6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - January 26, 2004

No. 1no more:
'M' bests top-
ranked Lions
By Julie Master
Daily Sports Writer
"This is all us!" said men's gymnastics junior
Eddie Umphrey as he high-fived his teammates
after an impressive parallel bar routine.
At that moment the Wolverines could taste
their fate. They would go on to defeat top-
ranked Penn State with a score of 215.725-
212.000 in an exciting meet at Cliff Keen Arena.
The win for Michigan is a significant one.
The last time it beat a top-ranked team was back
in 1999, when the Wolverines jumped from No.
10 to No. 1. For Penn State, the loss marks its
first regular season defeat in two years.
"None of us on this team were around in '99,"
junior Geoff Corrigan said. "We don't know
what it feels like to win a national champi-
onship. Coming in here and beating Penn State
puts fire in our hearts and will definitely spark
us in the gym."
The day started off well, as five Wolverines
scored better than all six of the Nittany Lions on
the floor exercise.
Justin Laury took first place with a score of
9.300, while Luke Bottke, Andre Hernandez,
Geoff Corrigan and Derek Croad rounded out
the top five in that order. Even on the pommel
horse, a team weakness, the Wolverines man-
aged to tally a better combined score than the
Nittany Lions, giving them momentum to main-
tain the lead.
"They didn't allow themselves to get down,
even if we had adverse situations," said Michi-
gan coach Kurt Golder.
And after a close 0.075 loss to No. 7 Stanford
last week, it would have been easy for the
Wolverines to feel down. But they managed to
channel that frustration into a burst of positive
energy.
"That's the difference between tonight and
Bulldogs
sent home
frusftraed
idefeat
By Gabriela D'Jaen
Daily Sports Writer

Home awaits road-
weary Wolverines

By Jeremy Antar
Daily Sports Writer
In a matchup featuring two Big
Ten heavyweights, No. 6 Iowa nar-
rowly defeated the 23rd-ranked
Michigan women's gymnastics team
on Saturday by a score of 196.750 to
196.375. As they had during each of
the last two meets, Michigan senior
Calli Ryals and junior Elise Ray fin-
ished in second and third place in
the all-around competition, respec-
tively. The match at Iowa was the
Wolverines' last of three consecu-
tive away meets, and the team is
excited about performing in front of
the home crowd next weekend
against Michigan State.
"We knew that Iowa was going to
be a big challenge," coach Bev Ploc-
ki said. "We're really looking for-
ward to being at home."
With two routines to go, the
Wolverines trailed the Hawkeyes by
nearly a full point. But Michigan
proved very resilient. On the floor
exercise, freshman Carol Mcnamara
started things off with a 9.800.
Senior Christine Mantilia then
turned in a 9.750, in just her second
run on the floor exercise in her
career. Sophomore Becca Clauson
and freshman Lindsey Bruck fol-
lowed with solid efforts, each earn-
ing a 9.875 to set the table for Ray
and Ryals. Ray calmly collected a
9.900, and Ryals was just about per-
fect with a score of 9.950 - her
highest mark of the season. Michi-
gan's floor routine put a dent into
Iowa's lead, closing the gap to
147.275-146.925 with one event
remaining.
"I was very happy that we contin-

ued to show improvement on the
floor," Plocki said.
The final rotation for Michigan
was the balance beam. Junior Chelsea
Kroll led off the event in brilliant
fashion with a 9.900. Bruck matched
Kroll's score, producing a first-place
tie in that event. Junior Kara Rosella
was strong, contributing a 9.725.
Ryals and Ray closed out the compe-
tition and the event with scores of
9.850 and 9.875, respectively. The
Wolverines' combined score on the
balance beam of 49.250 placed them
just tenths-of-a-point short of win-
ning the competition.
"Beam is a difficult event anyway,
and to finish on beam is a very dif-
ficult thing," Plocki said.
Despite the multiple injuries that
Michigan has endured this season
and a few early losses, Plocki said
she is pleased with the progress the
team has made.
"I'm proud of our team, we are
improving from week to week,"
Plocki said.
The team hopes that injured
Wolverines Jenny Deiley and Lau-
ren Mirkovich will be ready to con-
tribute against Michigan State next
weekend. Both would provide a
great lift for a Michigan team that is
not deep to begin with.
"We knew coming into the season
that depth was going to be our
weakness," Plocki said.
The Wolverines will look to get back
on the winning track against Michigan
State, and hope that they will get anoth-
er crack at Iowa before the year is over.
"We look forward to seeing Iowa
again at Big Ten's when we are
healthy and on a neutral floor,"
Plocki said.

Michigan junior Eddie Umphrey placed third in the still rings and took fifth-place honors In both vault and
parallel bars to help the Wolverines defeat No.1 Penn State Friday night.

last week," Golder said. "Last week, when we
had problems, we could see the team spirit go
down. Tonight, they put a little extra effort and
even lifted up when something bad happened. It
made all the difference in the world."
Corrigan put on a solid performance for the
Wolverines, earning first place in the all-around
competition with a combined score of 54.150.
Corrigan beat out Penn State's 2003 NCAA
rings champion Kevin Tan, who took second in
the all-around with a score of 53.900.
Tan put up an impressive score of 9.9 on the
rings, but the rest of the Nittany Lions strug-
gled. Penn State has plagued with missed rou-
tines all day.
"We were pathetic," said Penn State coach
Randy Jepson. "This is the worst meet we've
ever had since I've been at Penn State. We hit 13
routines and last week we hit 30 routines, so it

was a huge difference in our performance."
Although the Lions weren't ready to compete,
the Wolverines came ready to play thanks to the
help of an inspirational e-mail from Corrigan.
"I just said, 'Remember guys that we can
(win), and that was it,' " said Corrigan.
As the meet came down to the final minutes,
the Wolverines were still up by two points.
With the crowd waiting with patience, Andre
Hernandez gave a great performance and stuck
his routine.
The crowd cheered. A couple minutes later, as
Laury was the final man to compete, he too
stuck his routine, and the fans were at their feet.
The Wolverines had defeated the formerly unde-
feated Nittany Lions.
"They came in here thinking that they were
number-one in the country and they came out
thinking, 'Maybe not,'" Corrigan said.

Seniors leave Canham in style

By Anne Uile
Daily Sports Writer

Yesterday at the Varsity Tennis Cen-
ter, Butler's Brandon Gill did not take
his loss to Michigan lightly. He
demonstrated his dissatisfaction and
anger by crushing water cups, throw-
ing his hat, dropping his racket and
even exclaiming, "this is the biggest
ass-kicking game of my life!"
While Gill's outbursts were not typi-
cal of a sport renowned for its man-
ners, they do sum up the entire day for
the Bulldogs. As Butler became
increasingly frustrated, Michigan
remained composed and confident and
rolled to a 7-0 victory.
"We expected to dominate the
team, but we .didn't want to take
them lightly," said Anthony Jackson,
Gill's opponent.
Jackson returned Gill's outbursts
with solid strokes, crushing serves and
earning a 6-1, 6-2 win.
Co-captain Michael Rubin had a
closer match that held the attention of
the crowd. Even though Rubin won the
match 7-6, 6-3, he was not fully satis-
fied with his performance.
"I definitely didn't feel like I played
my best tennis," Rubin said. "There are
going to be days when you aren't
going to be playing your best. It's just
about how you deal with it."
One factor that possibly could have
affected Rubin's game was his oppo-
nent. Rubin considers Kevin Gill,
Brandon's older brother, one of his best

It seemed fitting that in its last meet
at Canham Natatorium the senior class
of the No. 16 Michigan women's
swimming and diving team claimed
six of the 12 event titles, allowing the
Wolverines to defeat Northwestern
179.5-109.5.
The meet began with the singing of
the Israel National Anthem in honor of
senior Maya Mandel, who is Israeli.
After the performance, all of the seniors
were honored for their successes in
front of an emotional crowd of parents
and friends.
"I lost it when they played the Israel
National Anthem for Maya," senior
captain Sara Johnson said. "The cere-
mony was much more sad than I
thought it would be. I can remember
watching the seniors ahead of me go
through it and it always seemed so far
away for our class. But now that it's
done, I can't believe it's over."
Johnson's father, Larry, was sad-
dened to see his daughter end her
career at Canham, but still has fresh-
man daughter Amanda Johnson to
watch for three more years.
"It doesn't feel like it's been four
years watching Sara," Johnson said.
"It's all happened really fast, and
tonight is finally her last night com-
peting in Canham. It's a little bitter
sweet."
Coach Jim Richardson, in his 20th
season with the Wolverines, admitted
that it was difficult watching his 10 sen-
iors compete at home for the last time.
"This meet is always so hard to go
through," Richardson said. "It puts
tears in my eyes. These girls have
been such a joy to watch over the past
four years. It's incredibly tough to see
them leave."
Seniors Kelli Stein, Anne Weilbach-
er, Tealin Kelemen and Emily-Clare

BRETT MOUNTAIN/Daily
Michigan's Michael Rubin teamed with freshman Ryan Heller to clinch the doubles
point against Butler yesterday at the Varsity Tennis Center.

friends in the tennis world and even
used to play doubles with Kevin in jun-
ior competitions. Kevin and Rubin
find competing against each other a
difficult task, and Rubin admitted his
game suffered because of this mental
challenge.
"Michael was almost playing not to
lose instead of to win," Michigan
coach Mark Mees said. "There are
some interesting psychological things
that take place when you play someone
that you've known your whole life."
Mees was pleased that Rubin man-

aged to have a successful match, how-
ever he stressed the importance of
improvement for all the players on the
team. The three teams Michigan has
played this season have been good, but
not great.
Next Sunday, the Wolverines will
face Wake Forest, currently ranked 30th
in the nation - 27 spots above Michi-
gan - at the Varsity Tennis Center.
"All seven of us are going to have to
go out and play really well," Rubin
said. "We just need a good week of
practice and we'll hopefully gear up."

TUNY DING/Uaily
Sophomore Elsa Larson earned a total of six points in Michigan's 179.5-109.5 win
over Northwestern to help the seniors win their final home meet.


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Fenn all won individual events to help
win the meet for the Wolverines.
"I was pleased with how everyone
swam," Richardson said. "We had a
really tough week of training, and I
had expected the girls to have a hard-
er time with their races. They have
dealt with their training very well this
season."
Although the seniors took the spot-
light for the majority of the meet,
sophomore Elsa Larson highlighted
the night with a personal-best time of
2:18.77 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Larson placed third behind Stein, who
won the event with an NCAA consid-
eration time.
"Larson had one of the best races of
her life tonight," Richardson said.
"She's been trying so hard to get under
2:20 and finally made it tonight."
Senior diver Tealin Kelemen, the
reigning Big Ten Diver of the Week,

scored 309.10 points to earn a victory
in the three-meter competition. Kele-
men's parents were in attendance Fri-
day night, making the trip from
Riverton, N.J., to watch her dive.
"I was pretty happy with my dives,"
Kelemen said. "It was just nice being
able to compete in front of my family. I
haven't seen them in a long time
because they live so far away."
Diving coach Chris Bergere, who
has trained with Kelemen since she
was 14, was a bit saddened that the
meet would be the last time he would
coach her. But Bergere remains
focused on the upcoming Big Ten
championships before facing the reali-
ty of their separation.
The Wolverines close out the regular
season on the road at Notre Dame next
Saturday. The dual meet with the No.
21 Irish begins at 4 p.m. at Rolfs
Aquatics Center in South Bend, Ind.

14

4


"UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY"
(Zir-e Pousr-e Shahr)
Middle East Film Series - Part One
Thursday, January 29, 7:30 PM, Rackham Amphitheatre
Open to the Public - Free Admission
The first US release of a film by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Iran's "First Lady


HPV and Diet Intervention Study
A study is currently being conducted at
the University ofMichigan Medical
Center investigating the effect of a high
fruit and vegetable diet in preventing
abnormal Pap smears.

Who is elible ?
Sexually active women ages 18-40





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