'Top-seeded gymnasts By Nita Srivastava "Throughout the season, we ha Daily Sports Writer learned to calm down" Michigan Winning isn't anything out of the ordinary gymnast Sarah Cain said. "With doin for the Michigan women's gymnastics team. more and more, we know what we The Wolverines have done it before, and more and it is definitely not as difficult t than likely, they will do it again. trate when competing." This Saturday, the Wolverines will advance The Wolverines jumped from th s the No. I seed to the Big Ten place position to the No. 2 spot, hampionships in Iowa City, where they will behind only Georgia in the national look to capture their seventh conference title in They also moved to the first-place as many years - a feat never before accom- the region, finally surpassing Al plished. Michigan broke the previous record of which was ahead of Michigan for th five straight titles last year, capturing first of the season. place in Minneapolis. "One advantage that we have is "We feel very ready for this competition," teams may be intimidated becaus Michigan freshman gymnast Bridget Knaeble ranked No. 2 in the country," Cain said. "Our last two meets have given us a lot of have won the Big Tens for the past s confidence as they both tied for our season- a row." best scores." Knaeble said that the toughest c Michigan has been steadily improving both for Michigan will probably come fr its scores and its ranking throughout the sea- Penn State and No. 17 Minnesota. -son. These factors should prove to be a great sister, Mindy, will be competing for t :advantage for the Wolverines in the postsea- Gophers. .son. "It's my sisters senior year and my M tennis eady to hit :the Bucks By Mark Francescutti Daily Sports Writer The Michigan tennis team is full of veterans, with eight of nine players in their junior and senior years. Ohio State is nearly the opposite nine of its 13 players are sophomores and eshmen. Thus, the stage is set for the battle between the veterans and the rookies when Michigan Z(0-0 Big Ten, 5-3 overall) travels to Columbus n Sunday for its first Big Ten dual match &garnst the unranked Buckeyes (1-1, 3-9). The outlook isn't promising for the Buckeyes, who have only won once in their .ast 10 matches, and won just one Big Ten ' atchup all last season. But cheer up, Buckeye fans - this year's The Michigan men's tennis team be eam could be the best in years. State. Last season the Wolverines After resting at the bottom of the Big Ten for the past five years, the Buckeyes have a strong But the Wolverines have dom incoming class this season. Buckeyes in past seasons, including "They are much more improved than in past 7-0 win last year in Ann Arbor. This years Michigan assistant coach Dan ever, the scene shifts to Columbus Goldberg said. "They had a strong recruiting the Buckeyes have won three of thei class this past year," matches. Topping the list of recruits are freshmen "In tennis especially, home court Chris Porter and Bob Wellstein. definitely helps," Goldberg said. Porter has had several upset wins over strong Sunday marks the start of the ig Ten players, including Illinois' Ryan Cary season for the Wolverines, who at the Big Ten singles championships and hopes for a championship - especi Indiana's Gabriel Montilla last month. disappointing 6-4 mark and sixth-p Wellstein also did well at Big Ten singles. at the Big Ten Championships. The V Junior Ben Basil, the No. 4 singles player, were plagued with injuries througho has also had success in the past two seasons. son and during the tournament. Last year, he posted the team's best singles "I think we are going to fare extre record and this season he made it to the fourth this year," Goldberg said. "We still round of the singles championship. improving to do throughout the Big omen's netters face first conference weekend By Drew Beaver nationally and have a 4-5 record this Daily Sports Writer year. They will be looking to pick up Things started off well enough for their first Big Ten win of the year the Michigan women's tennis team against the Wolverines. The Illini have his year. The Wolverines won four of already fallen to Big Ten powers eir first five matches, with their Wisconsin and Northwestern. only loss coming at the hands of No. The Wolverines travel to West 12 Tennessee. Layfayette to face No. 50 Purdue on Then, trouble hit. The Wolverines Saturday. The Boilermakers are 3-5 traveled to California over spring overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten but are break and came backwith three losses, not to be overlooked, as they proved in all to teams ranked in the top 30 their most recent Big Ten match. Two nationally. weeks ago, the Boilermakers upset Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 4-4 overall) 21st-ranked Northwestern, 4-3, in a is now looking to bounce back from victory head coach Mat landolo called ese losses. "the biggest win in the history of "We can't do anything about it," Purdue women's tennis." sphomore Jen Boylan said. Michigan beat Purdue twice last 4And so another test begins for the year, once in regular season action and Wolverine netters - to rebound from again in the second round of the Big 8- disappointing losing streak and Ten Championships. come back to Ann Arbor with two Big -en wins this weekend. The 24th-ranked Wolverines face Itlinois in Champaign tomorrow, and then travel to West Layfayette to face Purdue on Saturday. Focus is on the inds of the Wolverines this weekend. "We understand that we need to 0 S keep everything in perspective," Michigan sophomore Danielle Lund said. "After last week we need to Be part of a team that wor maintain our level of confidence." departments to fit their bus The Fighting Illini are ranked 59th the new University financi research administration, an The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 19, 1998 - 15A off to Big Tens ve mostly sophomore ng routines are doing to concen- cir fourth- remaining i rankings. position in abama - e majority that other se we are said, "and ix years in ompetition om No. 15 Knaeble's he Golden y freshman year, and Minnesota is out to get us anyway" Knaeble said. "Her being my sister throws a lit- tle twist into the competition" Knaeble has been nominated for Big Ten freshman of the year honors and is ranked among the top 25 in regional rankings in every apparatus. She has also gained the No. 8 posi- tion in the all-around competition. Having seen the Big Ten competition from the stands as a fan, Knaeble is now looking forward to com- peting in it. "As a freshman, I am nervous, but we are all nervous and excited at the same time" Knaeble said. "We know that we have to keep this Big Ten winning streak going." The Wolverines are looking ahead to the prospects of another championship to be gained in Iowa City. Their .consistency throughout the season should be a great advantage for the Wolverines as they kick off the postseason. "We would almost rather not practice," Cain said. "We just want to go to Big Tens, compete - and win." Lao Haro, here on the rings, is one of the members of the Michigan men's gymnastics team preparing for the Big Ten Championships, to be hosted by Michigan this weekend. WARREN ZINN/ Daily Nation's top teams vie for Big Ten gymnastics title WARREN ZINN/Daily gins its Big Ten season Sunday in Columbus against Ohio shut out the Buckeyes 7-0 at the Varsity Tennis Center. By Jason Emeott For The Daily When it comes to national powerhouses, the Big Ten has its share to choose from. The con- ference boasts teams of national prominence in almost every sport, but the quality of gymnas- tics in the Big Ten is especially impressive this year. When No. 8 Michigan hosts the Big Ten Championships at 7 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday night at Crisler Arena, six of the nation's top 10 gymnastics teams will be bat- tling, not only for the Big Ten title, but for national supremacy as well. "It's anybody's game, Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "I'd expect all the teams to be at their best." Golder said he's anticipating an extremely competitive meet since the Big Ten's top six teams are separated by a mere 2.45 points from top to bottom. The Michigan gymnasts are look- ing to improve upon their current conference standing this weekend by leapfrogging a couple of their closest competitors. While the Wolverines currently hold the nation's No. 8 ranking, they still find themselves as the Big Ten's sixth-best team heading into the "biggest conference meet in the country" Golder said. This weekend, the Michigan tum- blers are hoping for a great performance, as well as a little luck. "I just hope we can get by some of the teams and finish higher than sixth, Golder said. "You never know. If one of the teams faults, we might be able to slip into the top three." Golder also said that solidifying one of the six NCAA East Regional berths will be a main focus of the squad this weekend. In addition to aiming for a stellar overall team performance, a handful of Wolverine gymnasts hope to bring home personal accolades Saturday night. Michigan has four legitimate individual Big Ten title contenders with senior Tim DeGraw and freshman Kevin 'Roulston in the floor exercise, and sophomore Lalo Haro and freshman Justin Toman on the parallel bars. While the Michigan gymnasts are expected to finish sixth in this year's conference champi- onships, some in the Big Ten have already con- ceded that the Wolverines will be looking down at the rest of the competition in the next few years. With an exceptional group of freshmen and sophomores, an outstanding recruiting class for next season and one of the most respected coaching staffs in the country, Michigan is expected to be a national title contender within the next four years. inated the a blowout time, how- -- where r past four advantage conference have high ally after a lace finish Wolverines ut the sea- emely well have some Ten season to reach our goal." But Goldberg knows that his team has two definitive advantages on its side. "One, we have a team of primarily upper- classman - our players, they've been in this position before - and we have tremendous depth." Goldberg also says that the Wolverines aren't looking past the Ohio State match, but are treating it as a necessary step towards their goal of a Big Ten championship. "You have to take every match seriously" Goldberg said. --w.j Michigan men s te s. Only in th-aily I wr.orkL LI% (3/16-3/ 2.1) Available through Council Travel retail offices only. W Travel CIEE: Council on internaflonal Educational Exchange 1218 South University Avenue Ann Arbor (734) 998-0200 (below Tower Records) 1 w .4 A~ Take the. Language Plung9e Study a language at Middlebury College inVermont this summer and you'll earn the equivalent of a year or more of College credit. Arabic Italian Chinese French German Spanish Japanese Russian ks with campus siness processes with al, human resource, id student * Undergraduate courses, beginning through advanced " Graduate programs leading to an M.A. or D.M.L. " Three-, six-, seven-, and nine-week sessions * Over one-fourth of summer students receive financial aid Every summer over a thousand students "Take the In IN1 administration systems. LIKE w NORTH CAMPUS? YOU'LL Skills desired: Experience with Mail Merge in MS Word, Experience with Excel, Filemaker, MS Access or other spreadsheet and database programs. Experience with data conversion and file format conversion (e.g. from FileMaker to Excel). Plunge" and sign Middlebury College's Pledge. It's our way of insuring that you Language "live" the languiage from morning to night. 1.