The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 8, 1999 - 78
.Fifth-place showing leaves mixed emotions
By Chris Grandstaff
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan wrestling team left the Big Ten
Wrestling Championships at Crisler Arena with mixed
feelings Sunday. The Wolverines placed seven grap-
plers in the national tournament, but failed to capture
aA individual title. As a team Michigan finished fifth
behind Minnesota, Iowa, Penn State and Illinois with
score of 76.50.
"We would've really liked to have won an individ-
ual-championship," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said.
'But I'm very happy to take seven guys to the
NCAA's. No matter what it's an improvement from
last year when we only got brought four"
- The seven wrestlers that will represent the maize
and blue at the NCAA Championships in two weeks
are Joe Warren, Damion Logan, Corey Grant, Andy
Hrovat, Frank Lodeserto and Matt Brink.
,Warren and Logan highlighted the weekend, both
finishing as runner-up in the 133-pound and 141-
pound weight classes respectively. Warren was visibly
upset after being decisioned for the fourth time this
year by Michigan State's Joe McNamara. The match
between the two rivals was close throughout, but
McNamara prevailed 12-10.
"Joe is crushed," Bahr said. "He hates to lose and he
really wanted to turn things around against McNamara
this weekend. It didn't happen, but he's still got one
more shot in the NCAAs.'
The weekend was a disappointing one for
Michigan's Otto Olson as well. Olson entered the tour-
nament as the top seed in the 174-pound weight class,
but was pinned by Northwestern's Mark Bybee in the
semifinal round on Saturday night. The pin came with
just under a minute remaining in the first period and
evoked criticism from both Olson and his coach.
"Otto's got to learn to give it up early and not get on
his back, Bahr said. "If he can do that then he will be
able to use his endurance to wear down opponents"
Olson echoed Bahr's thoughts saying that he needs
to "be more conservative early in my matches."
Although the Wolverines were successful as far as
being represented at the NCAAs, this young team
learned that they need to compete at the highest level
in order to challenge for any sort of title.
"We saw that there are some basic things that you
have to do all the time, and some guys didn't,"
Michigan assistant coach Kirk Trost said. "At a tour-
nament like this you can't afford to have a down
match, or a down weekend, and we did. But overall,
the tournament was a good effort by our guys."
Michigan captain Frank Lodeserto summed up the
tournament as "disappointing," but said that they were
"pleased to get as many wrestlers in as they did."
"The Big Ten Championship isn't the end of the
world," Lodeserto said. "Now we need to refocus our
goals for the NCAAs."
WRESTLE
Continued from Page 116
four or five more teams," Bahr said.
"It's good for wrestling.
The Wolverines were dissappointed
with their finish, especially with the
performance of senior Chris Viola.
Viola, who finished eighth, failed to
qualify for the NCAA Championships.
"Chris had a bad weekend," Bahr
said. "It's a dark cloud over the tourna-
ment."
Iowa was hurt by the performance of
heavyweight Wes Hand - the third
ranked wrestler in the country. Hand,
seeded second, finished eighth and had
to rely on a wildeard selection to qual-
ify for NCAAs.
Bly the time Minnesota had put on
their championship hats, their faps
were just finishing their standing'ova-
tion. It was the kind of ovation that rec-
ognized they were witnessing history.
Richardson, though, was already
digesting the weekend's events.
"It's only as big as people want to
make it," he said. "But it is good for the
sport of wrestling to see a change."
There were only a few peopleyho
would disagree, and they - for the
first time in 25years - dove awayii
the black and gold bus without a tro-.
phy.
I . .. .. . . .- - - - -
'Tankers third at Big Ten Championships
STOP GAMBUNG AND START INVESTING
888-(686°8257)
CALL FOR, FREE
TRIAL OFFER
E ON'T IN OUDON PA!
swim
Continued from Page 1B
respectively. Thompson's time of
13:43.95 was a new pool and meet
record.
Seniors Joe Palmer and Potts took
ifth and sixth place respectively, while
junior Jay Zawacki took ninth to round
out Michigan's scoring in the 1,650 free.
The practical sweep of the 1,650 free
rocketed the Wolverines into a lrge
first-place lead with 479.55 points. The
lead didn't last long because Michigan
didrr't have a swimmer in the 200 back-
stroke, while the Wolverines highest
placer in the 100 free, the next race, was
Jordan Watland, who took 15th.
Next thing Michigan knew it was in
*econd place, while Penn State took the
lead with 554, and Minnesota was creep-
ing up on second place with 500.
But the Wolverines still had two more
aces up their sleeve as Hopwood and
sophomore Scott Werner went one two
in the 200 breaststroke. Hopwood's time
of 158.25 was a NCAA qualification
time while Werner's time of 1:59.03 was
an NCAA consideration time.
Malchow stepped up to race in the
200 butterfly, still battling a relapse of
pneumonia, and easily took the 20 points
of first place outpacing his nearest com-
petitor by 1.46 seconds.
"I didn't even expect to be here,'
Maichow said."Jon said he was going to
leave me home and I was like, 'No way.
It's my senior year' and all that. I told
.,him 'hook me up to an I.V and take me
with you,'I wanted to go that bad.'
But Malchow's dominance was not
nough for Michigan as they still trailed
Xenn State. The Wolverines finished by
taking seventh place in the 400 free relay
while Minnesota out swam Michigan by
nearly five seconds (2:55.04 to 3:00.01)
to set a new pool record and ensure sec-
ond place with 588 points.
Scoring was kept close from the first
race on for Michigan, Penn State, and
Minnesota because of disqualification's.
Cennesota, the favorite to win the Big
was one of three teams to be dis-
qualified in the 200 free relay.
"Obviously that (disqualification)
helped us big time," Hopwood said. "I
think it raised the confidence level. I
mean as bad as that is gaining 40 points
ott (Minnesota) that put things in a per-
spective and evened it up a little bit. We
were fortunate to be in that position with
them being DQed."
The disqualification not only helped
the Wolverines gain some ground on
Minnesota from their projected second-
place as they took fifth with a time of
1:21.69, but it also assisted Penn State to
go from a third place overall on paper to
win the meet as they took first in the 200
free with a 1:19.11.
"I think they helped more in terms of
momentum over points," Potts said.
"Points are great..., but momentum and
knowing that we are in the game and that
we have a chance. That was really big for
our team"
So big that Michigan led the way after
the first day of competition with a score
of 187.5, 26.5 points ahead of the sec-
ond-place Nittany Lions. Michigan went
on to a top-four sweep of the 500 free by
Thompson, Siciliano, Malchow and
Potts respectively. Thompson's time of
4:17.17 was also a pool record and
NCAA qualification time.
The diving team also came in and
scored for Michigan as junior Josh
Trexler grabbed second place in the one
meter diving while senior Brett Wilmot
took fourth. On Friday the two paired up
again to score for the Wolverines as
Wilmot took third with a score of 539.95
and Trexler took seventh.
Friday was not as kind as Thursday to
Michigan as they fell to third place in the
tight race for the championship.
In the 400 Individual Medley, which
Potts won at last year's meet, Michigan
was again triumphant. Except this time,
Siciliano took first place over last year's
winner with a pool record and NCAA
qualification time of 3:46.23. Siciliano's
win was so convincing that he finished
five seconds ahead of the second place
Potts.
"Our goal was to go one two, and I
was glad I could be the second guy,"
Michigan senior Andy Potts said. "It
would have been great to be first, but
second is just as good because we have a
Michigan guy on top."
Hopwood also went on to win his first
of two Big Ten championships with a
time of 54.64 in the 100 breast.
Siciliano and Hopwood went on toj
share Big Ten freshman of the year.
Thompson was the big winner of the
meet as he won swimmer of the champi-
onship and split swimmer of the year
with Minnesota's Alex Massura.
Fig A W I1
a trip for
to the
Men's Basketball Tournament
.
KELLY MCKNNELL/Daily
Scott Werner and the Wolverines placed behind both Minnesota and Penn State at
this year's Big Ten Championships.
Michigan League Programming in conjunction with
"Diversity: Theories and Practices" Theme Semester presents
W here are
Graduate Students
in the Equation.
Mark J. Hager, Doctoral Student
Combined Program in Education and Psychology
Rote models, sponsors and
mentors play a pivotal role in
graduate education. Women and
other underrepresented groups
in the academy experience
unique challenges in fostering
these developmental relationships.
join graduate students and others
in the University of Michigan
community for a panel discussion
of building these academic,
professional and social networks
among faculty and graduate
students.
Everyone is invited. Refreshments provided.
Wednesday, March 10 at 4 pm ",
Koessler Room (third floor)
Michigan League, 911 N. University (across from Burton Tower)
* f.4
" rr rr i rrir l m nrr rr oll ri ll r uirri i /
I I
Ctun-Ma Taekwondo * Kickboxing Acadamy
(734) 994-0400
Receive instruction in:
Taekwondo
Kickboxing
Hapkido
Judo
Ou Cardio-Fit Kickboxing pro-
gram takes the music, excitement
and energy of aerobics but adds
important self-defense techniques
like Tabbing, kicking, punching and
blocking. You learn-while you burn
at 800 calories per hour!
.J"i -
.
Profiting from Converging
Marketplaces
Friday, March 12,1999
9:00am -12:30pm
Business School
Assembly Hall
Corner of Tappan and Hill
Participants include:
Media One, Viacom, Sony, Bell South,
.m
A.M
m