10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 22, 2006 E MEN'S SWIMMING Bowman confident in NCAA team * WOMEN'S TRACK Doubles team a pair for the ages By Anne Ule Daily Sports Writer Michigan men's swimming coach Bob Bowman doesn't like to discuss goals that deal with how a swim- mer or how the team will place in meets. When asked specifically about objec- tives, he goes with a cli- _ che one-liner: "We want to swim fast." THURSDAY In a sport where podi- Michigan at um dwellers are decided NCAA Championship by partial seconds, Noon Bowman knows that it's a Tech Aquatic impossible to predict the G Cenhr t upsets and victories that come along with the rush of racing. "I don't want to say if a swimmer will get first or sec- ond or third," Bowman said. "It's up to them to fight it out." Starting Thursday and running through Saturday, the eighth-ranked Wolverines will get their chance to fight for a place on the podium at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta. "My favorite part of the NCAA Championships is seeing someone do something they didn't think they could do," Bowman said. "I like seeing people step up to another level. I hope that I see that with our team this weekend." With seven swimmers, including, two 2005 NCAA individual champions, senior co-captains Peter Vanderkaay and Davis Tarwater, qualifying for the meet, Michigan is predicted to place in the top 10. But with a smaller-sized roster as compared with squads like 2005 NCAA Champion Auburn, which has 18 swimmers, and No. 6 Arizona with nine athletes, Michigan will have a tough time putting enough points on the board to be a solid top-five competitor. "I was a little surprised that we couldn't get more of our swimmers qualified," Bowman said. "We had some guys that we really needed get cut from the list." The marginalization of several Wolverines, including sophomore Dane Grenda, who qualified for the Champi- onships last year, came from a decision the NCAA Rules and Regulations Committee made that allows just 21 swimmers in each event. Last year, 29 were allowed to compete in each event. This was done to add more relays to the lineup of events. "The number of swimmers has fluctuated over the past , By Ian Robinson Daily Sports Writer freshman's lack of collegiate expe- rience affects her ability to succeed in doubles. Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said the relationship between teammates creates a good doubles team. It's often said that we should look to the younger generation for answers. For Michigan tennis senior Nina Yaftali, she found the answer to her doubles ....--._ woes in freshman Lind- sey Howard. TO Yaftali, who prefers Mic to stay back and hit Michi ground strokes from 6 the baseline, is comple- MSU In mented by Howard's Fa ability to attack the net.O Recently, they have combined for four "When NIGHT Lhigan at gan State p.m. door Tennis cility you complement each other in terms of ener- gy and communica- tion and personality, you can play well right away," Ritt said. Ritt stresses the importance of win- ning the doubles point in dual meets, which will make the pairing of Howard and Yaftali even more crucial in EMMA NOLAN-ABRAHAMIAN/Daily Senior Chris Deoong begins his quest for NCAA Championship glory on Thursday. few years," Bowman said. "But it's never gone below 24. I don't think many coaches think the decision is a very good one. There aren't many spaces available, and we need all the swimmers we can get" Although the team lacks quantity, Bowman says it has quality. "The team is prepared," Bowman said. "Most of them have focused solely on this meet, so their training has been well directed and they've put in the work. They're fit, they're at their peak speed, and they have good atti- tudes. Now, they just have to put it into action." Bowman is counting on the leadership of his three captains - Vanderkaay, Tarwater and senior Chris DeJong - to set the tone of the meet. All three are seed- ed in the top-15 in their three respective events. "I think of all the people that are competing this week, I am most looking forward to watching Chris swim," Bowman said. "He's had a great year of consistent train- ing, and he's had the best racing season of his career. His performance this week will be fun to watch." DeJong, the Big Ten Champion in the 200-yard back- stroke, is scheduled to swim the 200-yard freestyle as well as the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events. Seeded third in the 200-yard backstroke, DeJong will compete against 2005 NCAA Ryan Lochte of Florida. "Chris is seeded in a good place," Bowman said. "I think that based on the way he's been swimming recently he has a lot of energy going into this meet" Bowman is also hopeful that his lone qualify- ing sophomore, Alex Vanderkaay, will continue the impressive streak of fast swims he's had since the Big Ten Championships three weeks ago, when he won the 400-yard individual medley title. "Alex has really come a long way this season," Bowman said. "He has worked towards his potential and really surpassed so many expectations that we set for him." Having had the experience of racing at the 2005 NCAA Championships, Alex feels prepared for the meet ahead of him this weekend. "I'm excited and nervous at the same time,"Vanderkaay said. "It's one of the only things I've been thinking about for the past few months. I think it will almost be a relief for it to be over so I don't have to keep thinking about it." straight wins, clinched the doubles point in three of those matches and amassed a 6-3 record in dual meets. Last year - in her first year com- peting at Michigan after transferring from UCLA - Yaftali was never a mainstay in the doubles lineup. She compiled a record of just 4-5 with junior Elizabeth Exon. The Westland Village, Calif. native found the solution at the Michigan Invitational on Jan. 15., when she teamed up with Howard. There, the duo defeated the No. 3 doubles team of then-17th-ranked California. "We hit it off immediately on the spot," Yaftali said. "We have been able to click on and off the court." Yaftali normally plays No. 1 or 2 singles in dual matches, while Howard competes at No. 6 singles. But success at singles does not also make for a good doubles player. "Doubles is a different ballgame," Howard said. Yaftali does not think that the PINEHURST Continued from page 9 Schaetzel said. "I couldn't seem to find anything to go right.... Of all of us, I felt like I had the most incentive to go out and play well. It's disappointing to not go out and get that chance." Led by sophomore Brian Otenweller, who rebounded from an opening-round 81 with a second-round 72, the Wolver- ines shaved 15 strokes off of their first- round total to climb into 16th place. Their second-round 301 was equal to first-place Southern Methodist's total for that round. "It's definitely a disappointment (not to get to tee off yesterday)," Schaetzel said. "We were all ready to play. We could've caught some teams." Despite Schaetzel's sentiment, the early ending of the tournament may have the Big Ten season. The team starts the conference season tonight at Michigan State. "It's always been an intense rival- ry, and we always look forward to playing them," Ritt said. She said that her squad needs to be ready to match the Spartan's inten- sity, but she thinks that her team's nonconference schedule - which featured four top-25 opponents - has prepared it for the Big Ten. Yaftali believes it's how the 27th- ranked Wolverines handled their stiff nonconference schedule that groomed them for Big Ten play. "We saw a lot of tough competi- tion, and we were in every match," Yaftali said. Although the Spartans enter the match with a 9-3 record in the dual- meet season, their schedule features just one team in the Fila Collegiate Tennis Ranking Top 75. The Wolverines just hope young and old will continue to work well together in the Big Ten season. been a blessing in disguise for the Wol- verines. In both of their last two tourna- ments, they scored lower in the second round than in the first round, only to see their third-round score increase. Unlike the rest of their tournaments, freshman Bill Rankin led Michigan. His two-round total of 152 made him the fifth different player to lead the Wolverines this season. The individual scoring reversal con- tinued to the bottom of the Wolverines' leaderboard. Schaetzel finished last on the team, while senior Brandon Duff - the best Wolverine golfer of the spring season - tied for third on the team along with senior Christian Vozza, shooting a 156. Since yesterday's round was cancelled, the Wolverines' next chance to continue their improvement is delayed until the Boilermaker Invitational on April 8. SioUX Continued from page 9 freshmen - didn't respond well to the pressure of a playoff game at an NHL arena and lost 4-1. But the confidence the team had after sweeping Ferris State must have made Michigan feel like it had a good matchup with the Spartans. This time, there is no questioning Michigan's role as the underdog. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If everyone is counting the Wolverines out, they might go to North Dakota and play like a team with nothing to lose and everything to gain. A care- free approach might allow some of the younger players to display the talent that brought them to Michigan in the first place, instead of worrying about losing or making mistakes. "(The freshman) have had a lot of pressure on them all year to perform," Ruden said. "They might have felt that pressure this weekend against (Michi- gan) State at Joe Louis, and, hopefully they don't feel it out there, because no one is really focusing on us to win." Meanwhile, North Dakota has everything to lose, which can put them in a tough position. It is a home game for them, and they are expected to beat a struggling Michigan club. The Wolverines have shown all sea- son that, when they can find ways to build momentum, they start playing like the team that earned the No. 1 ranking at two different times earlier this year. If Michigan shakes off its nerves, and North Dakota comes out tight, or even overlooks its opponent, the Wolverines might just get the good start they need to find that momentum and shock the Fighting Sioux. "No one is looking at us," Ruden said. "You read any of the papers from out there, they're looking at Minnesota in the next game. It's a big situation, so the least amount of pressure we can put on ourselves, the better it is for our guys to perform." II Are you a Spring/Summer Trm 3tur Your conversation can change Ann Arbor. AdWords Sales Representative - Temporary Position This is a temporary role offered through ABE Services.ABE Position is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan Google is seeking energetic, outgoing, and self-motivated individuals to be part of an exciting University Sales Program. The goal of the program is to provide people an opportunity to sell and help local businesses increase their visibility on Google properties. 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