The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - September 27, 1999 - 98 lue harriers watch vide-eyed as No. 3 Arkansas mops up Iichigan finishes fourth in 21-team field First practices bring new faces to Yost for 'M' hockey team Arun Gopal fly Sports Writer he Michigan women's cross- untry team stood up to its toughest mpetition to date this season at the m Bell Invitational in oomington, on Saturday. Handicapped by two absences due uries, including junior Katy c wich, the Wolverines still naged a respectable fourth-place ish out of 21 teams. Arkansas, ked third in the country, claimed top spot. Michigan was paced by junior ndout Lisa Ouellet. Battling a ere cold, Ouellet crossed the fin- line in sixth place - finishing t behind the Razorbacks' top run- rr s was a real eye-opener for " Ouellet said. "Arkansas was just azing; they finished 1, 2, 3, 4. We ow what we have to work on after lay's meet." uellet said that she was not sur- sed by the Indiana University urse, unlike many of her team- tes who had never run at that nue before. "I pretty much knew what to p before going there," Ouellet d. "The course had more hills than I teinbered, and it was a hot day re, which made it tougher. (But), crall, I'd say that it was compara- to most of the courses that we low that the Wolverines have this e under their belts, they have , idea of what to expect when CAA Championships, which I1 be held in Bloomington, roll >und. 3uellet said Michigan will be pre- red to have a strong showing at the ional championships. 'I know that we are going to be re, and I know we can do well," ellet said. "The course will be different, but outcome for us will be different, pie good thing this weekend seat we were able to see where hills were, so we can train ordingly for them." ioin up against a powerful team "We don't get intimidated. We've been there with the best." - Lisa Ouellet on the competition Saturday like Arkansas could have been intim- idating for many teams. Also, given Michigan's youthful roster, there was a chance that some of the Wolverines' younger runners might have had some pre-race jitters. But Oucllet said Michigan didn't have a problem. "We don't get intimidated, she said. "We've been in there with the best. Elizabeth Kampfe has been an all-American, and I've run in the NCAA Championships each of the last two years. I was right with the Arkansas girls almost the entire race. For the average college student, completing a cross-country race would be hard enough in the best of health. Ouellet had to run yesterday while battling what she termed "a really bad cold" that she developed last week. "I was feeling really sick yester- day," Ouellet said. "I thought that I might've held off this cold, because I was running pretty well, but it really felt tough running that last mile." With only two more meets to go until the Big Ten Championships, Ouellet admitted that the team, which has made steady progress since the start of the season, still has not reached its full potential. "We've got a ways to go yet," Ouellet said. "It's kind of hard to judge cross-country, especially women's runners, because even a few little injuries can kill your team's chances. "The important thing for us is to go out and make sure that everyone trains hard. Once we get down to it and push ourselves, I have no doubt that we can fulfill our potential." By Stephanie Offen Daily Sports Writer Eagerly anticipating the Michigan hockey season, fans returned to Yost ice arena Saturday for the Wolverines first practice. The Michigan hockey team took the ice Thursday for the inaugural practice of the season. While the small senior class had to readjust to familiar territory, a rather large freshman class was being intro- duced to new ground. Stressing game-like drills, the freshmen quickly found their place among the older members. "They are really starting to fit in," senior captain Sean Peach said. "At first they really didn't know their places, but now they are starting to get comfortable. They've done a real- ly good job making themselves part of the team." And with only a week to go before the puck drops on the season, it is critical for the Michigan program to work out the many obstacles it has faced this off-season. With the unexpected loss of three key defensemen, the Michigan coaches are using these practices not only to prepare the team, but also to take a look at prospective walk-on players. There were new faces at both Thursday and Friday's practices, and nany team hopefuls were on hand at Saturday's scrimmage. Even though there is no official walk-on tryout, the practices give the coaches a chance to look at the new talent. The prospective varsity players will have to show in these practices that they will be able to contribute to the team during the CCHA seasot "It's hard to have a so-called tryout for walk-ons when we are tryingto get our team into some kind of rhythm," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. For the practices and the scrim- mage, the prospective walk-ons wre put on tentative lines with varsity players. Since these are only the first prac- tices of the season, the coaches are almost certain that these lines will change many times before the begin- ning of conference play. "Right now we are looking at lins we put together without any idea of who's going to end up there," Bereson said. "Give us two or three days and we will probably change them again." The Wolverines will face their first competition on Saturday, but the lines are expected to continue to change after that. But Berenson and the rest of the team are looking to get everythihg else settled by Friday's Blue-White intersquad scrimmage. "We have a lot of things to work.on in a short period of time," Berenson said. "We need to reacclimate every- one and introduce all of the systems to the freshman. We just need to have everything ready by the Blue-White game." AP PHOTO The birdie putt by Hal Sutton helped the Americans capture one of the closest Ryder Cup victories in history - no team match ended before the 17th hole. Crenshaw'spassion gde Yanks to Cup BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) - Believe it! Those were fitting words from U.S. Ryder Cup captain Ben Crenshaw, who won the 1995 Masters after the death of his longtime teacher Harvey Penick. At the time, he said he felt it was Penick's spirit guiding him along. In much the same way, Crenshaw willed his team to victory at The Country Club, which has a long history of American victories in golf. "I never stopped believing," Crenshaw said, choking back tears. The Americans overwhelmed Europe in the first six matches, closing all of them out before the 17th hole. Even David Duval, who referred disdainfully to the Ryder Cup, showed how much it meant by repeatedly shaking his fists and cupping his hand to his ear. The cup was clinched on No. 17 when Leonard's 45-foot birdie putt banged into the back of the cup and dropped. It was the seventh consecutive Ryder Cup that was decided by no more than two points, dating to the 1985 matches that signaled the switch over to European dominance. So close was this Ryder Cup that no team match ended before the 17th hole, the first time that has happened since 1969. The Americans have won the singles matches all but five times in Ryder Cup history, and all but twice since 1957. The atmosphere was electric. The gallery was a dozen deep around tees and green, not an inch of space along any fairway. All of a sudden, the Americans looked like they had nothing to lose. Muscles tightened on every European face, the players celebrating with charged-up emotion instead of the child-likejoy they exuded the first two days. Duval, Sutton, Lehman, Davis Love III, Woods and Phil Mickelson led a ferocious charge that made Crenshaw's lineup look like a brilliant move. He sent out his best players in the first six match- es, hopeful they all would get out of the blocks quickly and set up that chain reaction of momentum he had been des- perately searching for all week. "It's all because of Ben Crenshaw," Love said. "He fired us up, made us believe we could do it." (Lessons That Will Last A Lifetime Put that college degree to use by enrolling into the Air Force Officer Training School. 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