SportsMonday, January 24, 2000 - The Michigan Daily - 3B
'M' women rebound at Red Simmons Invite
By James Mercier
For the Daily
The Michigan women's track and field team
entered Saturday's Red Simmons Invitational
with a sense of purpose. One week earlier, the
team suffered a disappointing defeat to
Indiana. A trip to Michigan State was only a
week away.
The team responded with an improved per-
formance, and now looks prepared to take on
the Spartans.
"Last week we didn't compete as well as we
could have," Michigan coach James Henry
said. "We were a little timid, a little tense."
The invitational at the Indoor Track Building
provided the team with a chance to regain its
confidence. The meet was a non-scoring event,
but was important from a developmental stand-
point.
Several Wolverines responded with strong
performances - Michigan athletes finished
either first or second in all but five events.
Henry felt that competing at home made the
team more comfortable. "They were more
relaxed today, and it showed," Henry said.
"But we still need to get used to running away
from home.
"Next week in East Lansing we'll try to get
better."
The Wolverines ran well in the sprints.
Senior Maria Brown won the 200-meter dash
with a time of 24.85 seconds and finished sec-
and in the 60-meter dash in 7.50 seconds.
Freshman Carly Knazze finished second to
Brown in the 200-meter, then won the 400-
meter in 56.47.
Middle-distance competition featured junior
Lisa Ouellet in the 600-meter run and senior
Erica Murdock in the 800-meter. Both finished
second, losing out to professional runners
competing for Nike and Adidas.
Ouellet, a cross-country standout, managed
to shift gears and post a personal record time
- despite not being 100 percent healthy.
"I felt a little uncomfortable running the 600
meters," Ouellet said. "I've been a little under
the weather, but being sick doesn't hit you in
this event as hard as it does in cross-country.
I'm extremely happy with the race."
In the mile run, junior Katie Clifford had the
best collegiate time. She finished second in
4:54.06, fewer than five seconds behind a Nike
competitor.
Senior Brandi Bentley took the long jump
easily, outleaping the competition by seven
inches. Freshman April Phillips won the shot
put with a point total of 14.44.
Former Michigan standout Katie McGregor,
who now competes for Adidas, provided one of
the day's highlights. In the 3,000 meters, she
outclassed her competitors, lapping the field.
With the crowd behind her, McGregor near-
ly set a building record, finishing nine seconds
off the mark with a time of 9:18.57.
BERKA
I
Teeing Off J_________
T-shirt toss, aliong with
national tide, makes men's
gymnastics team must see
The Michigan women's track team played host and domina-
4 tor at this past weekend's Red Simmons invitational.
b
runners take nine events
in Red Simmons Invitational
By Ron Garber
Daily Sporis Writer
The Michigan men's track and field team tuned
up for the Big Ten Championship meet with an
impressive showing this past Saturday at the Red
Simmons Invitational.
The Wolverines won nine out of the fifteen
events.
The non-scoring meet featured several area uni-
versity teams as well as club runners from the Ann
Arbor Track and Nike Club teams.
Five Wolverines won their events and several
others posted impressive performances. As usual,
the distance runners were the headliners.
Junior Mike Wisniewski and senior Jay Cantin
finished third and fourth respectively in the 3000-
meter race.
Their posted times of 8:18:09 and 8:18:39 met
NCAA provisional standards, meaning both run-
ners will likely represent Michigan at the National
Championship meet in May.
In addition, sophomore Jeremy Schneider won
the 800-meter and junior Dan Snyder turned in an
impressive performance in the 600-meter.
"Our distance guys are machines," senior sprint-
er Stephen Molnar said. "Their points are almost
automatic and they never even miss a race."
Although paced by the distance group, the
Wolverines got big showings in the sprints and
field events.
John Sellers dominated all sprinters winning the
400-meter race with a time of 49:48.
Sophomore Ike Okenwa took second place in
his race, however it was the 200-meter, not his
usual 60-meter.
"We didn't want to work Ike too hard," Molnar
said. "He doesn't really need much more work in
the 60, so he got some rest."
Molnar and senior Steve Jenkins filled in for
Okenwa quite nicely, finishing fifth and sixth
place respectively, and sophomore Derek
Applewhite won the hurdles.
Michigan was seemingly without weakness,
also posting two victories in the field events.
Senior Patrick Johansson won the weight throw
and junior Charles DeWildt was victorious in the
pole vault, clearing a height of 17-1.
The versatility displayed this weekend bodes
well for a Michigan team that can seemingly score
points anywhere as they prepare to tangle with
their conference foes in the Big Ten
Championships.
There is a well-kept secret
lurking in the shadows of
the University of Michigan
campus. This group of Wolverines
does its job better than anyone in
the nation, yet doesn't get much
credit for it.
Don't expect that anonymity to
last much longer, though. The
Michigan men's gymnastics team is
too good to lurk in the shadows
much longer.
The fact that the men's gymnas-
tics team isn't a bigger player on
this campus is semi-shocking to me,
especially since they won a national
title last April. You would think that
being the best at any sport -- from
football to curling to tiddlywinks -
should get you props from some of
the peeps on this campus.
But fame didn't hit the Michigan
men's gymnastics program after
their national championship. It
looked as if gymnastics would go
the way of Major League Soccer
and the World League of American
Football.
That's not going to happen,
though. The Michigan men's gym-
nastics team will thrive because of
one simple, but very clutch, gift.
T-shirts.
Don't get me wrong, the T-shirts
aren't the only thing that the
Michigan men's gymnastics pro-
gram has going for it. Michigan has
the 1999 Coach of the Year in Kurt
Golder, who has taken the program
from the verge of cancellation to a
national championship in three
years.
The Wolverines also boast
Olympic talent with sophomores
Scott Vetere and Brad Kenna and
juniors Justin Toman and Kevin
Roulston. Toman made history last
year, becoming the first gymnast
and first non-senior to be named
Michigan Male Athlete of the Year.
In other words, Michigan is
stacked. This fact is slowly getting
the attention of the campus, as Cliff
Keen Arena is selling a few more
hot dogs then they used to at gym-
nastics meets. So the sport is catch-
ing on.
But for men's gymnastics to
become a major sport at Michigan
- or cool enough to get the team
members free admission with no
waiting at Rick's - the giving away
of the free T-shirts needs to be
played up.
The gymnastics team has got one
of the greatest scams going at this
University in quite a while.
Whenever a Michigan gymnast
scores a 9.7 or better on any appara-
tus, that gymnast proceeds to throw
a yellow T-shirt into the crowd.
This is a practice that may not be
unprecedented, but it is cool as hell.
Imagine if other sports did stuff like
this.
Imagine if Brian Ellerbe threw
out T-shirts every time the
Wolverines made a three-pointer.
Imagine if Red Berenson hand-
delivered T-shirts to fans at Yost Ice
Arena after every Michigan goal.
If I'm feeling really creative, I
can imagine Eric Rosel and Victor
Hobson handing out T-shirts after
every Todd Howard interception.,
OK, the last situation was a little
much. Everyone knows that Howard
will never get an interception. But
despite that, one fact remains -
free T-shirts are cool.
They were especially cool on
Saturday night, partially because it
was unexpected. As I was walking
to Cliff Keen Arena, I told myself
that I would go to the meet for the
sake of being political - one of my
roommates is on the team - stay
for an event, then leave to start my
night of drunken stupidity.
But once I arrived at Cliff Keen
Arena and saw Roulston throw a
bright yellow shirt into the crowd
after scoring a 9.825 on the floor
exercise, I was hooked.
My goal in life quickly changed.
Instead of getting with a supermod-
el, all I wanted to accomplish in life
was to grab a hold of those T-shirts.
Because of this irrational desire
for T-shirts, I revised my original
plan. I stayed for three events, hop-
ing against hope to get a T-shirt.
Because I was watching the top-
ranked defending champion
Wolverines, I thought that it was
entirely feasible to get some win-
nings.
There were certainly opportuni-
ties for a T-shirt, as six Michigan
gymnasts registered a 9.7 or better.
But the gymnasts kept forsaking the
student section, throwing the shirts
to the non-students instead.
Although they haven't learned to
spread the T-shirt lovin' yet, the
men's gymnastics team has hit a
potential gold mine as far as fan
support is concerned.
The concept of free T-shirts is
enough to pack Keen Arena. I,
along with many other college stu-
dents, hate doing laundry and are
looking for any reason not to do it.
Therefore, people will come out'to
avoid heading to Mr. Stadium.
It also has tangible benefits to the
gymnasts as the fans will be more
vocal. Along with cheering for the
gymnasts because they attend
Michigan, the fans will also have
the prospect of a T-shirt to get excit-
ed about.
There are two more meets left at
Keen Arena, so there should be
plenty of shirts there for the taking.
I'm sure this venture will be more
successful than my failed attempt at
a Maize Rage shirt.
- TJ.Berka would beg for a t-shirt,
but he has ethics and personal
pride. He can be reached at
berkat@umich.edu.
The Michigan men's track team won nine of 15 events this
past weekend in a tune-up meet for the Big Ten Championship.
Blue swimmers roll over Boilermakers, 138-103
By Benjamin Singer
Daily Sports WriterZ
After an upset victory over Stanford
last week, nothing seems very difficult
for the Michigan men's swimming team.
A trip to No. 23 Purdue, even with
four Wolverines unable to swim due to
illness, certainly was not a challenge.
Michigan (2-0 Big Ten, 2 overall)
defeated the Boilermakers (2-2, 4-2),
138-103, for the 48th time last Saturday.
The Wolverines were missing sopho-
more Tim Siciliano and freshmen
Garrett Mangieri, Tony Kurth and Justin
Drake because of the flu. But even with
some experienced swimmers absent
from the meet, the team easily had
enough firepower for the win.
Because Purdue's antiquated facility
only has six lanes instead of eight,
Michigan did not need to shuffle the
lineup around despite missing some
swimmers. Rather than finding replace-
ments to fill the empty lanes, the swim-
mers were simply dropped from the
event, moving everyone else up a slot.
"We didn't have to change the lineup a
great deal," assistant coach Eric
Namesnik said. "We were taking the
whole team anyway, so there were no
new additions."
The usual ieaders for Michigan made
the missing players a non-issue as the
Wolverines got their points in the same
events as usual.
All-American junior Chris Thompson
placed first in the 1000- and 500-yard
freestyles. Senior tri-captain and diver
Josh Trexler won his two events in both
1-meter dive events. Four other
Wolverines had first-place finishes as
well, and in four different events
Michigan took first and second place.
Purdue won the 400-yard medley
relay and put Michigan in a hole to start
the meet. This situation was nothing new
to Michigan.
"That usually happens," Thompson
said. "We always catch up after the first
relay"
Thompson helped the team catch up
by swimming a 9:16.78 in the 1000 free,
followed by senior tri-captain Mike
McWha's 9:20.06. Once the race was
over, Thompson had to go right back to
work.
"I didn't go real hard in the 1000 so I
could have something left for the 2Q0."
Thompson said.
While Thompson placed second in the
200-yard freestyle with a 1:40.54,
sophomore Chuck Kennedy came in
first with a 1:40.33. The change from
Michigan's typical lineup gave Kennedy
a chance at a new event as he swam the
200 free rather than his usual event of the
500 free.
With senior ti-captain Scott Meyer
and sophomore Matt Raines placing 1-2
in the 50-yard freestyle, the Wolverines
put themselves in a position where they
needed to make sure they did not make
any mistakes and could cruise to victory.
Beginning with freshman Ryan
Earhart's time of 1:49.28 in the 200
backstroke for the eighth event,
Michigan had three-straight first place
finishes. Thompson had a 4:26.66 in the
500 free and sophomore Jeff Hopwood
swam a 2:04.24 in the 200 breaststroke.
'M' tankers drown Rice, win one for seniors
By David Roth
Daily Sports Writer
Canham Natatorium turned into a
wok on Saturday as the Michigan
women's swimming and diving teams
fried Rice 153-119.
It was senior day for the Wolverines,
and despite another week of intensive
practices and training for the upcom-
ing Big Ten Championships, the
Wolverines still had enough steam left
to cook their opponents, winning all of
the first 10 events.
"It was all for the seniors," freshman
6 breaststroker Heather Dehainaut said.
And before the meet even started,
the underclassmen had already put in
some extra effort to pay tribute to their
seniors - Canadian native Shannon
Shakespeare in particular.
"It was Shannon's wish to have one
meet have the Canadian National
anthem playing, so we secretly
planned that," Dehainaut said. "It was
really special to her and really special
+ to us."
With the maple leaf watching over
her, Shakespeare notched first place in
the 100-yard breaststroke with a time
of 1:11.20, a whopping 3.8 seconds
ahead of the pack.
Shakespeare, with the help of fellow
senior Emily Cocks, junior Jennifer
Crisman and sophomore Lindsay
Carlberg captured first place in the
meet's first event, the 200-medley
relay with a time of 1:58.39.
"I think we swam a good opening
relay," Michigan coach Jim
Richardson said.
However, the coached seemed to
have mixed feelings on the dual meet.
"I think there were some spots
where we were very good," Richardson
said. "I think there were some spots
where we were tired. I think overall it
was a good meet."
Michigan had two standout perfor-
mances. Carlberg, along with winning
the 100 backstroke, blew away the
competition in the 200 backstroke,
with an NCAA consideration time of
2:14.97.
Depending on how other swimmers
across the country perform, she could
be invited to swim that event in the
NCAA finals come March, if she
doesn't get an automatic time first.
Julie Kern also swam brilliantly,
putting Rice in hot water.
Flanked by two incredibly fast Rice
swimmers on both sides, Kern upped
her time and took second place as she
swam the 800 in 8:52.74.
"I think Julie Kern's 800 was an
excellent, excellent swim," Richardson
said.
Kern herself was also pleased.
"It was my best event," Kern said. "I
did a nice job of that. I have been
doinn quite a bit of distance training so
it carried over and had an effect."
"The meet overall wasa fine effort
by U of M swimmers," said Kern. "We
really pulled together. There was a lot
of unity, team effort, and camaraderie."
In diving competition, Michigan
swept both the one and three meter
diving events.
Junior Amanda Crews set the pace
in the one-meter diving (275.63) and
senior Hanna Shin, last week's Big Ten
Diver of the Week, flipped her way to
victory on the three-meter board
(280.05).
. The two Wolverines turned in
NCAA zone diving qualifying marks
in both the competitions.
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