The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 21, 2000-11 Men's tennis buried by Golden Gophers There's an old saying in sports: "win- is contagious Unfortunately for the Michigan men's tennis team, so is losing. Sunday, after winning their first six matches of the year, the Wolverines fell to Minnesota, Sunday, for their sec- ond straight loss ofthe season. The Golden Gophers came out firing against Michigan coach Mark Mees' .club and never looked back. In the end, Minnesota dropped only one set and cruised to a 7-0 victory. "I have to give credit to Minnesota for playing exceptional tennis," Mees said. "Unfortunately we couldn't raise our level of play to match them." Michigan entered its first Big Ten contest of the season with a 6-1 record and a No. 21 ranking. However, the 23rd-ranked Gophers were not intimi- dated, and they dominated on their home courts. "Minnesota's fast indoor courts really threw off the timing of our guys," Mees said. "But we had an outstanding week of practice and should have been ready to play." The Gophers quickly set the tone for *the rest of the day by sweeping all three doubles matches. Only the first doubles match was close as the Michigan duo of senior Matt Wright and sophomore Danny McCain fell, 9-7, to Minnesota's Martin Michalowski and Tom Haug. At the No. 2 position, senior John Long and sophomore Ben Cox suffered an 8-3 defeat to Jorge Duenas and Harsh Mankind. In the final match, senior Ron Nano and sophomore Henry Beam were beaten 8-2 by Jon Svensson and Tyson *Parry at the No. 3 spot. The singles play wasn't much better for any of the Michigan players. Wright managed to go three sets in his match at No. I singles, but the other Wolverines quickly fell in straight sets. After the match, Coach Mees put the loss into perspective. "I know our guys are frustrated by the defeat," Mees said. "But it's only one match in a long season. Any team expe- Iiences its share of ups and downs, and we just need to move on." Unfortunately for the Wolverines, their schedule doesn't get any easier. They have a week off before going out on the road again to face Illinois for another Big Ten match. The Fighting Illini have won the Big Ten title the past three seasons and are currently ranked No. 5 in the nation. ORDINARY By Ryan C. Mo!loney - Daily Sports Writer JOE parky Anderson, the Hall of Fame manager of the Cincinatti Reds and Detroit Tigers, always believed in stacking his teams with enough "horses" to challenge for a title. Sparky knew the key to a suc- cessful season - keep the best hors- es out of the stable and on the track. Michigan wrestling coach Joe McFarland, whose team finished 13th at the NCAA National Championships in St. Louis this past weekend, might agree with Sparky. In only his first year on the job as Michigan's head coach, McFarland has dealt with a season-ending, career-threatening injury to his top wrestler and captain Otto Olson, as well as nagging injuries to star senior Joe Warren and freshman Mike Kulczycki. Warren and Kulczycki wrestled in St. Louis, though the effects of the injuries lingered. That all three injuries occured in the knee, which is to a wrestler as a rotator cuff is to a pitcher, didn't do much to ease McFarland's long-antic- ipated ascension to the top boss posi- tion in the wrestling program. "Looking back, it amazes me that we did as well as we did, considering the challenges we had to face," McFarland said. "There were a num- ber of times when we'd walk into a gym and I'd think 'gosh, how are we going to beat this team?' It was a good year in that we were able to win a lot of meets going down to the wire. "But in the sense of all the injuries, it was a frustrating year." Want proof? Look no further than the new light patches on McFarland's head. Like Anderson, the 37-year old McFarland is going gray before the age of forty. "They say 'when it rains it pours,"' McFarland said as he relaxed on a sofa inside the Michigan wrestling video room. "I just hope I don't have to go through (the injuries) again next year." Who can blame him? The Wolverines didn't exactly fall into their 12-3-1 record (5-2-1 Big Ten). They scratched and clawed for every inch of respect in a conference where many see the conference meet as the real national championship. The wins never came easy for the Wolverines - they bit their nails against Penn State, 20-17, and grinded it out against Pennsylvania, 18-17. And the losses? Violent shillack- ings courtesty of Illinois and Minnesota spoke volumes about the knee epidemic. Too many horses in the stable, not enough on the track. TAKING His SHOT And yet, McFarland had waited patiently for the job in each of his last seven years Michigan. In 1990, McFarland ended his successful pro- fessional wrestling career in order to man the helm of the Indiana program. At the time, Indiana wasn't a formi- dable presence in the Big Ten - the Hoosiers found themselves in a funk of mid-to-low conference finishes. In McFarland's debut season, Indiana went undefeated in duals, grabbed second-place at the Big Ten meet and snagged an eighth place finish at the national meet. Indiana wrestling wasn't just a syn- onym for Bobby Knight practice tac- tics anymore. But the Hoosiers fell on hard times, going 5-8 in McFarland's second year and 5-12 in his third. Then Michigan called. McFarland donned the maize and blue singlet during his college wrestling days - establishing him- self as perhaps the top low-weight wrestler in Michigan history. He remains second all-time in career vic- tories with 166 and holds the record for single season victories with 48 in 1983-84. Michigan had everything a coach could want - the tradition, the repu- tation and an athletic department still expertly run by Schembechler-era hires. The only catch? McFarland wasn't about to call the shots. Dale Bahr kept a steadfast hold on the coaching posi- tion at Michigan over the next seven seasons - perhaps a season or two longer than anyone expected. "I went back and forth between leaving and staying," McFarland said. "I had an excellent recruiting class coming in and I was looking forward to working with them. It was a real tough decision, but I was excited about coming to Michigan. I knew I was young enough to come back and be an assistant. "Michigan was where I wanted to be, but it was a question of whether I should put myself in a position to take over the program or try and come back when coach Bahr stepped down. I wanted to come back to the city of Ann Arbor and when I made the deci- sion, I was happy." THROWN INTO THE FIRE When McFarland finally did assume the head coaching position, most people appeared to forget about his accomplishments in the years fol- lowing his wrestling career. In home and away meets, the PA announcer concluded the roll of Michigan's starting lineup in resound- ing fashion - "and in his rookie sea- son, Joe McFarland!" Yeah, and Satchell Paige was a rookie pitcher in his first year in the major leagues. Nevertheless, McFarland knew the breaks would be few after such a lengthy hiatus from coaching and, as. it turned out, there were far more breaks in knees than lucky breaks. When the franchise, Olson, went ' down at the Virginia Duals, McFarland wasted no time respond- ing. Changes would be made and the tired cliche, "people need to step-up," suddenly became the most applicable phrase for the young Wolverines. In no case was this more apparent than in McFarland's decision to bring sophomore Charles Martelli out of redshirt. Martelli's ideal weight fluctuated between 157 'and 165. But McFarland saw the potential in Martelli's frame to make the result- ing loss of eligibility worthwhile for the team. "He said it was a decision he did- n't want to make, but that he had no choice," Martelli said. "He asked me how I felt about it and I said I under- stood - I had to do whatever was best for the team. He handled it excellent, he's got a lot of experience with these things." Martelli's qualification and result- ing experience at the NCAA champi- onships only reinforced McFarland's correct intuition. Others needed McFarland's gen- uine reassurance that they could pick up the slack in Olson's absence. Andy Hrovat was listening. "At Midlands, I won one match and lost two against a guy I should have beaten (all three times)," Hrovat said. "Coach told me, 'if you want to be an All-American you've got to improve - maybe do extra workouts and get in better shape.' All along he was building my confidence. I knew what I had to do, but he was reassur- PETER CURNUE/Daily Coach Joe McFarland, a former Big Ten Champion at Michigan, is hoping to guide his alma mater to a national championship. ing me of my abilities." For Hrovat, easily Michigan's most consistant wrestler in the dual sea- son, the work paid off. The Wolverines finished a respectable fifth at the Big Ten meet. Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois were simply too strong, too fast and too good for Michigan this time. Fourth- place finisher Michigan State had been creeping up behind the Wolverines all season, first losing by four points, then tying them at 18-18 then finally surpassing Michigan. Respectable, but hardly satisfying for the intensely optimistic McFarland. "We have to be more aggressive with our attacks," McFarland said. "We weren't at Big Tens. We wres- tled hard, but we weren't ready to attack. Basically, that's a mindset. And we've talked about that - if you score first, it's so important because it sways your momentum and confidence. If that's your prima- ry focus when you first get on the mat, you will be in good shape." Half the battle in college wrestling is recruitment. Mention recruitment to McFarland and his face slowly breaks into a grin - it's not a poker game. And there's a lot to smile about. McFarland added an impressive freshman class to an already stacked group of lower classmen and he snatched up arguably the country's best wrestler, pound-for-pound, Chris Rodrigues, in the early signing period. As long as the new thoroughbreds stay out of the stable, McFarland looks like he's closing ground - down the stretch - towards the sta- tus of an upper echelon team. "That's definitely the goal," McFarland said. Tennessee football probe dropped KNOXVILLE (AP) - An NCAA inquiry into possible academic fraud within the Tennessee football pro- gram has been dropped. University of Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey said today that the NCAA has discontinued its inquiry into allegations that Volunteers football players were committing academic fraud.sDickey received the letter through Tennessee counsel Ron Leadbetter, who was informed by the NCAA's director of enforcement, Thomas C. Hosty. "Based upon available informa- ion, the enforcement staff has deter- nined that there appears to be no need to conduct any further inquiry at this time into alleged violations involving academic issues and the Tennessee football program," the let- ter said int part. The 1998 national champions came under fire last year after ESPN.com reported a former acade- mic coordinator for the football am alleged that university officials knew of widespread fraud and did nothing about it. The report said administrators in theathletic departmentknew of sce- narios in which four tutors may have written papers and completed course work for at least five football play- ers. "I am pleased that the NCAA has validated our review of the allega- tions raised by ESPN.com related to Me university's athletic program," ennessee president Dr. J. Wade Gilley said. "This validation serves only to renew the confidence we have in the administrative structure and processes that govern all University of Tennessee athletics." The men's basketball team has taken over the attention of the foot- ball-crazy school for the time being s it has reached the NCAA Tournament "Sweet 16." The highly regarded women's basketball team, as usual, is among the favorites for the NCAA title. REGISTRAR'S BULLETIN BOARD IT'S TIME EARLY REGISTRATION FOR SPRING, SPING-SUMMER, SUMMER AND FALL IS HERE! From All-American Wolverine wrestler to Michigan's skipper, McFarland's resume includes the following: Coaching Highlights * Coached Indiana to 14-0 season finishing No. 8 in the nation in 1990 * Amateur Wrestling News 1990 "Rookie Coach of the Year" * 1994 NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year at Michigan * Coached one NCAA champion, three All-Americans and three Big Ten Champions Wrestling Highlights U Four-time All-American 1981-82, 84-85) 3.1984 Big Ten' Champion at 126 pounds U NCAA record of 166-24-4 U Two-time NCAA runner-up at 126 pounds N Silver Medalist 1986 World Freestyle Championships Register using TOUCH-TONE Local off campus 998-1881 Long Distance off campus: (734) 998-1881 On campus: 8-1881 REGISTRATION HOURS You cannot register before your appointment time. Registration and drop/add are available at the following times: TOUCH-TONE REGISTRATION: 7:00 a.m. - 12:00 midnight seven days/week TOUCH-TONE HELP: * 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday REGISTRATION SCHEDULE March 27-29 Registration by appointment for Graduate/Professional Students March 30,31 - April 3-13 Registration by appointment for Undergraduates Students can access Touch-Tone Registration anytime after their appointment time. The appointment start time will be sent electronically (via X.500 and on Wolverine Access) oiSlrce: itgan* Athtetiics Group I Group II Group III Group IV Group V Group VI Group VII 100+ credits 85-99 credits 70-84 credits 55-69 credits 40-54 credits 25-39 credits 0-24 credits Group I will register first, followed by the remaining groups. Registration times are assigned randomly within each group. I ATTENTION FUTURE M.D.s! Get the inside word on medical school admissions from an expert... 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