6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 5, 2001 Track measures up against top Meyo field By Kareem Copeland Daily Sports Writer SOUTH BEND - Under the watch of Touchdown Jesus, the men's track team hoped for big things going into this weekend's meet in Notre Dame. This midseason, non-scoring event is a benchmark for each team as the level of competition is very high. "It's good to see different faces," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "You've got Tennessee and Georgetown, Kentucky and Missouri. Next week we go back and see the same people." Many Wolverines looked to measure themselves on a national scale against the wider competition. Meyo Field has a 300-meter indoor track while most schools use a 200-meter track. The combination of a fast track and a strong field pushes the team toward its goal of qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The NCAA sets cer- tain qualifications to be awarded either automatic or provisional bids. "That was everyone's major goal," Michigan sprinter Ike Okenwa said. Okenwa was held out of the 60 to save ,energy for the 200. Although he won the 200 in 21.74 seconds, Okenwa was extremely disappointed with his time. "It wasn't even me out there, I had a whole different form, a whole different strategy," said Okenwa. "I was think- ing about running like it was a nation- al championship meet. I got into a dog- fight fight and started running with this other guy - I'd rather take third and qualify for nationals." Warhurst was worried about the team being overly concerned with qualifying. "They have to start concerning themselves with competing and beat- ing people before they can start worry- ing about qualifying for nationals," said Warhurst. In the 400, Josh Sellers finally returned from a season-long hamstring injury. Sellers made his debut by fin- ishing second behind Georgetown's Jams Grahm. "I just wanted to see where my leg is at," Sellers said. "It feels good to run on the oversized track, you have the opportunity to let loose on the straight- a ways and pick up speed." Kevin Lamb and Chris Yee also fin- ished in the top half of the field, at sev- enth and 12th respectively. Jeremy Schneiderjoined Sellers by tak- ing runner-up honors in the 800. Leading nearly the entire time, he ran a personal best of 1:51.03. Schneider has flourished at Meyo Field ever since setting the build- ing record in the 500 in 1999. Ravi Smith placed second in the that same event on Saturday. Smith won his heat and finished 0:00.17 behind the Terry Wray's 1:04.22. Mike Wisniewski - who had been slumping lately - ran very well in the 5000 and qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships. Highlighting the field events was a shoot out between the pole vaulters. Taking first place was Rocky Danners of Tennessee with a leap of 17'02.75. Reigning Big Ten champion Charles DeWildt finished third for the Wolverines maxing out at 16'08.75. Warhurst said he was very pleased with the weekend results. "We were looking for some guys to have some season bests. I think at least half the team did that," Warhurst said. TOMMY FELDKAMP/Dyiiy The top-ranked Michigan men's gymnastics team landed well against Penn State. Loss of Kevin Roulstone can' t stop tumblers TOMMY FELDKAMP/Daily Michigan pole vaulter, Charles DeWildt, the reigning Big Ten champion, took third place this weekend at the Notre Dame Meyo Invitational with a leap of 17'02.75. Not this time: Field misses four-minute chance By Swapnil Patel LDAyl Sports Wnrie By Shawn Kemp Daily Sports Writer SOUTH BEND - Everybody knows the significance of a four-minute mile. By clocking consecutive one-minute splits for each quarter mile, a runner is guaranteed the prestigious four-minute mark. But for Notre Dame coach Joe Piane, running a four-minute mile at the Meyo Invitational in South Bend wasn't good enough. He wanted it even faster. At the same meet 14 years ago, Piane set a standard for all Meyo Miles in the first race of the meet. By inviting Chuck dragon, a speedy former miler for the Irish, to set the pace of under four min- utes, Piane gave began the tradition of the Meyo Mile. "I said, 'We've got to make this under four,"' Piane said. "He said, 'No prob- lem,' and at that point, once the first race was done under four, everyone was convinced that this track was fast." And the track is indeed fast. Standard indoor tracks are constructed 200 meters per lap, half the size of an out- door track. On Notre Dame's oversized 300-meter track, runners may take advantage of the long straightaways and of less turns. The 2001 Meyo Mile champion, Georgetown's Chris Miltenberg, profit- ed from the oversized track. "I knew this was a big meet, and everyone comes here to run the Meyo Mile," Miltenberg said. "I just wanted to .come and run the fastest time I could." Although 10 of the 14 Meyo Mile winners have been under four minutes, Miltenberg failed to produce a sub four- minute mile Saturday, running 4:02.22. No collegiate runner has broken four minutes in the mile this season. Michigan's lone representative in the prestigious race, freshman Brian Turner, missed a provisional qualifying standard by just 2.5 seconds, finishing in 4:07.86 for eighth place. Although Michigan head track coach Ron Warhurst said Turner was extreme- ly scared, Turner approached the esteemed mile like any other race. "I was a little nervous at first,"Turner said. "I was just trying to keep my head in it, and tried not to build it up too much in my mind" Treating the Meyo Mile like any other race is difficult to accomplish, considering the lofty sub four-minute mark is a rarity among indoor college races. The mark was last broken indoors by Stanford elite Gabriel Jennings at the 2000 NCAA Indoor Championships, as he won the race in 3:59.46. Miltenberg's teammate, Matt Dunn, served as a rabbit for the first 800 meters of the race, running just under two minutes and then dropping out. Turner felt the quick pace early on was "definitely too fast." He comment- ed that his legs felt sluggish following his 1200-meter run in the distance med- ley relay Friday night. However, Turner's time was a new personal record, as he broke his former mark of 4:09.24. While Warhurst was pleased with Turner's performance, he reflected on For the No. I Michigan men's gym- nastics team, there have been two con- stants this season-- winning and injuries. On Saturday, the Wolverines contin- ued their winning ways as they over- came defending national champion, Penn State, 209.5 to 207.650. In the process, they lost tn-captain Kevin Roulston. Prior to the meet, Roulston suffered a knee injury during warmups. "A preliminary test suggests an ACL tear,; Roulston said. "I meet with the University doctors tomorrow. We'll see what happens from there ... I don't have enough information at this time to even speculate on what lies ahead for me." The Wolverines, already lacking depth with the second of their tri-cap- tains, Justin Toman who is sitting out due to last season's reconstructive knee surgery, faced the daunting task of beat- ing the Nittany Lions at Rec Hall with- out Roulston. "Kevin was doing a really hard pass on floor and after his first flip, I guess he landed wrong and hurt his knee,' junior Scott Vetere said. "Kevin is an impor- tant part of our team especially in floor and vault, but most of all in the all- around. He gives us the depth we need and always hits for us. "Obviously the team is pretty stunned about what happened." Despite Roulston's injury, Michigan remained hungry for a "W" against Penn State, especially after having finished second to them in last season's national championships by a mere 0.125 points. Junior Daniel Diaz-Luong and sopho- more Kris Zimmerman paced the Wolverines with strong performances and contributed heavily to the team total. Diaz-Leong captured first place in both the parallel bars and high bar with scores of 8.850 and 9.200, respectively. Zimmerman earned second-place hor@ ors on the floor exercise (9.050), vault (9.100) and horizontal bar (8.800). Zimmerman, who competed in all six events, collected a total of 52.05 points to bring home the all-around title. In the absence of Roulston, seniors Tim Dehr and Kenny Kenner and junior Brad Kenna all captured a second-place finish in an individual event. "We were a little down about things, but I was real impressed with everyon- getting through things and not givirn up," Vetere said. "We fought all of the way through and guys like Knis, Tim, Daniel, and Conan really came through for us and kept the momentum going. We are going to have to do this week in and week out because now we don't have Kevin or Justin. We'll see what the team is made of." After combining to earn five first- place honors in the last two meet Vetere, who is competing injured, turne in his first mediocre performance of the season. "My performance at Penn State was definitely not what I wanted it to be, Vetere said. "I came into Penn State expecting to compete all six events for the first time this year, but earlier in the week I pulled a lat muscle. "It has been hard for me to hang on the high bar and rings and when I was warm- ing up at Penn State, I strained it again.' think my mind was a little elsewhere witl my injury and Kevin's injury." Battling through his injury, Vetere struggled on the floor exercise and the parallel bars, but still managed. to earn a first-place finish on the pommel horse with a score of 9.30. IUMMY tLLUKAM/Uaily Brian Turner, Michigan's top miler, didn't make his four-minute goal in South Bend. his former athlete and now assistant head coach Kevin Sullivan's race six years ago. Sullivan ran the race in 3:55.9 in 1995, setting a Meyo Mile record that still stands today. "That kid ran 4:02 today, and it looked like he was fantastic," Warhurst said. "Kevin ran 3:55 - he would've beat the guy by 50 yards." Sullivan's record may fall next year to a new Wolverine, as Alan Webb will attempt to break the famed four-minute mile barrier. Webb, a senior at South Lakes high school in Reston, Va., is cur- rently the only high school or collegiate runner to break four minutes this season. Webb clocked 3:59.86 at the New Balance Games on Jan. 20. Based on his sub four-minute perfor- mance and the effect of the oversized Meyo track, Webb will have his chance to break four next year at Notre Dame. "This place is unreal," Miltenberg said. "If there's a place in the country to run fast, it's here." Back in Mount Pleasant, women outrun by Purdue By Rhonda Gilmer Dily Sports Writer Hanging on to an adrenaline rush from a win at the Michigan Intercollegiate a week ago, the Wolverines returned to Mount P4easant Saturday for the Central Michigan Intercollegiate. Competing once again on the Jack Skoog indoor track, the Michigan wo'men's track team was hoping for repeat success. But, this week's meet had an unex- pected result. With Purdue at the invitational, the Wolverines were unable to win again. Purdue edged Michigan with a score of 168 points, and the Wolverines finished runners- up with 154. "We go into every meet to win and we didn't win," Michigan coach James Henry said. "Overall, we showed more improvements as a team despite the loss." . There are some things Michigan could have done differently had it deemed the invitational more impor- tant. In the field events sophomore Teyonna Simpson could have com- peted in the triple jump. If she had, it could have meant 10 more points for the Wolverines. Junior Tasha Phillips also stayed out this week due to minor injuries. If Michigan had been faced with a do- or-die meet such as the Big Ten Championships, then Phillips would have competed in jumps and sprints. Also, more runners could have run in distance events. Despite their loss to Purdue, the Wolverines are focusing on bigger and brighter events in their season. A major goal they have is to be ready for Big Ten Championships. "If we were at full strength we could have been even more competi- tive with them," Henry said. "Some of the athletes were injured and we decided to rest them." ff you think ='re pregnant.. ca Us- sten, we cae PROBLEM PREGNANCY KELP 975-4357 Any time, any day 4 our $erving $tudent% since '1970. If Michigan wants to properly pre- pare for the grueling two-day confer- ence championships, then the Wolverines may have to make some sacrifices now. Making improve- ments might mean having various runners try out different events. This could build more strength and endurance in competition which gives the Wolverines the chance to be a better team. "We didn't accomplish what we were out to do," Henry said. "We wanted to win, but it's more impor- tant to rest injured runners and show improvements with other runners." In sprints, the Wolverines took first and second in the 60-meter dash. Freshman Adrena Williams won with a time of 7.64 seconds, and senior Candice Mullings came in second, running 7.67 seconds. In middle-dis- tance events, senior Regine Carruthers won the 600-meter run in a time of 1:33.11. Sophomore Rachel Sturtz won the 800-meter run in 2:13.42. Junior Ursula Taylor and senior Katie Jazwinski came in sec- ond and third respectively, in the 800- meter run. Ray 's title not enough. for gymnasts to prevail By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer One week removed from its best team performance of the year, the No. 8 Michigan women's gymnastics team struggled Friday night, coming in sec- ond place in a three-team meet with ,No. 6 Florida and Auburn. Florida posted a team score of 196.225, which was enough to hold off the Wolverines' score of 194.925. Auburn finished third with a 189.925. The silver lining in the competition for the Wolverines came courtesy of freshman Elise Ray, who won her first collegiate all-around title. Ray scored a 39.375, a total that included individ- ual event wins on the uneven bars and the beam. "I feel like I'm getting a little better each meet," Ray said. "I'm out there for the team, though, so any sort of individual honors are sort of a bonus." Michigan began the competition on evening, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome. With a tough, schedule still facing them, the Wolverines' goal now is regrouping. "I think it was. a learning experi- ence," Plocki said. "It should end up helping us." Janessa Greico managed to put together a solid evening for the Wolverines. Her individual score of 39.050 was the second-highest scores for Michigan and also marked a career high score for Greico in the all- around. She finished fifth overall. In addition to Ray's individual title, Michigan also had several gymnasts place in individual events. Greico and Christine Michaud matched each other with 9.825 scores on the vault, good enough for a second-place tie. Ray added a third-place finish on the floor exercise with a 9.875, while Bridget Knaeble placed third on the uneven bars with a 9.900 score - her career high score in that eveni. I I> I I I I