/ 12 + The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 2, 2001 FRIDAY Focus , rivalry renewed The legendary Iowa Hawkeyes shoot into Ann Arbor tonight . Stop the Iowa invasion: our scnooi ile no school can be the Wgreatest in every sport, the best schools will always defend their pride. The pride of the University body at large -not just 10 Michigan wrestlers - will be put on trial tonight. The most prolific Division I athletic program, the Iowa wrestling team, will attempt to overrun Cliff Keen Arena as it's conquered seem- ingly every other arena in the counp- try in the last 30 years.f When Iowa invades, it's like a virus-carrying parasite. The DAN Hawkeyes tem- porarily infest the WILLIAMS gymnasium with The their wrestling Outsider fanatics and dom- inate mat and stands. If Cliff Keen is laced with black and gold striped polo shirts tonight, I will vomit. But all upchucking aside, the biggest reason to attend tonight's meet is that Michigan has a legitimate chance of winning. Two weeks ago at the National Duals in State College, Michigan all but beat Iowa - burglary was com- mitted. Michigan junior Charles Martelli, who has made remarkable improvement this season, was robbed of a pin by an indecisive referee. The ref smacked the mat to signal a pin and then changed his mind upon con- sultation. Michigan lost three points in the decision and ended up losing the match by two. This tale didn't surprise me the first time I heard it -.Iowa wrestling is a silver spoon program. Its fans follow necas you the team like roadies. Every few years (including this year) the national championships are in the Hawkeyes' hometown of Iowa City, and of course, the referees enter every match know- ing Iowa is supposed to win. It blows away any advantages the Yankees or Duke basketball or Florida State football owns. No wonder Iowa has won the last six NCAA champi- onships and nine of the last 10. Meanwhile, the Michigan squad is as scrappy and tenacious as any team I've ever followed, a reflection of its leader, coach Joe McFarland. I don't think I've ever met a coach that seems more enamored with his sport more McFarland, and the team believes in him. This makes Michigan a program on the rise, and certainly deserving of your attendance in such a featured match. If you take care of the setting, I believe this team will create the exciting plot. It makes me ill to think that the Michigan family would be willing to let tonight be just another phase of this Iowa epidemic. I think this school has already taken a serious hit in pride - Michigan's already had one arena annexed by a rival this week. As a member of the prestigious Michigan fanbase, you have a duty to maintain the respect this universi- ty has built over the years. The invading Hawkeyes do not respect you - they view this event as a minor obstacle on their way to another national title. Going to an Ohio State-Michigan football game is easy; truly bleeding maize and blue takes effort. In many ways, tonight's square-off will separate the Michigan proud from the pre- tenders. Dan Williams can't wait to get to Cliff Keen Arena tonight and can be reached at dhw@numich.edu Wo. S MAcigan vs.Wo.3 Iowa Iowa: 3-0 Big Ten, 15-2 overall Michigan: 1-1, 11-3-1 Series record: Michigan 19-22-1 7 Porv +o ngbt aCOW keen Arena Photos courtesy JOYCE LEE/Daily, Iowa athletic department THE MAN WHO BUILT THE DYNASTY By Jeb Singer m Daily Sports Writer f you look up Iowa assistant athletic director Dan Gable's office phone number, you'll notice that it's the same as that of the wrestling coaches. Gable is never far away from the program that he coached for 21 glorious years. Clearly, he is loyal to his new post in the department, a post that he has held for three years since injuries and time con- straints forced him to resign as coach. Gable created a dynasty a team in the nation's most competitive conference. In his 21 seasons as coach, Gable captured 21 Big Ten championships and 15 national titles. Each year, everyone else competed for second. Gable coached 152 All-Americans. Of those national place-winners, 45 of them - or three out of every 10 - won national titles. "I don't train my wrestlers to be All-Americans," he once said. "I train them to be national champions." Then there were the 106 Big Ten champions and 10 Olympians, including four gold medalists. "It's harder to be a good coach than it is an ath- lete," Gable said. "If you are good (as an athlete), you can win a lot of matches. But as a coach, it's just not within your control. When it's not within your con- trol, it's more difficult." Gable was both a great athlete and a great coach. Starting with the first match of his sophomore year in 1963 at West Waterloo (Iowa) High, Gable won 182 straight matches. During that stint he won three state championships and two national titles. But the most memorable match was the one that got away. In the finals of the NCAA championships his senior season, Gable lost 13-1 I to Washington State's Larry Owings. For so long Gable did not know how to lose, but in his collegiate finale he figured out how to do so. He was defeated, but he turned it into a pos- itive. "The Owings match was one that did me a lot of good by losing," Gable said. "I can't understand how I ever put myself in that position to lose that match. So, yeah, I'd like to have won it, but I don't know if it would have had the same effect on me if I had won it. However good I was up to that point, it took me 10 to 12 years of wrestling to get to that level. And then the next two years, between that Owings match and the Olympic Games, I improved more than I did in the previous 10 years." The powerful Soviet wrestlers went to the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich with one objective: Destroy Gable. They failed miserably. Gable not only won the gold, but he never even surrendered a point. Were it not for the qualifying leading up to the Olympics, it would have gone down as the greatest performance ever by a wrestler. In 21 qualifying wins, Gable recorded 12 pins and won the other nine matches by a combined score of 130-1. The wrestler who scored the point? Larry Owings, who was trounced by Gable, 7-I. While Gable was training for the Olympics, his father was helping him find a job. There was an opening for an assistant coach at the University of Iowa. When deciding whether to take the offer, Gable deferred to his father's opinion. "I was allegiant enough to them at that point in time in my life," Gable said. "I hadn't done a lot of homework on it. I got advice, and I got, probably, correctly advised." Gable took the position, which led to the head- coaching role after three years. Once Gable's stint ended in 1997, history had been written and rewritten over and over again. But to the program's delight, four of Gable's brightest pupils stepped up to fill the void left by his departure. Head coach Jim Zalesky with assistants Tom Brands, Joe Williams and Lin- coln McIlravy now run the program. Under Gable's tutelage, they combined to win 12 national titles as wrestlers. And under his apprentices', the Hawkeyes have won national titles in each of the three seasons since Gable left the sidelines. "All these guys are great wrestlers and have gone on to become good coaches and that's what we need," Gable said. "We need great people to stay in our sport, to be able to coach young people to be great athletes. We have to lead, and continue to carry on the legacy. "I'm pretty proud of anybody that can go out, and stay in the profession, and do a good job, that has been coached by myself." Away from Iowa, Gable has been at the helm of three Olympic teams, 10 World Cup teams and the 1986 Goodwill Games team. Among the athletes he has worked with are Michigan coaches Joe McFar- land and Kirk Trost. Gable understands the effect he has had on the sport. "You can hardly mention anybody associated with wrestling in coaching, or competing, that I haven't had a positive effect on with his own athletic career, and his coaching career," Gable said. Despite the loss to Owings, the man who ruled his sport had this to say about his career: "It was about as good as it can get." And he is not being biased. JOYCE LEE/Daily The Michigan wrestling team has taken the Spartans down twice this season, but the level of competition gets higher with Iowa coming to town. Tale o thle tape Series record: Iowa leads, 22-19-1 Last Meeting: Iowa wins 20-18 on Januar 20, 2001 First Meeting: Iowa wins 21-2 in 1924 Iowa in Ann Arbor: 10-11 Hawkeye wrestling history: NCAA Team Titles: 20 Big Ten titles: 28 All-Americans: 235 Big Ten champions: 170 National champions: 68 All-time dual meet record: 712-182-30 Wolverine wrestling history: NCAA Team Titles: 0 Big Ten titles: 11 All-Americans: 137 Big Ten champions: 106 National champions: 17 All-time dual meet record: 608-257-22' Last time around Michigan wrestlers fall three points short of glory By Richard Haddad Daily Sports Writer Featured matchups Charles Martelli Ben Shirk . 00-01: 20-8 15 00-01:228 Career: 50-39 Pourds Career: 42-20 Rank: #7 Rank: #8 First Meeting: Martelli won by decision Two weeks ago, Shirk dominated, but Martelli scored a reversal and back points as time expired for a 4-2 win. Otto Olson Gabe McMahan 00-01: 23-1 74 00-01: 13-3 V Career: 107-24 PoundS Career:82-32 Rank: #2Rank:#4 First Meeting: Olson won by decision After a seven minute battle at the National Duals, where Olson won 10-9, this could be a momentum swinging match for either team. 1 Andy Hrovat Jessman Smith 00-01:25-4 00-01:13-5 Career: 80-28 POUndS Career: 33-18' Rank: #6 Rank: #1 First Meeting: Hrovat won by decision In an emotional rivalry Smith knocked Hrovat out of the NCAAs last sea- son, but lost to him at the National Duals. Remaining bouts 125 pounds: No. 6 A.J. Grant, Michigan (22-9) vs. No. 2 Jody Strittmatter, Iowa (19-1) Grant is 0-3 in his career against Strittmatter, but improves every time they meet. 133 pounds: No.16 Foley Dowd, Michigan (23-8) vs. No.1 Eric Juergens, Iowa (17-1) Juergens is the defending national champion, and one of the most solid wrestlers in the Iowa lineup. Dowd will have to keep the match close to have a chance to win. 141 pounds: No. 20 Clark Forward, Michigan (19-10) vs. No.1 Doug Schwab, Iowa (22-0) Schwab is undefeated and ranked No.1 in the weight class. Like Dowd, Forward must hang around in the match. 149 pounds: No.9 Mike Kulczycki, Michigan (28-7) vs. No. 6 Mike Zadick, Iowa (14-3) Kulczycki is 2-0 in his career against the All-American. This is a crucial match for Michigan to win. 157 pounds: Pat Owen, Michigan (11-9) vs. No. T+U Williams, Iowa (16-0) By Jeb Singer Daily Sports Writer, No matter what anyone says, tonight's dual meet between Iowa and Michigan is not "just another match". With 14 wrestlers ranked among the top eight in their respective weight classes and two teams ranked in the top six nationally, this is a matchup of power- houses. "Iowa has been the top dog for so many years that I think everyone has to respect that," Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas said. "Everyone has to look at wrestling Iowa a golden opportunity." Thus far Michigan has, as coach Joe McFarland likes to say, "answered every challenge put in front of them." The team's slim 20-18 loss to the Hawkeyes two weeks ago at the National Dual Meet Championships demonstrated its ability to compete with the best. A win tonight would demonstrate a lot more. "I was pretty well impressed with Michigan going 20-18 with Iowa, and Iowa may have been lucky to win that," Lehigh coach Greg Strobel said. "It is going to be quite a dual. Little home advantage will help Michigan." Personal vendettas will be one reason to watch this one. A.J. Grant, Michigan's feisty 125-pounder,"has revenge on his mind after losing to returning All-Ameri- ca Jody Strittmater twice, once by pin and once 10-3. Second-ranked 174-pounder Olson, who beat fifth-ranked Gabe McMahon, could get a real confidence booster coming off a less than stellar per- formance against top-ranked Josh Koscheck at the NWCA All-Star Classic earlier this week. Iowa coach, Jim Zalesky was extremely impressed with Olson after the Michigan-Iowa dual earlier this sea- son. "I don't think very many people are able to stay with him," Zalesky said. "He keeps the pressure on people the whole time." The mystique of Iowa's wrestling pro- gram certainly makes this match attrac- tive, but Penn State's two-time national champion Kerry McCoy knows the atti- tude needed to defeat the country's best. "Every athlete, no matter who, has to have the mentality that there is a possibil- ity that on any given day, anybody can be beat," McCoy said. It all adds up to one simple point: If the Wolverines do knock off Iowa, it will not be just "another win". Nation's eye focused on Cliff Keen for Iowa dual 0' Ghnosts of wrestling past 'M' ends Iowa's 99 meet winning streak By Steve Cohen Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - The fourth-ranked Wolverines ended Iowa's 99 match dual- meet winning streak with a 23-17 win in the finals of the Great American Duals Classic in Indianapolis. The Hawkeyes, winners of nine of the Hawkeyes destroy out- manned Wolverines By Steve wise Daily Sports Writer It's a good thing riding time can only count for one point in wrestling, or things could have been much worse for the Michi- gan matmen last night. As it was, riding time (the difference of time in control) was only one of the many I 1.