The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 1, 2000 - 3B ,Zimmerman helps gymnasts torch Flames By Rohit Bhave Daily Sports Writer Freshman Kris Zimmerman's scorching 9.9 on the parallel bars helped the No. I Michigan men's gym- nastics team smoke Illinois-Chicago, 26.575-222.425 on Saturday in the indy City. Zimmerman, became only the third Wolverine to notch a score of 9.9 or above this season. In only his second dual meet, the freshman joins sophomores Josh Levin and Scott Vetere in reaching the near- perfect mark. Zimmerman joined the team this year as part of Coach Kurt Golder's highly-heralded freshman class. Due to loss of All-Americans Justin Toman, Daniel Diaz-Luong and Kenny Weener to injury, more inexperienced gymnasts have been called info duty. Saturday's meet became as an acid test for the celebrated freshmen. Freshman Conan Parzuchowski served as an excellent example. The Northville, Michigan resident posted a strong 9.7 on the still rings one week after sitting out the home opener against Iowa. He joins a number of Wolverines stating their case for a per- manent spot on the end-of-the-season rotation. Also, Tim Dehr stepped up his per- formance this week, coming off last week's 9.85 on the pommel horse. His consistent work ranging from 9.250 on the floor exercise to 9.550 on the par- allel bars gave the Wolverines a steady flow of points throughout the meet - all this from a gymnast who received little work last season. While the freshmen impressed, Scott Vetere continued his torrid sea- son and set a Michigan record 9.85 on the vault. The flashy Olympic hopeful has the go-ahead from Michigan coach Kurt Golder to wear his characteristic blue headband in meets. "It serves as a reminder to me that this sport is supposed to be fun,' Vetere said. He hopes to distribute the head- bands in meets this season, much like the t-shirts they already toss to the crowd. Toman did not compete because he had a cortizone shot to aid an ailing shoulder. The treatment should allow him to compete in all six all-around events in both the tri-meet against Penn State and Minnesota on Friday Saturday. Saturday's meet typifies the sort of meet that top-ranked program's win. Although the Wolverines experienced an overall decrease in their scores from last week's defeat of Iowa, they still managed to thump the Flames in every event. It is said that a team knows when it is good when it can win con- sistently without competing at its best. Michigan men's gymnastics takes that axiom one step further by dominating without their best. In a departure from last season when Golder would rest the team the day before meets, in this Olympic year he has chosen to maximize practice time by working the team harder instead. The result is a possible sacrifice in dual-meet performance for long-term success. T J BERKA Teeing Off : A Friends, Romans, Maize Ragers - lend me your ears and the meet against Ohio State Michigan falls hard to Illini, nips Boilers By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer FORT WAYNE Ind. - -Tucked in a cozy corner of Northern Indiana, the gym in Carroll High School proved itself a Hoosiers-esque backdrop for a team that is fast becoming a real-life incarnation of the scrappy Hickory Huskers. The Michigan wrestling team, undermanned and fatigued, squeezed out a victory over Purdue yesterday 21-15. In true Hollywood fashion, the Wolverines took it down to the wire, needing a Damian Logan pin on Purdue's Luis Blanco to break a 15-15 stalemate. On Friday night against Illinois, the script wasn't quite as good -- not even B-movie material. Michigan ran into an orange and blue brickwall - but the 26-9 final ould be considered an accomplishment in some respects. "The guys really fought admirably," Michigan coach Joe McFarland said. "They tried hard but we just don't have the horsepower Illinois has right now" Illinois entered the contest with eight ranked wrestlers among their top 10, and results to back up a considerably higher ranking than their current slot at No. 6. "We've beaten Minnesota, Iowa State and Oklahoma in tournaments and yet we're behind them," Illinois coach Mark Johnson said. "We think we're a pretty good team - we'll figure it all out at the end of the year, any- way." For a while, it looked like Michigan had the Illini all figured out. Andy Hrovat, ranked No. 12, started things off with a tight 7-5 win at 184 pounds over No. 4 Nate Patrick. In the 197 match, Joe DeGain ripped offa surprising clutch victory in double overtime with an escape from Pat Quirk. Just like that, Michigan led 6-0. "When you lose a match you're heavily favored in, you can't afford to do that too often," Johnson said. "There were some alarms going off in my head." In the heavyweight class, Michigan's Matt Brink lost a close, but largely defensive battle, 4-2 to John Lockhart. But the tide turned for good when A.J. Grant was pinned by Ryan Escobar at the 2:45 mark of the first round at 125. The loss keyed off a tough weekend for Grant - he was major decisioned yesterday by Purdue's Jason Silverstein, 14-5. "A.J.'s standing around too much, McFarland said. "When you stand around, bad things happen - he gave (Silverstein) too much respect today." Michigan started in similar fashion against Purdue, with Mike Kulczvcki and Tony Holifield recording close minor decisions at 140 and 157, respectively. After a Mark Churella loss, Charles Martelli recorded his first victory of the year with a 5-4 minor over Jon Fitch at 174."It was definitely nice to get a victory where it was more important to him," Martelli said of his win over hometown favorite Fitch. "(The work) has all paid off." t was a typical Saturday night. My boys and I were gathered around the television, flipping through the channels while drinking some beer. As we engaged in our typical prepartying banter, one of my . friends said perhaps the dumbest thing I've ever heard coming out of his mouth. "Hey, Slippy and Slappy (those aren't their actual names, I just for- got what their real names are) need tickets to the basketball game on Tuesday. They are coming down from State and we should probably look to get them tickets." I was taken aback by this com- ment. Why would a Wolverine go out of his way to help a Spartan get basketball tickets? Didn't my friend remember what happened last year? I sure as hell did. I remember Michigan State coming into Crisler Arena and embarrassing the Wolverines. While that sucked pretty hard, it wasn't as horrible as what was going on in the stands circling the court. In fact, nothing I have encoun- tered at this school was more humili- ating than that night at Crisler Arena.. That night saw members of the Izzone - Michigan State's cute little basketball cheering section - out- shouting the quiet-as-church mice Michigan student and alumni sec- tions. It made me sick to my stomach. I hated every moment of the last five minutes of that game. I hated the Sparty fans - who usually have no reason to feel good about them- selves, save the occasional couch burning or cow-tipping - whoop- ing it up in our house. It also pissed me off because it was a clear beacon of something which I hope would never happen. For once, the Spartans were better than the Wolverines at something. Michigan State had beaten us in bas- ketball, hockey, and later down the road, football. But being the buffoons that they are, Michigan State couldn't just be satisfied with winning a game over Michigan. They had to screw around and make Michigan look like a school of schmucks. So when I heard my friend talking about getting his Michigan State friends tickets, I got mad. All the bad karma which came from seeing the Sparty fans dance their stupid lit- tie Spartan dance at Crisler Arena boiled up, and I exploded on my friend. After laying into my friend for about 10 minutes about getting his friends tickets, I was thinking about what I could do to make sure that the events of last year weren't repeated tomorrow. I had to do my part to make sure that win or lose, the Michigan State fans wouldn't dance again. During this thinking, I remem- bered I had a column in the Daily, so I thought I would use this space to say one thing: No matter what you do, do not sell your ticket to or purchase a ticket for anyone who bleeds green and white.. I don't care if your best friend/ boyfriend/girlfriend goes to that school. I don't care if your best friend since you were seven years old attends Michigan State. I don't even care if your parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, or cousins from Michigan State ask you for tickets. There is only one suitable response to all Michigan State peo- ple that ask for tickets to the game tomorrow. No. There is no way 1, or the rest of this students at the University, can allow the heathens from East Lansing to come down and wreak , havoc at Crisler Arena. Not only do they smell bad and act like children, Spartans just don't know when to be quiet and accept success with class. As the old adage goes, "Act like you've been there." The Michigan State fans refuse to do this, as any sort of fleeting success that they do have is overblown to ridiculous levels. While I want us to beat down the Spartans, I'm not sure if its going to happen. But if State does win, I don't- want a bunch of green gremlins jump- ing around Crisler like it's Romper Room. So citizens of the University, do yor part. Keep the Spartans out of Crisler. -TJ. Berka thinks everyone in a green shirt should be given a veggie tomorrow night. If you agree, email hii at beikat eumich.ed. M' graduate coaches Ilii over Wolverines By Dan Williams Daily Sports Writer FORT WAYNE, Ind. --- The inepti- tude of the Illinois wrestling program in the 1970's led Mark Johnson, a native son, to attend Michigan in 1974. The former Wolverine finished sec- ond twice in the NCAA wrestling cham- *ionships, in 1976 and 1977. But when he became a coach, Johnson hoped to eventually returning home to resurrect the Illinois program. "I always wanted the Illinois job:' Johnson said. "For years and years it was a very poor program. I always wanted to turn it around." When the opportunity arose in 1992, Johnson left his head coaching job at Oregon State to coach the Fighting Illini. 0 Illinois athletic director Ryan Gunther promised Johnson the university would allocate more resources to wrestling. "They gave me a commitment," Johnson said. "They doubled the budget, gave me a full staff and upgraded the facilities. Johnson admits that durng his college days, he fell in love in with Michigan's shorts teams and the town of Ann Arbor. But Johnson cast those feelings aside when he agreed to turn the Illinois pro- gram around, something he's done suc- cessfully. In 1998 Johnson led his squad to a seventh-place finish nationally - the best showing in more than 40 years. The win over Michigan on Friday upped Johnson's record against his alma mater to 5-4. Of those five wins against the Wolverines, the latest one may be the best illustrator of Johnson's success in resurrecting Illinois' program. In the 26-9 triumph in Champaign, the Illini grapplers handled one of college wrestling's traditional powers with rela- tive case. This win may legitimize Illinois as a national title contender. "Their program is in good shape," Michigan coach Joe McFarland said. "Mark's done a great job with this team over the years, no question about it." Michigan can probably look forward to numerous hard-fought matches with Illinois in the future as long as Johnson is the Illini coach. And Johnson can look back on his college days in Ann Arbor fondly, as long as he remembers that his chief allegiance now is to Champagne. "I still pay a little more attention to Michigan," Johnson said. "But as good as Illinois treats me, I want to see them win over Michigan every time. I know where the paychecks come from" GYM NASTS Continued from Page 1B been really rough for me, so (posting a 9.785) was a huge lift off my chest. I'm feeling really confident now' Senior captain Sarah Cain led the Wolverines, recording season highs in all four events and the all-around (39.7) for a third consecutive all-around title. Cain's near-flawless execution of a difficult vault in the opening event gave the unfor- tunate GymKats a hint of things to come and an early deficit to surmount. Six Wolverine competitors captured the uneven bars top six places. Cain and freshman Tara Tagliarino tied for first place, while the overmatched Kentucky squad fell even further behind. "Fell" is an appropriate expression; the GymKats were plagued by falls throughout the night, while in contrast, Michigan suffered only one setback. Despite the lone fall's occurrence on the balance beam, the Wolverines managed to tie their third-best balance beam score of all time for the second straight week, recording a 49.3. Missy Peterson's first appearance on the apparatus this season proved successful, as the sophomore took first place with a career-best of 9.95. "I've been working my butt off in prac- tice because I've been wanting to prove to my coach that I know I can do this beam routine" an ecstatic Peterson said. While the beam was an Achilles heel for the Wolverines earlier in the season, to Plocki's delight, it has blossomed into a strength. "It's totally about being confident, and totally about being in control of what we're doing,' she said. "I'm thrilled to see that we've hit beam three weeks in a row, because the beam is one of those events that can kill you." The floor exercise provided another showcase for the Wolverines and a chance to reward the 1,265 fans in atten- dance. Sweeping the top six spots again, Michigan put an exclamation point on the entertainment standpoint of the night. Jodie Rosenberg's routine fired up the crowd and spurred nearly all in atten- dance to stand up and clap rhythmically. .lanessa Grieco lived up to the moniker of "meet-baby" bestowed by Plocki, confi- dently strutting, beaming at the conclu- sion of a career-best 9.925. The GymKats' floor exercise, on the other hand. was aesthetically plagued as spo- radic cat roars and meows were a staple of Kentucky's musical palette. "My athletes draw energy from the crowd," Plocki said. "I think that's key to our success, to see a packed arena. I won't be happy until we pack Crisler." Based on Friday's results, Plocki's dream of performing in front of a sold- out crowd will come closer to reality. GLACIER NATIONAL PARK Where do you see yourself this summer? Choose A or B? PLp - p A. Sharing a trail with a mountain goat as you hike through snow capped glacier peaks? A. Meeting your new best friend under the "Big Sky" of Montana? A. Watching millions of stars & the northern lights on a clear, cool August night? P. Commuting in bumper to bumper traffic? S. Spending the summer with the same old crowd? . Spending hot & "humid summer nights next to an air conditioner? 5 The Depart nt of y at the5 5 U of M Medical Center is seeking a person to 5assist in the identification of genes involved in inherited skin diseases. Degree in b o gc/ chemical sciences is required. Previous labo- ratory experience in molecular biology or S biochemistry is desirable. Salary based on edu- cation and experience. Send your resume to: SDr. Raair, 3430 CC 5 Ann Arbor, MI 419-0932 S rfax to734x763-4.5,75 aor elm@u to n L. EARN $10.00-$20.00/hr Do you have a car? 1 j1,0," 1 1 %OO If you answered "A" to any of the above, choose a summer in the "Last Best Place." St. Mary Lodge & Resort (Glacier Park's finest) We will be interviewing on campus February 1st for our 2000 summer session. Call (800) 368-3689 today to schedule an interview.