8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 30, 1998
SWIMMING
International swims.
wore down athletes
"it was so .
don't know what
else you can
say," was how
Michigan's Tom,
' Maichow, left,k
E } described his
fifth-place finish f'>;?
in the finals of
the 200-yard but-
terfiy.
.. Mike McWha,
right, stares atY
the scoreboard in U
,.s....,disbelief asr
Michigan fals to
f t rwin the 800-
freestyle relay at
NCAAs for the
first time in five
JOHN KRAFT/Oai
ive-year 'Michigan race' hooked by Texas
By Rick Freeman
Daily Sports Writer
AUBURN, Ala. - A meet such as the
NCAA Championships will, naturally,
feature some of the top swimmers in the
world. During the regular season, these
high-octane swimmers center their train-
ing around meets other than their regu-
larly scheduled intercollegiate competi-
tion.
This year, several top swimmers from
highly competitive--------------
teams competed in NCAAs
the World
Championships Notebook
held Jan. 8-17 in--------------
Perth, Australia.
But observers bandied about the idea
that training for three big competitions
in as many months - worlds in January,
the swimmers' respective conference
championships in February and nation-
als in March - was too much of a drain
on the top teams' top guys.
Michigan, which sent Derya
Buyukuncu and Tom Malchow to
Australia, seemed to be hit the hardest as
the Wolverines finished well below
expectations.
But some teams, such as third-place
Texas, fifth-place USC and 12th-place
Michigan, didn't get all the mileage they
wanted out of their worldly swimmers.
Texas' Neil Walker, last year's NCAA
swimmer of the year, won the 100 back-
stroke, beating out another World
Championships swimmer, USC's Lenny
Krayzelburg. But Walker was beaten out
by this year's swimmer of the year,
Southern Methodist's Lars Frolander, in
the 200 backstroke.
Malchow and Buyukuncu didn't seem
as crisp as they usually do in their fin-
ishes. But worlds didn't take too big a
bite out of some swimmers.
Stanford, the eventual champion, sent
two swimmers to worlds as well.
"Nothing's slowing down those suck-
ers,' Reese said.
Nothing slowed them down, and
nothing kept them down either. Every
final had at least one Stanford swimmer
participating.
WHERE'D THEY Go?: Texas took the
stealth approach to the last night of
finals. The Longhorns were hoping, per-
haps, to sneak past the host Tigers into
second place.
They traded their play-cowboy pow-
der blue shirts (complete with collars)
for menacing camouflage T-shirts that
read 'Operation 3-28-98'in burnt orange
on the back.
Unfortunately for the Longhorns,
there weren't enough potted plants in the
Martin Aquatics center for hiding pur-
poses, and they were unable to tiptoe
past the tigers.
By Jacob R. Wheeler
Daily Sports Writer
AUBURN, Ala.- Jon Urbanchek sat
alone on the bleachers Friday afternoon
after the second day's preliminary rounds
of the NCAA Championships. His face
showed no signs of the carefree humor
for which he's internationally known.
There was no playful towel slapping of
his Michigan swimmers - this was the
serious side of Urbanchek that most had
never witnessed.
At the time, Urbanchek found himself
i a pretty unfamiliar situation. He was
watching the Michigan dynasty that he
had built slowly sink to the bottom of the
James E. Martin Aquatic Center pool.
The Wolverines were struggling in the
NCAAs and on the verge of their first
finish out of the top 10 since 1986.
Michigan, ranked seventh before the
meet, entered the second day of competi-
tion tied for 13th, 20 points away from at
least breaking even. But during Friday's
preliminary round, an already bad situa-
tion took a turn for the worse. All hopes
oferacking the top 10 faded when five of
six Wolverines swam slower than their
NCAA qualifying times.
Junior Tom Malchow's 200-yard
freestyle swim was especially backbreak-
ing. Malchow - the Big Ten Swimmer
of the Year - was counted on to defend
his top ranking in the 200 free and save
the day for Michigan. But the 6-foot-7
Malchow was not accustomed to the
short course and quick turns at Auburn
because of his tall frame, and it showed.
He finished dead last in his heat and 24th
overall, missing the consolation finals by
almost a half-second.
"Malchow's just not a short-course
swimmer" Urbanchek said. "He's real
tall and lanky and it's hard for him to get
around. He'll eat up all these guys long
course, but he just can't do the short
course. It's frustrating for him, but even
more so for me, watching
him struggle."
A lull swept over the
Michigan bench. Little
had gone well all day,
but now the hero had
fallen.
One could read a famous sports
poem in the eyes of the Michigan faithful
- but with a little change of subject:
"somewhere hearts are merry, some-
where children shout, but there is no joy
on the Michigan bench, for the great
Malchow has just struck out.'
"I'm sure this is" one of the lowest
moments for me "in the last 13 years,"
Urbanchek said. "We haven't finished
out of the money since 1986.'
And as Urbanchek sat there absorbing
the harsh realities of defeat that his swim-
ming program had eluded for so many
years, he knew that another Michigan
giant was likely to fall that evening. But
this one would rattle straight to the bone
and hurt even more than Malchow's sur-
prising defeat.
In college swimming, there is an event
known as "the Michigan race"- the 800
yard freestyle relay, a race which effec-
tively measures a team's depth. Some
experts consider it the benchmark for a
swimming program because it requires
four swimmers to be adept in the 200-
yard leg - which is somewhere between
a sprint event and a long-dis-
tance event. Unlike a
~r; medley relay, in which
swimmers use a com-
bination of strokes,
one's fastest stroke is
used in the freestyle, mak-
ing the 800 free relay the ultimate
test of speed.
In this decade, no one has monopo-
lized any event like the Wolverines have
in "the Michigan race.' Urbanchek's
teams had won the 800 free relay at
NCAAs each of the past five years, a
stretch in which the Wolverines won a
national championship ('95), finished
second ('93) and finished third twice ('94
and '96). During the dynasty, Michigan
swimmers also won more medals in the
1996 Olympics than any other school.
One of them, Tom Dolan, became a com-
mercial icon in the process.
But the Wolverines finally lost "the
Michigan race" Friday night in Auburn.
And they didn't lose it by just a heartbeat.
The team of Malchow, freshman Chris
Thompson, sophomore Mike McWha
and senior Owen von Richter finished in
ninth place, a full seven seconds behind
the winning Texas team.
The Wolverines did manage, however,
to beat out conference rival Minnesota by
0.73 seconds. Still, that miniscule fact did
very little to ease the pain.
"We've had the talent the last five
years," Urbanchek said. "But this year we
just didn't have it. You talk about guys
who were in it before, like Dolan -
they're big-time swimmers. You've got to
have the talent. You can't squeeze blood
out of a turnip I guess."
Urbanchek's team was relieved that the
"Michigan race" record still stands,
though. No one came close to the NCAA
record of 6:20.89 set by the Wolverines in
'96. And as long as that mark stands,
these Wolverines will call the 800 free
relay "the Michigan race."
"That's been our race, so it hurts to get
demolished like that" von Richter said.
"Luckily they didn't even come close to
the record. It's just too bad we didn't have
all our cylinders firing, but if we get our
heads out of our asses, maybe we can get
it back in a couple years."
'M' swimming went
south at wrong time
NCAAs
Continued from Page 1B
coach Dick Kimball said Wilmot "was-
n't real sharp." After the three-meter,
however, Brett said he was "definitely
more confident" for Saturday's plat-
form event -his specialty.
Wilmot remained in contention for a
scoring position on the platform until
his feet hit the tower on a dive he said
he hits in practice every day. The low
scores dropped him to 18th.
"This was the worst meet of my life;"
Wilmot said.
Wilmot, like his teammates, didn't
find answers this weekend.
The Wolverines could only pack up
and leave to soothe their wounds with
thoughts of next season.
Urbanchek said that the brightest
point of the meet was. the way
Thompson, the Big Ten Freshman of
the Year, withstood the pressure of his
big races. Thompson swam to third in
the 500 free and second in the 1,650
free.
"He's gonna be tough," said
Urbanchek of his top freshman's
future.
Thompson said he couldn't wait for
next year. But what about the four
seniors on the team who ended their
careers - ones that started with an
NCAA title - on a sour note?
"You can never look at it that way;'
Derya Buyukuncu said.
Steve Williams called his time at
Michigan a "great experience" and
said he "wouldn't have it any other
way."
No regrets. Maybe that's the per-
spective that comes with four years of
experience.
McWha said that his second year, a
year in which Michigan also lost to
Minnesota at Big Tens, has him seem
things in new ways. He said seeing
Minnesota on top of the podium at the
Big Ten Championships made him
value the conference crown he won his
freshman year even more.
"I didn't realize what success was
until it's gone,"he said.
Maybe that's the hardest lesson there
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