10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 13, 1999 Men's gymnastics creates 'unofficial' rivalry By Dan Dingerson Daily Sports Writer The school and team of Ohio State inspire hatred throughout Ann Arbor and the state of Michigan. , Wolverines are brought up to hate those who wear the scarlet and gray and scream for the Buckeyes. In the world of men's gymnastics, though, there is not much of a rivalry between the two schools. But that might be changing soon. Ohio State and Michigan have clearly been the two best teams in the country this year. The two are currently No.1 and No. 2 in the nation, with Michigan holding the top spot. In two weeks, the teams will meet for the fifth time this season at the NCAA Championships in Nebraska. Ohio State holds an edge over the Wolverines this year, beating them in three of four meetings. That result is deceptive, though. Ohio State gained two of those wins in the early weeks of the season, before a young, injured Michigan team found its place amongst the elite. In the past two weeks the teams have split two titles. At the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Michigan won the title and Ohio State finished third. On Saturday in Illinois, Ohio State came out on top, but only by .05 points. Michigan faltered after gaining an advantage through its first three events and missed its chance at scoring its best meet of the season. Ohio State finished strong to snatch the victory away from the Wolverines. "If I had a choice between winning Big Tens or winning here (regionals in Illinois), I would always take Big Tens," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. History is also not with the Buckeyes. Last year, Big Ten champion Iowa lost to Ohio State at regionals, finishing third. But the Hawkeyes, along with Illinois, came back to top the Buckeyes at the NCAA Championships. The one thing that may keep the schools from having a serious rivalry is the nature of the sport. Although gymnastics is a competition among teams, it is largely an individual competition. Also, because one team's success only varies indirectly with the success of other teams, rivalries are not a focus. "We go into a meet with a goal of performance. We want to go out and try to perform our best on every routine," Golder said. "We aren't thinking about going out and beating the other team. We think that if we perform up to our ability, winning will take care of itself." Although the teams don't focus so much on rivalries, they do have an impact on the athletes. Many of the gymnasts end up competing together in clubs, or with each other on national teams. Even without an official rivalry, one team may gain an advantage. The two teams are the leading candidates to grab the most impressive sounding title of all - national champions. AP PHOTO AP Player of the Year Sophomore Elton Brand will reportedly announce that he will enter the NBA draft and skip his final two years of eligibility at Duke. Duke's Avery, Brand lea ve school for NBA., DANA LNNANE/Daily Big Ten rival Ohio State might be the toughest opponent for Kenny Keener and the rest of the Wolverines at NCAAs. Blue still undefeated The Michigan Union Program Board and Mortar Board proudly present: Faculty Wednesdays Issuesf f or thle o U niversiy with Prof. Lee Bollinger President and Professor of Law Wednesday April 14, 1999 12-1 pm The University Club By Raphael Goodstein Daily Sports Writer The Michigan tennis team was liv- ing on the edge this past weekend. The Wolverines took a perfect Big Ten record into the Hoosier state. They narrowly escaped with perfec- tion intact. Down 1-0 to Purdue after losing the doubles point, Michigan's singles players won four of their six matches to escape with a 4-3 victory. "I think that today was huge for us," senior co-captain Will Farah said. "We've lost to them the last two years that I was here and we just knew that we would have to go out and fight. We really didn't want to lose to them." The Wolverines moved Danny McCain from the fourth singles spot to the third for the match. "Purdue has had their top four sin- gles players play at different spots all year," Farah said. "We used a lineup based on what we thought they would do to match-up against them." McCain lost a close 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 match to Chris James. John Long, playing in McCain's fourth singles spot, won a straight- set match over John Marshall, 6-4, 7- 6. Other winners were junior Matt Wright over Derek Myers, 6-3, 7-5, Farah over Jamie Gordon, 7-6, 7-6, and freshman Ben Cox over Evan Hayes, 6-1, 6-0. Cox has an unde- feated dual-meet record. On Saturday. the Wolverines beat Indiana, 4-3, a crucial win in keeping Michigan's Big Ten title hopes alive. The win over Indiana was impera- tive because the Hoosiers were just 2-2 in the Big Ten. With No. 2 Illinois still looming on the schedule, a loss to a mediocre Indiana team would have killed any title hopes that the Wolverines had. But Michigan managed to stay on track and beat the Hoosiers. The scrappy Wolverines will now have to travel to South Bend for an out-of-conference battle with rival Notre Dame. "It's always tough to play on the road," Farah said. "You aren't famil- iar with the courts, the crowd is root- ing against you, you have to travel, it is never easy." The Wolverines are staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. The team has to do what it has done all season - put the last meet behind it and focus on the next match. DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Elton Brand, the consensus national player of the year, will announce tomorrow that he will forgo his final two years at Duke and enter the NBA draft, The Associated Press has learned. A source close to Brand, speaking on the condition of anonymity, con- firmed yesterday that the 6-foot-8, 270-pound sophomore center would become the first Duke player to leave school early for a chance to play in the NBA. The school had said earlier yester- day that Brand and associate head basketball coach Johnny Dawkins would hold a news conference tomor- row at the school to announce the decision. Brand, who averaged 17.8 points and 9.8 rebounds last season, was the first sophomore to win the John R. Wooden Award, presented by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and he was also honored this season by The AP, the Atlanta Tipoff Club and the United States Baskel Writers Association as national player of the year. The student newspaper at Duke, The Chronicle, also reported yester- day that sophomore point guard William Avery had decided to forgo the rest of his eligibility and apply for the draft. "Nobody has told me it is true," sports information director Mike Cragg said. The Chronicle, citing unnamed sources close to the basketball team, said Avery had decided to leave school. Attempts yesterday to reach Brand, Avery and Dawkins were unsuccess- ful. Another source said freshman Corey Maggette remains undecided about his future, The Chronicle said. Avery has met with coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is recovering from hip replacement surgery, The Chronicle reported. The newspaper said Krzyzewski is unaware of Avery's final decision. The potential loss of Brand and Avery, coupled with the graduation of seniors Trajan Langdon and Taymo* Domzalski, would cost Duke much of the core of the 37-2 team that reached the NCAA championship, where the Blue Devils lost to Connecticut. However, the program has received national letters of intent from four high school seniors who were select- ed to McDonald's All-America team. 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