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,,