds, while Bocage, a freshman, finished in a time of 7.05. Michigan's talented distance crew did its part. Knowing Wisconsin's strength rested in the distance events, the Wolverines' distance runners set out to neutralize the Badgers. They did just that. While Wisconsin's Jenny Westphal eked out a victory in the mile run, she was chased by a Michigan pack. Michelle Slater's third- place finish in 4:52, followed by McGregor and Lisa Ouellet in fifth and sixth, respectively, made sure Westphal's win didn't put the Wolverines in a hole. Much of the same cast of characters helped Michigan make good in the 3,000 meters. Again, Wisconsin took top honors as Angie Kujak edged McGregor. McGregor's second-place performance in a time of 9:40 led a trio of Wolverines. Elizabeth Kampfe and Slater had solid outings as well, picking up points with their seventh- and eighth- place finishes. Kujak edged McGregor once again, this time in the 5,000 meters. Michigan's top distance competitor managed another runner-up finish, clocking in at 16:47. Kampfe finished her weekend by posting a time of 16:54. "I don't like to lose," McGregor said. "But I was glad to grab some points. Kujak had only run one other race, and I was going on tired legs." Lacure, Richardson clm Big Ten titles JOHN LEROI Out of Bounds U -1 evenate ikTen td HICAGO - Brian Ellerbe has just coached the Michigan Wolverines to the first Big Ten Tournament title. He is the man on the bench, running practice, calling the plays, facing the media. He is the man with the sweat-drenched shirts after every game, the man who is scrutinized when the Wolverines play poorly and is rarely praised when they play well. He is the man who will lead Michigan into the NCAA Tournament and steer this ship through the memories of recent NCAA Tournament failures. He is Michigan's coach. But, for more than a handful of players, this isn't Brian Ellerbe's team. For Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock and Travis Conlan and Robbie Reid, this is Steve Fisher's team. The team has nothing against Ellerbe. How could they? But their feelings for their fired coach run too deep for a five-month absence to erase. Just as Bullock and Traylor promised in October, Fisher is still on their minds now. They can't forget that Fisher put this team together and recruited all of them. He has been in their homes, not Ellerbe. He has weathered the storm with them, and now as Michigan enjoys its Big Ten title, in what may be its brightest moment since the departure of the Fab Five, the Wolverines are not about to forget Fisher. Not now. "He's had an impact all along," Bullock said. "He's still a huge part of this, program, and not one guy has forgot about that. He's the key ingredient in this team. He's the reason I'm here right now. If he weren't still with us, I wouldn't be here." Most of the Wolverines speak with Fisher frequently. Bullock and Reid usually call him at least once a week. To them, even though Ellerbe is Michigan's coach, Fisher is their coach, too. At a press conference that Ellerbe attended, Fisher made it clear when he was fired that the 1997-98 Wolverines were his team, just as Michigan's 1989 national championship squad that Fisher coached was Bill Freider's team. Fisher is a man of great pride and his players have always respected that. They love him in a way they can't love Ellerbe. Even though they respect the job Ellerbe has done, it can't replace the bond they feel with Fisher. Not right now, anyway. "He's a father figure and a friend," said Reid, who transferred to Michigar this summer after a two-year Mormon mission largely because of his desire to play for Fisher. "He is the main reason I'm here, and it was very disappointing not to get to play for him. Most of the guys talk to him a lot, and he gives us good insights. He's a coach, that's what he does." Where that leaves Ellerbe is anybody's guess. No player has come out and said they want Ellerbe back next year, although after yesterday's title, Mace( Baston said he deserves a shot at the job. And as time wears on, Ellerbe's situation seems eerily similar to Fisher's: an interim coach guiding a veteran club into the postseason. Just how many more games Ellerbe has to win to secure the job is a mystery, if his record matters at all. He doesn't like to talk about his job prospects, which is a credit to his integrity because he wants the job badly, and he thinks he deserves it. He grants Michigan's players all the credit for the team's recent success and takes none for himself even though he certainly deserves it. Fisher deserves some too, and right about now, his troops will rally around their fallen leader as they try to make a run at the NCAA title. It jus' might work if everybody remembers that Ellerbe is one of Fisher's troops, too. - John Leroi can be reached via e-mail at jrleroi umich.edu By Jordan Field Daily Sports Writer With seven of 11 teams ranked in the top 25, including three of the top pro- grams in the country, Big Ten wrestling is clearly the dominant conference in the NCAA. Ranked 16th in the nation, the Michigan wrestling team traveled to Penn State for the Big Ten Championships, looking to redeem a disappointing regular season. As a team, the Wolverines finished with 77.5 points - fourth in the tour- nament behind Iowa, Penn State and Minnesota. Individually, seniors Bill Lacure and Airron Richardson both captured Big Ten titles, and will join qualifiers Joe Warren and Jeff Catrabone in Cleveland for the NCAA Championship, March 19-21. Lacure's Big Ten title was the first for the Wolverines since 1995. Adding Richardson's title, it was the first time since 1989 that Michigan had two indi- vidual Big Ten champions. Seeded fourth, Lacure was the low- est seed to capture a title in the cham- pionship. His 5-4 win over Penn State's home favorite, Clint Musser, was the first time the two had ever faced. Richardson's 5-3 win over Minnesota's Shelton Benjamin was only his second win over Benjamin in five tries. Seeded sixth, Warren was the run- ner-up in the 126 lb. bracket - his only loss in the finals was at the hands of No. I seed Eric Jetton from Wisconsin, 19-7. Catrabone, the sec- ond seed at 167, was upset in the first round by Michigan State's Will Hill. But he wrestled back with three wins in the consolation rounds, including an I1-1 redemption win over Hill in the consolation semi-finals. Two other Wolverines had a shot at qualifying for the NCAA field. In each weight class, the top seven finishers automatically qualify. Both 118- pounder Chris Viola and 177-pounder Joe Degain lost their final matches and finished eighth in their respective classes. Richardson and Catrabone became Michigan's first classmate tandem to qualify for the NCAA Championship in each of their four years. The two join an elite group of seven other Wolverines who have qualified four seasons in a row. c Clinique's Job nterve Workshops for men and wo en You may have gotten into college on ability alone, but when it comes to job interviews, it helps to look the part. Come find out what interviewers expect to see-not on your resume, but in the flesh. Like: What length your hair should be. What's the score on multiple earrings, 3-piece suits, tattoos, makeup. 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