re irbigau ailg rig"" Berenson sings 'The Victors' for 400th victory By Geoff Gagnon "We all really enjoyed that. It was just The Bulldogs took the offensive early Daily Sports \Xrner a great moment," Pearson said. and bit first as Nick Deschenes beat As time ticked down in Michigan's 3- "Watching him lead 'The Victors' was Michigan netminder Kevin O'Malley on 2 win over Yale on Saturday, the search really special, and I'm glad our team a power play goal 1:37 into the game. for a song-leader began in earnest. could share that with him" Michigan responded by remaining ,, $ j It was a search that was seemingly over before it started, at least in the eyes of associate head coach Mel Pearson. Just as Pearson had leaned over the boards to tell J.J. Swistak to make sure he saved the game puck, the 12th-year assis- tant made sure who would lead the cho- rus sung after winning weekends. When the roar of 'The Victors' went up in the lockerroom, it was led not by a padded player being honored for his play, but by a suit-clad general who had just notched his 400th win at Michigan. "We always get a player to lead the song," Pearson said. "After the game Red was asking me who we should get and I kept saying I don't know. "All along I had told Sean Peach to make sure Coach leads it." And lead it Red Berenson did, just as he has led the Wolverines in his 16-year tenure - in memorable fashion. Saturday's non-conference win made Michigan to 5-1, while the milestone win for Berenson keeps him as the ninth-win- ningest active coach in college hockey. "It's a great moment for him," forward Mike Cammalleri said. "But knowing Coach, he's not going to stop there, he's going to keep going for 400 more." Eager to move past the event, the ever- modest Berenson dismissed the impor- tance of the milestone while crediting those around him. "I can't tell you it means a lot to me," Berenson said. "We're just worried with game-to-game and the progress that our team is making. I've been blessed with real good assistant coaches and good players. It has been fun and rewarding?'- Rarely has it been simple, though. And like the others, the 400th win didn't come easily for Berenson and the Wolverines. penalty-free for the majority of the first period, while Cammalleri tallied the equalizer from the left circle at 4:16. The Wolverines continued to pepper the Bulldogs, firing 15 shots on goal in the first period. A pair of those found their way into the Yale net in succession. On a give from Mike Comrie and Josh Langfeld, junior Mark Kosick netted his fifth score of the season as he poked home a puck from just outside the crease at 7:31 of the first. And before the crowd finished its celebration, senior Andrew Merrick slipped another through the Yale pipes as the Wolverines grabbed a 3-1 lead on three straight goals. The scoring, however, slowed to a stop after Yale cut the lead to one as both teams dug in for a defensive dog-fight. "Both teams played hard and both teams played well," Berenson said. "Both See BULLDOGS, Page 68 Senior Andrew Merrick was all over Yale in Michigan's 3.2 victory. For more on Merrick's comeback night, see page 48. ers- -m-" Men take Badgers down to the wire, fall by two points By Jon Schwartz Daily Sports Writer STATE COLLEGE - It was supposed to be a close race. The result, though., was closer than anyone could have imag- ined. At Saturday's Big Ten Championship, the Michigan's men's cross country team came within two points of the thvorite, No. 5 Wisconsin, finally losing by a score of 38 to 40. But after the race, the No. 8 Wolverines didn't look like a team that had just lost in a heartbreaker. "I don't know what else we could have done," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "We couldn't have done much bet- ter." Warhurst's reactions were a result of the daunting task that Wisconsin presented for Michigan. The Badgers' top two run- ners, Matt Downin and Jay Schoenfelder, placed first and sec- ond respectively, with times of 24:57 and 25:06. "Downin was fifth in the NCAA last year," Warhurst said. "He's a tremendous runner. And I think Schoenfelder was 16th. You're running against two of the top kids in the country." The two Wisconsin runners were followed closely followed by Michigan's senior co-captain Jay Cantin. "I'm very proud of the entire group," Wisconsin coach Jerry Schumacher said. "Every singly guy, one through seven, did what they had to do today.: Following the top three were Indiana's Tom Chorny and Michigan's Mike Wisniewski. Michigan's other senior co-cap- tain, Steven Lawrence, expected to finish in the top four, still posted a respectable 25:34 run, putting him in sixth place. Chorny's excellent race was not enough to pull his Hoosiers higher than the fifth team spot. At the four-mile mark, he was leading Cantin and the rest of the Michigan pack before being overcome. Most, including Warhurst, were surprised to find his name among the top five. Ian Conner, the junior out of Ohio State, did not perform as well as expected. Picked to finish in the top five, Conner, who led the early miles of the race, fell to 20th place by the end. His team finished fourth, behind Minnesota's third-place perfor- mance. As the race reached its climax, it appeared as though Wisconsin was on its way to proving with little question how they had reached such a high ranking. Unfortunately for them, Michigan wasn't about to die quietly. Michigan's final two scorers, Mark Pilja and Tom Caughlan, crossed the finish line after having blown past several runners in the homestretch. For Caughlan, the 15th-place finish was See SECOND, Page 7B Seconda*'y defens 1* i dl f gp holes LOOMINGTON - Hayden Epstein's 20-yard field goal sailed through the uprights with 18 seconds left on Saturday, securing Michigan's 34-31 squeaker over Indiana and snapping the Wolverines' two-game losing streak. But the victory hides a fact that has become readily appar- ent over the last three weeks: Michigan's defense, particular- ly its secondary, is in deep trouble. Slowly but surely, the Wolverines are putting together one of the worst defen- Josh sittretches in Michigan history. Kleinbaum Consider this: .-Before this season, in the 119-year history of Michigan football, the only quarterback to throw four touchdown passes against Michigan was Purdue's Eric Hunter in 1989. In the past two weeks, Illinois' Kurt Kittner and Indiana's Antwaan Randle El both accomplished the feat. The 20-point lead Michigan blew ag~st Illinois is the third-largest such margin in program history, and the largest since 1982. Twice, Michigan blew 21-point leads. 0 By allowing 34 points to Michigan State, 35 to Illinois and 31 to Indiana over the last three weeks, Michigan has allowed 30 or more points in three straight games for the first time ever. 1b 1 AArv 1 nn nit allnf rnupmxr that *ihraa ,aa cnnn, LOUISBRW/aily Jay Cantin's third-place finish certainly helped, but it was the strength of Michigan's pack that allowed the Wolverines to come within two points of top dog Wisconsin at the Big Ten Championships in State College on Saturday. Women pleased with second ce By Arun Gopal Daily Sports Writer STATE COLLEGE - A few years ago, No Fear clothing put out a popular series of t-shirts, one of which read "Second Place Is The First Loser." This line would not apply to the Michigan women's cross country team, which finished second at the Big Ten Championships on Saturday at Penn State. Contrary to what the people at No Fear would think, the Wolverines were definitely not losers on this day. The meet was won handily by fifth- ranked Wisconsin. Wisconsin was led by sophomore Erica Palmer, who blazed to victory in a season-best time of 16:46.93. Palmer, who finished sec- nnitorhicrbn,,'r. 1nta MrC a looked back towards the end, and the next person (fellow teammate) Erin Aufderheide) was about 50 meters behind me." Led by Palmer, Aufderheide, and sophomore Bethany Brewster, who finished third, Wisconsin tallied 25 points, while Michigan was second with 95 points. The 70-point margin of victory was one of the largest in cham- pionship history. Nevertheless, the Wolverines were ecstatic after the meet. "We ran a lot better than we had been running recently," Michigan coach Mike McGuire said. "We've handled a lot of misfortune this year, and we really competed hard today." A z 1up" e r inra all Iran,. the to earning first-team all-Big Ten hon- ors. "I was dying towards the end, but I managed to hang in there," Ouellet said. "What I'm happiest about is the team's success. We really wanted it today, and we ran great." In order to place highly at Big Tens, the Wolverines knew that they would need strong showings from runners other than Ouellet. Michigan got those performances from junior Katie Clifford and senior Elizabeth Kampfe, who finished 12th and 14th and earned second-team all-conference recogni- tion. "I've really wanted to improve every meet," Clifford said. "My first race I , .:4 r. -. I