The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 7, 2005 - 3B Seniors' careers end on highnote By Lindsey Ungar For the Daily Brian Berends wasn't the only Wolverine choked up after the men's gymnastics meet against No. 10 Stanford on Feb. 26. Berends, along with the other five seniors on the team - Geoff Corrigan, David Flannery, Chris Gatti, Brian Skvarla and Eddie Umphrey - closed out their final home appearance with a compelling 221.200-214.750 win. Four of the six seniors also recorded personal bests in the meet. It was an emotional victory for the bunch not only because of the way the team performed but because it was the close of four years of memories at Cliff Keen Arena. "I don't think it's really sunk in yet," Berends said. "It doesn't feel like my last home meet here. My adrenaline is still pumping from the meet, the way the team performed - I couldn't have asked for a better way for it to end." For Berends, it was more than just the final home meet of the season - it was also his first. Berends had struggled all season long and was unable to make the lineup. But he came through on high-bar with a 9.45, earn- ing high-fives from all of the coaches after he stuck the landing. "He finally hit his first (routine) this week, and I just said to myself, 'That's it, I'm going to put him in,' " Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "We made some adjustments to his rou- tine, and he's able to lead us off and get us off to a great start (in the fifth rotation)." Berends never doubted himself or the team. "I went into that routine today knowing I wasn't going to let anybody down, and that's what happened," Berends said. The meet opened with a special presenta- tion for the seniors who walked out with their parents, evoking both memories and gratitude from Golder. "It's just a flood of emotions," Golder said. "Every year it's just the same thing for me. I'm just very happy for these guys. It was the last time they get to compete in (Cliff) Keen Arena, and they all did a great job." Although Stanford was, without one of its best all-around gymnasts, David Sender, who was competing at the American Cup, No. 3 Michigan still performed crisp routines in order to break their losing streak. The Wol- verines hadn't won since Jan. 22 against Okla- homa. Even in sports, the rich take advantage TONY DING/Daily Senior Eddie Umphrey helped lead Michigan to a victory in its last home meet of the season. "It feels great to win again after you've been in a slump," Golder said. "I could feel we were coming out of it at Penn State, and then, of course, it's always a little easier to compete at home." Per usual, the dynamic senior duo of Cor- rigan and Umphrey led the way for the Wol- verines. Corrigan scored 9.50 or above on four of his five events, including a first-place on vault (9.60). And, he rounded out the meet with a stellar high bar routine (9.65) that earned a standing ovation from the 465 in attendance. Umphrey wasn't shy with big scores either. His intensity showed throughout his still rings routine. Umphrey maintained a calm, col- lected attitude while nailing every strength maneuver to tie for first on the event (9.55). He stuck the landing and clenched his fists to celebrate another clutch performance, elicit- ing cheers from his teammates. "During the competition, he's the spirit of our team," Golder said. "You see him pump his fists in the air to the crowd and motion for them to applaud and get behind us. It's a lot of fun, and we're going to miss that a lot." Skvarla is another senior that has made a late-season push to get into the champion- ship lineup. Shoulder problems have plagued Skvarla, who earned a personal best on still rings for the second week in a row with a score of 8.85. He credits his teammates for allowing him to finally crack the roster. "They've been pushing me, and I've been pushing myself," Skvarla said. "These guys are my family, my team. I love each and every one of them, and it's just a good feeling to have a win at our last meet." The Wolverines closed the meet on their best event, the high bar. Proving just why they sparkle on the apparatus, the team swept the first four spots with Corrigan, sophomore Andre Hernandez (9.50), Berends and Flan- nery (9.425) earning top scores en route to their final home win. All six seniors made the score sheet for the Wolverines. "They're all a bunch of great guys, and they're very responsible;" Golder said. "They've car- ried on a tradition that has not been an easy one to carry on. We've been in the top-five in the NCAA championship for six consecutive years. That started before they came here, and they've carried it through." The team caught a plane to France after the meet. There, they trained with the French National Team, who placed ninth at the Olym- pics in Athens in 2004. The trip ended with a competition against the French nationals. The Wolverines lost by a narrow margin of 206.800-206.000. Skvarla called it a "total learning experi- ence" for the team, allowing the Wolverines to exchange ideas about routines before the final meet of the season at rival Ohio State on March 13 and the upcoming Big Ten tourna- ment. Michigan will host the meet for the first time since 1998 at Crisler Arena from March 25-26. Golder knows the Wolverines only need to make a few tweaks on floor exercise and pom- mel horse to become a strong contender. And he'll be counting on his senior class to lead the way again. "Maybe they can make their mark here as national champions - they've got just as good Headlines over the last couple weeks revealed that Alonzo Mourning was traded to the Raptors but never reported. When the Raptors responded by waiv- ing him, Mourning signed with his old team, the Heat. Then when the Celtics traded Gary Payton to the Hawks, Payton did the same thing, re-signing with the Celtics a couple days later. Somehow, Boston. managed to trade Payton for himself. s.N Does anyone else see HERBERT how selfish Payton and TheRBrt Mourning are being? The SportsMonday When you decide to Clm become a professional athlete, you get a lot of perks - you get great hours, you get great pay and you get to play a game for a living. But there are downsides: it's physically grueling, your career is pretty short and, until you are a free agent, you don't get to decide where you want to live. You don't get to decide where you play. That's the way it works, and you shouldn't decide that you don't want to play by the rules just because you have the money to do it. I'm sure that Payton didn't want to play for Atlanta. That's understandable. The Hawks are 10-47, and they only won one game in Febru- ary. But what about the half-dozen Hawks who make roughly one-twentieth of what Payton makes? Those guys, like every other athlete, have to stay in the situation they are in. And now they have to do it without their point guard or the forward they traded for him. Rich players, like Payton and Mourning, seem to be simply above the rules. With that in mind and my new Kwame Brown jersey in tow, I went to Washington's MCI Center last week with my girlfriend. We were there to watch a bunch of millionaires play a game of basketball, and we paid almost 100 bucks to do so - which by the way, is way more than any average American can be expect- ed to pay. But when we were there, we ended up spending a good deal of time talking about the people who work every game at the arena. We weren't talking about Larry Hughes, who will make $5 million this season, or Gilbert Arenas, who is making even more. It wasn't Abe Polin, the owner of the Wizards, or Susan O'Malley, the team's president, who we were concerned about. Looking around the MCI Center, I saw ushers at each section, people running the concession stands at each level and security guards at each entrance. Each of them makes less per game than the $100 we spent on the tickets. From our seats in the upper level, we could see the hockey boards. That's right, the Wash- ington Capitals play hockey here too - or at least they used to. As we all know by now, there won't be any hockey games this year. And that means 41 home games where the ushers, secu- rity guards, and concession stand attendants will be out 50 bucks. But the NHL players and owners clearly don't care about the people working in the arenas, or they would have come up with an agreement to keep the season going. The play- ers who need the money are playing in Europe and in the AHL. And some of the owners have openly said that they will save money by not having a season. Neither the owners nor the players cared enough to get the season going, but they were the only ones negotiating and making all the decisions. In the mean- time, the workers got screwed. I can't say I'm surprised. The American capi- talistic system is one that rewards looking out for number one. Sports have always been, and should always be, indicative of the society in which they are played. And we live in a society that rewards the rich. So I should have known. But sports have always seemed so pure to me - and that's what I like about them. They are hard-nosed com- petitions with a winner and a loser, and they're pretty straight forward. But somebody has to look out for the little guys because, even in sports, it seems like those with less money don't get a say. Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like it's not fair when Payton and Mourning can choose where they go simply because they have the money to do so while everyone else has to sit idly by and go where they're told. Eli Man- ning can choose not to play for the San Diego Chargers just because his dad is Archie Man- ning and his brother, Peyton Manning, signed the NFL's biggest contract just months before. Meanwhile, Byron Leftwich - who grew up in the ghetto of Washington - has to go wherev- er he's drafted because he can't afford to sit out the season. And at the same time, the low- and middle-class workers at the MCI Center don't get a union lawyer arguing for them when their jobs are on the line. It's more than just a bunch of millionairesN. playing a game. Way more people than that are involved, and I wish Gary Payton would think more about that when he complains about hav- ing to play basketball in Atlanta instead of Bos- ton. I wish Eli Manning would think about that a little when deciding he doesn't want to live in San Diego. I wish the NHL owners and the players union would think more about that when they are deciding to cancel the season. Even if the rest of society is that selfish, I wish sports weren't. Ian Herbert can be reached at iherbert@umich.edu. Michigan comes up short, finishes fourth at Big Tens Tired of being a By Ian Robinson Daily Sports Writer WEST LAFAYETTE - As the competitors in the mile run came down the final straightaway, it appeared that Nick Willis would win by a few meters. But in the final strides, Sean Jefferson of Indiana pulled even with Willis. The times revealed that Jefferson beat Willis by one-hundredth of a second. The finish in the mile epitomized Michigan's showing at the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Champion- ships in West Lafayette on Feb. 26- 27. The Wolverines lost three races by a combined .04 seconds, which cost them eight points. Michigan fin- ished fourth overall with 88 points and won just two 'races. "I knew we couldn't get any better than third," coach Ron Warhurst said. _ "We lost a few places in the middle (of the meet), and Illinois won a few places in the middle (of the meet)." In the 800-meter run, senior Nate Brannen trailed Trammel Smith of Illinois on the final lap. At the finish line, Brannen attempted to outlean his competitor but came up inches short. He finished with a time of 1:49.93, one-hundredth of a second behind Smith. "Right on the line, I finally got beside to almost catch him, but I just ran out of distance," Brannen said. Another Wolverine who failed to win a close race was sophomore Jeff Porter, who was trying to defend his Big Ten Indoor Championship. He finished .02 seconds behind first- place finisher Ricky Pickney of Pur- due to garner third-place points with a time of 7.91. Both of Michigan's victories dur- ing the Championships came in the first day of competition. In the 3,000-meter run, Nick Willis han- dled multiple attacks by his com- petitors to win his third straight Big Ten Championship in the event, set- tinE a meet and Lambert Fieldhouse Want to be a iUNY DING/Uaily Junior Nick Willis just missed winning the Big Ten Championship in the mile run. by his competitors. Sophomore Stann Waithe per- formed well for the Wolverines, earning 11 points for the team with two individual top-five performances while contributing to the third place 4x400-meter relay. He placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.81 and fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.65. "I wanted to do better than I did, but I guess I was happy with that," Waithe said. Michigan scored in two field events. Michael Whitehead placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 50-5 1/4. In the high jump, senior Darren Adams and junior Brad Mill- er both earned sixth-place finishes times for next week's NCAA cham- pionships in Fayetteville, Ark. The Wolverines took advantage of the opportunity by earning two auto- matic qualifying times. In the 800-meter run, Brannen did more than post an automatic qualifying mark with a time of 1:47.91 - he set a Michigan indoor record and looked poised to win his third straight NCAA indoor title in the event. "I am relieved that everything worked out, and I'm very confident going into nationals," Brannen said. Michigan's distance medley relay will also be in Fayetteville to defend its national title after a posting a time of 9:28.12. The relay team of senior Summer Internship Opportunity Build your resume while working during spring, summer or fall semesters.