THE SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
J. BRADY MCCOLLOUGH:
Nothing better than four
straight days of the NCAA.
PAGE 3B
March 22, 2004
RETIRING LEGEND
Michigan men's swimming and div-
ing coach Jon Urbanchek is retir-
ing after 22 years in Ann Arbor.
PAGE 8B
STAYING AT 'HOMA
A preview of Michigan's home game
against Oklahoma in the second round of
the NIT tonight.
PAGE 3B
'
SPORTFS__
OND mie I ihi~gm e tt
SECTION B
Out
in
the
sticks
Friday: MICHIGAN 5, Nr h rn Mii hin 1; Saturday: Ohio State 4, MICHIGAN 2
Ohio State slip-up sends
Ieers to New Hampshire
By Brian Schick
Daily Sports Writer
DETROIT - It seemed that Michigan
had locked up the Mason Cup even before it
took the ice Friday night. With a bye on
Thursday and No. 2 seed Miami and No. 3
seed Michigan State eliminated, the top-
seeded Wolverines could thank their oppo-
nents for taking out the supposedly harder
teams. But Michigan still came up short in
the CCHA Tournament final, as No. 4 seed
Ohio State held on to win 4-2 when a des-
perate comeback attempt came up short.
"If we went into that game thinking that
(we were going to win), we deserved what
we got," said sophomore Brandon Kalienc-
" ki, the hero of Friday's 5-1 win over North-
ern Michigan. "I can't say we did, but
something wasn't right in the locker room
before the game."
Michigan was never in danger of losing
its bid to the NCAA Tournament, but its
resume was dealt a severe blow by failing to
win its conference tournament. Had Michi-
gan won its third-consecutive Mason Cup
this weekend, the Wolverines would have
made a strong argument to play in the Mid-
west Region in Grand Rapids. But the loss
sends Michigan packing, heading to the
Northeast Region in Manchester, N.H., with
a first-round date against New Hampshire.
This is a reversal of fortune for Michigan,
who basically will play a road contest rather
than a neutral-site game. The Wolverines
advanced to the Frozen Four both times in
the past two seasons, after winning the
regional held at Yost Ice Arena.
"It's a little deja vu," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "We hosted the regional for
two years, and it's difficult to understand the
logistics of travel (in the tournament)."
Right from the opening faceoff, the
Buckeyes came out of the gates firing,
outshooting the Wolverines 8-2 in the first
10 minutes and 17-5 at the end of the ini-
tial period.
"I don't think we've ever had a worse start
on faceoffs this season, being outplayed and
being outshot and out-chanced," Berenson
said. "They thought they were playing hard
but ... playing desperate hockey and playing
hard are two different things and we didn't
do either until late in the game."
Down 3-0 after two periods, it seemed
that Michigan still had yet to play to its
potential. But coming out of the dressing
room to start the third, Michigan looked like
the team that won the CCHA regular-season
title. Junior Milan Gajic began to lead the
Michigan comeback attempt, as he produced
Michigan's best scoring attempt of the game
up to that point by ringing a slapshot off the
post early in the period.
On his next shift, defenseman Nick
Martens received a one-time pass from jun-
ior David Moss along the blueline and
ripped a rocket toward Ohio State netminder
Dave Caruso. Gajic put his stick down and
redirected the shot into the net.
Less than three minutes later, sophomore
See BUCKEYES, Page 4B
Michigan defensemen Brandon Rogers, right, and Jason Dest return to the bench after allowing Ohio State a powerplay goal to make It 3-0 on Saturday.
Time for icers to realize. you snooze, you lose
ETROIT - It's a routine that plays out
with way too much regularity in my life.
4:30 a.m.: Teeth brushed and homework
still undone, I get into
bed a man on a mission.
Thinking I'll get up
before my 11:00 a.m.
class and do work, I set
my three alarm clocks
(one being the cell
phone) for 8:45 a.m.
Bold move, but some-
how, I honestly believe
that my sleep-deprived
body will accept the
four-hour siesta I've
presented it with.
8:45: Pandemonium!
chimes of Sprint PCS. I quickly terminate this
crack-of-dawn (at least in my world) disruption by
smacking each snooze bar with a series of blows
that would make Todd Bertuzzi blush (yeah, I
went there).
8:55: Shania Twain kicks into wakeup-call tune.
"Man ... I feel like a woman."
Quick snooze bar
9:05: Usually the third series of alarms is the
one I sleep through for a bit. But my roommates,
Kaegi and Kreidler, don't let this last long -
"Gennaro, wake the (expletive) up and turn off
your (expletive) alarm."
Snooze bar
9:15: snooze bar ... 9:25, 9:35, 9:45: snooze
bar snooze bar snrooze bar
1:05: 4 1/2 hours and 27 snooze bars after the
targeted wakeup time, I'm finally on my feet. First
action taken? An apologetic email to both GSIs
whose discussions I've missed.
To tell you the truth, though, I'm not too upset
1
and don't feel guilty writing this I-can't-believe-I-
slept-through-class-it-will-never-happen-again
rubbish. Laziness and snooze bar smacking are as
much a part of college as beer pong, and the GSIs
know this. Usually they accept the apology.
Everyone snoozes -just ask the Michigan
hockey team.
Following a weekend sweep of Bowling Green
a month ago, the Wolverines had a four-point lead
over second-place Miami with two weeks left in
the regular season. As the season played out, one
win in these final two weeks would have clinched
the CCHA title for Michigan. Unfortunately, this
is when the snooze bar reared its ugly head.
10:1Sish, Friday night, Feb. 27: Wakeup call
No..1.
Michigan had just finished off its worst effort of
the year, a 4-1 loss to Notre Dame. The Wolver-
ines looked completely uninspired on the Irish ice,
exhibiting a degree of effort that would have made
See FILICE, Page 48
GENNARO
FILICE
Nuthin' But a 'G,
Thang
All three alarms sound
good chance he's going
to be Michigan's captain
next year. PA 5B
PGE 3
off, creating a smorgasbord of sounds that range
from scrambled-out country music (still don't
know why that station's set) to the annoying
TONY DING/DailyI
* 'M' takes
home Big
Ten crown
By Melanie Kebler
Daily Sports Writer
For the Michigan women's gym-
nastics team, the number 13 isn't a
curse. It's a charm.
The Wolverines captured their
13th Big Ten title in 22 years Satur-
day in Minneapolis, putting up a
season-high score of 197.800. It was
Michigan coach Bev Plocki's sixth
straight and 11th career Big Ten
championship.
"We talked about how we needed
to go in there and concentrate on
hitting 24 routines," Plocki said. "It
wasn't, 'We're going to try and beat
Iowa, we're going to win the meet,'
but, 'We are going to try to hit 24
routines.'"
Plocki got what she asked for. Led
by senior Elise Ray - who finished
first in the all-around and in three of
the four events - and supported by
* teammates in every position of the
Blue finishes tenth at Nationals
By Steven Shears
Daily Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS - Great expectations.
As the defending national champion at 157 pounds,
Michigan's Ryan Bertin entered this past weekend's Divi-
sion I National Championships surrounded by high
hopes.
It's amazing how dreams can be shattered in less than a
minute.
Bertin suffered a devastating loss in overtime to Stan-
ford's undefeated Matt Gentry in the semifinals. Michi-
gan entered the tournament ranked third in the nation,
but finished 10th overall.
"Ryan wrestled a tough match," Michigan coach Joe
McFarland said. "It was just one of those matches that
wasn't meant to be. You lose a match like that in over-
time, it's a tough loss."
Gentry scored a takedown early in the first period, but
Bertin quickly escaped and rebounded with a ferocious
takedown of his own. Gentry eventually escaped, and the
two wrestlers garnered an escape each for the remainder
of regulation, leaving the score tied at four.
"It was a dog fight," McFarland said. "It was a tough
match."
In the middle of the overtime period, Bertin shot, and
there was a scramble to take control as both wrestlers
became tied up. Bertin tried to free himself from under-
neath, but Gentry pulled him toward the middle of the
mat by his left leg. The Michigan captain dove at his legs
and fought to gain some control over Gentry. But he
couldn't hold on any longer and the Cardinal rolled him
Bertin had Tirapelle's legs over his head and eventually
gained control of them to get the takedown and the win. -
"I just got in on the single leg, we got into a scrambler
and I stayed up on top of him and I stayed higher that
him," Bertin said.
Michigan sophomore Ryan Churella traveled down p
similar path. In the semi-finals the No. 4 seeded Churella
faced undefeated Jesse Jantzen of Harvard, a three-time
All-American and the favorite to win the 149-pound
championship. Jantzen dominated, garnering two near
falls in the first period to an eventual 11-4 victory.
Churella bounced back in the consolation rounds,
defeating Cornell's Dustin Manotti 9-4 to take thirdI
place.
In addition to Bertin and Churella, fifth-year senior
Foley Dowd and sophomore Greg Wagner also earned
All-America honors as they finished in sixth place ifl
their respective weight classes.
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
Senior Elise Ray won the all-around competition at the Big Ten Championships on
Saturday to lead the Wolverines to their 13th team title.
fourth, fifth and sixth scores."
high 49.275.
i
W W,,