The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 17, 1999- 11 NCAA swimming title up for grabs By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer It's that time of year again in the NCAA - time to find out who will wear this year's crown as the No. I team in the nation.The best team in women's swimming and diving will be decided this weekend in Athens, Ga. Though dozens of schools will be represented, only Georgia, Stanford, Arizona and Southern Methodist are legitimate bets to take the title. While outmanned in contention for the title, the eighth ranked Wolverines have the potential to pull out a top five finish and be the Cinderella of the championship. Here are the contenders at a glance: GEORGIA: Home pool advantage should bode well for the Lady Bulldogs and might be the right intangible to put them over the top. Having defeated reigning NCAA champion Stanford ear- lier in the year, 187-113, the Bulldogs are the favorites to win the title this year. Leading the Bulldogs is Olympic gold medalist and defending national champion and record holder in the 100- yard breast stroke (59.05) Kristy Kowal. The Bulldogs don't boast a champi- onship history, but they are the best bet to dethrone the perennial champions. STANFORD: In terms of coaching prowess, Stanford is still the best in the sport. Head coach Richard Quick holds a total of 12 NCAA titles- seven at Stanford and five at Texas. The current coach of the U.S. women's swimming team, Quick and the Cardinal are fresh off an 11th-straight Pac-l 0 title. The top swimmer on the team, and in the nation for that matter, is sophomore Misty Hyman who won three events (the 100-and-200-yard butterfly and the 200 back) and captured NCAA swim- mer of the year honors at last yearis meet. The Cardinal lost badly in duals to Georgia and Arizona this season, but READ THE DAILY FOR YOUR COMPLETE NCAA SWEET SIXTEEN COVEiRAGE KRISTIN GOBLE/Daily Sophomore Missy Sugar and the rest of the Michigan women's swimming team will hope.to play Cinderella in this weekend's NCAA Championships. DANA INNANE/Daily Co-captain Justin Toman leads the top-ranked but injury-riddled Michigan men's gymnastics team this week against No. 2 Michigan State in East Lansing. G ymnasts don't allow health Vroblems to -wreck season they are still capable of their usual dom- inance. ARIZONA: Though third-place finish- ers in the elite Pac-10, Arizona's No. 3 national ranking is no stretch. The Wildcats posted the nation's top recruit- ing class last year. Junior Trina Jackson may be the best distance swimmer in the country and should cruise in the 1,650 free. Otherwise, the freestyle is Arizona's forte - freshman Sarah Tolar is ranked first in the country in the 200 free and sophomore Lindsay Farella teams pro- vides an excellent compliment in the 400 free relay. The 200 free relay is the nationis fastest time (1:3 1.78). Although they will challenge for the title, Arizona may still be a year or two away from winning this one. SOUTHERN METHODIST: The women's swim team could thrust the school name back into national favor with a win at the NCAAs. The Mustangs are led by one of the most prolific performers in NCAA his- tory -- Martina Moravcova. The senior owns seven individual NCAA titles and ranks fourth all-time in that category. She has won the last three straight 200 free titles and will look to make it four straight this weekend. SMU features the most formidable 1- 2 diving punch in the NCAA, Jenny Lingamfelter and Kristin Link. More importantly, SMU captured all 21 first-place finishes in the WAC con- ference meet - -a first in NCAA swim- ming history. Look for SMU to fire up for this one and possibly make everybody forget about Eric Dickerson. This championships looks to be tle most wide-open in years. While Georgia appears to be the easy pick, swimming at home, any of these teams has the potential to win the title if they swim at the tops of their game. By Dan Dingerson Daily Sports Writer 'Many teams use injuries as an xcuse. It can be an excuse for poor performances, or an underachieving team. Injuries have the ability to dec- inate a team, and ruin a season. The No. 1 Michigan men's gym- nastics team has had an injury rid- died season. The team entered its first dual meet with six of 15 gym- nasts injured. Five of them were com- pletely out of action, and one - team co-captain Justin Toman - was only able to compete in three events. Going into a meet with 40 percent of a team suffering from injuries seems to be a legitimate excuse to erform poorly and lose. 'Something happened for the Wolverines though. Michigan won its opening dual meet of the season convincingly over Illinois-Chicago, and posted a very strong score. It happened because the competing gymnasts all stepped up their performances to make up for their hurt teammates. -Toman, although weakened, took irst-place in one event and two sec- ond-place finishes. The freshmen on the team - competing for only the second time in their collegiate careers - rose up and took first and second in the all-around competition. -The success wasn't limited to only one meet either, the team continued to perform well and score high, rising to the top of the polls. While the team Cdntinued to succeed in meets, the injured gymnasts continued to get healthier. Toman progressed enough to com- pete in five events. His return, marked by consistently high scores, sparked the team to its highest score of the season against Massachusetts. In recent meets, the team has wel- comed back Brad Kenna and Tim Dehr. Their return has coincided with a win over then No. 1 Penn State and the team's new high score, a 230.4 on Sunday against Michigan State. That score makes Michigan one of only two teams in the nation to break 230 this year, and the Wolverines are still missing three gymnasts. The return of the injured gymnasts has not caused the rest of the team to let up. Actually, their performances have strengthened through the sea- son. The team has been one of the best in the nation this season, ranking in the top five nearly all of the year. Now, the team is gaining strength through the return of injured gym- nasts. Kenna and Dehr have been com- peting, and in upcoming meets will be able to compete in more events. Kevin Roulston who has been out all year will be back in the next two weeks. Jesse Coleman may return to the team also in the upcoming meets. The only gymnast who won't compete for the Wolverines this season in Bryan Pascoe. "Dehr performed a really good routine last week in practice, and I think that he is ready to do it in the meets," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "Kenna is probably going to be ready to go in the vault, and he is ready to break out in his other events." Toman who has been competing in five events for the last month will be able to compete in all six events either this week at Michigan State, or at the Big Ten Championships in two weeks. For a team that has been successful all year, the returning gymnasts only make the team more powerful. "We're getting stronger," Golder said. "I don't think that we have hit our peak yet, and we are getting more guys healthy which makes us a better team." Gyminfo Men's Gymnastics Top 15 I. Micblganii 2. Michigan State 3. ohio.State 4 Iowa 5. Oklahoma 6. Penn Sete 7. Massachusetts 8. tIlinois 9. New Mexkco IA Brigham Yurng Ii. Stanford 12. California 13. Santa Barbara 14, Nebraska 15 Temple Just afew of this summer's courses in the Humanides James Joyce Film, literature and history in modern China Exploring medieval art in New York Modern African novels Shakespeare The Bible and English literature Diatonic harmony and counter- point Psychology of religion Don Quixote The culture of ancient Egypt Screenwriting: from pitch to outline Find these courses and all the rest in our 1999 Bulletin. Summer '99 at An extensive range ofgraduate and undergraduate courses in 28 areas of study Call (212) 6483, e-mail h . cesp-irifo5@columbia.edu, or visit the Web. I , Fall '99 or Spring '00? Now is the time to think about srending a semester or two in New York as a Columbia Visiting Student. I II _._ v Summer Session '99 A yacht for the price of a digy .. -- i i . " w I :' .ra.duating? oleit Job Fairk Friday - March 26, 1999 94 J k I 9 A.M. - 3 P.M. 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