10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Young Blue eager for Big Tens By Dan Ketchel Daily Sports Writer Anyone who has ever tasted a sweet mor- sel of success knows how delectable it is. Likewise, anyone who has tasted this success knows that the thrill of victory is so enthrall- ing that no person could ever get enough of it. But for the man who has coached the Michigan women's swimming and diving team to 14 Big Ten titles, Jim Richardson doesn't seem too confident about making it 15 this weekend in Bloomington. The Wolverines look to reclaim their title as the best team in the Big Ten by fending off notable conference contenders such as No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 14 Penn State and No. 18 Indiana. The tournament will begin this evening and continue through Saturday. It will welcome a total of seven top-25 teams, including Michigan. The Wolverines (3-1 Big Ten, 4-2 over- all) had their impeccable streak of 12 consecutive wins in Big Ten dual-meets squashed this season. No. 17 Michigan dropped a heartbreaker to Northwestern on Jan. 22, and that loss seems to have foreshadowed the team's fate in the annual Big Ten Championships. "I don't have any real expectations," Rich- ardson said. "I've seen the numbers, they're pretty evident. Penn State, Wisconsin and Indiana all return more points than we do. So we're looking at fourth, and we're going to try real hard to be better than that." For the entire team, its focus will not be entirely on coming in first collectively, but more on an individual level. The Wolverines have been coached all season long with the hopes of putting on their best performances at the Big Ten Championships. "We just want to try to swim faster than we have all year," Richardson said. "We want to peak then and swim very fast. If we do that, then we can look ourselves in the mirror knowing we worked hard this season, - we trained well, and we raced well." Defending its Big Ten championship is a daunting task considering Michigan has wel- comed 14 new swimmers to the roster this season. "We've got a lot of new girls," senior Amy McCullough said. "It's going to be interest- ing to see how the team steps up at the end and how we come together." Entering the championships, it looks as though the Wolverines will face their most formidable challenge of the year. Michigan holds the conference's fastest time in just one race, the 50-yard free- style, held by sophomore Kaitlyn Brady. Brady also brings the second and third fastest times in the Big Ten for the 100- yard butterfly and the 200-yard back- stroke, respectively. Sophomore Susan Gilliam is poised to embark on an intense head-to-head matchup in three different races against Wisconsin senior Carly Piper. The experienced Piper has Gilliam bested in all the long distance freestyle events, as Gilliam's times fall short of first place in the 200-, 500- and 1,650- yard freestyles. Gilliam has quite the task in front of her. Her best times fall nearly three seconds behind Piper in the 500-yard race and more than 10 seconds behind in the 1,650-yard race. The Wolverines are also hopeful that some of their newest athletes can score some points during the meet. Freshman Justine Mueller holds third-place times in both of the individual medleys. Mueller will try to overcome powerful Wisconsin junior Anna Trinidad, who has the fastest time in the Big Ten in both the 200- and 400-yard individ- ual medleys. The veteran McCullough will look to defend her 2004 Big Ten Title in the 100- yard freestyle during her final meet as a Michigan swimmer. McCullough, who has been plagued by illness all season, is just beginning to return to her peak condition. She holds the 36th best time in the Big Ten for the 100-yard race this season, still more than three seconds behind her winning time from last year's championship. "We're trying to focus on Big Tens," McCullough said. "We put all of our money into Big Tens, and we're hoping that that pays off in the end and that we'll be able to swim a lot faster then. It'll be interesting to see how all the teams sort out at the end. It's going to be a good hard-fought battle regard- less of how well it goes." flLflrtJUjLJIAULJ U/ ,l y Amy McCullough looks to lead a Michigan team lacking confidence this weekend. I I N WOMEN'5 BASKETBALL Blunatics fail in By Jack Herman Daily Sports Writer After a quick scan around Crisler Arena during any women's basketball game, one thing - or rather the lack of one thing - stands out; there's no student section. The men's team has the Maize Rage, and last year, the women had the Blu- natics - which until this year was known as the Bluenatics. The group started midway through the season, and thanks to the help of free admission for students, free Blunatics T-shirts and free pizza, it had a dedicated following of about 20 students by the end of the year. This year, the Blunatics failed to stay intact. The marketing department looked to start the group early in the season. It had an organizational meeting before the team's first home game, but not enough support carried over, and it fell apart. "Women's basketball faces a chal- lenge," said Bess Tortolani, director of marketing for the women's basketball team. "Our basketball fans are obvi- ously also men's basketball fans. So our students are looking towards the action and excitement of the men's bas- ketball games." Tortolani estimates about 20 stu- dents started off the season attend- ing games, but now that number has whittled down to about five or 10. She attributes this to the fact that most students don't know that attendance and parking at women's basketball games is free with an Mcard. "We've had a very difficult time reaching out to the students," Tor- tolani said. "(Free tickets and park- ing) are the two hardest things to get across to students. It seems that stu- dents are really unaware that this is the case." The attendance averaged at 2,715 last year, but that figure has dropped to 2,143 this year. And, the highest attendance of the season, 4,123, came against Michigan State - who brought along a large group of Spartans fans. Without the Blunatics the market- ing department has taken alternate steps to try and increase attendance. Rather than focusing on all the stu- dents at Michigan, it has targeted specific student organizations to come to games. Part of this program has included having various student musical groups perform the national anthem before each game. For halftime, it has brought in different student performance groups to entertain the crowd, such as a breakdancing group and the music- making "Groove." The Greek system and Dance Marathon have both teamed with the department for upcoming events. Also the department has looked to bring local residents out to games. It brought in local school bands to per- form at the Penn State game. The team sponsored National Girls and Women in Sports Day along with local Girl Scout troops on Feb. 6 and brought in 3,625 fans in the loss to Minnesota. Due to their success, both these events will return next year. Autograph signing - which also occurred after the Minnesota game - has proven to be effective. When the team signed autographs for fans after the Indiana game, it drew a crowd of 2,348 despite a very heavy snowstorm the day before. "Our student athletes on our women's basketball team are abso- lutely amazing about going into the crowd afterwards and really taking the time to introduce themselves to the fans," Tortolani said. "We're still trying to build our fan base, and we're trying to get people to interact with our student athletes because that's what women's basketball is all about." Other attempts have been made to get the fans closer to the team. The department created posters of all the players, which are given out as score- cards at every game. It also distrib- utes trading cards of all the players, an idea that Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett suggested. "When you have pictures of athletes when they were in college, it creates a feeling of knowing this person," Tor- tolani said. "We have an athlete like Tabitha Pool, who has a really excel- lent shot at making it in to the WNBA, so now people have this connection to Tabitha Pool." Although many of the recent Thirsty for knowledge? Sa whn At Ernst & Young, the opportunity for growth is enormous. We offer over 7,000 professional development programs - some of the best formal learning programs in the country - because our philosophy is People First. We recognize that our employees are essential to the firm's growth and success. 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