8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 1, 2004
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Newcomers vital
for Burnett, Blue
0 MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Tankers
led by
freshmen
in relay
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By Matt Venegoni
Daily Sports Writer
After the lots of eight players,
including the leading scorer in the Big
Ten, the Michigan women sba-ketball
team could he extremely timid to start
off the season. Bt coach Cheryl Btr-
nell thinks it is too early to worry.
"Entering the second year, we gt to
build on last year," Burtnett said. "With
seven freshmen, we have to repeat our
building process. But in a way, we are
not, since we recruited them and they
know our expectations."
The graduation of former All-Big
Ten player Jennifer Smithand the loss
of senior Stephanie Gandy and six rther
players who said they left for persotsal
reasons does not worry Burnett too
much. She feels that the seven incoming
freshmen have injected energy to keep
the program progressing.
"Our character, enthusiasm and pas-
sion is at a high," Burnett said. "It is an
exciting time to be a part of this pro-
gram."
The group of seven freshmnen has to
play an integral role for the teatm this
season for it to attain its goal of reacs-
it- te NCAA tournament. The three
non-freshmen on th roster - seniors
Bre 'Ane Mc ilamy and T bitha Pool
and sophomsore Kelly Hl'vey - feel
Itha the fresbgen have made huge
strides since rooting s campus in
Jusne.
"Tb y yhave mak'ss e expectations as
we do"IPool said. "Thiey have adjusted
really quick so thas we don't have to
slop practce. E~
With the Big Ten wide open this
season bteadse of several All-Big
Ten players gradt'ting. Burnett feels
stsal Michiga n can make an impact on y
lbe conference. Bow significant that
itmpac-t will he depends ott bow theDOYGNE/al
aseticfrshmBunttatdhrstaff targeted Coach Cheryl Burnett talks to Tahitha Pool during one of last year's games. Pool is one of three non-freshmen on this year's team.
recruits that matched Michigan's style and have followed Burnett since her to loose balls, with its tallest player things it needs to work on.
of play. coaching days at Southwest Missouri is just 6-foot-2. But Burnett feels that "We're going to have to talk a lot
"We have already implemented so State. Their exposure has given them rebounding is a discipline that can be more," Helvey said.
much more of our press and scramble a head start on learning the offense learned in practice. While the Wolverines are young and
game because we have tremendous and defense. "I believe in the development of have potential excuses for why they
team speed," Burnett said. Even with some of the freshmen skills, what we call the discipline," could struggle, Burnett expects the
Two freshmen, Katie Dierdorf adjusting quickly, there will still be Burnett said. "Rebounding, offensive team to contend.
and Becky Flippin, saw the style issues at the beginning of the season. and defensive, is a discipline." "We have a very unique group of
that Burnett emphasized before Rebounding could be a problem all It's going to take some time for freshmen," Burnett said. "I do not
they came to Michigan. Both Dier- year long for the undersized team. freshmen become more comfortable. think that they are going to play like
dorf and Flippin are from Missouri Michigan will have to rely on its speed The team has already identified some freshmen."
By Sara Livingston
Daily Sports Writer
With the first meet of coach Bob
Bowman's reign and freshman Dane
Grenda's collegiate career under-
way, Grenda dove into lane one to
give Michigan a 0.12 second lead in
the 400-yard medley relay. Fellow
freshmen Grant Burtch and Alex
Vanderkaay extended Grenda's lead,
and junior Chris DeJong rounded
out the race, beating Eastern Michi-
gan by 1.9 seconds.
The 11 points Michigan took
from that medley relay were the
first of the Michigan men's swim-
ming and diving team's 158 points
this weekend, helping the Wolver-
ines defeat Eastern Michigan by 73
points in the short course matchup.
The Wolverines won 11 of the 13
events Friday in Ypsilanti.
This vibrant freshman trio jump-
started Michigan's dominance of
the meet and brought the entire
team to its feet cheering.
"It was really great to see the
first three swims that we had all
be freshmen, and all of them went
right on their best times to win the
relay," senior captain Nicholas Dou-
ville said. "(That performance) got
the whole team fired up."
The upperclassmen followed up
the freshmen's success by winning
the next four events. Seniors Zayd
Ma and Brendan Neligan main-
tained a dominating lead throughout
the 1,000-yard freestyle, finishing
first and second against a group of
inexperienced Eastern Michigan
swimmers.
Ma went on to win the 200-yard
butterfly, while Neligan defeated a
seven-person field to win the 500-
yard freestyle by .47 seconds.
Senior Chuck Sayao finished
with a winning time of 1:52.62
seconds in the 200-yard individual
medley, and then went on to win
the 200-yard backstroke by 1.79
seconds. Sayao was followed by
Grenda and Douville, who gave
Michigan a 1-2-3 finish, 1.02 sec-
onds faster than the first Eastern
Michigan swimmer.
Despite all of the action in the
pool, the talk in the bleachers t
Jones Natatorium was centered
around Michael Phelps. The six-
time Olympic gold medalist, who is
working with the team as a training
partner, was decked out in maize
and blue on the Michigan bench.
Although the crowd only seemed to
care about getting a Phelps' auto-
graph, the entire Michigan team
couldn't stop talking about the
strong freshman presence.
"They certainly met my expecta-
tions for this meet," Bowman said.
"I thought we swam very well,
particularly the freshmen. I think
they all swam near their best times,
which is a pretty good thing to do
early in the season."
Bowman and his captains viewed
this meet as an opportunity to see
how the entire team swam and what
it needs to work on, keeping its goal
of the Big Ten Championships in
mind.
"What it gave us is a startingI
point," Bowman said. "Now we
can go back and practice on some
specific things from this meet. We
kind of showed where we are weak
and where we are doing things well.
We don't turn very well and we
don't start very well. We will have
to work on that."
Said senior Andrew Hurd: "It's
good preparation for the rest of the
year, and, if we keep building on
this, we will continue to do well
and we will be much stronger in the
future."
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