6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 24, 2005

Harriers dominate, claim
top six spots in Classic

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By David VandeVusse
For the Daily
YPSILANTI - It was a beau-
tiful fall day at Eagle Crest Golf
Course in Ypsilanti, where the No.
3 Michigan women's cross country
team closed out its regular season
on Friday. The sun was warm, the
breeze was cool and the Wolverine
runners were red hot, dominating
the field at the Eastern Michigan
University Classic. Led by a hand-
ful of veterans and two freshmen,
the Maize and Blue ran with confi-
dence. From start to finish, Michi-
gan runners led the pack, claiming
the top six-spots.
Family members and students
showed up in impressive num-
bers to cheer on their respective
schools. The Wolverines faced off
against runners from Eastern Mich-
igan, Michigan State, Oakland and
Windsor at the non-scoring event.
It was Michigan's final tune-up
before the Big Ten Championships
and its lone meet in the Ann Arbor

area for the season.
One senior in particular shone
bright for the Wolverines. Chelsea
Loomis, in what may have been her
last race wearing a Michigan uni-
form, led the way with a first-place
finish and a time of 17:51.4.
"That was probably her best race
of the year," Michigan coach Mike
McGuire said.
With her showing on Friday, Loo-
mis recorded her career-best time in
a 5K race, shaving 12 seconds off her
previous best.
"It felt really good because I have
never won a college race," Loomis said.
Loomis may get a chance to run
at the Big Ten Championships next
week, but she treated her performance
on Friday as if it were her last.
"(Before the race, I thought) This
is my last race, I'm going to go out
there and win this," Loomis said.
"I've been here for five years. I've had
great seasons. Let's just go out with
a bang."
Fellow seniors Theresa Feldkamp
and Chelsea Homan had strong out-

ings as well, finishing third and 17th.
Other top-10 finishers for the Wol-
verines included freshman Heather
Sirko, redshirt sophomore Kalli Wil-
liams, sophomore Lisa Canty and
freshman Kelly Sampson.
"They did a good job of executing
the race plan with a combination of
youthful exuberance - in somebody
like Heather - and a lot of experi-
ence out there with (Loomis), and
Feldkamp," McGuire said.
The Wolverines are aiming high
heading into the Big Ten Champion-
ships. They have placed first or tied
for first in each of their four scoring
events this season. Michigan will
look to capture an impressive fourth
consecutive conference title.
"We've got a couple of key workouts
left," McGuire said. "It's just a matter
of focusing and knowing that we're
going to be in for a good battle. We're
excited, and I think we're ready to go."
The Wolverines will head to Min-
neapolis next weekend where Min-
nesota will host the conference
championship on Sunday.

S

Senior Theresa Feldkamp finished third at the Eastern Michigan University Classic. Michigan claimed the top-six spots.

Senior makes strong finish

By John Geise
For the Daily

YPSILANTI - Todd Iacovelli was
tired. Running in his first competitive
race of the season, and perhaps the last
of his Michigan career, the senior was
just trying to hang on as he neared the
5,000-meter mark. And that's where he
found the inspiration he needed, in the
form of junior James Reichardt.
"James was really helping me out from
5 to 6k," Iacovelli said. "I was kind of
hurting. There ended up being a pack of
us, and I just wanted to make sure I got
myself in the front of the pack."
Iacovelli was the story for the Wol-
verines on Friday at the EMU Classic
in Ypsilanti. Running in a non-scoring
meet, with many of the team's top run-
ners sitting out to rest for the upcoming
Big Ten Championships, the senior post-
ed a time of 25:10.3 to finish fifth. Beset
by injuries for the whole year, Iacovelli

finally got a chance to run and made the
most of it.
"Todd Iacovelli ran great today,"
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "He
had been out (due to injury) three or four
weeks, and has only been training for
three weeks. He just ran great."
Iacovelli's performance overshadowed
an equally impressive one by Reichardt.
Neck-in-neck with Iacovelli for much of
the race, Reichardt only faltered at the
end, unable to match his teammate's
final kick.
"I tried to go with him," Reichardt
said. "I knew I couldn't get him, but I
was still feeling good at the end, so I was
just trying to kick hard."
Reichardt's final kick earned him a
sixth-place finish of 25:13.2, just three
seconds off his teammate's fifth place
time. The performance was a personal-
best for Reichardt, who trimmed 21 sec-
onds off his previous record.
"I am pleased with the race," Reich-

ardt said. "It kind of ended up going out
how I wanted it to."
Other Michigan notables included two
freshmen, Tony Nalli and Mark Pokora,
who ended the race at 17th and 30th
places. Pokora's time of 26:24.5 was
also a personal-best, bettering his previ-
ous mark by 39 seconds.
"Tony Nalli and Mark Pokora were
back in there," Warhurst said. "They
both ran very well."
The Wolverines will now prepare for
Sunday's Big Ten Championship. And
though the EMU classic wasn't signifi-
cant, Warhurst pointed to lacovelli as
an example of the dedication the team
needs to succeed in the postseason.
"It's a very low-key meet," Warhurst
said. "But it's also really good for the
team to watch a guy like Todd who's
been kind of hurt and injured train back
up and run a very good race. It helps
them understand just how hard they need
to work."

*I

FILE PHOTO
Senior Todd lacovelli needed a bit of a push from his teammate, but he finished fifth at Eastern Michigan.


M MEN'S BASKETBALL
NBA legend shares knowledge in Crisler

( >

NOTES

-, , I

By Matt Singer
Daily Sports Editor

Hubie Brown may have recently cel-
ebrated his 72nd birthday, but the basket-
ball guru still has a whole lot of life left in
him. At Michigan's fifth annual basketball
coaches clinic Saturday, the newly induct-
ed NBA Hall of Famer raised his voice,
pounded his chest and demonstrated bas-
ketball moves during his nearly three-hour
lesson to high school coaches from all over
the Midwest.
"I've known (Brown) through the years,
and he is such a good friend of the game
of basketball," Michigan coach Tommy
Amaker said. "Obviously, we were very
honored to have him."
Brown - a two-time NBA Coach of the

Year - commanded Crisler Arena with
his dynamic teaching style. He passion-
ately discussed his coaching philosophies
and covered a wide variety of specific bas-
ketball strategies, including zone offenses,
press breaks and inbounds plays.
At times, Brown utilized the Michigan
basketball team - which had just prac-
ticed - to demonstrate these plays for the
assembled coaches. Despite his age, Brown
wasn't shy about getting in the players'
faces. He demonstrated correct ball-denial
technique on Michigan's 6-foot-l center
Courtney Sims and got in the face of guard
Daniel Horton while showing off proper
defensive technique. Toward the end of the
lecture, Brown even made the Wolverines
break a sweat, asking them to run up and
down the court to show off his fast-break

conditioning drill.
"I told our guys, they had better be ready
(to run)," Amaker said. "I know coach
Brown - he gets going. He's intense, he's
after it, he's going to work it, he's going to
get on it."
When he wasn't conditioning Michigan's
players, Brown shared some of his seem-
ingly unlimited supply of basketball anec-
dotes. Brown has spent more than half a
century playing, coaching and announcing
basketball, and it was evident in his wide
range of stories. He discussed everything
from the NBA's crack cocaine problems
in the 1980's, to the women's basketball
Pan-American games in Cuba, to the Ken-
tucky-Arizona 1997 national champion-
ship game.
Brown's style left the assembled coaches

impressed.
"(Brown's) a phenomenal speaker, a
phenomenal lecturer," Amaker said.
Amaker has held a coaches' clinic every
year since he took over as Michigan head
coach in 2001. This year's event drew high
school coaches from all over the region,
including Canada, Ohio, Wisconsin and
Indiana. According to Amaker, the event
benefited Michigan's program, as well as
the coaches in attendance.
"It allows us to have some connections
with those coaches, to open up our pro-
gram," Amaker said. "It's great for our
players - they get work in, but they also
hear some of the things a great coach, a
Hall of Fame guy, an NBA guy like Hubie
Brown is going to say. On all sides, it's
been a positive for our program."

Memorial for former football player
to be held today
There will be a memorial service held today for for-
mer Wolverine football great Cecil Pryor. The service
will be held at the University of Michigan Golf Course
and will begin at 6 p.m.
He passed away on Sept. 13, at the University hospital
and was buried in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Pryor, 58 years old at the time of his death, is survived
by his wife, Jan, and his three daughters - including
C.C. Pryor, who was a student-athlete herself at Michi-
gan in the late' 90s as an outside hitter for the volleyball
team.
After a fruitful collegiate career in the late sixties for
Michigan, the former defensive end played for the NFL's
Green Bay Packers.
Pryor also played in the World Football League for the
Memphis Southmen.

0

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4

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there's only
one way to
win big...LIE.

4

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SHOWED A LOT
OF UPSIDE THIS
WEEKEND.
DAILY SPORTS
ALWAYS SHOWS
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JOIN US.
420 MAYNARD.ST.
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