January 25, 1999 - SportsMonday - The Michigan Daily - 3
,Vlen's gymnastics destroys Illinois-Chicago
SportsMonday
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By Dan Dingerson
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's gymnastics team
had an all-around great week.
The Wolverines moved up in the rank-
ings five spots to No. 4 in the country.
The team - already decimated by
injuries -- lost Bryan Pascoe, but others
arted to recover. But the high point of
ihe'week was the team's decisive victory
over eighth-ranked Illinois-Chicago on
Saturday night.
The final score was 228.475-219.70,
in favor of the Wolverines. Although the
score seems to be close, in gymnastics, it
was a complete blowout.
Expectations were that the Flames
would be anxious to face Michigan, one
the teams that had just defeated them in
' eir tournament this past weekend.
Illinois-Chicago seemed to be having
an off-day, though. They had trouble
sticking their landings, and were impre-
cise in their routines. They also faced a
team that came out on top of its game
amid some adversity.
The Wolverines entered the meet with
only 10 gymnasts healthy enough to
compete. Jesse Coleman, Tim Dehr,
Brad Kenna and Kevin Roulston were
ured before last weekend. Pascoe had
oulder surgery this week, knocking
him out of competition. Justin Toman
has also been nursing an ankle injury,
and was limited in his range of events.
Despite his injury, Toman had a spec-
tacular meet. He won the high-bar with a
personal best and meet-high score of
9.85. Toman's day also included him
tying his personal best in the pommel
horse. His performance earned him
Michigan coach Kurt Golder's coveted
"performer of the day" award.
"To be able to step up the difficulty, as
well as having the adversity of an injury,
to stick it perfectly, after the best routine
of his life in that event, that's definitely
the performance of the day," Golder said.
Although Toman was named per-
former of the day, his injury kept him out
of the all-around competition. That was
dominated by the freshmen on the team.
Daniel Diaz-Luong and Scott Vetere
again led the Wolverines to victory. Last
week, Diaz-Luong edged Vetere to claim
fifth in the all-around competition.
Saturday, it looked as if Vetere was going
to claim the all-around title. Not only
was he consistent in his scoring, but he
was consistently high.
Entering the last rotation of the
evening, Vetere had a solid lead over
Diaz-Luong, and teammate LaLo Haro.
The final event for the Wolverines was
the high bar. Vetere had an unfortunate
fall which dropped him from the title
and left him with a second-place finish.
Diaz-Luong had a solid routine in the
high bar, and stuck his landing for a
9.75, giving him the title.
Solid performances have led the
Wolverines to a 5-2 record. Michigan
has only lost to the first and third-ranked
teams in the country.
JIM
ROSE
Once more, but thA' h
wik feebzg. c notlzerpoem
F or the second time in as many semesters - back by the demands of the
editor - a poetic attempt to provide some background on Michigan's
sports scene ...
When the fall is no more
And the snow has arrived,
Of football, this campus
Is sadly deprived. i
It's a time of transition
For die-hard sports fans,
It begins a new mission:
Get to March's Big Dance.
.. ---_.
. ,
n
i
DANA"I" NRN uaily
After topping ilinois-Chicago at the Windy City invitational a week ago, the
Michigan men's gymnastics team extinguished the Flames again.
Tracksters rab three
titles at Simmons
By Chris Langrill
Daily Sports Writer
The indoor track season has a lot to do
with getting ready for, well, the outdoor
track season.
That was the general feeling that per-
meated the indoor track building
Saturday as the Michigan men's track
team hosted the unscored Red Simmons
Invitational.
Competitors threw javelins down in
disgust, kicked sand around after disap-
pointing long jumps, and listlessly
jogged around as if they were waiting for
races that would never come. And judges
yelled "foul" almost as consistently as
sprinters ran into each other in warmups.
Athletes from Michigan, Notre Dame,
Ball State, Toledo, Eastern Michigan
and Western Michigan all had to deal
with the rigors of the beginning stages of
what will be a long season.
"Indoor meets are not super as far as
times go;' Michigan assistant coach Ron
Warhurst said. "You just hope that you
can progress a little each week, especial-
ly in time for Big Tens."
"We go from January to June, so it's
a long haul," Warhurst added.
The event was unscored, which means
that there were no final team standings
or overall winner - a defining charac-
teristic of early season meets, which are
intended to build athletes' strength for
the critical late season indoor and out-
door events.
This isn't to say that there wasn't good
news for Michigan regarding Saturday's
results. Three Wolverines took home
individual titles from the invitational -
Patrick Johansson, Josh Sellers and
freshman Ike Okenwa won events.
Johansson, from Sweden, started the
Wolverines' day off with a victory in the
35-pound weight throw. His throw of 56
feet, 8 3/4 inches was almost two feet
further than the second-place finisher,
Jay Hofner of Notre Dame..
Sellers won the 600-meter run for the
second time this season. His time of
1:21.71 was only .14 seconds faster than
the second-place finisher, Notre Dame's
Terry Wray.
Lastly, Okenwa beat out his closest
competitor and teammate, Steve
Jenkins, by .15 seconds with a winning
time of 6.84.
Warhurst said how these early meets
have allowed freshmen such as Okenwa,
along with sprinters Jeremy Scherder
and Oded Padan, to improve and assert
themselves as new team members.
Michigan will again be a host this
coming weekend, this time with the
Michigan Intercollegiate.
But while this is a-brewin'
There's much more at stake;
Other sports, they get movin' -
And they're no piece of cake.
When Lou strokes a three
The hoops team wins acclaim;
Between that and Red's hockey,
They hoard all the fame.
Not that they don't earn it,
Not that they're to blame -
But come on, let's admit it:
Every story's the same!
And so this is where
I come in, loyal reader(s?) -
In this space, if you care,
Other sports will be featured.
For example, the wrestlers
Are as good as they've been -
Phere are four different grapplers
In the country's top 10.
The swim team has stars,
Take a look toward the men:
Malchow and Potts are
Urbanchek's captains.
The women, it's clear,
Are no less than electric,
And with swimmers like Shakespeare,
You might say they're poetic.
Wilmot and Crews
Set tall standards for divers.
But how 'bout Dick Kimball?
40 years! He's a lifer!
The men of gymnastics
Have improved with a blaze,
And it's now realistic
To think NCAAs.
The women, led by Cain
Are more than just able -
Each year, they're competing
For a title in April.
a
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DHANI ONES/Daily
Although the Red Simmons invitational was unscored, the Michigan men's track
tefl used the event as a chance to get ready for the upcoming season.
-M'wrestling splits
conference weekend
' Chris Grandstaff
Daily Sports Writer
The No. 10 Michigan wrestling team
continued its successful 1999 campaign
with a weekend split against Big Ten
rivals Minnesota and Wisconsin.
"The second ranked Gophers got a lit-
tle more than they wanted from the
upstart Wolverines, but won the meet
with a score of 23-17.
* Minnesota took an early 3-0 lead
when 16th-ranked Leroy Vega upset
Michigan's sixth-ranked Chris Viola by a
decision in the 125-pound weight class.
But the Wolverines didn't stay down
for long. Michigan proceeded to take
charge of the meet - pulling ahead to
its largest lead, seven, with just three
matches to go.
The Michigan run was jump-started
by sixth-ranked Joe Warren, who deci-
sioned Minnesota's 12th-ranked Pat
fonnors in the 133-pound weight class,
upping his record to 20-3 for the season.
Seventh-ranked Damion Logan then
earned a major decision in the, 141-
pound weight class, pushing his record
to 20-3 as well. Freshman Charles
Martelli won a major decision in the
157-pound class, and seventh-ranked
Otte Olson pinned Matt Kraft of
Minnesota in the 174-pound class, giv-
~ghim an impressive 21-3 record for
Michigan then found out why the
Gohers are the second-ranked team in
Tennis and track are,
You'd think, more for spring.
But they start indoors - and are
Now in full swing.
This is some of the stuff
That the winter will bring -
So there's more than enough
To keep busy 'til spring.
- Jim Rose is now 0-for-2 in poetic efforts, but will continue to try.
He can be reached via e-mail atjw-ose@umich.edu.
the country as Minnesota turned things
around in the final three matches.
Minnesota's Brad Eggum, Tim Hartung,
and Brock Lesnar, all ranked either first
or second in their respective weight
classes, won each of the past three
matches convincingly.
"That first match was the difference in
the meet," Michigan wrestling coach
Dale Bahr said. "Chris wrestled a good
match, but ended up getting taken down
in the last 20 seconds."
Despite losing, the Wolverines proved
they could hang with one of the best
wrestling teams in the country or the
road.
"I thought the kids wrestled really
well in enemy territory. We weren't
intimidated by them at all," Bahr said.
The meet featured a total of 13 ranked
individuals - seven from Minnesota
and six from Michigan.
If the Wolverines felt any effects from
Friday's loss at Minnesota, they sure did-
n't show it yesterday at Wisconsin.
Michigan dominated the Badgers en
route to a 28-11 victory.
Viola rebounded from Friday's disap-
pointing loss with a victory against
Wisconsin, scoring a technical fall victo-
ry. The Wolverines also received solid
performances from Warren, Logan,
Martelli and senior Corey Grant.
"I was concerned that there might be
a letdown against Wisconsin;' Bahr said.
i"But the kids controlled the meet."
I.
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DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
The Michigan wrestling team lost to No. 2 Minnesota on Friday, but the Wolverines
rebounded with an impressive win over Wisconsin yesterday.
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