February 1, 1999 - SportsMonday- The Michigan DailyB 'M' women gymnasts top No. 22 Ohio State Cain wins all-around in double-dual meet By Stephen A. Rom For the Daily Two words that immediately jump out of the weekend's women's gym- nastics meet are strong and deter- mined. When you consider Michigan's relatively uncontested ousting of No. 22 Ohio State and unranked Rhode Island, you too, might be hard- pressed to find a more accurate pair of adjectives to describe the Wolverines' per.. -mance. "I'm very proui," head coach Bev Plocki said. And although she used those words to describe the individ- ual performance of Saturday's all- around winner Sarah Cain, she could have been referring to the entire team. Michigan won all four events to handily take the meet, 195.325- 191.700 over Ohio State. Rhode Island scored 187.200 to come in third, well out of the race. Michigan's only real challenge came when Ohio State closed to within two points going into the final event. It seemed as though this was attributed more to a Michigan let- down on the balance beam, than any Ohio State rally. Plocki said her team's performance on the beam that evening was "not stellar," and had lots of "room for improvement." But the Wolverines' dominance on the vault - their opening exercise - allowed them some room to slip a bit on the beam. "This is our strongest event. We hope it serves as a momentum builder that will carry throughout the competition," Plocki said. This momentum took the team about as far as it could before they needed to tap another strength to help seal the victory. In the highlight of the evening, the women had the crowd virtually eat- ing out of their hands. From Lisa Simes' opening routine through sophomore Karina Senior's performance, the crowd stood and clapped, repsonding to the Wolverines' slightest gesture. And from the way the Rhode Island athletes were sneaking peaks at Michigan's floor performance, it looked like they had the respect of their peers, as well as the fans. "The floor can be our best event.. And as long as you go in with confi- dence, you can let loose' Plocki said. Unlike most events, which require sharp, focus "the floor gives you a chance to live it up," Simes said. From all the cheering that was going on in the arena, she wasn't the only one that was living it up. Whether it was Simes leading the cheers on the floor, Kathy Burke's confident smile on the beam or Bridget Knaeble's exclamation-point landing on her uneven bars routine, the Wolverines were a well-oiled machine. One that was running on all four cylinders - and events. NATHAN RUFFER/Daily The Michigan men's gymnastics team was unable to continue its recent hot sneak, losing to Ohio State, 228.325.227.550. Michigan coach Kurt Golder lopes his squad can gain something from the loss. Men's gymnastics JitIs short -y Dan Dingerson a9 Sports Writer A strong finish is critical to an ath- Yete's success. An uninspiring finish can 6 en erase what has been a great perfor- _'ance up to that point, while a spectac- ular finish can turn an average perfor- mance into a winning one. On Friday, against Ohio State and 'inois, the Michigan men's gymnastics am may have learned just how impor- _anta strong finish is. 'iTie Wolverines entered this week- end's meet ranked second coming off a strong performance against Illinois- .,Chicago. For Michigan, it didn't come out quite as perfectly as it did the week before. Ohio State's performance on the -vault, combined with the Wolverines' mistakes on the high bar, was enouh for .1~ Buckeyes to win the meet, 228.325- 227.550. Illinois finished third with a score of 222.950. Michigan started with the floor exer- cise where LaLo Haro led the way with a 9.6, earning him second. Only Jamie Natalie from Ohio State was able to beat his score, with a 9.7 The Wolverines' second rotation placed them on the pommel horse, an 's ent they dominated, taking four of the p'five spots in the event. Freshman Josh Levin took first on the apparatus with a score of 9.8. Justin Toman placed aiand with a 9.7. The third rotation saw Kenny Keener take first on the still rings with a 9.7, ahead of Ohio State's Rahsaan William and Tim Elsner's pair of 9.55s. Halfway through the meet, Michigan had more than a one-point lead on Ohio State, while Illinois had already fell out f contention, more than four points hind. The Fighting Illini, ranked seventh, aPer finishing third in the nation last year, are one of the strongest teams in the country. They didn't show it Friday. On the pommel horse, five of Illinois' six gymnasts fell off of the apparatus, with two falling more than once. The Illini had~falls in other events, and their con- dnce seemed shaken. With Illinois having an off day, the between Ohio State and the Wolveines. Going into the last event of the evening, Michigan had a lead of almost six-tenths of a point. "All we had to do was hit out, hit all of our routines on the high bar. We had a 'couple of mistakes;" Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "in the meantime, they were on vault. They nailed all of eir vaults When you make mistakes, you end up losing." Despite the loss, Michigan was not too' disappointed with its performance. Because the rankings are based on top ' scores for teams, the Wolverines' loss to - Ohio State will not drop them unless of Bucks another team was able to score higher than Michigan's high score. Golder was more concerned with his team's performance rather than the com- petition between the teams. "Performance is the main thing. Whether we win or lose is secondary until we get right into the championship competitions, and then there is no tomorrow" Golder said. "By losing to them it's a good oppor- tunity to dig a little deeper and examine what we are doing in training. A lot can be gained from it." Ohio State's dominating performance in the vault gave them four of the top five spots, led by Doug Stibel with a 9.8, and Natalie and Daren Lynch with 9.65s. The Wolverines' brightest light in the meet,Toman, won the parrallel bars with a 9.825 over Stibel, who had a 9.725. Michigan's weakest event, the high bar, was won by Natalie, who edged Illinois' national champion Travis Romagnoli 9.750-9.675. Stibel and Natalie used their consis- tent performances to take first and sec- ond in the all-around competition. respectively. Stibel's 57.125 is the high- est score this year in the all-around. Michigan was led by LaLo Haro, who finished fourth. Daniel Diaz-Luong, Michigan's freshman leader, was only able to finish sixth amongst the nine all-around com- petitors. Diaz-Luong had taken the all- around national lead with his strong per- formance against Illinois-Chicago, but this week, had to endure his worst per- formance as a Wolverine. Altogether the team was not that wor- ried about the loss to Ohio State. "I don't think that it's very disappoint- ing. It was just another competition, and our team is still ranked No. 2," Diaz- Luong said. "We're going to be there 0 # USA SPRING. BREAK CANCUN BAHAMAS PANAMA CITY CALL FOR OUR BEST PRICE, GUARANTEE! " ". - LOUIS BROWN/Duy The Michigan women's gymnastics team flipped No. 22 Ohio State this weekend. Chun-Ma Taekwondo * Kickboxing Acadamy (734) 994-0400 Receive instruction in: Taekwondo Kickboxing Hapkido Judo Our Cardio-Fit Kickboxing pro- gram takes the music, excitemp rt and energy of aerobics but adds important self-defense techniques lik abbing, kicking, punching and blocing You learn-while you burn at 800 calories per hour! 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Field trips to Denver-area publishers and nationally known bookshops enhance the intensive-- but fun-- course of instruction. Career counseling is featured during the final week of the program. Underclassmen may attend the session at the Union for informational purposes, but only college graduates may apply to the Publishing Institute. For more information, call Larry Baker at 800-347-4253, ext. 1219, or email him at Larry.Baker@gale.com... 4 4 A o the elevator v Which button you choose isU j ) to you. m EAT & DRINK FOR FREE!** ALL TRIPS INCLUDE: ROUNDTRIP AIR* ROUNDTRIP TRANSFERS* STAFF ASSISTANCE 7 NIGHTS HOTEL HOTEL TAXES USA PARTY PACKAGE m We've got no promises for ' you. But we do have a plan. T-2000: the coolest job you never expected to find. Spend 10 months training in the fastest, smartest part of the biggest media corporation on the planet. In the process, get your hands dirty in every aspect of entertainment production, from the opening shot to the back- end merchandising. 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