6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 13, 2000
Indoor reviewing
g. On Saturday, senior Steve
Lawrence became the fourth
Wolverine in Michigan track
history to earn All-American
honors in the 500-meter run.
1awrence joined an illustrious
list of runners who have
accomplished this feat.
Michigan men's indoor track
season results:
Men's indoor season concludes witf
r erning All -Amencan honors
Runner
Steve Lawrence
John Mortimer
Brad Barquest
eJohn Scherer
Year
2000
1998
1991
1989
Date
Jan. 8
Jan. 15
Jan. 22
Jan. 29
Feb. 4-5
Feb. 12
Feb. 19
Feb. 26
March4,
March 10
Event
Jack Harvey Invite
at Indiana
Red Simmons Invite
Central Collegiate
Result
non-scoring
win, 85-78
non-scoring
fifth of nine teams
Meyo Invite non-scoring
'M' Intercollegiate fourth of six
Silverston Invite non-scoring
Big Ten Championships tied for sixth
Alex Wilson Invite non-scoring
NCAAs tied for 41st
teams
Note:Lawrence also became
the 30th All American in Ron
Warhurst's 26 year coaching
,career at Michigan.
Outdor season begis March 17 at the Florida State Invite.
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_____ I;10A
Mr --M
By David Mosse
Daily Sports Wr
On Saturday in Arkansas, the cur-
tam came down on the Michigan
men's indoor track season. But not
before senior Steve Lawrence provid-
ed the Wolverines with one more
memorable momen t in a season filled
with memorable moments.
Lawrence earned All-American
honors by finishing fifth in the 5000-
meter run at the NCAA
Championships. Lawrence posted a
career-best time of 14:05.21 on route
to becoming the fourth Wolverine
distance runner to garner All-
American honors in the 5000-meters.
Fellow senior Jay Cantin was not
so fortunate in his bid to become an
All-American for the second consec-
utive year. Cantin failed to qualify
for the finals of the mile run by fin-
ishing 15th out of 16th runners.
The mixed results simply served as
a microcosm for a season filled with
highs and lows.
Despite a ninth place finish at the
Big Ten Championships a year ago,
Michigan entered this season with
plenty of optimism, expecting to
challenge for the conference crown.
The return from injury of All-
American John Mortimer would give
the Wolverines an incomparable
quartet of distance runners, while the
expected addition of Michigan foot-
ball running back Justin Fargas was
to provide the sprinters with an enor-
mous boost. Combine that with the
maturation of youngsters Ike
Okenwa and Oded Padan and
Michigan appeared headed for a spe-
cial season.
But from the beginning, Michigan
was forced to deal with adversity,
and new head coach Ron Warhurst
never fielded the team he expected to
field.
Padan, a triple jump specialist,
fractured his fibula in practice and
missed the first two months of the
season.
He made it back for one regular
season meet,, and actually scored in
the Big Ten Championships, but his
presence was sorely missed through-
out the season.
Fargas shocked the team by quit-
ting before his debut meet in
Bloomington. After conferring with
doctors, he opted to rest for spring
football practice. Fargas' absence
placed a great deal of pressure on the
shoulders of Okenwa who competed
regularly in the 60-meter, 200-meter
and 4X100-meter relay races.
The heavy workload took its toll
on Okenwa, whose hamstring gave
out at the Michigan Intercollegiate
and severely hampered him at Big
Tens.
Mortimer suffered with injury
problems and was virtually a non-
factor throughout the season.
His absence at the Big Ten
Championships, couple with an ankle
injury to Jay Cantin, prevented the
distance runners from posting a dom-
inating performance.
The result was a sixth-place fig
in the conference and 41st nationaly,
below what Michigan hoped for
before the year. But the season was
not without its bright spots as several
individuals shined for the
Wolverines.
Pole vaulters Charles DeWildt and
Brent Scheffer both ranked in the top
five in the conference. Dewildt
placed second at the Big Ten
Championships and flirted all season
with an NCAA qualifying score.
Sophomore Jeremy Schneider was
masterful in the 600 and 800-meter
races. Schneider posted victories in
all but one meet in the regular sea-
son.
Cantin qualified for the NCAAs at
the Meyo Invitational by breaking
the four-minute mile for the first
time in his career, while Lawrence
and Wisniewskis also posted car er
highs during the season.
'" _
'
1
NCAA selection committee secretive
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611 Church Street
Ann4 Arbr,2 A , 481x)4304
(734) 665-9200. O() 930-2800
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - It's a bas-
ketball junkie's dream: A comfortable
chair in front of the TV, a reliable
remote, round-the-clock room service
and no annoying telephone calls.
What more could the 10-member
NCAA tournament selection commit-
tee ask for? Well, how about some
assurance they won't be second-
guessed after they announce the
Division I pairings?
That, of course, doesn't happen. It
never does.
What did happen is the selection of
35 at-large teams, the seeding of those
teams and the 29 automatic conference
qualifiers and the placement of all 64 in
the four regional brackets.
The only difference this year is the
selections were made from a hotel room
in Indianapolis - where the NCAA
moved its headquarters last summer -
instead of Kansas City, where it set up
its Selection Sunday deliberations the
previous 18 years.
"Every committee member takes this
so seriously, and you want to make it
right," said Judy Rose, athletic director
at North Carolina-Charlotte, the first
woman to help pick the teams that will
compete for the national title.
The committee convened Thursday at
the Westin Hotel, barely beyond 3-point
range from the RCA Dome, where the
Final Four will be played April 1-3.
Like sequestered jurors, the commit-
tee members were isolated from all dis-
tractions. No one could even call them
without a special phone code.
"Probably the only pressure it puts on
me is the pressure I put on myself, and
I don't think that's any different than
any other committee I serve on or task
that I take. And it's not because I'm a
woman,' Rose said. "It's because if I'm
elected to do something or agree to do
something, I want to do the very best
job I can do, and I don't think that has
anything to do with gender."
What got her selected to the commit-
tee was her basketball background.
"We know there's no way we can
realistically look at 317 teams across
the country throughout the year, so we
are assigned conferences that we are to
be more expert on than the others,"
Rose said. "The rookies were given
three conferences, and the returning
members were given four."
Rose was assigned the ACC, the
Southern and the Patriot conferences.
Picking the teams - many of which
already had been determined through
conference tournaments - was to
begin on Friday, and committee mem-
bers had until Friday night to submit
two ballots, one listing 17 schools they
felt should be in the tournament and the
second listing all others they felt sho
at least be considered.
As the choices are made, the names
are put on a series of 2-foot-by-4-foot
boards in the meeting room.
"Once you get on the board, and if
you get on the board on the first ballot,
you're probably going to be in the tour-
nament," said Craig Thompson,.corn-
missioner of the Mountain West
Conference and chairman of the sel4-
tion committee.
Thompson, whose own conference
champion does not get an automatic
bid, said the committee considers many
factors in determining the at-large bids,
including the Sagarin and RPI ratings a
team's record against the top 20, the top
50, its road record, its opponents'
records, its record in the past 10 games
- even injuries and suspensions that
could affect a team's performance.
"The 'good' wins (against stro
teams) certainly are the most import4
things you can have,"he said of teams on
the bubble, bad losses could affect vari-
ous teams, but it comes down to who
you've played and who you've beaten."
: °
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take-out?
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