6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 4, 2002
Grapplers dispose of Spartans on senior day in Cliff Keen
By Eric Chan
Daily Sports Writer

01

The senior class of the No. 2 Michigan wrestling
team went out with a bang last-Sunday afternoon with a
29-7 rout of in-state rival Michigan State.
"I think this win showed that we're still on track an'd
that we're still wrestling intense," Michigan coach Joe
McFarland said. "We have to keep this thing rolling
right to the end. Sometimes, guys get anxious and look
ahead to Big Tens and Nationals around this time in the
season, but our guys did a great job of staying focused
on this match."
Matt Brink, Otto Olson and Andy Hrovat were all vic-
torious in their final bouts in Cliff Keen Arena as the
Wolverines won eight of 10 matches in the dual meet.
"The seniors on this team - I can't say enough
about them - they've been a big part of the success of
this team," McFarland said. "I got a little emotional out
there too.
"I remember recruiting the kid, and the next thing I
know I'm saying goodbye to them in Cliff Keen."
The match at 125-pounds between Michigan's No. 9
A.J. Grant and the Spartans' No. 13 Chris Williams was
expected to be the best of the night, but it didn't happen
that way.
In their previous bout, at Michigan State on Dec. 7,
Grant won a close 6-2 decision over Williams. This
time around it was all Grant wrestling mistake-free en
route to a 6-0 victory.
"A.J. wrestled great," McFarland said. "He dominated
the entire match, and wrestled hard for the full seven
minutes. He never gave (Williams) the opportunity to
score."
The best matches of the day came at 157, 165 and
197 pounds - matches that all went to overtime.
Michigan wrestlers Ryan Bertin and Kyle Smith
each pulled out victories, but 165-pound senior
Charles Martelli fell short in his last dual meet at
home.
Michigan State's Anton Hall scored a point for riding
time to send the match into overtime, and then scored a
takedown midway through the extra period to beat
Martelli 6-4.
The two had met at the previous dual meet with Hall
winning that match as well.

01

DAIDKAZ/aiy

Michigan's Andy Hrovat utilzes an interesting takedown in an earlier match this season. His Wolverines easily took care of the Spartans In their final home meet of the season.

Michigan was without 141-pounder Clark Forward
who is still recovering from an ankle infection he suf-
fered in Iowa City two weeks ago. McFarland expects
Forward to be ready for the Big Ten Championships
next weekend.

Redshirt freshman Nick Velissaris stepped in at the
141-pound weight class and "competed well" for the
Wolverines as McFarland put it, but lost a 11-3 major
decision to Michigan State junior Charles Sageman.
This senior class has had their best season ever this

year with a 9-2 Big Ten record, 16-3 overall and is look-
ing to improve on their seventh-place finish at last
year's NCAAs - their best finish as a class. In their
four years together the seniors have posted a team
record of 46-13-2.

'Strong' Big Ten is
too much for Blue

Men's home streak falls at the
hands of two conference foes

By Albert Kim
Daily Sports Writer

If there is one thing the No. 21
Michigan women's golf team was
reminded of in its trip to Florida
over spring break, it was that the
Big Ten will be an extremely tough
conference this season. The Wolver-
ines got a first-hand look at the Big
Ten in the Midwest Classic, and it
is fair to say that everyone came
away impressed.
"The Big Ten conference has
never been as strong," Michigan
coach Kathy Teichert said. "Last
year it was very strong too, but it's
very, very strong right now."
Michigan finished fourth out of a
field of 14, but also finished fourth
out of six Big Ten teams. No. 12
Michigan State walked away with
the victory by 11 strokes, followed
by No. 20 Purdue and No. 8 Ohio
State.
It was the second straight fourth-
place finish for the Wolverines in
the spring season.
"I was pleased with how we
played," Teichert said. "If we could
have had a couple of other things
happen to us, we would have been
right there."
It was a hard fought tournament
for the Wolverines, as they battled
back from sixth place after the first

two rounds.
The team's first sub-300 round of
the year (299) helped propel the
Wolverines to an impressive finish
in a field laden with top 50 teams.
It was also a very significant
improvement over last year's 10th-
place finish, and perhaps a sign of
better things to come.
"It was a different course last
year, but everyone is stepping it up
a notch," Teichert said.
Leading the charge was freshman
Laura Olin, who finished fourth in
the individual standings with a 220
- just four strokes off the leader.
Her 72 in the third round was a
team low for the tournament, and it
culminated in the first top-five fin-
ish of her career.
"She has had a tremendous year
so far. We probably didn't expect
her to play as well as she has, so it's
like an added bonus," Teichert said.
"She has really stepped up for us,
she's a competitor.".
Olin was joined in the top 10 by
teammate Misia Lemanski, who
shot a 224. Olin and Lemanski have
gotten off to good starts this spring,
as they've been the top two finish-
ers for the Wolverines the last two
tournaments.
And despite a semi-disappointing
finish at the Lady Aztec Invitational
two weeks ago, Michigan is show-

By Courtney Lewis
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's tennis team
probably wishes it had left for its
spring break trip last Friday with the
rest of the student body.
Instead, the team hung around for
the weekend and dropped two match-
es to start the conference season - a
4-3 loss to Northwestern and 6-1
pounding by No. 2 Illinois.
Illinois was the first team to beat
Michigan at the Varsity Tennis Cen-
ter this season, and both the Illini
and the Wildcats took the doubles
point from the Wolverines, who had
won it in their previous seven match-
es.
Michigan coach Mark Mees said a
run like the 11-match home wining
streak the Wolverines held heading
into the weekend "doesn't matter
much when we play teams like
Northwestern and Illinois. The bot-
tom line is we have to go out and
play well every time out."

Michigan, facing an early 2-0
deficit last Sunday, needed to win
three of the final four singles match-
es to beat Northwestern. Matt Lockin
took his No. 3,singles match in three
sets and Anthony Jackson came from
behind to win in his first time play-
ing No. 2 singles. But the rest of the
Wolverines couldn't come through.
"We played pretty good tennis and
we had some opportunities, but we
didn't follow through," a frustrated
Mees said. "The entire weekend we
didn't play well at what I call 'win-
ning time'- the critical, big points."
Jackson played at No. 2 Sunday
because senior co-captain Ben Cox
was out due to an infection in his
neck that he'd been fighting all
week. Cox's absence didn't affect
Michigan's doubles pairings and it
opened up a singles spot for fresh-
man Josef Fischer. Mees also insert-

against Illinois on Saturday, Michi-
gan could still only muster one point
- Jackson's win at No. 2 singles.
Lockin and senior Henry Beam also
won their doubles match, but it was-
n't enough to give Michigan the
point because Illinois took the other
two doubles contests.
Michigan looked strong in the
early part of the season, winning five
of six nonconference matches. But
the tougher Big Ten opponents gave
the Wolverines arreality check.
"We've got a lot of work to do,"
Mees said. "We have to get better as
a team. We have to be aggressive,
play our style and continue to play
good tennis when the match is on the
line."
Michigan headed to Hilton Head
Island, S.C. for the remainder of
spring break. For Cox, it was a
chance to recuperate, but Mees said
the rest of the team would not be'
resting.
"It's not going to be a day at the
beach," Mees said before the trip.

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LESLIE WARD/Daily
Senior Misia Lemanski leads Michigan
to fourth at the Midwest Classic.
ing that it can compete with any
team in the country.
"Each tournament we're getting
better and better, and that's the
goal," Teichert said.
Because the Midwest Classic was
earlier in the week, the Wolverines
spent the rest of their break practic-
ing and training in Lakeland, Fla
It was a good change.of pace for
the team, as the Wolverines were
able to play on an actual golf course
for an extended period of time.
"We've had a great opportunity to
play in practice, we've taken advan-
tage of every minute of sunlight,"
Teichert said. "We start in the
morning, break for lunch and din-
ner, and play until 9 p.m. It's not a
Jamaican fun trip - it's a working
trip."
Although the Wolverines had an
undefeated fall season, all of that is
forgotten now as they look ahead
to the remainder of the spring sea-
son.
Michigan still needs to work on
individual skills.
But the Wolverines believe they
have the qualities needed to put
together a strong season.
"We were very consistent this
weekend, and we're already consis-
tent," Teichert said. "We have tons
of depth, and our goal is to get to
the NCAA Championships."
Michigan next plays at the Hatter
Spring Fling (Mar. 16-17) in Day-
tona, Fla.

ed junior Chris
singles lineup for
season.
Although Cox

Another rough start for netters

By Brian Schick
Daily Sports Writer
The opening of the Big Ten season has not treated
the Michigan women's tennis team kindly in the past,
and this year was no different.
The Wolverines (0-2 Big Ten, 4-5 overall) dropped
their matches to Northwestern, 7-0, and Illinois, 5-2,
to open Big Ten play Feb. 23-24, and then won a non-
conference match on Saturday against South Florida 7-
0. This three-game swing was the team's first road trip
of the season.
Defending Big Ten champ Northwestern (3-0, 8-4)
won every doubles match and four of the six singles
matches in straight sets. The Wildcats jumped on
Michigan early in the doubles matches, and the
momentum carried over into singles.
Nearly all of the Wolverines were overwhelmed in
the first sets of their respective matches, with the
exception of freshman Michelle DaCosta, who won her
opening set 6-2. Michigan showed more life in its sec-
ond sets, but still dropped all its matches.
"We got off to a slow start," Michigan coach Bitsy
Ritt said. "Northwestern was all over us early on. We
fought hard, and in certain situations, we worked from
way back in match."
During the early going of the match against Illinois
(2-0, 7-5), it appeared that Michigan might end its
three-match losing streak.
Hoping to copy Northwestern's use of momentum

after winning the doubles point the day before,
Michigan won all three of its doubles matches to take
an early lead. But the momentum didn't carry over
this time, as DaCosta was the only other winner on
the day.
Sophomore Kavitha Tipirneni fought hard against
Illinois' No. 1 singles player Jennifer McGaffigan,
who is ranked No. 38 in the nation.
After dropping the first set 6-3, Tipirneni easily won
the second set in quick fashion 6-2 before dropping the
third set 6-0.
This was just the second meet back after she with-
drew from her match against Kentucky on Feb. 16
because of a back injury against Kentucky.
"My back felt great," Tipirneni said. "I didn't even
think about it once."
After dropping the opening two matches of the Big
Ten season last weekend, the Wolverines were happy to
take out some aggression on an unsuspecting South
Florida team in Tampa.
It was Michigan's turn to dominate, only losing its
No. 1 doubles match 9-7. The Wolverines even went as
far as to not allow the Bulls to win a single set in sin-
gles play - just the second time all season the team
has accomplished that feat.
The Wolverines will return home in two weeks to
face Minnesota and Wisconsin before going on a four-
game road trip - Marquette, Tulane, Michigan State
and Wake Forest - to end the month of March.

Shaya into the
the first time this
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DARE
Continued from Page 1B
It was understandable after a
promising start that some team
members would be disappointed
upon the cancellation.
"Some of them were disappointed
(because) they were still fired up,"
Warhurst said.
"When a young man prepares all
year, there is no right or wrong way
to react."

the runway as Dare made his
approach. He represented Michigan
at Dare's funeral in State College on
Feb. 28.
Michigan's women's track coach,
James Henry, said that while the
death was tragic, it doesn't necessar-
ily translate into the needs for more
safety equipment for pole vaulters.
"Some people would tell you that
we need to have helmets on every-
body," Henry said. "But (the pole
vault) is one of the safer events.

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