The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 11 'M' hopes to take winning ways on road By Josh Holman Daily Sports Writer Senior night has come and gone for the Michigan women's gymnastics team. As expected, it was an emotional night, and the Wolverines took some of that emotion and turned it into a 197.775, the team's sec- ond highest score ever. The night was just one more realization for a tal- ented group of seniors that it is, in fact, almost all over. "The meets are a little more sentimental," senior Shanon MacKenzie said. "I'm paying a little more attention to exactly what it feels like, but it's still the same thing. I'm trying not to over-think them." With just the Shanico Inn-vitational in Corvallis, Ore. remaining on the Wolverines' schedule before the start of the postseason, Michigan coach Bev Ploc- ki hopes to stretch some of that emotion out to anoth- er arena. "We have not competed as well as we should have on the road," Plocki said. "I'm trying to instill in them the fact that we can go there and expect ourselves to do every bit as good as we do on senior night at home." As easy as that may seem, the ques- tion is whether the Wolverines will actu- ally perform to those high standards that CoRvAL they set on Saturday at Crisler Arena. That task became even harder when 40 BgTn they learned of the injury status of sen- When: 7 p.m. ior Missy Peterson and junior co-cap- latest: Michi tain Janessa Grieco. its final regul Peterson's ankle injury, which she at the Shanic sustained last week in practice, will against Michi keep her from this weekend's competi- Seattle Pacifi tion and possibly the Big Ten Champi- gon State. onships. Meanwhile, Grieco is suffering from a bruised knee that resulted from a bad landing on the vault in Saturday's warm-ups. She competed in the rest of the meet, but now-swelling has made her status questionable. Despite the injury setbacks and a relatively unim- WNIT Continued from Page 10 nonconference schedule but was benched after Michigan's game at Penn State on Jan. 13, as her offensive production fell off in Big Ten play. But Guevara thinks that Pool is ready to take on a bigger role after spending the Big Ten season coming off the bench. "Tab has demonstrated to me the last couple weeks that the defense has gotten better and the rebounding has gotten better," Guevara said. "She's getting much more comfortable with the motion offense. I've been pretty pleased with the way she has been the past couple weeks." The more athletic lineup should match up well BREAKAWAYS Continued from Page 10 don't want them to shoot because they always try to go right up top. It's a meteoric lift you can get if you stop a breakaway." Lake Superior had two breakaway chances early in the first period of Friday's 4-3 upset win over Michi- gan and capitalized on both of them to give the Lakers a quick 2-0 lead. "Both shooters just went in and shot it," Pearson said. "The way (Lake Superior forward Jeremy) Bachusz walked in on that first one, it was like he was Blue divers eyeing NCAA berths By Kyle O'Neill Daily Sports Writer It's not time to say goodbye yet. For Michigan diving coach Dick Kimball these next few weeks will have extra meaning as they will cap off a legendary coaching career spanning six decades. "(Retiring) will probably hit me more when we get to WEST NCAAs, because that will be the last official meet for Who: Michig me," Kimball said. "It's pret- women's RE ty much routine getting the ZWhen: Fda kids ready for competition, 11a.m. (but) I think NCAAs will be latest: Kelly) a culmination of it all." Tealin Kelem On Friday Kimball will decent shot take two women's divers to the NCAA Cl the NCAA Zone Meet in hopes of qualifying them both for the NCAA Championships on Mar. 21-23 in Austin, Tex. Junior Kelly Vander Kuyl - who just missed qualifying for the NCAA meet by one place last year - and sophomore Tealin Kelemen will be the Wolverines' representatives in L. an egia iy ar yVal en at har the Zone C competition with the other Big Ten schools, the Mid-American Conference and Notre Dame. Each will compete in the 1- and 3-meter events, but only Vander Kuyl will dive from the tower. If one qualifies for NCAAs in one event, she can compete in all three at the Championships. "Tealin is stronger on * the springboard and AFAYETTE Kelly's a better tower AFAYET T diver," Kimball said. "If at NCAA * she is going to make on C Diving (NCAAs) it'll have to be nd Saturdayon tower. For Tealin the 3- n ' meter is her best event." nder Kuyl and With the tower not used each has a for competition until the qualifying for Big Ten Championships npionships. last month, Vander Kuyl will hope to improve on her fifth-place finish at Big Tens and her finish of fourth at last year's zone competition. She should feel comfortable with the facilities at Purdue - the host of the zone meet - as they are brand new, much like those at Canham Natatorium. I L ic ga lar-s ,o Ir igar fc a Elise Ray and the rest of the Wolverines need to step up their performances on the road. portant road meet this weekend that screams letdown, a string of continued success is by no means out of reach for this team, and the list of impressive per- formances from Saturday proves that. SDSophomore Elise Ray tied Michigan's .s, ORE. record in the all-around competition With a 39.825 that included three scores higan(16-3' of 9.95 and a score of 9.975. Sopho- more Calli Ryals earned her third per- n competes fect 10 of the season on the floor season meet exercise. nn-vitational The Wolverines were also happy to n State, see junior Cami Singer set three season- and host Ore- high marks after struggling for a majori- ty of the season. A solid contribution from her could prove to be very impor- Cob en has sights set on bid to NCAA meet Kelemen has enjoyed success all sea- son with just three occasions in which she hasn't been in first in the 3-meter dive. Unfortunately one of those times was at Big Tens. She was 12th, and the majority of her competition will be from here, including Notre Dame sen- ior Heather Mattingly - who was a NCAA qualifier last season - and Michigan State's Big Ten Champion Carly Weiden who defeated Kelemen earlier in the year. "I think Tealin has a great chance because if she has a good day, she's as good as any of those girls," Kimball said. "But it'll be tough for both of them, because there's a lot of good competition from the Big Ten this year." This may not be a monumental way for a coach like Kimball to end his coaching career for the women, as there is no clear-cut All-American on the team. But what he has done is create a young, talented team surrounded by two future stars to lead the squad under whomever will be the diving coach next year. "IWEKN WEST LAFAYETTE Who: Michigan at NCAA Men's Region C Diving Zone Meet When: Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. Latest: Jason Coben is Michigan's lone hope for a berth at the NCAA Championships. last year, including a stress fracture in his elbow. Now that he has figured out how to dive without hurting himself, he loves "doing something most people don't even dream of doing." Coben hopes to do well on platform at Zones, but he isn't exactly looking for- ward to the meet. Region C consists of most of the Big Ten, plus Mid-American Conference teams and Notre Dame, so the divers are mostly the same as Coben faced at Big Tens. "It's like the exact same meet again," Coben said. "I want to compete against new people. I'll just dive as well as I can considering I've only had a week of rest." By Courtney Lewis Daily Sports Writer tant with the injuries to Peterson and Grieco. "We know we perform the best when we're relaxed and confident," MacKenzie said. "This weekend we need to put ourselves back in the state of mind where there is no pressure." tonight against Valparaiso. The Crusaders, who fin- ished the season at 24-6 and won the Mid-Continent Conference regular season title but lost to Oakland in their conference tournament final, feature a plethora of 3-point shooters and the towering 6-foot-5 Dutch center Marlous Nieuwveen. But Valparaiso has yet to play a team in the RPI top 100 this season. "They really do a nice job of doubling in the post," Guevara said. "They're like a fly on fly paper as soon as the ball goes inside." But the Wolverines are worrying more about them- selves then their opponents. Michigan wants to end its season with a win. "If we can make some noise in this tournament and play well, it will be a nice springboard going into spring practice," Guevara said. a 50-goal scorer. "Most teams have goalie tapes that we look at on the opposition goaltender and if there's any weakness- es that you see, you try to tell your team about that. I don't know if they did that, but they made it look easy." As the postseason progresses for the Wolverines, every scoring opportunity is monumental, and the breakaway is the best opportunity of all. "If you don't bury one now, you've got the whole summer to think about it.," Woodford said. "The pres- sure on you now to perform is so much higher - every goal now is absolutely huge." Michigan diver Jason Coben dominated the dual-meet season, sweeping the 1-and 3-meter events six times. Then he won a Big Ten Championship on platform and finished second on the 3-meter spring- board. Coach Dick Kimball's intense training regimen has probably contributed to that success, but at least part of the credit goes to Coben's 10-year-old sister, Lauren. The elder Coben, a sophomore, dove throughout high school, has almost two years of college diving under his belt, and last season competed in the biggest meet of the year, the NCAA Championships. But that considerable experience does- n't mean he is relaxed out there. "I'm nervous all the time," Coben said. "But I'm most nervous when I know I'm behind (in the score)." Coben has a simple solution to keep those nerves from affecting how he dives: He just thinks of his little sister. While attending high school in New- town Square, Pa., Jason practiced 45 min- utes away from home, and Lauren became an unwilling passenger on those car rides. "We always had to drag my sister along and she was always whining and-pouting," the big brother remembers. "So I'm just thankful that my sister gave up her time for me. She's only 10, so she thinks the world of me, and I just want to make her proud." Coben will need calm nerves this week- end when he competes as Michigan's lone male representative at the NCAA Men's Region C Diving Zone Meet in West Lafayette. Between 25 and 30 divers will fight for six NCAA Championship spots, and unlike swimmers - who can qualify throughout the season - divers get just one chance. "(Coben) is definitely capable of mak- ing it, but he has to perform well again," Kimball said. "He has an extremely good chance because he has three good events." Of the three events (1-meter, 3-meter and platform), Coben's favorite is plat- form, although it wasn't always that way. "I learned it last year, and I hated it," he said. "It hurt every time I would dive in the water. You hit (the water) at like 33 miles per hour so it's like hitting a brick wall." Coben said he suffered several injuries DAVID KATZ/Daily Michigan's diving team only has one competitor at the Zone Diving Meet. SWolverines set to tee up for Carras' final season By Jacob Leonhardt For the Daily After 24 years being on the coach- ing staff, and 20 years as the Michigan men's golf coach, Jim Carras will be retiring after this season. Carras has been known throughout his career as a "player's coach." He has always stressed the importance of earning a degree as the primary goal for student- athletes. Since 1987, Carras has coached more than 35 Academic All- Big Ten student-athletes. "The most memorable moments of my coaching career have not been of the game itself, but the lasting relation- ships with my players," Carras said, "I have been to some of my players' wed- dings and watched them grow into strong members of society, not only on the golf course but as human beings." Carras has earned respect not only as a competitive coach on the course, but also as an influential figure for his young players. He has done so by first stressing education, then putting 6 emphasis on his players' performanc- ; es. With the opening of the spring sea- son coming up this weekend, Michi- gan is looking forward to a fresh start after an average fall season. The team will begin its spring season this week- end at the El Diablo Intercollegiate meet in Citrus Springs, Fla. Five play- ers will be traveling to Florida - Andy Matthews, Andrew Chapman, Kyle Kilcherman, Dave Nichols and Scott Carlton. "All five players making the trip in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse during the winter months, the Wolverines plan to take advantage of the limited opportu- nities in the warm Florida sun by earn- ing a top-five finish this weekend. EL DIABLO INTERCOLLEGIATE Who: Michigan in Citrus Springs, Fla. When: Saturday and Sunday Latest: With its first match canceled due to rain, the Wolverines will tee off their first match of the spring season this weekend. ARE YOU BILINGUAL? COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE LAB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO SPEAK MORE THAN 1 LANGUAGE, HAVE NO HISTORY OF HEAD INJURY, NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE, OR CLAUSTROPHOBIA (FEAR OF ENCLOSED SPACES), AND HAVE NO HISTORY OF READING OR LEARNING DISABILITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN STUDIES. PAYS $8-$15/HOUR DEPENDING ON STUDY, PLUS YOU MAY RECEIVE A PICTURE OF YOUR BRAIN. CALL 763-0343 FOR MORE INFORMATION. 3 Ilyt: Franc e vs. Michigan Michigan The Corritore Classc Men's Gymnastics #8 M higan vs. needs a teacher. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for children and senior citizens. U-M students admitted for FREE! Tickets can be purchased at the Keen Arena ticket windows on the night of the meet. For all the latest info. on Michigan Athletics, visit MGoBlue.com Teach( Tfh 1l Saturday, March 23, 2002 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sports and Expo Center '1 Macomb Community College South Campus