0 2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - January 27, 2003 CLUBSPORTSWEEKLY Plug and play: Ruggers find their passion on day one. ATHLETE OF THE WEEK By Eric Ambinder For the Daily And just more to the g expect oncet It's 1 a.m. Friday, and you're eitler in "I love th dream land or playing an intense game ple and getti of beer pong. But if you're a rugger, newcomer M you're at Oosterbaan Field House run- the 48 guys ning suicides, because you love the played rugby game. A comm "Rugby is a worldwide fraternity in their rapida the best way possible," junior captain the game. Craig Williams said. "The camaraderie "I misse is awesome." showed upr Unlike its younger brother, American made me pl football, rugby players commonly cher- Sharrief, kn ish the sport's rich history and tradition. "The Sultan After each match, it is customary for before, excel the home team to host a party honoring Junior We the visiting team. sidelined wi "A lot of people just look at it as Sharrief's in boozing, but it is a lot more than that," "I loved it Williams said. played in - Wolveines. feed off each other in invite By Jeremy Antar For the Daily As freshman Nick Willis entered the final lap of the 3,000-meter run at the Red Simmons Invitational on Saturday, he accelerated past the only runner ahead of him as if the first 2,800 meters of the race had been just a warmup. The freshman turned on the jets, leav- ing his competition behind and bringing many fans in attendance to their feet. Willis finished with a time of 7:59.19, an NCAA provisional qualifier. Sophomore David Battani, who had a strong day as well, said "a lot of guys stepped up today, especially Nick." Battani finished first in his meet of the 200-meter run with a time of 22.72 and also captured fourth place overall in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.59. "Everyone was feeding off the intensity of our teammates," Battani said. Finishing ahead of Battani in the 60-meter hurdles was sophomore DarNell Talbert with a time of 8.34. Talbert's day was not over after his victory in the hurdles. He still had to run the anchor of the 4x400- meter relay. In the relay, the Wolverines did not get off to their best start, but their finish made up for it. Sophomore Seth Waits ran an inspiring 400 meters in the third leg of the relay, not only closing the gap, but also taking the lead before placing the race into Talbert's hands. Talbert then completed the relay the way everyone expected that he would - in first place - with a time of 3:19.05. "The 4 by 400 was fun," Talbert said. He was mod-. est after the victory, saying he was "feeding off of Seth's energy." Men netters C4 like the partying, there is game of rugby than outsiders they step on to the pitch. e contact, meeting new peo- ing into shape," sophomore larc Corbin said. Like 46 of at practice, Corbin never y in high school. on theme for the players is and unique introduction to d the first practice and at the first game and they ay," said sophomore Sultan nown by his teammates as ." "I had never seen Rugby pt on 'Friends.'" es Farrow, who is currently ith an ankle sprain, echoes troduction to rugby. t from the first game I ever even though I had no idea what I was doing," Farrow said. Commonly misunderstood as a wrecklessly physical and dangerous sport, rugby - if played smartly - can be injury-free. But some injuries can't be avoided. Ask Kevin Vanderjagt. Walking off the pitch with a finger freakishly crooked and surrounded by teammates yelling "hospital," Vanderjagt stopped, grabbed his pinkie and jerked it back into proper alignment. Then he turned around and said, "OK, I'm going back in." Vanderjagt was then ordered by vol- unteer coach and Michigan rugby alum Dan Mascellino to grab some snow from outside and ice the injury. "Masso" Mascellino has been play- ing and coaching rugby for more than 20 years and has accompanied the rugby team to England and to Trinidad and Tobago - all voluntary ways that he can give back to the game that has given him so much. Sophomore Nick "Clean Up" Stadts admits that joining the rugby team has been the best decision he has made since coming to Michigan. "It brings you closer together (with teammates) than you can imagine" he said. The rugby team typically plays nine games in the fall and kicks off the shorter spring season with a spring- break vacation in a warm climate to compete against other clubs and "party," a word mentioned seven times in the vacation itinerary. This year's trip is to New Orleans and Panama City Beach, Fla. Ever play a game of beach rugby? You can. To learn more about the club, visit its web site at www.umich.edu-umrfc/ and party with the players on Thursday nights. Who: Sheetal Narsai Hometown: Commerce, Calif. Position: Driver Sport: Water Polo Year: Sophomore Why: Narsai scored a career-high four goals to help Michigann defeat No. 16 Hartwick during the Michigan Invitational. In her time at Michi- gan, Narsai has set two records - the single-season record with 25 assists and a 0.551 (27-of-49) shooting percentage. Narsal Q SCHEDULE Today W Tennis at Kentucky, 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29 M Basketball at Illinois, 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 W Basketball at Michigan State, 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31 M Swim/Diving vs. Northwestern, 6 p.m. Wrestling vs. Indiana, 7 p.m. W Gymnastics at Alabama, 7 p.m. Ice Hockey vs. Ferris State, 7 p.m. W Track/Field at Michigan Intercollegiate Saturday, Feb.1 M Tennis vs. Ball State, 12 p.m. M Swim/Diving vs. Ohio State, 1 p.m. M Basketball at Minnesota, 2:34 p.m. W Swim/Diving at Notre Dame, 2 p.m. M Track/Field at Boston Indoor Games, 5 p.m. Wrestling vs. Northwestern, 7 p.m. Ice Hockey at Ferris State, 7:05 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2 M Tennis vs. Florida State, Noon W Basketball at Wisconsin, 2:30 p.m. M Gymnastics vs. Illinois-Chicago, 3 p.m. W Gymnastics at State of Michigan Classic (East Lansing), 4:30 p.m. SpoRTS BRIEFS AgasS Wli forces return for Graf MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Andre Agassi just keeps getting better with age. The 32-year-old Agassi over- whelmed Rainer Schuettler right from the start and breezed to his fourth Australian Open title 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 yesterday, becoming the oldest man to win a Grand Slam singles crown in 31 years. "There's not a single day that's guaranteed or promised to us, and cer- tainly days like this are very rare," Agassi said. Agassi won his eighth Grand Slam championship. And the victory might also have been enough to lure his wife, Steffi Graf, out of retirement. 0 TONY DING/Daily Michigan sprinter Francis Legasse pushes to finish his race on top. Earlier, Waits was victorious in the 600-meter run, finishing with a time of 1:21.00. Waits remained near the front before taking over the lead shortly into the second lap. Once Waits took the lead, he never allowed anyone to gain any ground on him until he was across the finish line. The Wolverines had another great showing in the 800-meter run. Freshman Rondell Ruff (1:54.43), freshman Andrew Ellerton (1:55.13) and senior Phillip Stead (1:55.76) finished second through fourth, respectively. As he did the week before at the Michigan Quad, Braylon Edwards, also a wide receiver on the football team, highlighted the field competition. For the sec- ond time in as many weeks, Edwards won the high jump. By clearing 6'l1," Edwards beat out teammate Adam Kring, who finished in second place. "He is an exceptional talent on the football field and an exceptional talent out here too," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. Warhurst has been more than pleased with the con- tributions that Edwards has made in his first weeks with the team. Overall, the coach was proud of the team's per- formance, saying, "We're improving a little bit each week." As for the remainder of the season, Warhurst's goal is simple: "Just keep improving." 6MD NOTES Track rolls at Red Simmons Invite It was a day of personal and season bests at the Indoor Track Building, as the women's track and field team won five track and five field events out of a total of 15 at the non-scoring Red Simmons Invitational. Michigan kicked off the day by winning five out of six field events. Elizabeth Boyle leaped over the competition in the pole vault. In the triple-jump, tri-captain Teyonna Simpson set a new career record. Tri-captain April Phillips set season bests ii'the shot put and the weight throw. Michigan dominated the middle- distande events, placing four runners in the top five spots in the 600 meters and 800 meters. By Mustafizur Choudhury Mme of age' on Oklahoma trip S By Melanie Kebler Daily Sports Writer For the young Michigan men's tennis team, this weekend was a breakthrough. "We came of age today," Michigan assistant coach Dan Goldberg said. "We came of age today, bottom line." There was no better way to describe the Wolverines' stunning comeback victory against Tulsa yes- terday. After struggling last weekend against Western Michigan and DePaul, Michigan defeated the Gold- en Hurricane 5-2. The Wolverines notched the win despite losing every doubles match and starting off slowly on the singles side of the match. "The thing that was amazing (about the win) was that we lost all but one of the first sets in the singles matches," Goldberg said. "The guys rallied and turned the match completely around." The Golden Hurricane entered the match ranked 45th in the nation, boast- ing the talent of many returning players. Much of Tulsa's roster is comprised of international athletes - just three of the 10 players on the team are from the United States, and the remaining seven are from countries as far away as Argentina, Sweden and Japan. Michi- gan, at No. 48, had its hands full to begin the match. On the doubles side, Michael Rubin and Chris Shaya lost 8-5 playing at the No. 1 spot, and their teammates were also defeated fairly easily. The pair of Chris Rolf and Vinnie Gossain lost an early lead, succumbing 9-7 to Tulsa's team of Olaf Sjolund, a native of Poland, and Shunsuke Shimizu, of Japan. Anthony Jackson and Josef Fis- cher also lost, 8-6. If losing the doubles point wasn't enough to put Michigan in a hole, the Wolverines seemed to be digging them- selves deeper at the start of singles play. Every Michigan player - except Fisch- er at the No. 5 spot - lost his first set and then rallied for the come-from- behind win. Gossain, at the No. 6 spot, fought off two match points before tak- ing the 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory. Rubin, Michigan's No. 1 player, also had a tough second set. He faced Tulsa's Ale- jandro Tejerina, of Argentina, who is currently ranked 43rd in the country. Rubin won 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. The Wolverines' lone singles loss came at the No. 3 spot. Shaya dropped his contest, 6-1, 6-1. But the senior seemed to be in high spirits after the match, despite his disap- pointing loss. "I can't say enough about my team- mates right now," Shaya said, laughing.. "I'm beaming. I'm so proud of these guys, even though I got smoked." Shaya has plenty to be proud of. Last season, the Wolverines defeated Tulsa in a close 4-3 match at home. This time around, Michigan faced a tough crowd on the road and still managed to drop the Golden Hurricane, despite the depletion of its roster this year. "It's always great to get a win, of course we like winning," Goldberg said. "But it was the way we won today that was a great thing." erformance D1AY SCOREBOARD NBA STANDINGS EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division New Jersey Boston Philadelphia Orlando Washington New York Miami Central Division Indiana Detroit New Orleans Milwaukee Chicago Atlanta Toronto Cleveland w 29 26 23 23 21 18 15 W 32 28 23 21 17 16 11 8 Pct. .674 .591 .523 .500 .477 .429 .349 Pot. .727 .651 .523 .500 .366 .364 .250 .182 Pct. .791 .651 .591 .581 .548 .302' .233 Pct. .711 .643 .578 .465 .452 .452 .372 GB 3.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 10.5 14 GB 3.5 9 10 15 16 21 24 GB 6 8.5 9 10.5 21 24 GB 3.5 6 11 11.5 11.5 15 NHL STANDINGS EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division W L T New Jersey 29 12 3 Philadelphia 27 12 8 NY Islanders 22 20 5 Pittsburgh 21 20 4 NY Rangers 21 25 6 Northeast Division W Ottawa 32 Boston 25 Toronto 25 Montreal 20 Buffalo 15 Southeast Division W Washington 23 Tampa Bay 20 Florida 15 Carolina 17 Atlanta 16 L 11 18 20 19 23 L 18 19 18 23 26 Coach encouraged by gymnasts' By Nazeema A11i Daily Sports Writer For the Michigan men's gymnastics team, the young season has been filled with uncharacteristic challenges that only time can alleviate. After facing No. 1-ranked teams in back-to-back meets, the temporary weaknesses of the fifth-ranked Wolverines' lineup have become slightly magnified. But this current condition of difficulty is disintegrating as the team's consistency strengthens with the gradual addition of upperclassmen coming off injuries. Indications of improvement were evident on Satur- day night when the Wolverines (2-3 Big Ten, 3-4 over- all) totalled a season-high score of 210.350 against Penn State, but it was still not enough to surpass the top-ranked Nittany Lions (1-0, 8-0), who finished with a score of 219.400. "Until we're at full strength, we're not going be Not the same old shampoo In a new bottle ... knocking off the best teams," said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. "But I'm confident we. can come back as the season progresses." From the coaches to the gymnasts, there is no feeling of concern that can be detected. The entire team pos- sesses a communal sense of optimism, which Golder believes to be one of the main ingredients in the process of boosting the Wolverines to their true potential. "Right now, we're just building in preparation for the latter part of the season," Golder said. "We need to get our veterans back in and learn from our mistakes as well." Michigan defeated Penn State 215.00-214.600 at the Big Ten Championships at the end of last season. The rebuilding process seems to be headed in the right direction. Although Michigan did not win any individual events Saturday night, there were substan- tial improvements on certain events. "I was pleased with the vault and still rings. We were hitting (our routines) at a championship level;' Golder said. "But I was disappointed with the out- come of the other four events. We shouldn't have made so many mistakes." Golder did not fail to emphasize how crucial it is for the team to constructively learn from their mis- takes - especially en route to the culmination of its goal of challenging the nation's best teams. "We need to get a little stronger mentally;" Golder said. "Sometimes the guys are too tentative. We need to be more aggressive." Eddie Umphrey's performances on the floor and vault were exemplary of this mentality, as he finished in the top five in both of those events. Golder also applauded freshman Derek Croad's "championship-type execution" on the floor and vault. He also did not fail to acknowledge Penn State's all- around strength, although winning in State College has been difficult for visiting teams over the vears. WESTERN CONFERENCE Midwest Division Dallas San Antonio Minnesota Utah Houston Memphis Denver Pacific Division Sacramento Portland Phoenix Golden State LA Lakers Seattle LA Clippers w 34 28 26 25 23 13 10 W 32 27 23 20 19 19 16 WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division W L Detroit 27 14 St. Louis '26 15 Chicago 21 18 Columbus 19 25 Nashville 16 121 PTS 65 64 51 51 49 PTS 71 56 55 52 40 PTS 56 51 47 45 39 PTS 63 62 54 44 44 PTS 61 58 57 53 44 PTS 68 51 47 46 45 GF GA 124 95 121103 135145 135144 134160 GF GA 167110 148129 136126 134148 107 123 GF GA 147 139 139 143. 113146 112141 132176 GF GA 147 124 163132 123125 142 157 109132 GF GA 153130 123109 138136 138122 108 139 GF GA 156103 119 123 124134 124138 128147 Northwest Division W vancouver 28 Minnesota 25 Edmonton 23 Colorado 19 Calgary 17 L 16 17 16 14 23 L 11 18 20 22 20 Pacific Division Dallas Anaheim Phoenix Los Angeles San Jose w 28 20 18 19 17 NBA GAMES Yesterday's games TORONTO 101, Sacramento 97 BOSTON 91, Orlando 83 CHICAGO 100, Houston 98 INDIANA 108, LA Clippers 101 NY KNICKs 106, Phoenix 98 Portland 100, DALLAS 93 Today's games LA Clippers at Cleveland Phoenix at Washington Indiana at Miami San Antonio at Minnesota Houston at Memphis Milwaukee at New Orleans New Jersey at Denver NHL GAMES Yesterday's games WASHINGTON 7, NY Rangers 2 MONTREAL 4, Chicago 3 Phoenix at VANCOUVER, Inc. Today's games Nashville at BUFFALO Ottawa at DALLAS San Jose at Los ANGELES Tomorrow's games Nashville at BOSTON Pittsburgh at NY ISLANDERS Tampa Bay at PHILADELPHIA St. Louis at WASHINGTON Colorado at COLUMBUS Florida at MONTREAL Detroit at NEW JERSEY 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8 p.m. 8 p.m. 8:30 p.m. 9 p.m. 7 p.m 8 p.m. 10:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. LIVE AND LEARN JAPANESE! Study in Tokyo at the prestigious Waseda University for Summer, Winter or Spring: 0 Summer Japanese Program HEALTHY, MEDICATION-FREE VOLUNTEERS, AGES 18-45. I