ft A~e g Okiak i COLLEGE BASKETBALL No. 13 New Mexico at COLO. ST., inc. PRO BASKETBALL New Jersey 108 TORONTO 100 MINNESOTA 103, Golden State 87 MILWAUKEE 110. L.A. Clippers 95 UTAH 106, Cleveland 99 Phoenix at SACRAMENTO, inc. PRO HOCKEY New Jersey 1, BOSTON 1 Pittsburgh, 4 CAROLINA 1 Detroit 1, N.Y. ISLANDERS 1 N.Y. RANGERS 3. Toronto 2 Montreal 6. TAMPA BAY 3 CHICAGO 3, Vancouver 2 Florida at COLORADO. inc St. Louis at EDMONTON. inc Anaheim at LOS ANGELES, INC Dallas at SAN JOSE, inc. A Tuesday January 13, 1998 8 Asselin, Smith suffer minor injuries in car accident . By James Goldstein Daily Sports Witer Josh Asselin and Brandon Smith - freshmen on the Michigan basketball team - were involved in a single-car accident Sunday night on M-14 in Washtenaw County east of Nixon Road. Asselin and Smith were accompanied in the vehicle by freshman team manag- er Chris Ferreira and Asselin's high- school friend Trent Daley. They were returning home from The Palace of Auburn Hills, where they had attended the< first half of the Detroit Pistons' game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Smith According to police reports, Ferreira was driving in the left lane heading west on M-14 around 9:50 p.m., when he slammed on the brakes to avoid an animal and quick- ly lost control of the vehicle. The police reported that neither alcohol nor drugs were involved in the accident. Smith said he was asleep, along with Daley, in the back seat, when they were given a sudden wake-up call. "We were sleeping and all of a sudden Chris hit the brakes," Smith said. "We started veering to the right and then we went into a ditch. "I was terrified." All those involved were taken to and treated at St. Joseph's Hospital in Ypsilanti, where both players received stitches. Asselin - a 6-foot-i I center - received stitches to his forehead, and Smith - a 6-7 forward from Amarillo, Texas - on his right thumb. Smith left the hospital around 1 a.m., while Asselin waited until 5 a.m. for his father. Brian, to pick him up. A s s e I i ni ' s account of the accident was a lit- tle different than the original policet reports. Brian Asselin, who spoke to The Asselin Michigan Daily last night from his home in Caro, said that his son was resting there comfort- ably. He also said that Josh told him there was nothing in the road, not even an animal, and that the car suddenly stopped. "The kids think something in the car locked up," Brian Asselin said. "The vehicle rapidly lost control and deceler- ated. They felt like the brakes locked up. Josh Asselin, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, also mentioned to Michigan basket- ball players Josh Asselin and Brandon Smith were involved In a single-car acci- dent on M-14 on Sunday night. The two freshmen escaped with minor injuries and are expected to travel with the team to Ohio State this weekend. SARA STILLMAN/Daily Wrestlers adjust to new dietary rules By Evan Braunstein Daily Sports Writer When the season began, the future of the Michigan wrestling team looked bright. The Wolverines were ranked fourth in the nation and had a deep lineup chock full of All-Americas. Three wrestlers - Jeff Catrabone, Bill Lacure and Airron Richardson - were in a position to challenge for the national championship in their weight class at the end of the season. Then, tragedy struck when teammate Jeff Reese passed away on Dec. 9. One month later, the team is attempting to return to the champi- onship form it envisioned at the start of the sea- son. It hasn't been easy. The Wolverines have lost their last four meets. They are just starting to re-condition themselves to where they should be at this point in the season. "We came back from Christmas break and we really haven't had a chance to have some good workouts," Michigan assistant coach Joe McFarland said. Yesterday "was a really good workout, and hopefully we'll get in two or three more days this week." After Reese's death, the University instituted guidelines that reformed the ways in which wrestlers can cut weight. Among the changes are the prohibition of rubber suits and a weight policy that requires wrestlers to weigh-in no more than three hours before the meet. "It's tough for me," Catrabone said. "I know some of the other guys are a little sluggish, too. We're going through an adjustment period right now." Previously, wrestlers weighed-in for their match a day before the meet. Due to the new policy, the wrestlers are forced to changed their dieting habits. "We don't have to much time to hydrate our- selves before the match," Catrabone said. "We're dieting down better now, but we are los- ing a lot of our strength and its kind of hard to build it back up in three hours. We used to have about 24 hours." Contributing to the Wolverines' problems last weekend was the loss of their 118-pound wrestler, Chris Viola, who was not able to make weight in any of the three meets. "Chris has been working on getting every- thing under control," McFarland said. Not wrestling "has given him some more time and a chance to get some more workouts under his belt." One recent bright spot for the Wolverines has been the performance of sophomore Joe Warren. Wrestling at the new weight class of 126 pounds, Warren has 18 victories this season - tied for the team lead with Catrabone. He is 5-1 in dual meet action and won all three of his matches the past weekend. Against Penn State on Jan. 9, Warren beat Jason Betz, the seventh-ranked wrestler in the country, 21-4. "I feel good at this new weight class." he said. "My body is healthy and strong and I feel great." "As for the rest of the team, we're getting right back into condition and it's going to come back around. These past few meets weren't that important and we can't get down about them. "It's the tournaments at the end of the season that are really big." his father that he landed outside the vehi- cle on the grass. "All he remembers is rolling over, hit- ting the grass and then he was on the ground," Brian Asselin said. The elder Asselin said that when the car came to a stop, the roof of the vehi- cle was on the ground and the back left wheel had fallen off. He said that his son will return to school in the next few days. Smith attended yesterday's team prac- tice, but Asselin remained home with his family in Caro. Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe and other coaches rushed to the hospital t4 see the two injured players. "We are all very relieved and thankful that there were no serious injuries in what could have been a tragic accident," said Ellerbe in a written statement last night. "Everyone involved is extremely fortunate." Ellerbe said that he expects both play- ers to travel for Saturday's Ohio State game, but it's too early to know how much playing time they will receive. This accident conies almost two years after Michigan basketball players were involved in a car accident on the same highway. Then-Wolverine Maurice Taylor, accompanied by Robert Traylor, Louis Bullock, Ron Oliver, former Wolverine Willie Mitchell and then-Flint Northern recruit Mateen Cleaves, crashed his Ford Explorer on M-14. 'M' cheers takes third nationally By Jason Emeott For the Daily In the midst of the Michigan footba team's Big Ten and Rose Bowl titles, and a national championship, not to mention that thing called the Heisman Trophy, it's been easy to forget about anything but the football team lately. The Michigan varsity cheerleading team, who have led 100,000-plus people in a variety of roaring cheers Saturday afternoons in Michigan Stadium, now have a few accolades of their own to br about. The 20-member team finished sev- enth in the nation at the Universal Cheerleaders Association national championships on Saturday at MGM Studios in Orlando, Fla. "With the whole football season and now this, it was great," junior cheer- leader Jamie Flowers said. Led by senior co-captains Mark Cousineau, Rebekah Johnson, Nick Offredi and Carla Perez, Michigan f ished with its highest ranking ever. In addition to its seventh-place finish nationally, the Wolverines finished as the No. 3 non-scholarship cheerleading school in the country. The team also cap- tured its biggest goal by bringing home the Big Ten championship. Since August, the Wolverines put in countless hours in preparation for the UCA championships but almost didn't have the opportunity to see the fruitsO their labor. Tracie Surdu competed despite a par- tial tear of the medial collateral ligament in her knee. "It was pretty amazing," Cousineau said of his teammate. "We weren't even going to compete without her because we had no backup plan, but she really did a great job. I was paired with her on parts of the routine, and you couldn't even tell she was hurt." Cousineau said that when the tea went to visit Disney World for a day, Surdu needed a wheelchair to get around the park because she was in so much pain. "Tracie and the team performed so much better because we had to come together and concentrate to overcome the injury,"' Cousineau said. The Wolverines qualified for Saturday's UCA finals after they sent a tape of their performances from the season. After extensive review of the tapes and preliminary rounds, UCA officials selected Michigan as one of 17 teams to compete in the finals. The routines were scored on difficul- FIE PHOTO Michigan wrestler Bill Lacure and the rest of the Wolverines have had to adjust to new dietary requirements in the wrestling program, instituted following teammate Jeff Resse's death. 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