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