DAILY SPORTS BREAKS DOWN THE WEEKEND THAT WAS
2B - Monday, February 12, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
'M' SCHEDULE
TUESDAY- 2.13
M Basketball at MichiganState, 9p.m.
WEDNESDAY- 2.14
W Tennis@ Notre Dame,4 P.M.
THURSDAY -2.15
M Swimming/Divingat BigTen Champion-
shipsi12PM.
W BASKETBALL VS PURDUE 7P.M.
FRIDAY -236
Softball vs. East Carolina, 9 a.m.
Softball vs. Maryland,11a.m.
WRESTLING VS. PE NN STATE 7PM.
WGYMNASTICS
VS. PENN STATE,7:30 PM.
Ice Hockeyvs. Lake Superior State, 7:35
p.m.
SATURDAY-2,17
M Track & Field
at Harold Silverstein Invitational
W Track & Field
at Harold Silverstein Invitational
Water Polo vs. Princeton,9:15 a.m.
W Tennisvs. Tennessee, 11am.
SOFTBALL VS. ST. JOHN'S,4 PM.
M BASKETBALL VS. INDIANA, 4 P.M.
Water Polo vs. Maryland, 6 p.m.
M Gymnasticsvs. Minnesota, 8 p.m.
Softball vs. Florida Atlantic, 8 p.m.
SUNDAY -2.11
Water Polo
at George Washington, 10:30 a.m.
W Basketball at Northwestem, 3 p.m.
Water Polo at Bucknell, 2:45 p.m.
M Tennis vs. Northwestern, 4 p.m.
Ice Hockey vs. Lake Superior State
at Joe Louis Arena,3 p.m.
Wrestlingvs. Northwestern, 8p.m.
*homegames in all caps
fall times EST
SAID AND HEARD
"I've had some great memories - go-
ing to the College World Series, host-
ing the regionals here, kicking the crap
out of Ohio State."
- Former Michigan shortstop BARRY LARKIN, who was
inducted into the Michigan Hall of Honor on Saturday.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
CASEY WHITE
WRESTLING
The redshirt sophomore scored a crucial thrid-
period pin against Ohio State, helping Michi-
gan win its first Big Ten win of the season,
21-15. White had been losing going into the
final period.
Crazy fans here Take a look across the pond
Ain Italy, a riot erupted at a
soccer game.
Thirty-eight people were arrest-
ed.
Many others were injured.
One police
officer was _
killed.
We often
think that we
take sports too
seriously in
America. We
complain about
overbearing
parents who
get upat 4:30
a.m. to shuttle JACK
their children HERMAN
to hockey prac-
tice. We laugh
at those guys who attend games in
sub-freezing temperatures wearing
paint on their chests, but no shirts.
The other day one of the Daily's
columnists even called the attention
we pay to college recruiting "sick."
violence that periodically arises
around sports in Europe, these
characterizations seem harmless
and trivial.
In America, sports tend to be an
escape from politics. In Europe, the
two arenas often converge.
Interested after the Italian riot,
I borrowed Franklin Foer's "How
Soccer Explains the World" from
a friend and read a few chapters.
Most of these situations are much
more complicated than I can
explain in two paragraphs, but I've
done my best to summarize some of
the tales below.
Take England. Although "Satur-
day Night Live" parodied hooligans
for laughs, in real life, they were no
joke.
The worst of them, the Chelsea
Headhunters, traveled around the
country assaulting opposing fans.
They involved themselves in crime,
accumulating wealth by selling
drugs. Fans of the far right wing
of politics, they visited German
cneraio ncamps oa -r
- admire - "Hitler's accomplish-
ments."
Scotland's greatest rivalry is
politically charged. The country's
two best teams - Celtic and Rang-
ers - hail from the same city:
Glasgow. But whereas the Catholics
support Celtic, the Protestants sup-
port the Rangers, representing a
sectarian divide that has long been
associated with the Scottish city.
When in 1989 the Rangers signed
their first Catholic player, an ex-
Celtic, Maurice Johnston, neither
set of fans was happy. Rangers
fans protested, while some Celtic
fans plotted an to assassinate the
"traitor." In one recent seven year
period, eight match-related deaths
occurred.
In Serbia, a group of fan clubs, or
gangs, were essentially supported
by a team called Red Star Belgrade,
even holding offices in the squad's
headquarters. But judging from
their actions, it was tough to tell
whether the "fans" liked going to
mawnes or jusi creaiing vioence
outside them.
Once they broke into practice
and beat up three players who had
played poorly in recent matches.
They would lure opposing fans by
pretending to be like them, only
to attack them later. Other times,
they would form a "V" and charge
around the stadium in five minutes
- destroying any opposing fan or
policeman in their path.
The fan groups were often
known as a vehicle for Serbian
nationalism. In the early '90s, a
hit man named Arkan organized
what was essentially a Red Star fan
club into a nationalist paramilitary
group that fought in both Bosnia
in Croatia. The group killed 2,000
people and looted, beat and terror-
ized many more.
Back in Italy, the riot has
destroyed what ever remain-
ing credibility the sport had left.
Match-fixingscandals dominated
the league last year, but after Italy
left Germany as World Cup champi-
ons, uttie was actual yaone to rem-
edy the problem domestically.
Finally taking a hard-line stance,
officials suspended league play until
they deemed that games would
go on, but fans could only enter
stadiums that took certain safety
precautions like placing turnstiles
at entrances and cameras around
the stadium.
Just six stadiums in the country
meet these requirements, meaning
25, including the famous San Siro
in Milan, will hold games without
spectators. This draconian solution
might not do much, though, since
nothing will prevent fans from con-
gregating outside.
Meanwhile, we're waving our
foam fingers, painting out faces and
wearing our socks inside out.
Silly?
Maybe.
But maybe Europe can learn a
little something from us.
- Herman can be reached
at jaherman@umich.edu.
Edwards earns
qualifying time
Blue finds redemption in victory
The No. 2 Michigan women's
track and field team took part in the
Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville,
Ark., this weekend as part of its
preparation for the Big Ten Cham-
pionships in two weeks.
The two-day event, which was
not scored, saw the Wolverines
shine in numerous individual races.
Redshirt freshman Christina Sol-
omon finished in second place in the
high jump, recording a career-best
clearance of 5-foot-5.
Michigan also had four competi-
tors finish in the top-25 of the pole
vault led by a 14th place showing
by fifth-year senior captain Krista
Pearson.
But perhaps the most impressive
performance of the weekend came
from junior Nicole Edwards. She
was the lone Wolverine to garner
an NCAA automatic qualifying bid,
finishing in eighth place in the mile
run, with a time of 4:36.08.
Michigan returns to Ann Arbor
next weekend to host the Harold
Silverstein Invitational.
By ALEX PROSPERI
Daily Sports Writer
What a difference a week can
make.
After last week's utter collapse
in the final event, the floor exercise,
the Michigan women's gymnastics
team exorcised some of its demons
in a tri meet against No.6 Nebraska
and Illinois.
The Wolverines beat the Corn-
huskers and Fighting Illini 195.825-
195.350-192.525, due in large part
to a season-high performance on
the dreaded floor exercise (49.225).
Going into this weekend, Michi-
gan coach Bev Plocki made sure
there would be no repeat of last
week.
"After last weekend, we had
three awesome events, and just
relaxed and let it slip away from
us in the final event," Plocki said.
"That's what we talked a lot about
this week."
Ironically, Michigan went into
its final rotation this weekend in
the exact same position as last
weekend - first place.
But instead of falling to the same
fate, the Wolverine gymnasts tri-
umphed.
As the crowd cheered on No. 8
Michigan, sophomore Huneth Lor
and junior Katie Lieberman start-
ed off with back-to-back scores
of 9.825. Then junior Nellie Kip-
pley tied her career-best score of
9.875. Earlier in the competition,
sophomore Becky Bernard had a
very uncharacteristic fall from the
beam, but she bounced back and
scored a 9.825 on floor. Four perfor-
mances in and the Wolverines were
doing much better than last week's
performance, but there was still
one performance left.
Finally, it was sophomore phe-
nom Tatjana Thuener-Rego's turn.
The buzz in Criselr Arena rose to
its highest peak as the crowd await-
ed Thuener-Rego's always-enter-
taining floor exercise. And with
her all-around title and Michigan
victory on the line, she wowed the
2,117 in attendance, especially the
jumpy student section, with a score
of 9.875.
But Michigan didn't have its
best performance of the year prior
to floor. Three Wolverines scored
9.600 or below on the beam, statis-
tically the team's second-strongest
event going into the competition.
But since Nebraska didn't bring
Sophomore Katie Lieberman helped Michigan bounce back in a tri-meet victorv.
DID YOU MISS ANY OF THE BIG GAMES
THIS WEEKEND? OUR BLOG, "THE
GAME," HAS ARCHIVED CONTENT.
1
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their "A game" to Ann Arbor, the
Wolverines were still able to sneak
out with a victory.
Nonetheless, Michigan (9-1) fin-
ished strong, which is exactly what
Plocki wanted to see.
"I was really happy to see them
come back from beam, being a little
disappointed," Plocki said.
Michigan's second-highest total
score of the season, 195.825, was
nearly a half-point better than its
season average and will most likely
move the team up in the rankings
for the third consecutive week.
Despite their top-10 ranking, the
Wolverines were the underdog this
weekend. Not only did they pull off
the upset beating Nebraska, the
win will give Michigan something
it will need later on this season.
"I think the win will make our
kids feel a little bit better about
themselves that they were able to
beat a higher-ranked team," Plocki
said. "And that's good because we
got some very talented contests
coming up. We are going to Utah,
going to Georgia. Those ones are
going to be tough."
But for the moment, the Wolver-
ines couldn't be happier with their
performance this past weekend.
And neither could Thuener-Rego.
The Miaminative took home first
place in bars, scoring a 9.900, for
her fourth straight bars title of the
season. She also tied for second on
beam (9.800) and did the same on
floor. In the process, she captured
her second all-around title this year.
"Once I do one event really well
it helps me to go through all of the
events and it just helps me to keep it
going," Theuner-Rego said.
Kippley also had a successful
evening. She tied for second on
floor with Theuner-Rego, finished
second on the all-around (39.350)
and captured the individual title on
beam (9.825).
"Overall, we have now shown
that we can be great in all four
events," Plocki said. "We just have
to be great in all four events in the
same day."
S nu
To play: Complete the grid so that every row, column
and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
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