4B - Monday, March 19, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 40 Blue drops first dual of year 60 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 H I lake the road to success. Join the team that's #25 on FORTUNE® magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For"! Here's a workplace where you can really go places! Ernst & Young jumped up to #25 on FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" from #67 last year- ranked higher than any other professional services firm. At Ernst & Young, our people are our edge, so we create an environment that promotes your growth and success. See for yourself why we've made the list for the 9th year in a row. This way to a great career! Visit us at ey.com/us/careers for more information or visit the EY page on facebook.com. 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." 1104 S. University 734.665.2244 Free soft drink with any entr6e Free soft drink with any sandwich after 2pm 1ebite hea4. c i.e. Shwarma, falafel, grape leaves, baba ghanouj, hommos, tabbouli and fattoush. Smoka Hookah 1113 S. University 734.761.9900 Grand Opening Specials Quality Cigars 20% OFF Hookahs as low as $12 Cigars - Cigarettes - Hookahs Gifts & Accessories Walk-in Humidor 40 q FORTUNE 100 BEST COMPANIESo TO WORK FOR° @ 2007 ERNST & YOUNG LLP Quallty In tverything We Uo ')