4B - Monday, March 19, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Blue drops first dual of year
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By COLT ROSENSWEIG
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - The No.1Michi-
ganmen'sgymnasticsteamseemed
to slip through a wormhole into
Opposite Land on Saturday.
The whole night was backward.
The pommel horse, the first
rotation of the night and usually
one of the Wolverines' problem
events, went unbelievably well.
For the second week in a row, all
six gymnasts hit their routines,
with freshmaniDavid Chan, senior
co-captain Justin Laury and fresh-
man Mel Santander all notching
scores in the 9.0 range. The 36.05
team score was Michigan's highest
horse total of the season.
Instead of falling behind, Mich-
igan took the lead after the first
event of the night, despite No. 3
Ohio State beginning the meet on
floor.
But on floor exercise, an event in
which the team is ranked No. 1Sin
the nation, the lead disappeared.
And on the final two rotations,
high bar and parallel bars, also
events where Michigan is tops, the
Wolverines' struggles continued.
By the end of the night, some-
thing else happened which had
never occurred this year: Michi-
gan lost a dual meet. The Buckeyes
posted their highest team score of
the season, beatingthe Wolverines
220.5-215.85.
Missing sophomores Scott
Bregman and Jamie Thompson to
injury, Michigan's four-man line-
up left no margin for error - nor-
mally six gymnasts compete on
an event, with the top four marks.
counting.
"There's going to be times in
competition when you've got to go
with four, and four guys have to
hit," Michigan coach Kurt Golder
said. "Just like going to the free-
throw line or kicking a field goal
- they've got to make it or not.
This was one of those moments
they needed to do it."
The team's floor score was its
lowest of the season (35.70). Ohio
State took a slim lead after two
rotations, which ultimately bal-
looned to an insurmountable 4.65
points.
After a subpar floor perfor-
mance, Ohio State competed in
spectacular fashion, and Michi-
gan's solid rings and vault show-
ings were not enough to keep up.
By the final two events, the Wol-
verines needed to hit every rou-
tine - and have the Buckeyes melt
down, too.
But on high bar and parallel
bars, Michigan was just average.
While the St. John Arena crowd
shrieked for successive hit Buck-
eye routines and stuck landings,
the Wolverines suffered miscues,
falls and shaky dismounts.
"I had the best vault I've com-
peted this season, which was real-
ly exciting at the time, but in the
end when it's all over, it's always
about the team," said sophomore
Kent Caldwell, who won the floor
exercise (9.65) and notched a sea-
son-high 8.9 on vault. "Losing
overwhelms me having a good
vault - that doesn't even matter.
I'm going to go in the gym and try
to keep doing that, obviously, but
I don't feel good at all about this
meet."
The injury bug continued to
plague Michigan. Laury's hurt
shoulder seemed more painful
than usual, and senior co-cap-
tain Andrew Elkind is also bat-
tling shoulder problems. And,
after posting the Wolverines' top
high bar score (9.45), Elkind hit
his already-sore bicep executing
a Diomidov skill on the parallel
bars.
"I am worried (about all the
injuries) because in order to win a
National Championship, you have
to put up the best people," senior
Aaron Rakes said. "As more and
more people get injured, we're
running short on our top perform-
ers. I really hope that Andrew and
Justin are healthy enough for our
last two meets."
The Wolverines have two weeks
until the Big Ten Championships
in Minnesota, which they hope
will be enough time to rehabili-
Senior Justin Laury's sore shoulder is just one of the injuries Michigan is dealing with.
tate their various aches and pains.
With an exceptional showing in
the championship meets, Michi-
gan can reduce the past month's
struggles to a trivial footnote.
"Right now, it hurts like hell,"
Golder said. "Right now, we have
a little adversity - what do we do
with that? It's easy to train when
you're perfectly healthy, when
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you're winning meet after meet
after meet. Now the true test is,
how do you handle this? How do
(the gymnasts) handle it, how do
we as coaches handle it, how does
everybody that's a piece of this
puzzle handle it? If they handle
it real well, we'll come out of this
smelling like a rose. If they don't,
we're goingto be up a creek."
GRAPPLERS
From page 1B
came out firing and registered what
many in the boisterous crowd felt
was a takedown. But the official was
patient and gave Gillepsie time to
scramble out of it.
"I'm pretty sure if he had given
that quick two it would've been all
over," Gillepsie said.
Whereas the Edinsboro wrestler
stood atop the podium and went to
the winner's press conference Sat-
urday night, the Northville native
stood on Gillepsie's right and was at
aloss forwords.
Churella wasn't very in to taking
positives from the match, instead
focusing on what the loss means for
his future.
"You can take positives away from
anything," the redshirt junior said.
"This will just drive me for next year
to win a national title."
Following the loss, the downtrod-
den middleweight walked along the
edge of the Palace floor to the warm-
up room, trying to ignore the ESPN
camera just feet in front of his face.
Once Churella was embraced by his
father, three-time NCAA Champion
Mark Churella, he sat on a treadmill
in the back of the room, barely able
to be consoled.
"I told him that I loved him and
that I'm very proud of him," Mark
Churella said. "I thought he wres-
tled with a lot of heart. I felt that at
the end there he was close to having
that two and that in fact it was one of
those calls that he just didn'tget it."
McFarland was also visibly shak-
en by the loss.
"It hurts right now," McFarland
said. "I feel bad for him. There's
nothing that I can say or do that's
going to make him feel any better
right now. He's just heartbroken,
just heartbroken.".
But after such a rough season, it's
tough not to consider Michigan's
performance at the NCAA Champi-
onships great.
"It was a frustrating season for
us," McFarland said. "We went
through somethings that we weren't
accustomed to.
"For our guys to do what they did
is outstanding."
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