2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 4, 2004
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CLUB P. TSWEEKLY
Youngs leads on and off the water
Athlete of the Week
By John LaFrance
For the Daily
At 7 a.m., floating down the Huron
River on the outskirts of downtown Ann
Arbor, the Michigan men's rowing team
goes through its morning drills. The
Wolverines dodge fishing boats and
patches of seaweed as they prepare for
the upcoming season.
Michigan is coming off of a break-
through sixth-place NCAA finish in
2002 and a seventh-place finish in 2003,
and it is fully expecting to be just as suc-
cessful this season. This year's squad is
comprised of 33 varsity members along
with 34 novice rowers, making it one of
the largest teams at Michigan.
But what sets this team apart from
the many other successful squads at
Michigan is that the rowing team is a
club sport and excels on a national level
without the aid of University funding.
Without a budget for recruiting, the
Wolverines have only walk-ons, most of
whom had little or no experience in crew
competition prior to college. In fact, the
majority of the 77 crew members on this
year's team had never picked up an oar
or heard of a coxswain before joining
the rowing team.
"We teach them everything from how
to carry a boat to how to put it in the
water." coach Gregg Hartsuff said.
To maintain the level of success that
this current group of Wolverines has
become accustomed to, a great com-
mitment of time and energy is required.
One rower who has accepted this
responsibility and become a leader on
the team is senior Christian Youngs,
who is fourth seat on the varsity eight.
Youngs, like his fellow teammates,
wakes up before the sun rises to get
himself out to the water for morning
practice. By 6:10 a.m., he is at the river
and ready to go. His pre-practice routine
often includes carrying boats and oars
down to the river, meeting with coaches
to plan the day's workout and warming
up on rowing machines to stretch out.
Once practice starts, the team takes a
few warm -up lengths that measure just
over two miles each, then it's on to the
real practice, which involves another 45
minutes of vigorous rowing.
But this is just the start of Youngs's
day. He has a heaping plateful of obliga-
tions to fill the rest of his day. Youngs is
majoring in aerospace engineering and
is scheduled to graduate this year. He is
also a member of the Air Force ROTC,
which requires him to run a 12k once
a week in addition to his other ROTC
obligations. If that wasn't enough,
Youngs donates his extra time to the
rowing team by assisting with the after-
noon practices. Youngs mostly helps
the novice team by giving advice and
helping the coaching staff teach rowing
techniques.
With all that Youngs has on his plate,
he still manages to save some time for
himself. Youngs recently got a puppy
named Daisy from the local Humane
Society to keep him company when he
is bored. He and Daisy like to go for
walks and hang out with his roommates
at the "Fast Packard" house where many
of the Michigan Crew members reside.
"Living with my teammates helps to
build a sort of camaraderie between us
that can translate into how we work as
a team." Youngs said. "It helps because
we share rides to practice together, and
the roommates are understanding about
the crazy schedules we have."
With varsity leadership from rowers
such as Youngs, the Wolverines look to
start off their season with a big win at
The Head Of The Rock Competition
on Oct. 10.
Name: Jennifer Gandoiph
Hometown: Greenwood, Ind.
Team: Volleyball
Class: Senior
Why: Gandolph broke the school record for career
kills in a 3-1 win against Purdue on Friday night.
The senior added 16 additional kills on Saturday
night in a 3-2 win over Indiana. Gandolph has
1,423 kills in her Michigan career, and has led
the Wolverines to a 13-2 record this year.
Gandolph
'M' SCHEDULE
Date Event
10/4
10/4
10/5
10/5
10/5
10/6
10/6
10/6
10/7
10/7
W Golf Shootout at the Legend
M Tennis
ITA All-American Champ.
W Golf
M Tennis
W Tennis
ITA All-American Champ.
M Tennis
W Tennis
Volleyball vs. Michigan State
W Tennis
M Tennis
Netters battle each
other at Invitational
Location Time
s Franklin, Ind. All day
Chattanooga, Tenn. TBA
Franklin, Ind. All day
Chattanooga, Tenn. TBA
Pacific Palisades, Calif. TBA
Chattanooga, Tenn. TBA
Pacific Palisades, Calif. TBA
Ann Arbor 7 p.m.
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
Hudsonville, Mich. 3 p.m.
West Lafayette 3 p.m.
Allendale, Mich. 4 p.m.
Ann Arbor 5 p.m.
Urbana-Champaign 7 p.m.
Ann Arbor 10 a.m.
Ann Arbor noon
Ann Arbor 1:30 p.m.
Ann Arbor 4:30 p.m.
Iowa City 11 a.m.
Bloomington noon
Bloomington 2:30 p.m.
S
S
By Jack Herman
For the Daily
Playing against a teammate is never
easy. But with a strong Michigan team
heading up a small field of opponents
at the Wolverine Invitational this
weekend, it was bound to happen to the
Michigan women's tennis team.
And it did happen - in two of four
semifinals matches - for the Wolver-
ines on their way to a singles title and a
doubles title in their season opener.
The first of the Wolverines squared
off in the doubles semifinals. Senior
Leanne Rutherford and junior Debra
Streifler, the top-seeded duo in the
tournament, faced off against sopho-
more Lindsey Goldstein and freshman
Monica Sly. Rutherford and Streifler
prevailed with an 8-1 victory in front
of a very quiet Michigan crowd, which
was torn about who to root for.
"It's always tough to play team-
mates," Streifler said. "But you always
have to go out there to win."
Rutherford and Streifler went on
to the finals, where they met Western
Michigan's team of Carrie Jeanmarie
and Reedhina Parekh. After falling
behind 5-1, the Wolverines battled back
and won four straight games to tie the
match. Rutherford and Streifler then
took three out of the next four games to
come away with an 8-6 victory and the
championship at the Wolverine Invita-
tional.
"We got off to a rough start but we
kept trying different things and pretty
soon everything just came together,"
Rutherford said. "It was the first time
we played together in a tournament, so
it was exciting for us to get that win."
Streifler was also involved in the
other Wolverine vs. Wolverine match.
She played freshman Allie Shafner
in the singles semifinals. Shafner had
knocked off No. I seed Lauren Claury
from Xavier in the quarterfinals. In
what was probably the best match of the
tournament, the women split the first
two sets to bring the match into a 10-
point, third-set tie-breaker. Shafner won
in a hard-fought 10-7 battle.
"It was a really great match," Shaf-
ner said. "Obviously, both of us really
wanted a win."
Shafner went onto to the finals of
the "Blue" bracket - which contained
many of the top players in the tourna-
ment - where she lost to Keri Thomp-
son of Michigan State in two sets.
In the "Maize" tournament bracket,
the Wolverines avoided playing each
other - taking both first and third
place. Michigan Junior Nina Yaftali,
10/8 M Cross Country
Michigan Intercollegiate
10/8 W Soccer at Purdue
10/8 W Cross Country
Michigan Intercollegiate
10/8 Hockey vs. Northeastern
10/8 Volleyball at Illinois
10/9
10/9
10/9
10/9
10/10
10/10
10/10
W Swimming/Diving
Intrasquad Scrimmage
Football vs. Minnesota
Field Hockey vs. Pacific
Hockey vs. Boston University
Field Hockey at Iowa
W Soccer at Indiana
M Soccer at Indiana
d, -
a transfer from UCLA, won the title
after defeating Kristen Clary of Xavier.
Clary took the first set 6-3; which was
also the first singles set Yaftali lost all
tournament. Yaftali came back strong
and took the second set before winning
the third set tiebreaker 10-3.
"I was surprised," Yaftali said. "I
pulled my groin and had a limited
practice schedule last week. I was just
happy to be playing. It was nice to start
off my career at Michigan with a win."
Sophomore Lindsey Goldstein, who
was the No. 2 seed in the tournament,
also performed well in the Maize brack-
et, defeating Michigan State's Sarah
Andrews 6-3, 6-1 to take third place.'
Three girls were competing as Wol-
verines for the first time. Yaftali was
playing in her first match after trans-
ferring, and both Shafner and Sly won
both their first singles and doubles
intercollegiate matches on the opening
day of the tournament.
"I was a bit nervous. It was nice to
get it out of the way," Sly said.
Coach Bitsy Ritt was generally
happy with the team's performance
this weekend.
"Solid performances across the
board," Ritt said. "It's nice to start
playing because it becomes so much
more clear with what you need to
work on."
ALEX DZIADOuSZ/Daiy
Senior Leanne Rutherford took the doubles title at the Wolverine Invitational
with her partner Debra Streifler.
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