, ' 4 A DAILY SPORTS BREAKS DOWN THE WEEKEND THAT WAS 2B - December 3, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom SAID AND HEARD "I'm not going (to Michigan). And it saddens me at times. You can't be in two places. I got a great place. I'm at home." - Louisiana State coach Les Miles after his Tigers won the Southeastern Conference Title. Miles was widely considered to be the top choice for the job. ATHLETE OF THE WEEK MATT PATTON In the 1,650-yard freestyle, the junior posted an NCAA-qualify- ing time of 14:49:09, beating the rest of the field by more than 40 seconds and shaving 30 seconds off his own per- sonal best time in the race. 4 'M'in ideal pool position The clock is ticking on Martin's coaching search By RYAN A. PODGES Daily Sports Writer If the Michigan men's swimming and diving team's commanding per- formance at the Husky Invitational is a preview of this year's NCAA Championship meet, which will be held at the same pool, then the Wol- verines are on the right track. The three-day meet was held outside Seattle at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, which will host the NCAA swimming and diving championship meet in March. Michigan led the meet from beginning to end and finished first in a 10-team field, tallying 479 more points than the second-place fin- isher, No. 11 California. Michigan (3-0 Big Ten, 5-1 overall) earned seven runaway victories in the 20 swim events. The fourth-ranked Wolverines had six of the top eight finishers in the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle. The team con- tinued to dominate the 400-yard individual medley, an event it has not lost all season. Senior co-cap- tain Alex Vanderkaay, who was the 2007 NCAA Champion in the event, touched first (3:47.05), followed .82 seconds later by sophomore Andre Schultz, and freshman Tyler Clary plated third. Michigan coach Bob Bowman has been pleased with the improve- ments the two underclassmen have made this season, especially in the 400-yard IM. "I'm really happy with it because I know how hard they've been training," Bowman said. "I defi- nitely think they'll be finalists (at the NCAA Championships)." The meet concluded with the 1,650-yard freestyle, which was won by Michigan junior Matt Pat- ton (14:49.09). Patton won the event by more than 44 seconds and still managed to drop more than 30 sec- onds from his last swim two weeks ago despite havingto finish the race without any competition pushing him to improve. "I just try and keep my stroke together and focus on my tech- nique," Patton explained. "That's the whole point of the race. I just kept my head down and pushed through the pain and eventually finish the race." Patton's time in the 1,650-yard freestyle marked Michigan's 25th NCAA qualifying time of the meet. The meet gave the Wolverines valuable practice in the venue they will later compete in for the NCAA title. "It's definitely great practice to be in that pool. That's the reason we went to this meet," Patton said. "Now we're going to be swimming against teams who haven't raced in this pool, so we're definitely going into NCAAs with an edge from the experience of this meet." Michigan was the clear favor- ite to win in a field that included no other top-10 teams and seven unranked squads. The lack of suffi- cient competition actually present- ed a challenge the Wolverines had to overcome by themselves. "The atmosphere was a little relaxed at first because we were definitely the best team there and there was really no pressure to per- form," Patton said. "Everyone on the team had to put the pressure on each other and get everyone to swim faster." The team will not compete again until Jan. 12 when it hosts a dual meet with Indiana at Canham Nata- torium. Over the semester break the team will take their annual training trip. This year, the Wolverines will work at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Out of place, Blue dominates meet 've really liked Bill Martin since he took over as the athletic director at Michigan. Martin turned a strug- gling Athletic Department SCOTT into a self-suf- BELL ficient one, B _EL transforming it from a debt- ridden mess into a Canham-esque model of prosperity. He's made great coaching hires, too. Rich Maloney is one of the nation's top baseball coaches. Not only did Martin bring him to Ann Arbor, he kept Maloney this summer when some big programs came calling for his services. And even though John Beilein's imme- diate results certainly haven't shown it (losing to Harvard? Seri- ously, John?), I'm confident he was the right hire, too. Martin has also made amazing strides in facilities. The enclosed seating that's about to drastically change the aesthetics of the Big House certainly isn't everyone's favorite decision, but I love that Martin is getting Michigan's facilities up to date with some of the nation's other elite universi- ties. But Bill, let's be honest: You've got yourself in deep with this one. No, it's not entirely your fault - the finger could be pointed at a wide variety of scapegoats - but you said it yourself that this deci- sion would likely define your time at Michigan. "Yeah, it's a very, very impor- tant task," Martin said just min- utes after Lloyd Carr announced his retirement last month. "Every time you replace a coach of this stature, you have to drop every- thing and focus on it, and that's what I'll be doing. It's very impor- tant, and I realize that." And for every great hire you've made, for every new facility you'll erect, for every dollar you bring to the University, all of that will be overshadowed by this failure if a salvageable hire doesn't come from this mess. Is it possible? Sure. But will it be easy? Absolutely not. Les Miles was the guy. Plain and simple. Ignore the spin that will likely follow in the next few weeks - Miles was Michigan's 4 4 PETER0SCHOTTENFELS/Da Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin is drawing the ire of many Michigan fans for apparently mishandling the search for the next head football coach. I By JASON KOHLER Daily Sports Writer YPSILANTI - It wasn't a normal weekend for the Michigan women's swimming and diving team. Not because it dominated the field at the Eastern Michigan Invi- tational, winning 18 of 20 events. Usual faces weren't in their usual places. The 13th-ranked Wolverines switched up their lineup and raced to first place, earning 1,147.5 points. Michigan lacked crowd sup- port, unlike Kalamazoo College or Wayne State, whose fans flocked to Michael H. Jones Natatorium. Regardless, it was by far the most prominent in the 10-team field, with schools ranging from Divi- sions I to III. "This meet was really a chal- lenge for us to come in here with teams that were not necessarily as fast as we are, but teams that were shaved, tapered and ready to race," Michigan assistant coach Stefanie Kerska said. Kerska was filling in for head coach Jim Richardson, who was in Atlanta recruiting at the Short Course Nationals. The decreased competition gave the Wolverines the opportunity to switch up the normal lineup. "We let them swim events that they normally don't have a chance to swim or events that might help them focus on a particular part of the races they normally do swim in," Kerska said. Senior Justine Mueller, who nor- mally swims the individual medley, swam and won the mile (17:03.84), an event she hasn't swam in eight years. Mueller added a second win in the 100-yard backstroke (57.89). "This will give me practice for the freestyle and backstroke in the IM," Mueller said. "It helps me mentally because I don't like to swim the same thing every meet. I like to switch it up." The meet was spread out over three sessions, which tested the Wolverines' endurance since they recently started a new phase in their dry-land training program. "The girls needed to make sure that their preparation was good, and that they were just plain tough in getting through three sessions," Kerska said. Michigan will step up its training over Winter Break when it heads down to Puerto Rico. "The training trip is a good time because day in and day out you're just going head-to-head with your teammates," junior Hannah Smith said. "Everyone istrying to improve different parts of their races, and not having all of these meets will help us do that." Over the break, the team will swim the same number of hours in practice but will increase its yard- age, which can be up to 10 miles a day for distance swimmers. Even with the extra training, the Wolverines shouldn't always expect to blow out its competition like this past weekend when they didn't face a ranked opponent. When it returns from break, Michigan will begin Big Ten com- petition and preparation for the NCAA Championships. For now, though, the Wolverines aren't get- ting ahead of themselves. "It's time ,to really focus on training and the next surge up before we start thinking about the Big Ten Championships," Kerska said. next head coach. And it took an astronomical screw-up to break up destiny. You made a last-ditch effort to contact Miles' agent yesterday morning. Good for you - probably a little late, though, considering Miles already announced he was returningto LSU the day before. With Miles out of the picture, who should be the next target? To be completely honest, none of the potential candidates inspire too much excitement. Tom O'Brien? Jim Grobe? Greg Schi- ano? Even Jeff Tedford doesn't sound like a sexy hire after Cali- fornia's embarrassing second-half collapse. Brian Kelly is likely the coach that garners the most excitement among the Michigan fanbase. But most insiders are saying he's a long-shot candidate. Should this come as a surprise? Hardly. Kelly doesn't fit the mold most of the old-school higher-ups in the Athletic Department want. But maybe it's time to think of that as a positive, not a negative. Bo Ball isn't exactly practical in the current landscape of col- lege football. Maybe whiffing on Bo's Boy could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe it's time to blow everything up - old-school ties and all - and start with a new, fresh, innovative perspective. It would be going out on alimb, but didn't Michigan take a chance on an unproven coach from Miami (Ohio) 40 years back? One thing is for sure, Martin needs to spend some cash if he wants the right replacement. Someone willing to pay hun- dreds of millions of dollars for facilities needs to be just as eager to at least pay market value for big-time coaches. At a University where Mary Sue Coleman was the highest-paid public university chief two years ago, why can't the school's coaches receive similarly competitive contracts? Martin low-balling Miles prob- ably wasn't the only reason this deal fell apart, but that certainly couldn't have helped, especially when LSU was willing to pay Miles top dollar. If you were Miles, where would you feel the most welcome? Whether we're talking about Martin using his money or his skill to bring in a suitable replace- ment for Lloyd Carr, one thing's for sure - it needs to be done quickly. Yes, an unenviable task just got harder after this weekend. But don't feel sorry for Martin and the rest of the. coaching search com- mittee - it's nobody's fault but their own. - Bell can be reached at scotteb@umich.edu. 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