6B - The Michigan Daily - January 10, 2000 - SportsMonday
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By Benjamin Singer
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's swimming team
enjoyed its first night in Arizona with a
win over Arizona State, but had to leave
the state on a sour note after Michigan's
two-meet winning streak was ended by
Arizona this past weekend.
The Wolverines entered the weekend
ranked 10th in the nation, but moved up
to ninth after defeating No. 12 Arizona
State, 134-109. The following day, third-
ranked Arizona knocked off Michigan
174-126.
In its first day of competition,
Michigan proved much more dominant
in Tempe with seven first place finishes
than the next day in Tucson with just four.
In the Wolverines first meet against
the Sun Devils last Friday, the seven first
place efforts came from six different
swimmers. With every Wolverine that
came in first, another one was often
close behind as Michigan had three 1-2-
3 finishes.
Sophomore all-American Tim
Siciliano had two of the first place fin-
ishes to lead the way -in 1-2-3 sweeps
both times. Siciliano had a time of
4:24.24 in the 500-yard freestyle with
junior all-American Chris Thompson
and senior all-American and tri-captain
Mike McWha following. Sophomore
Chuck Kennedy was right behind to
make the race a 1-2-3-4 finish for the
Wolverines.
Siciliano's other fr t pla'e finish was
in the 200-yard individual medlcy with a
time of 1:50.36. Junior All-American
Scott Werner and freshman Tony Kurth
came in second and third. Werner also
had a first pace finish in the 200-yard
breast stroke with a time of 2:00.48.
The third sweep for Michigan came in
the 1,000-yard freestyle with
Thompson's time of 8:57.56 ahead of
McWha and freshman Justin Drake.
Three standout freshmen took the
other first-place finishes for the
Wolverines, each coming in a 200-yard
swim. Garrett Mangieri's 1:38.55 in
freestyle, Paul Ely's 1:51.14 for the but-
terfly, and Ryan Earhart's 1:48.18 in the
backstroke helped the Wolverines coast
to victort
In Tucson, the races were measured in
meters rather than yards. The Wolverines
did not have the same kind of all-around
success as they had the day before.
Instead of six diffcr nt Wolverines hav-
ing first place finihes, only three could
outdo the Wildcats.
Werner followed up his solid meet
against Arizona State with an even
stronger day with two first place breast-
stroke performances on Saturday. His
time of 1:05.18 in the 100-meter breast-
stroke headed , a 1-2-3 finish for
Michigan. Werner then turned in a time
of 2:22.86 in the 200 breaststroke which
led Michigan in its second 1-2-3-4 finish
in as many days.
Beginning anew 4
The start of the new millennium also marks tl~e beginning of the regular dual
meets in several sports. Here's the lowdown on the teams entering play soon.
Sport Starting Date Op onent Location
Men's gymnastics Jan. 22 Iowa Ann Arbor
Women's gymnastics Saturday Min esota Minneapolis
Men's tennis Jan, 23 ;m Michigan Ann Arboi
Women's tennis Saturday DeP ul Ann Arbor
Admission is free to all the above sports for ichigan students.
Men's and women's basketball, men's and wo nen's swimming, hockey and
wresting continue their seasons this weekend.
'M' gymnasts clinch
third at Super Six
Senior doubles tandem leads' 'te niS
By Jeff Phillips
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's tennis team traveled to
Marquette University for the Milwaukee Tennis Classic
this past Tuesday. Making their first appearance togeth-
er as a doubles team, seniors Brad McFarlane and John
Long led the Wolverines in the individual meet.
McFarlane and Long advanced to the round of 16,
after defeating some stiff competition. In their first
match, the team handily beat Massachusetts' Todd
Champeau and Parsa Samii, 6-2, 6-0. In the second
round, They battled to a three set victory over South
Alabama's Julian Raynal and Kosta Zinchanka.
"For John and I to come together and play like this
is pretty encouraging," McFarlane said.
The most impressive match for the Wolverines came
in their loss to West Viginia's Mike Dektas and James
Kent. McFarlane and Long forced two tiebreakers and
came to within one point of upsetting the No. 3-seed-
ed and 22nd-ranked Dektas and Kent.
"It was kind of tough for us to miss the first week
classes, but it was definitely worthwhile to come,"
McFarlane said. "It was good to knock off some No. 1
teams along the way."
When the Big Ten season begins, the pair will be
playing at the No. 2 position, behind senior Matt
Wright and sophomore Danny McCain. McFarkme
and Long also participated in singles portion of the
tournament, where each won their first match but lost
their second.
In addition to the two seniors, Michigan brought
four freshmen to the tournament. Chris Rolf, Jeremy
Edelson, Zach Held, and Chris Shaya, competed in the
singles for Michigan. Of the four, only Rolf won a
match at the tournament. He defeated Marquette's
Kent Davies in his first match of the consolation
round.
For Rolfand Edelson. the tournament was their first
compeuition for the Wolverines. Held and Shaya first
competed in the Tom Fallon Invitational in September.
The tournament gave the freshmen some experience
before beginning the Big Ten season.
Up next for Michigan is the Big Ten Singles
Championships, Jan. 15-17 in East Lansing. The
Wolverines will be sending eight players to the compe-
tition.
By Richard Haddad
1 aily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's gymnastics
team continues to prove that it is one of
the nation s elite.
Opening its season at the nationally-
televised "Super Six Challenge" at
Georgia this weekend, the fourth-ranked
Wolverines were pitted against five of the
nation's top nine teams on one of college
gymnastics' biggest stages. The results
were encouraging for the young squad.
Michigan captured a third-place finish
with a score of 194.925, behind only No.
2 Alabama and No. I Georgia, the
defending national champ.
While Michigan coach Bev Plocki was
"disappointed that we let the chance to
win slide through our fingers, the strong
performance and the opportunity we had
to win the meet is a testament to our
potential"
The Wolverines, who finished second
in the NCAA Tournament last year,
opened up the competition with a 49.075
on the floor exercise, paced by freshman
Janessa Grieco's 9.900 and excellent per-
formances by fellow frosh Cami Singer
and sophomores Melissa Peterson and
Jodie Rosenberg. The vault provided
another good showing for Michigan, as
veterans Sarah Cain and Christine
Michaud led the way with a 9 850 an.
9.800,'respectively.
Michigan sustained its effort with a
score of 49.100 on the uneven bars. Its
top five scores in the event were all above
9.800, trailing only Alabama for the lead
with the balance beam beckoning.
"The balance beam is the neutralizing
event in the sport of gymnastics, because
you just never know," Plocki said. "It is
the Ach~les' heel of the sport in general,
and that applies to every single teams'9
The Wolverines proved it to be no dif-
ferent. They started their beam routine
nicely behind Karina Senior's 9.825. A
couple of falls by her teammates were
enough to leave Michigan just short,
recording a 48.075 to land them in third,
ahead of No. 6 Nebraska, No. 3 UCLA,
and No. 9 Florida.
"It was really exciting competing on
this level for the first time, but I've
never felt so much pressure," said
Singer, echoing a recurring theme. 0
wasn't just doing it for myself, but for
the team as a whole, and that made it
more fun knowing other people were
pulling for me."
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