6B - The Michigan Daily - January 10, 2000 - SportsMonday Mens swmmgsptsarser0 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." i r U 0 register for winter 2000 classes at 1271 CCRB ln~medlate Swim Mt~ster Swim ultimate daiter Workout I~e~in it ier-Polo Cardio Blast Step Aerobics Kiekboxintt Wio4t. Training Server Circ tits Buffs & Oats Yoe Shsu Mai a ee Tei Chii Chuen Tae Kwon Do Americen Karate 41 Dance Aerobies/Hip Hop/Ballroo vSwingatin Call 764-1342 for more information I It also made the last TO THEparty at %MffEATIN OFPhi Gamma __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _'P c ln