4B - April 7, 2008
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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Freshman Thomas Kelley was the lone event champion (floor exercise) for the Michigan men's gymnastics team at the Big Ten Championships.
High bar halts title hopes
Injuries plague
Blue in rematch
Three months after Lex Williams sat out on Saturday
with an illness that's been hamper-
winning pennant in inghimsince the cross-country sea-
son last fall. Redshirt junior Mike
The Dual,' Michigan Woods is out for the season with a
loses it shorthanded broken ankle also suffered during
cross-country season.
"It was just mediocre perfor-
By GJON JUNCAJ mances up and down," Warhurst
Daily Sports Writer said. "Especially with those guys
injured.We'rekind ofthin,but that's
Michigan coach Ron Warhurst what we've got to work with."
wasn'tused to this. Even though the Wolverines
His men's track and field team didn't take advantage of the warm
stepped into Jesse Owens Memorial weather, four regional qualifiers
Stadium at Ohio State to an unex- provided plenty of bright spots.
pectedly warm reception. Sunny After staying even with Ohio
skies and mild temperatures made State's Anthony Cole through the
for a picturesque setting for the first half of the 100-meter dash,
dual meet rematch with the Buck- junior Adam Harris turned the jets
eyes on Saturday. on downthe stretch. The All-Amer-
"We've been treated to some ican pulled away from his personal
really lousy weather," Warhurst rival and surpassed an icon in the
said. "So this was a treat. I bet the process.
guys forgot howto compete because Harris's NCAA Mideast Regional
the weather was so nice." time of 10.51 seconds broke Jesse
There was just one problem - too Owens's Michigan/Ohio State dual-
few Wolverines were there to enjoy meet record of 10.54 seconds, set in
it. 1936.
Michigan battled health prob- In addition to his contributions
lems and the Buckeyes, falling in the 4x400-meter relay, Harmsen
110-93 and surrendering The Dual tallied a regional qualifying score
pennant they won on Jan. 19. of his own with his victory in the
Ohio State's superior depth ulti- 400-meter hurdles, while redshirt
mately secured the pennant for sophomores Sean Pruitt and Vince
the Buckeyes. Ohio State athletes Belitsos placed second and fourth
finished 1-2 in five events - two in the hammer throw to stake their
distance and three field. The meet bids for the Mideast Regional.
was out of reach by the time the Fresh off receiving Big Ten Field
Wolverines' 4x400-meter relay Athlete of the Week honors, Pruitt's
team of redshirt junior Dan Harm- 197-03 missile eclipsed his own
senjunior Andre Barnes, freshman school record setattheYellow Jack-
David St. Amant and senior Andrew et Invitational on March 29.
Wechter notched an upset in the Michigan still has its share of
final event. The squad took down an details to work out as it enters the
Ohio State unit that won the Big Ten heart of the outdoor season.
Indoor Title this season. "We'vebeentrainingprettyhard,
What makes Michigan's dual butit's kind of difficultto judge how
record time of 3:11.78 more impres- hard the workouts are because of
sive is that the relay team was com- the weather,"Warhurst said. "We're
peting without fifth-year senior obviously not getting enough speed
Stann Waithe, whom Warhurst training in because you can't run
calls the Wolverines' top sprinter fast when it's cold, rainy and windy
in the 200-meter and 4x400-meter on that outdoor track. Hope the
races. The two-time All-American weather will give us a break."
pulled up in the 200-meter dash The Wolverines couldn't get
with a slightly strained hamstring. enough breaks on Saturday, either.
Waithe will miss next weekend's The Buckeyes celebrated their
meet, too. revenge after the meet, parading
The absence of two of the Wol- alongthe track with the pennant in
verines' top distance runners also their grasp as the scarlet and gray
left big holes to fill. faithful provided a warm reception
Three-time All-American junior of their own.
Four falls lead to
disappointing fourth-place
finish at Big Tens
By COLT ROSENSWEIG
Daily Sports Writer
STATE COLLEGE - Just two rotations into
Friday's Big Ten Championships, the No. 6
Michigan men's gymnastics team was almost
completely silent, with heads hanging and
hope gone.
The Wolverines' dreams of winning a con-
ference title were dashed. Michigan straggled
into fourth place (353.00), more than seven
points behind champion Penn State.
Weeks of focus on parallel bars, the team's
opening rotation, had paid off, helping the
Wolverines to a strong start. Michigan coach
Kurt Golder had shuffled the lineup coming
into the meet. He sent up two of his best per-
formers, freshman Chris Cameron and sopho-
more Mel Santander, earlier than their usual
spots late in the rotation, and the experiment
seemed to work. The noise of the gymnasts and
their nearby fans was unrivaled as Michigan
hit four of six routines.
But on high bar - the second rotation and
one of Michigan's strengths - everything fell
apart.
"After (parallel) bars, I felt like we thought
we had it wrapped up and kind of relaxed a
little bit," said junior Jamie Thompson, who
posted a 15.15 on floor. "That's where I honest-
ly think we messed up on high bar."
Four of Michigan's six high bar sets includ-
ed at least one fall.
Even the two hit routines, from freshman
Ben Baldus-Strauss and Santander, didn't earn
very high scores.
With that, the Wolverines' usually irre-
pressible enthusiasm was gone, along with any
shot at a conference championship.
"The energy comes from hitting, not from
falling," senior co-captain Paul Woodward
said. "After that high bar, you can't win. It
sucks to know after two events that every-
body else in here has to have a terrible, terrible
event. Horrific - and it's not going to happen.
You can't win a meet hoping other people are
going to screw up."
Even though Michigan was never able to
string together enough solid hits to regain any
momentum, there were some bright spots.
Seven Wolverines made it to Saturday's
event finals thanks to their Friday showings,
and freshman Thomas Kelley finished fifth in
the all-around competition. Junior Phil Gold-
berg scored a Michigan- and career-high on
rings with a near-perfect set (15.60). Sopho-
more David Chan's meet-ending vault was
another Michigan record (16.20).
"We definitely did have some good rou-
tines," said Kelley, who won the Big Ten floor
title and Freshman of the Year award on Sat-
urday. "Jamie had a great floor routine. Chris
had a good pommel horse routine. But it was
too much up and down. That emotion swing
threw us off a bit."
None of those performances could put more
than fleeting smiles on the Wolverines' faces.
Despite the valiant efforts of Michigan's fan
section, the team never got fired up again.
After the meet, Golder was unhappy but
already looking forward to the NCAA Champi-
onships in two weeks.
"We're disappointed and upset with our
underachievement, but it's now, 'What do we
do with that?' " Golder said. "I felt that we
were capable of winning Big Tens - we're that
caliber of team - and I still do."
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