October 18, 2006 - SportsWednesday - The Michigan Daily - 3B || Do ya have it? Nick GAS ike I assume it does for many others of my generation, the mention of things like the Blue Barracudas, Merlock or Mark Sum- mers conjures up memories of my youth. Whether it was watching contestants collect pen- dants, fight evil warlords in a virtual-reality world or just take a pie in the face, I derived many hours of entertainment thanks to the genius that was the Nickelodeon game show division. And armed with some free time and digital cable, I relived many of these great moments this week- end. I cheered for the Silver Snakes as they grabbed the Golden Earing of Henry Morgan just as time expired. I rooted for Brian "Crazy Legs" Smalling as he recorded the perfect game in Guts, recovering after an early slip on the Aggro Crag to win his fifth out of five events. I clapped as Carl pulled off an amazing save to defeat Ace in a game of four square.J For those unfortunately unaware, Nickelodeon Games and Sports offers HER the opportunity to watch many of the Sportsf classic sports-related game shows from Col the Nick archives ("Guts," "Legends of the Hidden Temple," etc.). Mix in some shorts encouraging kids to play sports and the hilarious "Heroes of the Game" collection (stories of playground lore backed by NFL Films-themed production), and you have an enjoyable experience that appeals to a broad range of fans: kids, nostalgic college students and Mike O'Malley's family. The shows - like many artifacts of our youth - provide their fair share of unintentional comedy. I chuckled immediately after turning on "Leg- ends of the Hidden Temple" to see legendary host Kirk Fogg descend from the ceiling on a rope. Fogg kept the UIC on high, awkwardly putting his arm around the contestants. And nothing topped his declaration that "It's not about how many sacks, it's about how heavy the sacks are" during a game based on the weight of objects recovered. "Guts" might be just as funny. O'Malley exudes such effort as the commentator, he's huffing and puffing more than the contestants at the end of each event. "Referee" Moira Quirk actually burst out laughing as she announced the athletes' times in one event, which were rather poor since each had fallen off a set of rings used to cross a portion of the course. And O'Malley interviewed contestants after the events, leading to thoughtful quotes such as, "I don't know I went out there and just, you know, : R E l played." (At least Crazy Legs has the media train- ing portion down when he goes pro). I also wonder where many of these kids are today. Does Birt "Radar" Reynolds regret pronouncing his love of Star Trek on cable television? Does Ty from Arkansas wish he never went on "Figure it Out" to advertise his pickle juice drinking championship? But in all seriousness, these shows stand the test of time. The events in most of them are actually pretty innovative. The games had some cool con- cepts like combining brawns and brain ("Double Dare" and "Legends"), and giving .everyone a sweet (and sometimes not- so-sweet) nickname ("Guts"). I even came across a column from the Cor- nell student newspaper in the course of my research that argued, rightly so, that pitting 12-year-old boys and girls against each other did quite a bit to break down the gender divide that appears in nearly every other sport. Most importantly, though, it's fun ~CKto watch the contestants actually have tMAN fun. iednesday They had little to win. Other than umn a $50 savings bond and a CD-ROM version of Compton's Encyclopedia, many of the shows had no real reward for their winners (except for a piece of the Aggro Crag). They also had little to lose. There's no overbear- ing parents ready to lace into them for failing to throw enough Nerf balls through a suspended tire. No columnist ready to embarrass them in the next day's paper because they couldn't put together the monkey in the silver shrine quick enough. No multi- million dollar endorsement to lose because they missed an actuator. These kids weren't training year round, waking up well before dawn and living their weekends in hotels in hopes of getting a scholarship one day. It was kids on "Wild and Crazy Kids" just acting wild and crazy. Those on "Guts"just proving they had guts. So maybe when you're telling your grandkids about sports of old, you won't have turn on ESPN Classic and explain about Kobe's legal troubles or Barry's huge head. Instead turn on channel 133 and give them a look at old Crazy Legs, and one of the best performances I've ever seen. - Herman was disappointed to read on Wikipedia that Nickelodeon Studios has closed and the slime geyser is gone. You mad, too? E-mail him atjaherman@umich.edu. Junior Stesha Selsky (left) and senior Megan Bowman (right) helped Michigan in a more controlled victory over the shifty Hawkeyes Friday night. Spiers pla 1 smart By H. Jose Bosch Daily Sports Editor While he looked at the stat sheet, Michigan volleyball coach Mark Rosen was pleased to see one number: three. Fresh- - man Veronica Rood had three less kills than the previous game. Rosen isn't promoting a new defeatist philosophy, but he's teach- ing smart play, something Rood took to heart during Michigan's three-game sweep (30-27, 30-21, 30-19) of Iowa Friday night. Last Wednesday night, Rood couldn't stay away from the 'net. Overall she tallied 31 attack attempts, good for second on the team. And while she notched 13 kills, she was guilty of eight errors, giving her an abysmal .161 hitting percentage. Rosen said that after Wednesday, he and Rood worked at practice on cutting down the amount of errors by taking less chances and just keeping the ball in play. The strat- egy may parlay into fewer kills, but as Rood demonstrated against the Hawkeyes, the hitting percentage can jump dramatically. On Friday, Rood had just two errors and a hit- ting percentage of .381. "I really didn't do anything dif- ferent," Rood said. "I just went out and played volleyball. I focused on keeping balls in play today, instead of just going up and swinging away at it." Rood and her teammates need- ed a more controlled style against Iowa (1-6 Big Ten, 12-7 overall). The Hawkeyes were a shifty team compared to the Wolverines' pre- vious opponent, the big-banging Spartans. Rosen said Iowa uses more off- speed serves and tips and likes to pick the floor apart, allowing the team to exploit holes and seams in the defense. During the open- ing game of the match, Michigan clearly looked out of place trying to get into its groove, seeming too tentative off the serves and hitting just .241. But that didn't last long. By the third game of the match Michigan hit an impressive .488 and commit- ted just two errors. And even when things looked bleak for the Wol- verines, they found a way to win a point. Leading 21-10 in the third frame, freshmanMegan Bowerdug anlIowa attack and the ball went straight into the net. The rally looked just about over, but sophomore Mara Martin got under the ball just as it came off the net and set it to junior Lyndsay Miller, who tipped the ball back toward the Hawkeye side of the court. It fell harmlessly between a number of Iowa players. "It's hard to defend until you get into the flow of (things), and if you get frustrated it stays hard to defend;' Rosen said. "But our kids figured (the Hawkeyes) out and they did a really good job at turning it against them a little bit." The third game of the match may also have been a watershed moment for a team that has struggled with finishing games during the Big Ten season. In three of their losses this sea- son, the Wolverines (3-5, 16-5) have had a chance to put teams away and have failed to do so each time. Dur- ing its first loss of the season, Mich- igan led 11-6 in game four, leading 2-1 in the match, but failed to knock out Indiana. Against Purdue, the Wolverines stormed out of the gate, 9-5, in the fifth and final game, but lost the frame, 15-10. At Minnesota, Michigan held five-point leads mid- way through the first and second games, but botched both of them en route to a three-game sweep. But things were different on Fri- day, and Rosen was visibly pleased with the performance. "Once we got into that flow our kids really went after it," Rosen said. "We've been talking a lot in practice that if you have a chance to jump on somebody pretty good we want you to jump on them. I thought in game two ... we had a pretty good lead and we sat back for a few plays. (Then) we called a timeout (and) we talked about that, and after we came out we got on them pretty good" Harriers take seventh without team leader Wolverines disappoint in Pre-National meet By Anthony Oliveira ti Daily Sports Writer Every team has its off days. The Michigan women's cross country team had its first on Saturday - and hopes it'll be its last. Coming into the NCAA Pre- Nationals with high expectations, the third-ranked Wolverines man- aged only a tie for second place (with No. 9 Wisconsin) in the White Division race. With 176 points, Michigan finished 59 points behind No. 5 North Carolina State, a team the Wolverines handily defeated two weeks earlier. "We had some people who were alittle bit off form,"Michigan coach Mike McGuire said. Returning from a cold, gradu- ate student Katie Gwyther couldn't quite find her stride in her first six-kilometer race as a Wolverine, finishing 63rd (21:22.5). Redshirt sophomore Nicole Edwards's day also proved difficult, clocking a 21:24.9 for 67th, well off the 20:34 she recorded at the Sundodger Invi- tational in mid-September. Even though the team struggled at Terra Haute, Ind., redshirt junior Erin Webster (fourth place) contin- ued to lead the Wolverines, finish- ing nine seconds behind the leader, North Carolina State's Julia Lucas. Webster's personal-best time of 20:10.2 was four seconds faster than her previous race and a 58-second improvement from last year's 22nd- place performance at Pre-Nationals. She received her second Big Ten Conference Runner of the Week Honors yesterday. Junior Elisabeth Uible also recorded a personal best, finishing 30 seconds faster than her previous six-kilometer effort for 53rd place (21:14.7). Besides Webster, only junior Alyson Kohlmeier and senior cap- tain Arianne Field finished under the 21-minute mark. Webster, Kohl- meier (20:43.8) and Field (20:58.7) were also the only runners to place in the top 50. Regardless of the team's result, Field finds nothing to worry about. "I think we look pretty good," Field said. "A couple of ourtop girls had an off day, butthen others really stepped it up.I think it looks good" The Wolverines couldn't take control early in the race as they did in their victory at the Notre Dame Invitational. Having watching the slower- paced Blue Division race minutes before its own race, Michigan was deceived, according to McGuire, by the faster pace of the White Division race in the first 1,000 meters. The fast pace hurt several runners, creating a slightly dif- ferent dynamic for the remainder of the race. "I think I would have liked (the race) a little bit slower," McGuire said. "But we don't live in a per- fect world; we don't race in a per- fect world." Field wasn't so sure the pace caused some to fall behind. "I don't know if it was nec- essarily fast - we've just been training really hard the past cou- ple weeks," Field said. "I think people are kind of tired, and it was just an off day." Michigan's entries in the Open Race were strong. Freshman Eileen Creutz's performance earned her a sixth-place finish at 21:45.5. The other participants in the Open Race were three redshirts: sophomore Lisa Canty (22:10.0), junior Laura Glynn (22:20.1) and freshman Katie Williams (22:44.4). Since 25 of the nation's top 30 teams competed in the weekend meet, McGuire and the Wolver- ines got a comprehensive look at their competition for the upcoming championship part of the season. Observing the Blue Division race, Michigan found out why Stanford is the top team in the nation: Four of its seven runners finished in the top 10. "(The meet) definitely showed us how strong Stanford is, and we also got to see other Big Ten teams per- form," Field said. After tying with Wisconsin, Michigan sees the Badgers as its main contender for the Big Ten championship. But with six Big Ten teams in the top 30, any team is a threat. "This is the best the (Big Ten) has been since the 15 years I've been coaching," McGuire said. "If the conference is better, we need to be better." The Wolverines will put their wake-up call behind them and use this week to refocus for the champi- onship part of the season. To avoid another off day, the plan is simple. "No strategy needs to be changed; we just need to execute," McGuire said. By Mirgim Jusufi For the Daily Like going for a nice jog every once in awhile? So does the men's cross coun- try team - for a nice 100 miles each week. But it's probably safe to say the Wolverines are not just "jogging" those miles. The Wolverines are running 100 miles every week and run- ning them fast for races like this past Saturday's NCAA Pre- Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., where they finished seventh out of 36 teams. No. 18 Michigan placed five runners in the top 100 of the 246- man field. Sophomore Lex Wil- liams led the Wolverines for the third consecutive race, setting a new personal best in the 8,000- meter race with a time of 24:02, good enough for 23rd. Williams's performance was no surprise to him, even on one of the more dif- ficult courses of the year. "Competition was really good," Williams said. "It's easy to run fast when you have so many guys running fast, too." The added pressure also pumped up Williams's teammates. "It was definitely the most com- STICKERS Continued from page 1B Michigan (3-1 Big Ten, 9-7 over- all) continued to press throughout the contest, matching the Hoosiers shot for shot (both teams finished with seven) and out-cornering Indiana, 6-5. "We like to play as if we're los- ing, so we never let up," senior tri- captain Eleanor Martin said. Michigan coach Nancy Cox said she was extremely pleased with her team's showing against the Big Ten powerhouse, especially the Wol- verines' ability to adjust to tactical changes in the middle of the match. "We knew that they were going to play four across the midfield, so we had to match up our midfielders and our center forwards with them," Cox said. "We had to effectively manage their midfield, and I think our team really did do that." Cox said the team also dealt well with the somewhat alien environ- ment of Mellencamp Pavilion, an indoor field. Indiana's field resembles Ooster- baan Fieldhouse, but it has the same close-clipped turf as Ocker Field. The surface at Mellencamp Pavilion plays even faster than that in Ann Arbor. In addition, visiting teams must adjust petitive meet I've been in," soph- omore John Black said. "Almost all of the top-ranked teams were there, so it was definitely motivat- ing lining up next to them." Black's excitement helped him finish second for the Wolverines and 46th overall. His time of 24:23 was just four seconds shy of the personal best he set at the Notre Dame Invitational a week ago. Michigan's next three finish- ers all clocked in personal-best times. Sophomore Brandon Fel- lows came in at 59th (24:31), and junior Victor Gras crossed the line less than a second later for 61st place. Sophomore Justin Switzer rounded out the top 100 with a time of 24:51. Michigan put together a strong team performance even though it was without junior captain Michael Woods, who was out with a sore foot. The Ontario native placed 11th at the same race last year. A similar performance could have boosted the team to third overall, ahead of Florida and conference rival Iowa. But Michigan runners aren't worrying about finishing behind Iowa at Pre-Nationals. Instead, the Wolverines are gearing up for the Big Ten Championships to the difference between indoor and outdoor lighting and the communica- tiondifficultiesthatresultfromcheers echoing off the walls. The Wolverines' hard-fought win only enhances the momentum they have been building for the past sev- eral weeks. Michigan is 9-3 since its 0-4 start, and one of those losses was in overtime to No. 1 Maryland. "(The victory) was huge, of course," Cox said. "You go in and you beat the team that's undefeated in the Big Ten. The thing that we've been saying all season long to this group of young women is, 'Once we get healthy, and once all 20 of you are out there, and all 20 of you are on Oct. 29. Last year Michigan finished a disappointing fifth in the Big Ten, just one point behind Iowa. Expectations are little higher this year. "If we run well and work as a team, I don't think a high placing is out of the question," Black said. "Once we get Woods back and once everyone is healthy, I think we have a good chance at taking (Iowa) and a couple other teams." Before the Big Ten Champi- onships, the Wolverines have to swing over to Dexter for the EMU Classic this Friday. But Michigan coach Ron Warhurst does not plan on running any of the harriers who will compete in the Big Ten Cham- pionships. Some runners have been injured, and Warhurst wants to make sure his athletes are ready for the tough championship stretch. The Wolverines will start tapering down from the usual 100-miles- per-week routine this week to put some spring back into their step. "We're headed in the right direction, and we're still running really well on heavy legs," War- hurst said. "We're getting better, and when we start coming off of our hard mileage, everybody's legs will start feeling a whole lot stronger." contributing at practice on a consis- tent basis, we can do great things.' "The thing about this group is they believe in that, and they have continued to overcome adversity. Hopefully we've put the adver- sity behind us. But now if we have adversity along the way, we know that we can manage it." Michigan has just three games left (two against Big Ten foes, one against a nonconference opponent) before the Big Ten Tournament, which will be held in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines will face Virginia Commonwealth tomorrow and rival Ohio State on Sunday, both at Ocker Field.