The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 22, 1999 - 3B 'M' wins in Florida 3y Chris Langrill aily Sports Writer The Michigan women's track and field team definitely enjoyed its spring break. The Wolverines just had to wait a little longer than most other Ann Arbor students to do so. . Competing in their first outdoor meet of the season at the Florida State Relays m Tallahassee this past weekend, Michigan got to enjoy the Florida sun while starting on what it hopes to be another successful outdoor campaign. "We were at NCAAs (for the indoor season) over spring break, so this was really like our spring break," senior high jumper Nicole Forrester said. Forrester placed second in the high jump with a leap of 5-feet-10-1/2 inch- es. Two other tracksters also placed sec- ond in their respective events - senior Atiya Bussey finished with a time of 25.01 in the 200-meter dash, and junior Brandi Bentley jumped 19-feet-10-1/2 inches in the long jump. .Senior Nicole Keith and junior Elizabeth Kampfe were the only Wolverines to win events. Keith took first in the shot put with a throw of 44- feet-7-l/2 inches and also finished sev- enth in the discus, with a toss of 123 feet. Kampfe garnered her first title of 1999, recording a time of 9:51.92 in the 3000-meter run. But the real strength of this Wolverine team may prove to be the middle dis- tance runners. In the 400-meter run, four Michigan runners placed within the top eight. Senior Angie Stanifer led the Michigan pack with a fourth-place time of 56.94. Sophomore Adrienne Hunter finished fifth in 57.01 with junior Erica Murdock close behind in sixth place (57.07). Junior Heather Burcar rounded things out, finishing with an eighth- place time of 57.77. Forrester, a leader returning from last year's outdoor championship team, noted the team indeed had a great depth of 400 runners.,But more important, she said, was the attitude which this year's team seems to be carrying with them. "We look pretty good," she said. "We have a really good outlook so far. It's a long season, so I hope it can stay like this." Several freshmen competed in their first-ever outdoor collegiate event. Freshman Erin Massengale beat out senior Keith in the discus throw, with a third place throw of 130-feet-6-inches. "I'm proud to be on this team," Massengale said. "This was such an experience for me." While Massengale enjoyed the sunny Florida weather, she isn't naive enough to think that there isn't going to be a lot of pressure on her and the other Michigan newcomers to perform well. "There's a lot expected of us," Massengale said. "That only encourages me to do well.,, JIM ROSE Rose Beef Final Four, F/it-style: Easy to rootforSmit/h'spa MARGARET MYERS/Daily Katie McGregor, who won a national championship in cross country this past fall, hopes to continue her outdoor success during the outdoor track season. Record set in season finale By Dan Dingerson Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - Deja vu could perhaps be the best way to describe Saturday's men's gymnas- tics meet. For the second straight week the Michigan men's gymnastics team faced off against Michigan State. The results were strikingly similar to last week's meet in Ann Arbor, only this time the venue was different. Again both teams notched season highs and again Michigan edged the Spartans. The Wolverines recorded one of the nation's top scores of the year, winning 231.85 to 229.925. The meet was the culmination of the regular season for both teams and was also the last competition before the Big Ten championships. Although Michigan has been a strong team all year, its performances on the road have not equaled its performances at home. After recording its sea- son best at Michigan State, the team will now be seen as a legitimate force, even on the road. "This serves notice to the judges that Michigan is for real, those scores earlier in the year weren't a fluke," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. The team was led by all-around performer LaLo Haro. The junior recorded the highest score of the season in the all-around competition with a 58.0 breaking his own previous record of 57.8. His performance was highlighted by a first-place finish on the vault and a share of first on the floor exercise. But, Haro set the record because of his consistency - his lowest score was a 9.5. "It was really fun today to win," Haro said. "It wasn't really my intention though, I just wanted to score points for the team." Haro's performance was strong enough to earn him Golder's performer of the day award. ,ntv Following Haro in the all-around competition was teammate Daniel Diaz-Luong. The freshman set a personal best in the all-around scoring a. 57.875; good enough to top the previous Michigan recor - but not enough to beat Haro. Diaz-Luong did not win any events, but placed in the top three in four out of six events. Rounding out the top three in the all-around was Michigan freshman Scott Vetere. His score of 57.6 was highlighted by a 9.875 on parallel bars - good enough for first place in the event. The Wolverines won four out of six events in the meet, falling short only on the pommel horse and high bar. Justin Toman shared first-place with Haro on the floor exercise and Kenny Keener took first- place honors on the still rings with a score of 9.875. In a complete team performance, the Wolverines only had two scores under 9.0 which shows the team's strength from top to bottom in every event. The meet also showed the versatility of the team. The only weak point of the meet for the Wolverines was their performance on high bar - the only event in which the team did not score at least 38.475. "We've got some guys coming back in the high bar, and these guys competing are only a step away from putting it all together," Golder said. "They're right on the brink." The team had a goal to score 232 points this week after reaching 230 in their previous meet. Though the final score was just short of that total, the meet was still considered a success because Michigan recorded its highest score during an away meet. The scores this week probably will have an impact on the final rankings for both teams - per- haps even vaulting the Wolverines into No. 1. M 'women being sent to the Spartans, it was defi- a vital nitely heard loud and clear. junior "Competing against Michigan was everything I always dreamed of, and perfor- more," Michigan State freshman nd the Meredith Reavill said. ek in a It was Reavill's first opportunity to perform in the series as she was out of confi- the lineup during the first meeting this ted to season. ng and She'll get another opportunity next week, as both schools try to create some s, the more memories - post-season style. hen I was a senior in high school, I weaseled my way into a couple of press-only practice sessions for the Magic Johnson Roundball Classic, an annu- al all-star game that features the nation's top prep basketball talent. Posing as reporters from the Wildcat Roar (the state's top high school leaflet, er, newspaper, in my biased opinion), a couple of friends and I spent the better part of two days skip- ping school, "on assignment" at the practice facilities of The Palace of Auburn Hills. Attending the event (legitimately) were some outrageously talented high school seniors. Current NBA stars Stephon Marbury and Sharif Abdur- Rahim were among the best. So were former Michigan stars Robert Traylor and Albert White. Kevin Garnett was supposed to attend, but he canceled because he was re-taking the SAT test. Dick Vitale was there, chatting up the players and making ____ a spectacle of himself. The purpose of the Itt event was to showcase Michig some of the top prep tal- Stu ent anywhere, so there a ch( were dozens of other (jus- cele tified) media members in S attendance. It was all we could do to try and appear Othe respectable, if not profes- well, sional - and even then, -------- we struggled. Mostly, we just walked around and took pictures. This was shortly after the Fab Five had elevated Michigan basketball to story-a-day status, and I remember distinctly that all the television and radio stations were doing interviews with Traylor and White, both local kids who were Michigan-bound. Traylor was hamming it up, and the cameras loved him. White struck me as a little unimpressed by the whole ordeal. But there was another local guy getting much less attention. Every now and then someone would want to talk to him, but for the most part, he was left alone. When the players broke up into groups by hometown, he went with the Michigan contin- gent. His name: Antonio Smith. Yesterday, Smith grabbed his 1,000th career rebound as a Michigan State Spartan. Oh, and his team advanced to the Final Four, too. Traylor, of course, had some great moments in college basketball, but he never got anywhere near a Final Four. White left Michigan after getting kicked off the basketball team. He played for Missouri, and his team was eliminated from the tourney this year in the first round Smith, however, went to Michigan State - and eventually got some friends to follow him to East Lansing. And his team is still alive. Actually, to call it "his team" might be inaccurate, in some respects r 0i - most would say it belongs to Mateen Cleaves. Still, Smith has- been the rock in the middle that every great team needs. He does the dirty work in the paint - he rebounds, he plays tough defense -= and occasionally, he chips in a few points. He is not an all-out star, not by any means. But he's a crucial part of his team's success. And I don't know him, but I have. to admit that I've always rooted for: him, ever since Magic's Roundball Classic. He was one of the few play- ers we pretended to interview, and lhe might have been the only one who. didn't seem to be above it all. He was certainly a lot friendlier than Albert White, that's for sure. And so, maize-and-blue ties aside I had an easy time rooting for Michigan State yesterday. I've always rooted secretly for Smith, and for a while, it looked as though his college career would end yesterday against Kentucky. But when the final horn sounded, the ves Spartans were still alive. an State And the camera caught Jents Smith in a moment of nCe to pure jubilation: He brate scooped the ball from °thing the floor, measured off his steps and punted it than, like a football. Hard. ollege. Generally, the thing to ---------- do after a big win is fo' throw the ball straight up - not kick it into the nosebleed sec- tion. But Smith booted it - and I loved it. It was body language at its : best; it was a physical shout of triumph. And I know I'm not supposed to say this, being 1) a Michigan student, and 2) someone who has exceeded his allotment of Cow College jokes for one year, but I was equally happy to see the Spartans advance. It's good for the Big Ten, yes - but it also gives Michigan State students a chance to celebrate something other than, well, college. OK, so there's no shortage of rea sons to be festive in East Lansing, But in all honesty, the Spartans proved a lot of people wrong thi: year. Cleaves may still be the most. overrated player in the country, but the guy deserves credit. He's out- standing in the clutch. They don't have any real offensive stars - and Final Four teams almost always do - but they play well together, and they play hard. In short, they seem like the kind of team I'd expect Antonio Smith to be on - hard-working, scrappy, deter- mined ... and successful. And now; after years of being the guy nobody really needed to inter- view, Smith is ... still the guy nobody really needs to interview. B t he's also in the Final Four. And I hope he keeps winning. - Jim Rose can be reached via e-mail atjwrose@umich.ed . DANA LINNANE/Daily The Michigan men's gymnastics team had a season record- setting performance on Saturday against Michigan State. State most rece By Stephen A. Rom Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - The banner hanging from the rafters of Jenison '&ieldhouse read, "Thanks for the memo- ries!" It was meant to be a showing of appreciation for the five seniors who would be competing in their last regular season meet for the Michigan State women's gymnastics team. Over the past four years, those who have frequented Jenison have witnessed -those seniors flip and tumble their way to countless victories. But Saturday night's performance was more like a flop and a stumble, that prbably left many in attendance with a enory they would soon like to forget. Thanks to the five Michigan seniors :Why led a fearless attack, Michigan State :stfred its worse loss of the season, 197.100 - 181.600. The drubbing of the Spartans brought Michigan's record to 13-4 overall and 4- 1 in the Big Ten. Having already entered the contest with a postseason berth guaranteed, the Wolverines had other concerns besides raining on any Michigan State Senior Day celebration. "Our main goal was to demonstrate that we could achieve as good of an away score. We accomplished that," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "Our second goal was to create a positive experience in this building that we could take with us." Because the Spartans are playing host to next weekend's Big Ten Championships, it was imperative that Michigan clean up any dirty laundry that the team might have been collecting dur- ing the latter part of the season. And they not only cleaned up - they swept up. Michigan took every post-meet acco- lades on the evening, securing the top three spots in all events they competed in. In addition, junior Sarah Cain was awarded the title of all-around champi- on, as she continued her dominance that has earned her that honor for the sixth time this season. Another Wolverine that played role in Saturday's victory, was Bridget Knaeble. Knaeble executed near perfect1 mances on both the uneven bars a floor exercise for the second we row. "These results give us a lot of dence,' Knaeble said. "We wan maintain what we have been doii keep going after the little things." In their quest for details Wolverines might have noticed ar esting fact regarding the histor their in-state rivals. The Spartans led the series entering Saturday night's contes two teams' second meeting this se And after the Wolverines squeaked out a victory by a mer points back at the State of Mic Classic in February, this meet wa haps an opportunity to show jus they are ranked 31 places higher th Spartans in the RQS polls. And if indeed there was a m _. . Take a Sharat in the Dark and read Mark My Words. Thurays in Daily Sports. n inter- y with 28-19 t, the ason. only e .550 chigan s per- t why an the essage si SHE IS... ...BECAUSE SHE CALLED US BEFORE TRAVELING And now she's saving so much money on her accommodation that she can see and do a whole Looking for a GREAT summer job? Teach for The Princeton Review! If you have ton scores on the ff.