The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 3, 2006 - 3B
0 MEN'S TRACK AND FIEL
Hawaiian blows field away
. for first win since high school
Bonds the story for the
upcoming baseball year
By John Geise
Daily Sports Writer
The Volunteers from Tennessee charged
on, and Michigan redshirt junior Todd Iacov-
elli strived to keep ahead of them. He saw a
chance for victory in a race he ran simply as
a workout. Suddenly, as the pack neared the
3,000-meter mark, Iacovelli found himself
all alone, the track in front of him clear and
his nearest competitors hundreds of meters
behind.
"That really threw me off," Iacovelli said.
"I was racing those guys the whole time, and,
then, they suddenly pulled off with five laps to
go, and it became a solitary thing. You have to
change your mind-set from racing those guys
to suddenly it being you against the track. It's
really hard to push yourself when there's no
one around."
But, Iacovelli managed to adjust. 'He won
the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:02.59,
beating the competition by a healthy 14 sec-
onds to claim the first victory of his three-
year collegiate career.
"I grew up in Hawaii, and so I won a lot of
races growing up because it is such a small
running state," lacovelli said. "I've really
wanted to get this first collegiate victory for a
long time, and this turned out to be the perfect
race to do it in."
Iacovelli's victory was just one of the
headlines for the Wolverines this weekend
at the non-scoring Yellow Jacket Invitational
in Atlanta. Running in its first true outdoor
action of the season, the Michigan men's
track and field team was buoyed by many
notable individual performances rather than
any collective achievement.
"It was great to see Todd get his first win,"
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "But we
had a host of great performances."
In the 1,500-meter race, senior Rondell
Ruff and freshman Lex, Williams were
engaged in a spirited battle until the end. But
Ruff finally prevailed, besting Williams by
just 040 seconds to claim his second 1,500-
meter victory at the Yellow Jacket Invitational
in as many years. Both runners defeated the
rest of the field by a significant margin, with
the next runner finishing more than three sec-
onds behind Williams.
The exploits of juniors Jeff Porter and
Stann Waithe were also impressive. Porter,
in his first action since earning All-American
honors three weeks ago at the NCAA Indoor
Championships, got his outdoor season off
to a magnificent start. He ran a 13.93 in the
110-meter hurdles to claim fourth place at the
race, trimming 0.15 seconds off his personal
best. That time shattered the NCAA regional
qualifying standard of 14.30, earning Porter
a place in the NCAA Mideast Regional meet
on May 26.
Waithe also qualified for the regional
meet, running a 47.14 in the 400-meter dash
to place seventh overall. Last season, Waithe
earned a trip to the NCAA Outdoor Champi-
onships in the same event.
"(Qualifying this early) takes a lot of
pressure off," Waithe said. "This way, I
can focus on other events and not have to
worry about that kind of thing at meets
like the Big Ten. Instead, I can focus on
specific things I need to work on and not
have to be so concerned with getting (a
qualifying time)."
The track team will split up next week,
with the relay teams going to Austin for the
Texas Relays, while the rest of the team heads
to Durham, N.C. for the Duke Invitational.
With the prospect of heading south once
more upon them, Warhurst feels the team
needs one thing to continue and build upon
its success.
"We could really use some nice weather,"
Warhurst said. "When we head south, we get
to run in nice weather, and we get some great
performances. But it's really hard to prac-
tice running fast when we come home and
it's cold and windy. Everyone on this team
would benefit tremendously if we could get it
warmed up a little bit"
buddy of mine who is a huge
baseball fan claims to be
Aore excited about this base-
ball season's Opening Day, which is
today, than any previous one. Starting
last night, there will be games just
about every
day for the
next seven
months,
and,he
says,
people
can finally
talk about
what's tak-
ing place
on the field. SHARAD
Yes, MATTU
another The Sportsltlonday
exciting Co/umn
baseball
season is upon us. Will the Yankees
manage to outlast the Red Sox and
win the division - again? Will the
Braves, who don't look as good as
they did last season, somehow man-
age to shock nobody and win the
division - again? And will they
then quickly bow out in the playoffs
- again? Will the Royals, Pirates,
Rockies, Devil Rays and Tigers
all fall out of contention in July
- again?
So, as great as a summer day at the
ballpark can be, and, as tense as Sep-
tember and October baseball always
is, the regular season can sometimes
drag on.
Fortunately, that's where Barry
Bonds steps in. Like it or not, the
Giants' slugger is going to make this
season very interesting.
Now that two authors have
evidence that proves what any-
one with eyes saw five years ago,
everyone is after Bonds. Last
week, Commissioner Bud Selig
launched an official investigation
into the steroids era.
But while everyone looks at the
past, what about the present? Today,
baseball has a relatively strict steroids
policy, and Bonds, who turns 42 in
July and has a completely torn-up
knee that forced him to miss last
season, batted 10-for-21 with four
home runs in spring training. How do
you explain that? If he slams 450-foot
home runs and intimidates pitchers
like before, what then? Cynics will
say he found something new to take,
but even if that's true, won't others be
taking it, too?
AP PHOTO
Barry Bonds stands 48 home runs away from breaking Hank Aaron's record.
0 WOMEN'S TRACK AND FELD
Jumper takes kids to new heights
By Ian Robinson
Daily Sports Writer
Six feet might be a current goal for
Michigan high jumper Stephanie Linz.
But as a teacher, her job is to help her
students reach new heights.
As the senior completes her degree
in education, she spends five days a
week student teaching in a third-grade
class at Dickens Elementary School in
Ann Arbor.
In addition to teaching her students
core subjects, Linz tries to explain
to her students what she does on the
track team.
"I told them how high I can jump
and they say 'Oh my gosh,' but they
still don't understand it," Linz said.
Her teaching responsibilities force
her to adjust her training schedule and
vice versa.
The Okemos native practices alone
or participates in workouts with the
pole-vaulters. She finds it difficult
to get motivated when she practices
by herself, but enjoys the team atmo-
sphere when she trains with the other
field athletes.
Michigan coach James Henry
completely supports Linz's student
teaching and doesn't believe that her
adjusted practice schedule will affect
her performance.
"The athletes come here for an edu-
cation, and that's what she's out to
get," Henry said. "She doesn't get a
chance to train with me, but she has
been here for four years and she'll do
OK."
In her four years at Michigan -
after she spent one year playing vol-
leyball at Oakland - she has received
All-America accolades once (at the
2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships)
and finished second in the Big Ten
Championships four times.
Since she has to be at practice right
after she finishes teaching, Linz said
it has been difficult to find time to
prepare for class. To compensate for
the lost time, she makes lesson plans
at night or gets to Dickens early in the
morning. After graduation, Linz will
work at Dickens for two extra weeks
to make up for the time she will miss
competing during the season.
This season will be the end of an era
for the Michigan high jump program.
Two mainstays, Linz and fellow senior
Jennifer Williams, are graduating.
In addition to passing the torch of
the high-jump corps onto her younger
teammates in the her final season,
Linz hopes that her student teach-
ing will inspire a few more Michigan
track fans.
"It's been a fun experience to tell
the kids about the track, and hope-
fully they will come out for (the Len
Paddock Invitational at Ferry Field on
May 5 to 6)," Linz said.
In fact, most people who rip base-
ball players for taking steroids in the
first place don't bother to examine the
situation from a player's perspective.
At the time, a major leaguer could
take steroids (which weren't banned)
and become better players, earn more
money and become bigger stars. It
likely got to the point where a player
would have to be foolish not to do
steroids.
It's not hard to imagine a scenario
where a player truly felt it was wrong
tc take steroids, but he did so just to
avoid being at a competitive disad-
vantage.
As for Bonds, whose claims his
life is "in shambles," he chose now,
when he couldn't be hated any more,
to start a reality series. With so many
ridiculous yet enjoyable shows on
television, it's going to be tough to
find the time to watch yet another
one. But I'm going to try.
The show, according to the offi-
cial site, follows Bonds's "attempt to
break milestone records set by Babe
Ruth and Hank Aaron." Whether
he will try to break the record for
consecutive minutes staring into a
camera and spewing complete lies
remains to be seen.
Of course, since it is Bonds's show,
he'll do whatever he wants to make
people think what he wants them to
think, even though nobody is that
stupid. In fact, that's what made the
sight of Bonds trying to dress as
Paula Abdul as disappointing as it
was funny. Everyone who follows
baseball knows that he hates every-
one on the team, and everyone on the
team hates him, so why bother trying
to prove otherwise? I guess an hour
of Bonds ordering around batboys
and trainers wouldn't make good
television.
Unfortunately, this entire Bonds-
centered season hinges on his knee,
which could give out at any time.
Because without him, there won't be
much to get excited about this season.
Unless Kenny Rogers gets close to
any cameramen.
Sharad Mattu believes this the
Mets' years. He can be reached
at smattu@umich.edu.
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