New Student Edition 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 5E
Vanderk
By Anne Ulble
Daily Sports Writer
ATLANTA - There was a
momentary silence as the crowd
registered the time that flashed
on the scoreboard: 4:08.60. An
instant later, the Georgia Tech
Aquatic Center erupted for
Michigan senior captain Peter
Vanderkaay as he pumped his
fist toward the Wolverine cheer-
ing section.
Not only did he earn his sec-
ond consecutive NCAA title in
the 500-yard freestyle, he also
broke former Michigan swim-
mer Tom Dolan's 11-year-old
American and NCAA record by
.15 seconds.
"I looked up, and, first, I had
to double-check in my head
that I went under the record,"
Vanderkaay said. "But once I
realized that I'd done it, I was
aay breaks NCAA record
really happy."
From the start of the 20-lap
race, Vanderkaay overpowered
the eight-man field and main-
tained a half-body lead, inch-
ing farther from his competition
with every stroke. By the half-
way point, Vanderkaay was the
recognized winner and the only
question on people's minds was:
"Could he break the American
record?"
"The race felt good,"
Vanderkaay said. "I knew I
was going fast when I opened
up with a body-length lead. For
the last 100 yards, I could see
my team jumping up and down
and going nuts, so I knew I
was either killing (the record)
or I was right on. I'm still not
sure how it ended up like that,
though."
Michigan coach Bob Bow-
man acknowledged that he and
Vanderkaay had been looking
at the record for the past two
years, strategizing about how
to break it. Before the big race,
Bowman and Vanderkaay had
a brief meeting where all Bow-
man said was, "You know what
to do."
And Vanderkaay got it done.
"I saw Tom Dolan do that time
in 1995, and I remember think-
ing, 'Wow, nobody will do that
time again,' " Bowman said.
"But I honestly believed it was
doable for Peter. To be a part of
that race and keeping the record
in the Michigan family means a
lot. I was thrilled for him."
Adding to the excitement
of the race, Vanderkaay swam
against his younger brother and
teammate, Alex Vanderkaay, in
the same heat. The sophomore
placed seventh (4:17.88), earn-
ing All-American status.
"It was so special that Peter
could do that in front of so many
people and have his brother at his
side," the Vanderkaays' mother,
Robin Vanderkaay, said.
Immediately after hitting the
wall, Alex jumped out of the
pool and embraced his older
brother amid a crowd of fam-
ily, teammates, neighbors and
friends from high school and
college.
"It meant a lot for me to have
him swimming next to me,"
Peter Vanderkaay said.
Michigan also qualified its
400-yard medley relay squad of
senior Chris DeJong, sophomore
Grant Burtch, senior Davis Tar-
water and Peter Vanderkaay for
the consolation heat and earned
an 11th-place finish (3:11.35).
'
_
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This article originally Senior Peter Vanderkaay earned his second straight NCAA title In tl
ran Mar. 2, 2006. yard freestyle, breaking former Michigan swimmer Tom Dolan's NCA
Wolverines' repeat national title bid halted in Tennessee
By Amber Colvin
Daily Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Rebekah Mil-
ian swung.
But spectators at Tyson Park never
heard the sound of the ball hitting the
catcher's glove - the eruption of celebra-
tion from the Tennessee dugout drowned
it out. And as the Volunteers clung to
each other and jumped with delight, to
their right stood a group of sweaty, dirty
and worn Wolverines, silently consoling
each other with tears.
Facing a 1-0 deficit, Michigan fought
through the bottom of the seventh to stay
alive.With the NCAA Super Regional crown,
a berth to the Women's College World Series
and the Wolverines' season on the line, each
batter took their turn facing All-American
ace Monica Abbott.
The 6'3" pitcher kicked off the bottom of
the seventh by striking out senior third base-
man Grace Leutele. Junior designated player.
Tiffany Worthy stepped up and dinged an
infield hit to short. Senior rightfielder Stepha-
nie Bercaw followed by drawing a walk on
five pitches.
A groundout for freshman shortstop Teddi
Ewing and an intentional walk for senior sec-
ond baseman Tiffany Haas left Milian with
the bases juiced and one very large weight on
her shoulders.
"That's what you live for" Abbott said of
the two-out, bases loaded, bottom-seventh
situation.
And just like that, the Goliath in the cir-
cle ended Michigan's hopes to return to the
WCWS and to repeat as national champs.
The 13th-ranked Wolverines entered the
best-of-three series with No. 5 Tennessee
expecting a battle. And with three games in
blistering heat, that's what they got.
"When you have Michigan and Tennessee
playing ina best-of-three series, that might as
well be a championship series right there,"
senior catcher Becky Marx said.
Tennessee drew first blood on Saturday
with a 5-3 victory. Home runs from Wor-
thy and sophomore first baseman Samantha
Findlay couldn't compete with the offensive
prowess of the speedy Volunteers.
But after almost 24 hours to simmer, the
Michigan bats exploded in the first inning
of game two. Haas set the tone first by
slamming a perfectly placed single deep
into rightfield. Home run leader Marx then
brought in the first two scores of the game
with a blast over the leftfield fence, her 13th
this season. When Findlay followed with a
single, Abbott was replaced after just 1/3 of
an inning.
As Abbott sat in the dugout with a cold
towel over her head, the Wolverines kept
firing - including another Worthy home
run - for an eventual 5-1 victory to force a
decisive game three.
The winner-take-all game brought out the
inevitable All-American pitchers' duel the
crowd had been waiting to see all weekend:
Abbott versus Michigan ace Jennie Ritter.
Ritter and Abbott fanned batters to keep
the score locked at zero for five innings.
The Volunteers finally broke through in
the top of the sixth with the only run of the
game coming off a bloop single from Ten-
nessee rightfielder Katherine Card.
"It's a tough game to lose because both
teams played like champions today," Michi-
gan coach Carol Hutchins said.
Out of the hundreds of pitches Ritter threw
over the weekend, she managed 22 total
strikeouts.
Said Ritter: "My focus in the postsea-
son is just whatever it takes. If it takes a
thousand pitches, I'll throw a thousand
pitches:"
The senior hurler ends her career with a
slew of records, making her one of the most
decorated pitchers in Michigan softball his-
tory. Also graduating are Haas, Marx, Ber-
caw and Leutele.
When asked about the five departing
seniors, the typically stoic Hutchins had tears
in her eyes.
"They won my heart," Hutchins said.
"They won a national championship. I'll
always be their coach."
- This article originally ran May 30, 2006.
MEN'S HOOPS
Late comeback sparks Cagers'
upset win against Spartans
Voted the Best Bank/Credit
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Service in Ann Arbor
By Scott Bell
Daily Sports Writer
The electricity at Crisler
Arena last night could have
been summed up by many dif-
ferent words. Words like amaz-
ing, breathtaking and thrilling
were thrown around the sold-out
crowd following what was argu-
ably Michigan's biggest win of
the Amaker era. But the most fit-
ting word to describe last night's
action was undoubtedly foul.
Foul was how Michigan
played during most of the first
half.
The foul was what got Michi-
gan back into the game.
And foul was the mood Mich-
igan State coach Tom Izzo was
in after his team's first loss to
Michigan in three years.
"The officiating, I question,"
said Izzo, whose team went 6-
for-10 from the line, compared
to the Wolverines' 27-for-34
performance. "It didn't cost us
the game, it didn't cost us turn-
overs, but ... it's just too bad,
because I think we played well
enough in a lot of ways to win
the game."
Michigan's 21-point advan-
tage at the free throw line helped
spur it to a 72-67 win over No.
11 Michigan State.
The Spartans had a chance to
tie the game with seven seconds
to go. Trailing 70-67, they put
the ball in the hands of leading
scorer Maurice Ager. But his
3-pointer in the game's waning
seconds fell short. And after
junior Dion Harris corralled
the rebound, a Michigan victory
was just a formality.
The win was the Wolverines'
first in four tries against ranked
opponents this year and also put
them in the driver's seat for Big
Ten notoriety. If it beats Wiscon-
sin on Saturday, Michigan (4-2
Big Ten, 14-3 overall) will claim a
share of the conference lead.
"It feels good to finally get
one," senior Daniel Horton said.
"We've always believed. We
know we have the pieces to be a
very good basketball team - we
just finally did it today."
Just like in previous big
games, it was once again the
Daniel Horton show.
Horton's 23 points paced
Michigan. He shot a perfect 8-
for-8 from the line and drained
a trio of big 3-pointers at critical
points in the game.
Playing at home at Crisler Arena, the Wolverines beat the Spartans for the
first time in three years with a come-from-behind victory.
He made one in front of the
Michigan State bench less than
a minute into the game to get the
crowd going early.
He made another to put an
exclamation point on Michigan's
23-9 run in the second half.
And he made the final Michi-
gan 3-pointer, an inside-out
play which resulted in a Gra-
ham Brown kickout that Horton
swished from the right wing.
The shot gave Michigan its big-
gest lead of the game - eight
points - which it never relin-
quished.
But unlike the big games ear-
lier in the year when Michigan
kept coming up just short, it
wasn't a one-man show - this
time, Horton had a supporting
cast.
Four Wolverines contributed
at least nine points. But none
added more than senior Chris
Hunter.
The Indiana native had 13
points off the bench - six more
than Michigan's State entire
bench combined. With less than
12 minutes remaining in the
game, he hit the biggest shot of
the night.
After fighting back from a
seven-point halftime deficit,
Michigan evened the score at 45-
45. With the Spartans focusing
their efforts on Horton, Harris
calmly found Hunter in the cor-
ner. Hunter didn't even blink and
subsequently swished the three.
The shot gave Michigan its first
lead of the night and brought the
crowd into a frenzy.
Brown scored 10 and added
seven rebounds for Michigan.
Harris accounted for nine points,
despite shooting 1-for-12 from the
field. His 7-for-8 performance at
the charity stripe was highlighted
by the two free throws he made
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