12 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 19, 2002 40 SOPHOMORE SENSATIONS Calli Ryals and Elise Ray are the NCAA's top two gymnasts BY MATT KRAMER DAILY SPORTS WRITER C alli Ryals vividly remembers the times when she and her club gymnastics team in Ohio used to travel to Baltimore to compete against a club team featuring future teammate and 2000 Summer Olympian Elise Ray. "We used to go to this one meet a year, the Maryland Clas- sic," Ryals said after finishing up practice yesterday. "And I used to think, 'OK, now I get the chance to compete against Elise Ray.'" A giggle interrupted Ryals. "Reilly?" Ray asked back, sounding flattered. "Yup," quipped back Ryals, before both broke into short laughter. Elise Ray and Calli Ryals have a lot to laugh about these days. That's because the sophomores are putting together the finest year ever by two Michigan gymnasts. According to the GymInfo polls released yesterday, Ryals and Ray are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation, respective- ly, in the all-around competition. "The rankings are pretty cool," Ray said. "It's a nice confi- dence booster, but at the same time we both have to keep our focus on what's to come." It's the first time in the history of Michigan coach Bev Plocki's program that two gymnasts have ever held the top two spots in the nation. "I don't know that I've ever had the combination of kids in the same recruiting class this good," Plocki said. "We knew right away what Elise would be able to contribute, and we knew Calli had the potential. But it's really awesome to see that one-two punch." That "one-two punch" has won 36 of the team's 40 event titles, earned six Big Ten Gymnast of the Week awards (three apiece) and has helped guide Michigan to a top-5 team rank- ing. Inevitably the question arises: Are the two rivals? Ray is forced to smile. "I knew that question was coming up. "I just don't think we have any rivalry. The team has got to come first, and if we are both doing well then we are both doing well for the team." Ryals couldn't agree more. "You're just trying to get dirt from us," Ryals said with a smirk, "and there really isn't anything. We hang out all the time." The two agree that they don't compete over anything, not gymnastics, not school (where Ryals is an economics major and Ray is still undecided), nothing. "The thing with us is that we have our own strengths and weaknesses" Ryals says. "For instance, Elise is really great on bars (where she is second in the nation individually, while Ryals excels on the floor,) and we are able to show off our different skills." While Ray came to Michigan fresh off of a trip to the Olympics and won a share of the individual NCAA Champi- onships just six months later, Ryals didn't truly evolve into a dominant gymnast until this year. "Calli has really developed over the last year - tremen- dously," Plocki said. Ryals attributes her sudden rise this year to just being around Ray: "One of the best things about having some of the top girls in the nation on your team is that they motivate you to work harder and get better." And even Ray, the former Olympian, gets motivated some- times by her teammates. "You know, self motivation is one of the hardest things in sports;' Ray said. "When you have top athletes around you, they just push you harder." The duo has been so dominant that, in the 12 meets the Wolverines have competed in this year, one of the two has finished in first 10 times. At the State of Michigan Classic in early February, Ryals won four out of a possible five event titles, while Ray has won three or more event titles in a meet on three different occasions this year. Michigan will need the two of them more than ever over the next month as it heads to Columbus Saturday for the Big Ten Championships and then prepares for the NCAA region- als and NCAA Championships. "I wouldn't go so far as to call this a dream season for me just because the biggest part of the season is yet to come, and we haven't gotten there yet," Ryals said. "I don't get too caught up in rankings, because when we go to Nationals those rankings are gone." And if one of them does win the individual national cham- pionship this year something is for sure: Michigan's "one-two punch" of Calli Ryals and Elise Ray would want that team championship even more. "The team championship is everything," Ryals said. "All that individual championship stuff, well, that's just irrelevant." 41 Elise Ray (left) and Callil Ryals have taken the gymnastics world by storm in their second seasons at Michigan. Ryals Is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation Individually with Ray right behind her at No.-2. Perfection: Sanderson now 154-0 DAILY SPORTS. 44 DEGREES AND CLOUDY? i TIME TO WATCH SOME BASEBALL AT THE FISH. "Every Once In A While Someone Writes A Book That Clarifies A Situation Tremendously. This book is definitely one. I could not put this book down. I read it at home. I read it at work. I read it at stoplights. The footnotes alone are worth the AT money. Horowitz answered questions that I have had for years now and pro- l nc vided me with places to go to recheck his research. The book is essentially a two part book. The first part deals with the reaction of the campuses to an argument against slavery repara- tions. The second is an actual argu- By Eric Chan Daily Sports Writer If you're a 197-pound wrestler checking the brackets at a tourna- ment, and you see that your next match is against some guy named Sanderson from a school named Iowa State, 'you're in for a ride. That Sanderson on the bracket is Iowa State's Cael Sanderson and his name is always at the top. The senior from Heber City, Utah has Sanderson gone undefeated in his four years at Iowa State and has captured three NCAA titles. That's right, he hasn't lost a single match in four years! This coming weekend, Sanderson hopes to join Oklahoma State's Pat Smith as the only four-time national champions. "He's special, he really is," Michi- gan head coach Joe McFarland said. "He's got a lot of confidence in him- self. He's able to chain wrestle really well. He's constantly looking for ways to score. If one move isn't working, he'll just go right to another." When Sandersgn wrestles, he does- n't just win - he usually destroys his opponents. A good example would be last year's NCAA Championships, in which Sanderson faced Indiana's Vic- tor Sveda in the semifinals. For the first part of this season, Sveda was ranked No. 1 at 184-pounds, but he was still no match for Sanderson. Iowa State's superstar gave the crowd a takedown clinic en route to a 21-7 victory. His teammates are usually so confi- dent that he'll win his match that they simply joke and laugh whenever he wrestles. Last year,- Sanderson broke Iowa legend Dan Gable's 30-year-old con- secutive win record - a mark the wrestling community thought would never be topped. Gable's previous mark of 100 straight victories has been shattered by Sanderson, who has won all 154 of his collegiate matches. Michigan's Kyle Smith knows all too well how good Sanderson is. The last time the two squared off was at National Duals in January, when Smith became Sapderson's victim No. 144. In that match, Sanderson pinned Smith 2:24 through the first period - itwas Smith'sonly loss by fall all season. Smith, currently ranked No. 5 in the nation at 197 pounds, is one of the wrestlers with the daunting task of trying to blemish Sanderson's perfect 154-0 record to win the national title. Sanderson may seem unbeatable, but Gable looked the same way 30 years ago. Gable's perfect 100-0 record fell to 100-1 when he lost to Washington's Larry Owings in the finals of the 1970 NCAA Champi- onships - the last match of his col- lege career. Can Smith play spoiler in much the same way that Owings did back in 1970? "Everyone's beatable," McFarland said. "You just have to be well pre- pared." GOPAL Continued from Page 11 Cloud 3-2 to advance to the Frozen Four. The second piece of bad news for Michigan deals with the NCAA's new 'regionalization' plan (what is it with the NCAA's stupid regionalization plans?). To make a long story short, the NCAA decided to keep all of the eastern teams in the East Region and the western teams in the West Region, which means that the West Region is absurdly stacked. The WCHA is easi- ly the best conference in college hockey, and all four WCHA teams - Denver, Minnesota, St. Cloud and Colorado College - are joining Michigan and Michigan State at Yost. As I mentioned earlier, Michigan got to play sixth-seeded Princeton in the first round in 1998. This year's St. Cloud team is so much better than the '98 Princeton team that it's not even funny. Michigan is going to have to sfratch and claw just to escape the first round this year, and if it does, it has to come back the next night - when the Wolverines will probably be exhausted - and somehow beat top- ranked Denver. Not very likely, to say the least. There is a small chance that Michi- gan could pull off the unthinkable and win two games in two nights against teams that powerful. This is where the Yost crowd will have to come up huge - when the old barn is rocking, the Wolverines can do just about any- ment against slavery Well written. Well d will be reading Horn books very soon." reparations. ocumented. I owitZ'5 other ISBN: 1-893554-449flardcover, 120 pages $21.95 Encounter Books, San Francisco, CA -Amazon Reviewer, Ft. Myers, FL To order call (800) 752-6562 or visit www.frontpagemagazine.com See David Horowitz speak on "How the Left Undermined America's Security" Tuesday, March 19 rnll IA r 1 . TT * -7