The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 12, 1999 - 13

.Women's swimming on the
shallow end of the Big Ten

By Ryan C. Moloney
Daily Sports Writer
Eleven years, 11 Big Ten titles. Of all the
ssible adjectives to describe the Michigan
men's swimming and diving team's run of
consecutive championships since 1987,
"dominant" may be an understatement.
But as streaks are meant to be broken,
coach Jim Richardson is not anticipating
another title when the Wolverines travel to
Minnesota next weekend for the Big Ten
Championships.
"We never go into a season saying we
want to be second," Richardson said. "We
want to win, but in the past we had the fire-
e."
fhe Wolverines have been decimated by
injuries and sickness this season, cutting
significantly into the team's depth - always
a crucial aspect of a swimming team's suc-
cess.
"We have 16 swimmers and (other teams)
have 23 swimmers," Richardson said.
"We're already at a disadvantage.

"If we swim well, we'll have 25 scoring
events. In years past we've had 40 scoring
events so our point total is already reduced
roughly by a third."
While the Wolverines are still a favorite in
spite of their depleted roster, Richardson
views Minnesota as the heir apparent to the
title.
"This is Minnesota's meet to win or lose,"
Richardson said. "They have a full team,
and everyone is swimming well for them
right now. Northwestern also looks very
strong - they could be second."
In the meantime, the Wolverines decided
not to participate in this weekend's
Michigan Open, opting for the added recov-
ery time.
Senior Jennie Eberwein and freshman
Kerrianne Kalbko have been especially
plagued with ailments this season -
Eberwein with Epstein-Barr, and Kalbko
with the flu and elbow tendinitis.
Kalbko said both she and Eberwein have
benefited from the time off.

"We're doing a lot better,' Kalbko said.
"We've been able to finish our workouts
without many problems."
In addition to being a highly competitive
meet, the Big Ten championships affords
swimmers one final opportunity to make cut
times for the national meet. Though only
Shannon Shakespeare and Jenny Crisman
are guaranteed national berths, many
Michigan swimmers are on the bubble for a
spot at nationals.
"I hope to make it, I should make consid-
eration," Kalbko said. "Lindsay Carlberg
has an excellent shot at it and Missy Sugar,
Jennie Arndt and Emily Cocks all have good
chances."
Despite the outcome, the team has fought.
hard to counter every setback it has faced
this season - a success irregardless of a
possible break in the chain of Big Ten titles.
"Most importantly, whatever hand we've
been dealt, we've sat down and talked about
it," Richardson said. "We are constantly
evaluating our situation."

With a short ros-
ter, defending
Michigan's 11
straight Big Ten
titles will be hard-
er than ever for
Amanda Crews
and her
teammates.
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily

Open to prepare track for Big Tens

By Arun Gopal
For the Daily
The season continues for the No. 9
Michigan women's track and field team as
they host the Wolverine Open at the Indoor
Track Building this Saturday. The team will
be making final preparations for the Big
Ten Championships next weekend in
Columbus.
The team had been planning to send some
members to Colorado Springs for the
Colorado Springs Classic on Friday. But
logistical problems prevented the team
from flying to Denver. So the entire team,
along with the entire men's team, will par-
ticipate in the Wolverine Open in dual-meet
format.
The Wolverine Open will pit Michigan
against Central Michigan, Eastern
Michigan and Western Michigan in a battle
for state bragging rights.
"We'll rest up for Big Tens at home,"
Michigan coach James Henry said. "We are
going to use this meet to get focused for the
Big Ten finals."

Henry expressed some displeasure with
the team's performance at the Cannon
Classic in Indianapolis last weekend.
"We weren't pleased with last weekend,"
Henry said. "We'd been on fire for about
the last two years, and last week we were
lukewarm at best. We had some good indi-
vidual performances, such as Nicole
Forrester's win in the high jump, but overall
it was a subpar meet."
Women's distance coach Mike McGuire
echoed many of these sentiments.
"Last week was a little misleading,"
McGuire said. "We had eight people at
Notre Dame (at the Meyo Invitational), and
they ran better as a group than the people in
Indianapolis.
"The kids are happy we're home this
weekend. They're looking forward to
putting up some better times," he said.
Both coaches emphasized the need for
the team to improve this weekend.
"I'm hoping that last weekend was just
the quiet before the storm," Henry said.
"We need to solidify our footing and

rebuild some confidence at the Wolverine
Open."
"We will be looking to get after it this
weekend," McGuire added. "This is our
final tune-up for Big Tens, and we need to
be better."
While stressing the need for improve-
ment, the coaches also applauded the team's
progress from the beginning of the season
up until last weekend.
"I've been extremely pleased with the
year," Henry said. "This has been a real
blue-collar team, and we've gone to busi-
ness all season.
"After what happened last weekend, I've
been happy- with our practices this week.
We've had a good attitude and a good work
ethic."
"We think last week was just a little blip
on the screen," McGuire added. "Up until
then, we had had a good year."
The Wolverine Open will run all day
Saturday. Field events are scheduled to
begin at 9:30 a.m., with track events slated
to start at noon.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily
Tiffany Hodge and the rest of the Michigan women's track team will host several Michigan teams this
weekend at the Wolverine Open. The Open gives the Wolverines their last practice run before the Big
Ten championships.

Referee faces adversity, tough calls


I



PIOTROWSKI
Continued from Page 12
at the local ice arena to pick up some
extra cash. And although he was still
three years away from being able to
drive to the games by himself, he
found a way to make it to work.
"My mom would. drop me off at the
rink, and I'd do three games,"
Ptrowski said. "She'd pick me up
I'd say, 'Yeah, I've got some
cash!'"
He continued officiating through
his teenage years, and then with the
CCHA. Even as a collegiate official,
Piotrowski found his way onto the
world stage, working one of the most
controversial games in hockey history
at the 1989 World Junior
Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.
Russia and Sweden were fighting
for position in round-robin play, and
*trowski was wearing the orange
cuffs for the international clash.
A win was vital for Sweden,
because a tie or a loss wouldn't give it
enough points to qualify for medal-
round action. The Russians had
already clinched a berth in the semifi-
nals, but relished the opportunity to
ruin the outlook for rival, Sweden.
Both countries fielded strong teams
he tournament, with future NHL
Sergei Fedorov donning the

was a close contest throughout, with
the score tied well into the third peri-
od.
With the play intense on both ends
of the ice, a scuffle ensued, and
Piotrowski sent players from both
sides to serve penalties, including
Fedorov. Fedorov, wanting a memoir
from the championships, slipped a
tournament-logo puck into his pants,
planning to remove it from his drawers
after skating back to the Russian
bench.
"The whole time, the Soviets were
really interested in souvenirs, because
they didn't have a lot," Piotrowski
said. "I don't know how many times I
was approached to sell my jeans."
But when the penalties ended,
Fedorov was forced to join the play.
The puck was flipped into the corner,
and Russia's goaltender left the net to
play it.
Meanwhile, in front of the net,
Fedorov got jostled around, and his
spare puck came loose in front of the
vacated Russian net. The Swedes
slammed the second puck home and
claimed what would have been the
game-winning goal.
Piotrowski immediately conferred
with his linesmen, one of which bare-
ly spoke enough English to communi-
cate. While none of them saw how the
second puck entered the play, they

the information they needed to make
their decision.
"I disallowed the goal, and we had a
major international incident" because
the game ended in a tie and Sweden
was eliminated, Piotrowski said. "The
Swedish coach kept running across the
ice (to argue), so I had to throw him
out of the game. As soon as I got to the
door (after the game), the internation-
al officials sequestered me to make
sure I didn't talk to anybody."
Around the same time as the cham-
pionships, the NHL offered
Piotrowski a chance to move onto the
professional scene. But he turned it
down and remained in the CCHA,
right where he is now, asserting that he
didn't want refereeing to become the
primary focus of his life.
"It wasn't a good situation for me,
being gone 18-20 days in a row,"
Piotrowski said. "NHL stands for 'No
Home Life."'

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