6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsTuesday - January 22, 2002 Tough schedule pays dividends for Blue By Melanie Kebler Daily Sports Writer Competing against the top teams'in the country for the first half of the season wasn't easy for the Michi- gan men's swimming and diving team, but it looks as though the hard work is starting to pay off. After an impressive showing in a loss to No. 1 Stanford at their last meet, the 12th-ranked Wolverines soundly defeated No. 20 Penn State and Purdue in a triple meet at State College this weekend to improve to 3-0 in the Big Ten and 6-3 overall. Michigan headed to Pennsylvania looking to notch its first win since defeating Georgia in November. The Boilermakers and Nittany Lions were hoping for a letdown from Michigan after its fast meet the previ- ous weekend, but the Wolverines swam away from Penn State (152-91) and Purdue (162-81). "It didn't happen, although often times it does," Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said of the letdown. "Everybody swam up to their potential this weekend." Freshman Brenden Neligan, sophomore Dan "Winning those first three events kind of put the meet out of reach for Penn State, and it was pretty much downhill from there," Urbanchek said. "The divers also did real well." Sophomore Jason Coben continued his recent suc- cess off the board. He was Michigan's only double event winner, taking the 1-meter and 3-meter diving contests. In the 200-yard individual medley, Siciliano, a three-time NCAA champion in the 400 individual medley, established a new McCoy Natatorium pool record with a time of 1:49.53. His teammate Ketchum also broke the pool record in the 200-yard freestyle, and both swimmers posted NCAA consideration times. However, speedy times and pool records alone did- n't win the match for the Wolverines. The team also showed its depth this weekend. Not only did Michi- gan win eight of the 13 events, but it also placed at least one person in the top three of each race and often more than one. Michigan placed 1-2 in three races and also placed well in the distance contests, its more Christian Vanderkaay gained valuable points for his team by swimming well in the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard breaststroke. "Christian had a very good meet," Urbanchek said. "In competition he posted some personal best times and I was very pleased to see that he placed second in the 200 butterfly and came through and got third in the 200 breaststroke." The competition was a double dual meet, with Michigan, Penn State and Purdue all competing in the same races. Each team entered four swimmers and each race consisted of two heats, a different format than Michigan's recent dual meets. "Someone in the second heat can end up winning (the race)," Urbanchek said. "You're almost swim- ming against the clock, because you don't know what the next guy's going to do in the next heat." After this weekend, the Wolverines have the opportu- nity to continue to dominate in the pool. The two fresh- man distance swimmers, Neligan and Andrew Hurd, are swimming especially well. And Siciliano and Ketchum have already established themselves as consistent con- DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily Ketchum and senior Tim Siciliano led the team early strongest events. The Wolverines swept the top three tributors to the team. With this week off to prepare, After nearly pulling off an upset over No. 1 Stanford last week, Michigan improved its in the meet, winning three of the first five events to spots in the 1,000-yard freestyle and finished 2-3-4 in Michigan looks forward to taking on Ohio State on Feb. record to 6-3 after beating Purdue and Penn State 162.81 and 153-91, respectively. put the match away. the 500-yard freestyle. In the shorter events, sopho- 2 and plans on finishing at the top of the Big Ten, just Tankers go the distance against three Big Ten foes this weekend By Kyle O'Neill Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - Forget about Terry Bradshaw, Mike Piazza, Dan Fouts or even Car- rot Top. If the phone companies want spokespeople who fit the product they are Vying to sell, they need to look no further than the long distance squad on Michigan's women's swimming and diving team. In this weekend's two meets, the duo of soph- omore Emily-Clare Fenn and freshman Amy McCullough continued their recent dominance of the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events, with a sweep on each day to give Michigan a win in seven of its last eight long distance events. The two played a large part in Michigan's two victories, its first two of the season, against Ohio State (148-94) and Michigan State (138-105) in a triangular meet Saturday. The wins evened Michigan's Big Ten record at 2-2 after a loss to No. 18 Penn State 129-114 Friday night. "The distance swimmers put in a long week this week," Michigan coach Jim Richardson said. "We crushed them in practice all this week. They were tired, but they swam with a lot of heart." The same could be said for the rest of the swimmers on Friday, as the Wolverines went down to the final event with Penn State. After beginning the dual meet with an unex- pected sweep of the first three swimming events - the 400-yard medley relay, 1,000 free and 200 free - the Wolverines looked as if they were going to be content with .a good start as they let the Nittany Lions rally back to take a 22-point lead with four events remaining. But after Lindsay Carlberg, Tealin Kelemen and McCullough won the 200-yard backstroke, 3-meter diving and 500 free, respectively, Michigan found itself down just one point. That's when things got interesting, as both the 200-yard breaststroke and 400 free relay were decided by less than a second. The 200-yard breaststroke featured two of the Big Ten's best in Penn State's Kristen Woodring, who set two records at the Big Ten Champi- onships last year as a freshman, and Michigan's Kelli Stein, who had only lost once in the event all season. After Woodring jumped out to what appeared to be an insurmountable lead - pulling ahead by two seconds with 50 yards left - Stein closed strong and finished only one- half of a second behind Woodring. "lhonestly didn't think Kelli could be that close to Woodring," Richardson said. "If that race was just ten feet longer ... She just needs to get a little more confidence in the first 100 yards to realize she can compete with the best of them." With Michigan down 10 points prior to the final event, it needed a 1-2 finish in the 400- yard freestyle relay to win the meet. Unfortu- nately for the Wolverines, Penn State's A relay team pulled away early from Michigan's B team, guarariteeing a Nittany Lion victory. But although the meet was lost, the final event still kept watchers on the edge of their seats. Sophomore Sara Johnson, down .33 sec- onds in the final lap, got neck-and-neck with her competitor and took the event down to the final stroke. Penn State's Lindsay Fraschilla eventual- ly edged Johnson by just .11 seconds. With all the excitement on the first day of competition, the Wolverines were hoping not to have a letdown that fatigue might cause. They came out and opened with two Michigan State pool records to erase any of those worries. Annie Weilbacher, Laura Kaznecki, Stein and Carlberg combined to break the record in the 400-yard medley relay (3:48.66), and McCul- lough set another mark in the 1,000 free. "We went 3:45 in it yesterday and the record's 3:51, so it doesn't take a PhD from Michigan to figure out you can take a run at it," Richardson said. "I just told my kids, 'you want your name on a board? Just take a chance today."' After those two events, Michigan earned five more firsts on its way to beating the Buckeyes and Spartans. "Overall I give us a B-minus for our perform- ance (Saturday), but there have been times this time of year where on a second day meet we're a C or a D' Richardson said. "I think we're defi- nitely ahead of where we've been in the past." Best Ann Arbor Airport Service to & from Metro Airport ",e- 14 I + Call Metro Connection Airport Special Price: $39 One to four people. No waiting charge at airport. We provide Lincoln & s . Cadillac luxury taxis. Service o AMERICAN CENTER TRAVEL 4k Lowest Price COMPLETE TRAVEL SERVICE International or Domestic Very special rates on 40 different airlines -Cruises Discounts * Group Travel Vacation Pkg *Tours "We specialize on Int'l fare, Lowest fare to Your Home" Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa Let Us Work On Your Tours ForYou!! .................. London $335 Seoul $670 j Paris $420 Mex City $280 Hong Kong $595 Nairobi $10760 Fares valid at time of printing and subject to change without prior notice 27777 Franklin Rd. Southfield, Mi 48034 mlke.act~wspan.com Tel: 248-350-1030 Fay 248-350-2025 Call Sam or Raj: (888) 706-8080 or (734) 347-4007 ; You Fly From$ 78and Your Buddy Flies FREE* ook now for Spring Break Space Limited " Faciats " Bikini Waxing * Full Leg Waxing (Brazilian waxing available) To make an appointment call: 913-5557 SUMMER IN MAINE Male/female instructors needed: Tenni, S Lane Sports, Canoe, Kayak, Sail, Wa 1r ving, Rocks, Ropes, Arts, Theatre and Ridi gPitueq oca- tions, exceptional facilities. June tA sEs al. Apply on line or call., DAYIO N A BEACH Your Buddy FT. LAUDERDALE Your Buddy FT. MYERS Your Buddy $78* FREE* $78* FREE* $78* FREE* + Earn up to 1 5OOt WorldPerks* Bonus Miles! o Plus, earn an additional 500 WoridPerks Bonus Miles when you reserve an Alamo* car rental! ORLANDO $78* Your Buddy FREE* ST. PETERSBURG >78* Your Buddy. FEE* Prices shown are each way based on mundtrip purchase.