6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 10, 2006
No upset, but Rowers still split .
By Mark Giannotto
Daily Sports Writer
Being talented is one thing, but
being great is a whole new ball-
game.
This is the dilemma the No. 10
Michigan women's rowing team
faces after they split a two-race
series with No. 17 Tennessee and
No. 3 Southern Cal on Saturday
in Columbus.
The Wolverines beat the Vol-
unteers but fell short against the
Trojans. It marks the third time
this spring that Michigan has
fallen to a top-10 team.
"I'd like to win a race like the
Southern Cal one," Michigan
coach Mark Rothstein said. "We
need to start winning races like
that."
In the morning session, the
Wolverines' first varsity eight
cruised to a five-second victory
over Tennessee, finishing with a
time of 6:24.78. The second var-
sity eight followed that up with
a win of their own to cap off the
team victory.
In the afternoon session, the
first varsity improved upon its
morning win with a time of
6:23.24. But it wasn't enough, and
the Trojans edged them by half a
boat length. Southern Cal crossed
the finishing line in 6:21.40.
40
ALEX DZIADOSZ/Daily
The varsity eight were instrumental in Michigan's split with Tennessee and Southern Cal this weekend.
DAVID s I UMN
Senior Shana Welch scored 15 goals in three games this weekend. She Is now the second-
leading point scorer in Michigan history.
Offense the name
of the game for 'M'
But just like in the Tennessee
race earlier in the day, the Wol-
verines' second varsity eight rose
to the occasion, edging Southern
Cal by nearly three seconds.
"We raced well in the morn-
ing," Rothstein said. "The second
eight had a great day. I'm really
encouraged by their improve-
ment."
The Wolverines' upset hopes
were ended when the first varsity
four lost to the Trojans by over
ten seconds.
Michigan lost many of its top
rowers from a year ago, but it has
downplayed any sort of rebuild-
ing theme.
The team has shown the ability
to beat good teams like Tennes-
see and No. 12 Michigan State
but has come up on the short end
against great teams like No. 1
Princeton and No. 6 Virginia.
"I'm not satisfied with the
results we've had (against top
teams)," Rothstein said. "But I've
been pleased with the improve-
ment the team has shown since
the beginning of the spring."
The Southern Cal race was the
final opportunity for Michigan to
pull off a big upset this season. It
finishes its spring slate with races
against No. 15 Wisconsin and
Iowa next weekend.
4
By Eileen Hengel
Daily Sports Writer
You give a little; you take a little.
Over the weekend, the Michigan water
polo team gave itself plenty of goals, but its
defense took a beating in the process.
In arguably their best offensive showing
of the season, the Wolverines tallied 40
goals in three games.
The offensive outburst catapulted Mich-
igan to a 2-1 record at the Brown Mini in
Providence. The Wolverines went 1-1 on
Saturday, beating Harvard and losing to
No. 13 Hartwick. They followed that up
with a 14-9 win over Brown yesterday.
Throughout the weekend, every member
of the team stepped up offensively. Senior
Shana Welch led the way, scoring 10 goals
on Saturday and five on Sunday. The 15
goals elevated her to No. 2 on the all-time
point scorer's list at Michigan.
"I'm not happy with the defense," Michi-
gan coach Matt Anderson said. "But that
fact remains that the defense played well
enough to win two out of the three games"
In the last game of the weekend-long
invite, the Wolverines found themselves
in their first overtime game of the season,
facing a Brown team that, on any other day,
they would have toppled.
Scoring on a last-second marker in
what Anderson called an "Oh my God,
that went in at the buzzer" goal, the Bears
left Michigan speechless on the sidelines
as the team waited for the extra stanza to
begin.
"You want to call it a fluke goal, but it
went in," Anderson said. "And I think our
girls just finally said, 'Wait a (second), we
should not be going into overtime with this
team, and we're pissed off.' "
The Wolverines then took that anger and
channeled it into their offense, scoring five
goals in overtime to stifle Brown's attempts
at a comeback.
Coming off a depressing showing two
weekends ago against Indiana at the Five
Fluid Challenge in Bloomington, the Wol-
verines saw last weekend, which it had off,
as an opportunity to work on an offense
that scored just five goals against the Hoo-
siers.
But this weekend it appeared Michigan
gave up a couple defensive workouts in
exchange for offensive drills.
"The bottom line is in the last couple
years we've had a team that could defen-
sively dominate games," Anderson said. "I
truly feel that this year we have the type
of team that can offensively dominate, and
this weekend we really showed it."
M MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Sarantos continues success for Blue
By John Geise
Daily Sports Writer
The first victory is always the
hardest one to get.
Redshirt junior thrower Paul
Sarantos found that out three weeks
ago when he earned his first colle-
giate victory in the shot put at the
Shamrock Invitational in Conway,
S.C. This weekend, he duplicated
the feat, winning the shot put at the
Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C.
with a mark of 54 1/2.
"The biggest thing about a win
is that it helps with confidence,"
Sarantos said. "In track, confi-
dence is huge. Winning lets you go
out and make improvements every
week."
In addition to his shot put victo-
ry, he earned a seventh-place finish
in the discus with a mark of 157-3.
"I was happy with my consisten-
cy," Sarantos said. "Nonetheless, I
still feel I can get better."
In addition to Sarantos, the team
was buoyed by the Friday perfor-
mance of redshirt freshman Dan
Harmsen, who ran a personal-best
52.26 in the 400-meter hurdles to
claim eighth place. Harmsen's time
was good enough to earn him a
spot in the NCAA Mideast Region-
al meet later this season. It was the
first qualifying time of Harmsen's
collegiate career.
"I was happy that I got a (region-
al qualifying time) a little earlier,"
Harmsen said. "This way, I can
focus on my form and other things
as the season goes on and have that
all locked up."
Other notable performances
for the Wolverines included a
fourth-place showing by Adam
Harris in the 100-meter dash.
Running the race for the first
time in his collegiate career,
Harris posted a time of 10.91.
The team also sent three athletes
to the Texas Relays last weekend.
Junior Jeff Porter earned his sec-
ond NCAA regional time in as
many weeks, posting a 14.23 to
win his heat in the 110-meter hur-
dles. Porter's time, however, was
not good enough to earn him a spot
in the eight-man final.
Senior Brad Miller and junior
Michael Whitehead also earned
NCAA regional marks. White-
head's jump of 51-0 earned him
eighth place in the triple jump.
Miller jumped a 6-10 3/4 in the
high jump to place second. Miller's
attempt was less than an inch away
from his personal best.
"I was pretty happy with how I
jumped this weekend," Miller said.
"I had a little bit of a nagging inju-
ry, and so my goal was just to get a
qualifying mark. I was able to do
that, so it was a good weekend."
Next week, the track team
travels to Tempe, Arizona for the
Sun Angel Classic. With another
unscored meet on the horizon,
Miller sees the Classic as an oppor-
tunity for more individual achieve-
ment.
"I think, as a whole, we want
to get a couple more qualifiers,"
Miller said. "In some races, like
the 4x400-meter relay and the
400-meter dash in particular, we
would like to qualify. Overall, we
just need more qualifiers."
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