10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 18, 2001 No. 2 Ohio State has second chance at Blue / By Adam McQueen Daily Sports Writer Coming off victory at the Windy City Invitational, the Ng. 1 Michigan men's gymnastics team returns home this weekend to face No. 2 Ohio State. Saturday's meet will open the Wolverines' 2001 home schedule at Cliff Keen Arena. The two teams faced each other last weekend in Chicago, with the Wolverines taking the first-place title and the Buckeyes placing third in the competition. Michigan outscored the Buckeyes in four of the weekend's six events with Ohio State placing ahead of the Wolverines in only the The teams met four times last sea- son, splitting the series 2-2. The Buckeyes took both regu- vault and high bar. Saturday's best matchup between the two top-ranked teams appears to be in the still rings. Michigan's Scott Vetere and Ohio State's Daren Lynch tied for first in the event last weekend. Senior Buckeye Jamie Natalie SATURDAY CLIFF KEEN ARENA Who: No. 1 Michigan (6-0) vs. No. 2 Ohio St, (2-2) When: 7:00 p.m. Saturday Latest: Top-ranked Michigan looks to repeat against the No. 2 Buckeyes in its home opener. lar season meetings, and the Wolverines prevailed during the postseason competitions. Making things even more difficult for the Buckeyes, they must per- form two nights in a row, opening their home sea- son Friday against the fact that the team is focused on having fun, which will prevent the No. 1 ranking from posing a distraction, It proved to be a successful strategy last weekend, influencing all of the gymnasts to step up their routines. Dehr turned in a surprising win on the parallel bars to counteract the unex- pected faltering of All-American Kris Zimmerman in that event. "With all of the preseason injuries we have had, it was good to see every- one come together and open up with a win," Dehr said. "We stepped up on a number of events. It was a good sign of things to come. will also be tough on the floor exercise. He took first in the event in Chicago. Illinois-Chicago. Both Michigan coach Kurt Golder and senior tri-captain Tim Dehr stress .~, A w ., 2 M 1p Olympian Ray debuts at Cliff Keen Friday By Naweed Sikora Daily Sports Writer Tomorrow is the day that the Michigan women's gymnastics coaches, team members and fans have been waiting for. Freshman Elise Ray, captain of the 2000 Olympic U.S. women's gymnastics team, will make her highly-anticipated Michigan debut at Cliff Keen Arena when Michigan hosts Iowa and Minnesota. Ray was forced to miss the first two meets of the season because of a non-binding contract that she signed to compete at the professional level before the season began. Still, Ray does not feel that the time she missed was a total loss. "I wasn't quite ready to compete at the beginning of the season," Ray said. "This way, I got a little extra time to regain my form." The addition of Ray will strengthen a well-bal- anced team that has already proven its ability to dominate. The Wolverines are coming off an impressive victory over Oregon State last Friday at home. Michigan received impressive performances from several gymnasts in the win. Karina Senior, Calli Ryals and Bridget Knaeble finished in the top three spots for the all-around competition. Sophomore Janessa Grieco also performed well, finishing second in both the vault and the floor exercise. The Wolverines will once again need their stars to excel this weekend if they hope to capture wins over both opponents. Iowa is coming off a first- place finish at the Michigan State Invitational in which the Ilawkeyes defeated both Michigan State and Eastern Michigan. Minnesota began the season with an impressive victory over Ohio State, before dropping its next meet to No. 4 Utah. With a win over Penn State in the Super Six Challenge to open the season, the Wolverines are 1-0 in the Big Ten, but only 3-3 overall. Ray hopes that she will be able to help in this area by contributing her skills and talent to the team. "I still feel like I have a lot to learn," Ray said. "This is very different from anything I have ever done before, so I just want to go with the flow right now and see what happens. In my gymnastics roles, I hope to help out the team by performing well and getting high scores." I . - .-., -a a ~-... -...~-.-----.-- - O \. BRANDON SEDLoF,diy The No. 13 Michigan women's swimming team hits the water every morning for practice at 6 a.m. Saturday's meet against Ohio State doesn't begin until 4 p.m. Morning workouts mean success for'M BRANDON SEDLOFF/Da y Elise Ray, captain of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, makes her debut for Michigan tomorrow. Top teams highlight tough weekend for hoops By Brian Druchniak For the Daily No. 17 ARIZONA AT No. 20 SOUTHERN CAL TOMORROw, FOX SPoRTs 10:30 P.m. In a showdown between Pac-10 con- tenders, all the intangibles tip the scales towards the Wildcats. With both coach Lute Olson and senior leader Gene ACROSS THE Edgerson returning T today, the Wildcats TOP 25 should begin to resemble the team that Dick Vitale drooled over in the preseason. Olson has been missing-in-action since the death of his wife of 47 vears, Bobbi, and his return should stabilize the Arizona team. Southern Cal is bolstered by the return of explosive scorer Jeff Trepagnier, who missed the first 12 games of the season due to an NCAA-imposed suspension. Preseason All-American center Loren Woods is finally hitting his stride for the Wildcats, averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds during a two-game stretch last weekend. Add that to the return of Olson and Edgerson's superfly "fro", and Arizona runs away with this one. Arizona 87, Southern Cal 72 OHIO STATE AT No. 3 MICHIGAN STIE SUNDAY, CBS 1 P.m. Unfortunatly, it's unlikely that some higher power will decide to make the world a better place by smiting both teams at the Breslin Center on Sunday. There's always hope, but if the game goes on, here's the deal: With center/for- ward Andre Hutson battling pneumonia, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is unsure whether the solid senior, with 13.2 points and 7.7 rebounds-per-game, will be able to play. Ohio State's behemoth roster. with six players 6-foot-8 or taller, could put a strain on Michigan State freshman cen- ter Zack Randolph and sophomore Al Anagonye in Hutson's absence. In the end, superior guard play, a rau- cous - and largely illiterate -- Breslin crowd. and another big game from Jason Richardson will allow Michigan State to edge the Buckeyes on Sunday. Michigan State 62, Ohio State 60 No. 2 DUKE AT GEORGIA TECH SATURDAY, ESPN NOON This matchup could turn out to be far more interesting than it looks at first glance. Georgia Tech, picked to be one of the worst teams in the ACC, has A LONG SHOT? How they match up: Duke Georgia Tech Ranking 2 unranked Record 16-1 10-6 Pts/game 93.9 79.4 F et rG. .511 .447 3-Pointers/Gm 10.4 9.4 Opp. Scoring 68.2 71.4 Scoring margin 25.7 8.0 proven to be a dangerous, but schizo- phrnic team. Before a dismal offensive performance in a 72-60 loss to North Carolina State Jan. II the Yellow Jackets stunned No. 9 Virginia and No. 6 Wake Forest in consecutive ACC upsets. The X' factor in this game is 3-point sniper Shaun "Sinn" Fein, whose long- range bombs have been hitting more nets than Orangemen - and I don't mean Syracuse - for a 42.6 percent clip this season. If he gets hot, the Blue Devils could find themselves in a dogfight. That said, Duke, showed it is not an easy team to upset Tuesday night, weath- ering a gutty first half by No. 25 Boston College before pulling away to a 97-75 win. Senior Shane Battier leads a talent- ed Duke team with an offense run by the nation's premier point guard in Jason Williams. In a shootout, giant-killers Georgia Tech will catch Duke off guard for another huge upset. Georgia Tech 90, Duke 86 No.9 SYRACUSE AT No. 19 SF ON HALL SUNDAY, ABC 3:30 P. The toughest conference in the nation right now is the Big East, and these two teams represent contenders for the con- ference crown. Seton Hall has hit a rough stretch late- ly, dropping three of its last four games. Freshman Eddie Griffin is hands-down the best all-around freshman in the coun- try, contributing 19.5 points, 12.8 rebounds and five blocks per game. Andre Barrett and the Barklev-esque Darius Lane are also players to watch. Syracuse also has solid offensive per- formers in junior shooting guard Preston Shumpert and senior Damone Brown. Both teams share one thing in com- mon - they have each only beaten one top 25 team this season, and in each case it was the overrated Notre Dame. But Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker always finds a way to drop the big games, and he will do so again. Syracuse 78, Seton Fall 70 By Steve Jackson Dlydll Sports Voter Under the cover of darkness, the Michigan women's swimming team begins its daily training every winter morning. Coach Jim Richardson is the first to arrive at 5:15 a.m. But after 15 years of leading the Wolverines, Richardson is used to the hours. "I' enjoy getting up at 4:45, Richardson said. "When you have girls that want to be here, it makes the job a lot better." Richardson considers this year's bunch one of his top two or three favorite teams to have guided. "We have had faster teams," Richardson said. "But these girls put in tremendous hours of very physical training and still do very well in class." A typical week involves a mini- mum of 23 hours of pool time. That workload takes a toll on some of the swimmers. "I love morning workouts," yelled junior Kathleen Gilbert from across the pool. After a short pause she added, "Find some way to put the sarcasm in there." Distance swimmers have four morning sessions per week. They swim between eight and 10 miles per day. Life.isn't much easier in middle distances. Three two-a-days per week and swimming nearly seven miles per day is rough on the ath- letes. Even the sprinters are required to attend two morning sessions and swim over five miles on each of those days. These 6 a.m. workouts might break the average college student, SATURDAY PEPPE AQUATic CENTER Who: Michigan at Ohio State When: 4 p.m. Saturday Latest: The No. 13 Michigan women's swim team faces its second consecutive Big Ten foe on Saturday when the Wolverines visit Ohio State. Michigan defeated Illinois easily (182- 156) this past weekend at the Wolverine Invitational - despite key injuries to Olympian Samantha Arsenault and Jen Ardnt. but most of the swimmers had only positive things to say about their winter mornings. "These are good for you," Samantha Arsensault said. "But you have to work hard, or it is just a waste." Like Richardson, many of the ath- letes have been conditioned for these hours over many years. "Most people at this level of com- petition have been swimming early in the mornings since they were 13," assistant coach Stephanie Kerska said. Even after all those years, co-cap- tain Missy Sugar can still get burned out. "You get used to them, to a point," Sugar said. "Where it really hits me is at about 9:30 or 10:00, when I am sitting in lecture. Sometimes after a really tough day I might even crash at 8:00." The sessions may be rough, but the coaching staff employs a number of methods to keep everyone awake and motivated. Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" blares over the loudspeekers as the team breaks its meeting and hits the water. In one morning workout the team may enlist the services of snorkels, kickboards, flippers (hands and feet), elastic bands aid weight belts. Sometimes they even swim drag- ging 10 gallon buckets behind them. "We bring out all the toys for morning workouts." Kerska said. The 13th-ranked Wolverines will get more sleep before they face the Buckeyes this weekend. Their Saturday meet in Columbus won't start until 4 p.m. I vo ol gold bond cleaners QUALITY DRY CLEANING & SHIRT SERVICE 332 Maynard (Across from Nickels Arcade) 668-6335 GRADUATING S I Where it matters most. 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