.1'he M chigan Daily - michigandail'y.com
March 16, 2009 - 3B
The Mich(gan Daily - michigandailycom.March 16, 2009 - 3B
Ofili wins second straight
national championship
-nthe 60-meter hurdles
ByAMY SCARANO
DailySports Writer
Four one-hundredths of a sec-
ond was the. difference between
an NCAA Championship title and
*second place. 'i/Ji
And Michigan senior Tiffany -
Ofili was on the better end of that
fraction of a second.
With a season-best time of eight
seconds flat, she captured her sec-
ond 'straight NCAA Champion-
ship' in the 60-meter hurdles at
the NCAA Indoor Championships
on Saturday. Ofili's fourth NCAA
crown of her career - two of which
were. 100-meter outdoor wins
helped the Wolverines finish 11th
at the .NCAA Indoor Champion-
ships in College Station, Texas.
Seniors Bettie Wade and Geena
Gall both earned All-American
honors. Wade came in fifth in the
pentathlon with a season best
4,252 points,'earning four points
for Michigan, and 'Gall came in
sixth in the. 800-meter race, con-.
tributing three points.
- But Ofili was far and away
-Michigan's bright spot.
"Things that happened in prior cHRIS DZoMBAK/Daily
competitions don't mean any- Senior Tiffany Ofii posted a season-best time of 8 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
thing when you step on ihe line," "Such a'short race; over within - event, the cutoff point for collect-
Ofili said. "I don't pay attention to eight seconds, everything must be ing points towards a team total.
what happened ilithe past because perfect," Henry said "Everything .'SOur goal was to try to improve
every time you race you have the must be right. The slight mistake over our best previous perfor-.
chance to win or lose." could cost you the championship. mdnces," Henry said. "With the
After an undefeated indoor.sea-.. It was impressive that she could competition and as a team, we
son in which Ofili ran five 60-me- pull.it off knowing that everyone wanted to be top four or top six.
ter hurdle races, she was ranked had their eyes on her." It turns out the competition was
No. 1 in the nation heading into Aside from Ofili, no Wolver- stellar and we didn't have a great
Saturday's race. Being the *favorite ine scored more than. four points day. We fell a little bit short, but I
guaranteetl her nothing going into for the team. Only Wade .and Gall was happy with the kids' efforts
the race, coach James Henrysaid. scored in the top eight in their and how they performed."
Wolverines fall to Illinois by
one point onSenior Night
Pommel horse,
high bar prove
troublesome in loss
By COLT ROSENSWEIG
Daily Sports Writer
The niood was festjve before
Saturday's Senior Night meet at
Cliff Keen Arena.
Michigan gymnasts, grinned
at their friends in the stands dur-
ing warmups and. parents hugged'
gleefully. As the night began, nine
seniors walked onto the floor with.
their parents and accepted plaques
froni tearful Michigan coach-Kurt
Golder.
After his usual.rendition of.the
national anthem, sophomore Ben
Baldus-Strauss led thecrowd in
'.,singing ".Happy Birthday" too leg-
endary coach Newt Loken,. who
turned 90 on Feb. 27. Former co-
captain Andrew Elkind, whose
own Senior Night in 2007 featured
a Michigan victory over. Illinois,
joined his old teammates pn the
hench for the meet.
Butthe atmosphere deflated just
a few hours later as No. 5 Michigan
fell.to No. 4 Illinois 35490-353.90.
Though the Wolverines endured
a tough final rotation on high bar,'
pommel horse was crucial in the
loss. Even for hit routines - only
one.Wolverine actually fell off the
apparatus - Michigan received
uncharacteristically low scores.
The Wolverines had taken a lead'
after opening on floor, but losing
in pommel horse by almost two
points, they couldnever quite catch
up to the Fighting Illini.
"We probably should reassess
the (horse) lineup, because some of
us just can't get the scores weneed tions, Michigan sat less' than a
to be getting," said Baldus-Strauss, point. behind Illinois. On parallel
who won the floor title and.hit all bars, senior John 'Sawicki, who
his sets. "We can't have hit 'rou- 'has had few chances to compete,
tines like that;and just go so low. and fifth-year senior Paul Wood-
We clearly lost the meet on horse ward got -Michigan. started with
alone, in my opinion." emotional hits: Woodward, who
Despite trailing by 1.4 points" also had a clean pommel horse set,
after two events, Michigan began said he felt it was the first complete
putting together a comeback on meet he's put together all year.
the still rings and vault, where it But with Rosso and all-around
earned seasoti-high team scores. champion Cameron as the onlytwo
After a' missed opening set, - hits in the next four sets, Michigan
senior-Joe Citrambone got Michi- was shaky going into high bar..
gan back on track on the rings, The Wolverines tried to regroup
before the final event, bellowing,
"Our housel"- But' the Illini were
T halready swarming: A chain in front
They took of the Illinois bench area was no
match for the Illini gymnasts, who
slipped past it to gather near the
Senior Night," events and cheer their teammates
Goldberg said.' Baldus-Strauss and junior Mel
*'Santander started 'the Wolverines
with two hits, but it wasn'teenough;
Santander eventually won the
event but Illinois steamrolled to
smoothly executing his revamped the finish, and Michigan stumbled,
routine to notch a season-high suffering. major mistakes on its
score of 14.75. His teammates built final four.routines.
on the- hit. Senior co-captain Phil "We lost the meet," said senior
Goldberg -and sophomore Chris Scott Bregman, who earned.a14.80
Cameron posted. matching 15.35 in his final floor set at Keen. "They.
scores, the highest scores any Wol- didn't take it from us."
verine has achieved this seasor-on It certainly wasn't the Senior.
rings. Night the Wolverines hadudreamed
And the momentum carried into of. But the seniors will have one
vault. On the event that used to more chance to go out on a high
cost Michigan two to three points note at home. Michigan will host
in start value alone, no Wolverine 'the Big Ten Championships the
scored lower than a 15.30. In fact, first weekend in April.
four Michigan gymnasts set sea- .'They took away. our- Senior
son highs,.with'senior Ralph Rosso 'Night," Goldberg said. "If your
and.junior co-captain David Chan emotions aren't coming into play
landing high-value'. handspring. after that, I don't know, you might
double front vaults. . . not be a living being.::. This is it.
Going into tle final two rota- This is our season."
Michigan grabs spot in CCHA semis after sweep
By CHRIS MESZAROS had a 21-0 shot advantage.- .
DailySports Writer . . And it was the 21st shot that
really mattered.
Maybe the Western Michigan With just three seconds left in
hockey team was simply hoping to the first period, freshman forward
sneak out of the first period early David Wohlberg controlled aloose
in both of - . . . _ puck, on the left side of Western
its games WESTERN MICH. 2 Michigan goaltender Riley'- Gill.
against MICHIGAN : 5 Wohlberg then deflected the puck
Michigan off Gill's right skate and into the
this week- WESTERN MICH. net to give Michigan the three-
end. MICHIGAN.. 6 goal lead.
In both . - . In the second -period, after the
games of the CCHA Quarterfinal Broncos scored to cut the lead to
series, the, Broncos' checked out .two, another lucky bounce broke
just a few'seconds too soon. Western Michigan's back.
In No. 3 Michigan's 5-2 win With 25 seconds -to play in
Friday night and 6-1 victory Sat- 'the second,, sophomore. Aaron
urday against Western Michigan, Palushaj skated-around the Bronco
two last-second goals by the Wol- goal and tried to feed the puck to
verines to close the first period sophomore'Louie Caporusso, who
crushed the Broncos' CCHA Tour- was stationed next to the crease.
nament upset bid. With the series Palushaj's pass deflected off the,
win, Michigan advanced to the leg of a Western Michigan defend-
CCHA semifinals next-weekend at er and slid into the net.
Joe Louis Arena. After referees.reviewedthe play
Saturday's first period was one to see if the puck went off Capo-
of the .Wolverines' 'most domi- russo's foot, the officials upheld
nating of the season. Not. only the goal.
did Michigan (20-8-0-0 CCHA, "We' were good, but we were
28-10-0 overall) outscore Western lucky,"' Michigan coach Red Beren-
Mnichigan 3-0 in the. first frame, son said. "We got the bounces. We,
they also shutout the Broncos scored those last-minute goals -
(9-13-6-2,14-20-7) in shots on goal. just about last-second goals - three
By the end of the period, Michigan of them this weekend. And those
are backbreakers. The third goal
and the fourth goal tonight are
killers in the locker room, when
you've just been scored on."
Remarkably, things were eerily
simila'-the night before.
Sophomore Carl. Hagelin
notched a shorthanded breakaway
goal off a pass from sophomore
Matt Rust that gave Michigan
a 3-0 lead with just 1.5 seconds
remaining in the first period.
"Rusty did all the work," Hage-
lin said. "It was an easy goal for
me. He beat his guy on our blueline
and had a two-on-one. He made
an awesome pass over to me and I
missed the first shot but made the
sure I got the rebound in."
Besides scoring .timely goals,
the second line of Rust, Hagelin
and Palushaj simply dominated
the Broncos. All three scored two
goals each in the series; and the
trio combined for 14.points on the.
weekend.
Rust and Hagelin also anchored
Michigan's penalty kill, particu-
larly on Friday. On two. separate
penalty kills in the first and second
.period, Hagelin and 'Rust teamed
up not only to score the short-
handed goal, but forechecked deep
in the Bronco zone to kill the clock
and 'penalty. Their efforts earned
CLIF REEDER/Daily
Sophomore Carl Hagelin heard theYost crow; chant his name for the-first time in his career as Michigan swept the-Broncos.
the approval of the Yost crowd, and for the crowd." . the CCHA in points - for just one
which started chanting 'Hagelin's It will take several similar goal on the weekend bodes well for
name. efforts from the' all-sophomore upcoming games.
"I have iever heard them cheer line if . the Wolverines want to - "They are a line that likes to be
my name," Hagelin said. "But I win the CCHA Tournament this challenged,".Beie nson said. "They
think when Rust and I are out weekend. But the way Michigan shut down Western's best line and
there on the penalty kill, we try to shut down Western Michigan for- then they' outscored them. And
get some energy-going for the team ward Patrick G4livan - who leads that is a tribute to them."
RATKOWIAK
From page 1B.
season willbe'different.
Just like last year, the Wol-
ve-rines' starting quarterback
situation is uncertain. But this
time, it isn't as scary. Redshirt
junior Nick Sheridan took the
first snaps 'of.the spring, but
listening to Rodriguez's glow-
ing praise of early-enrollee Tate
Forcier's workouts and seeing the
freshman's smooth performance
during the first part.of spring
'practice, Forcier will probably
be even with Sheridan-iin tie
starting.race by-the end of spring
practice..
Forcier has been hyped as the
quarterback Rodriguez was look-
ing for all last season, and the
coach didn't bother to hide his
excitement over Forcier and the
team's six other early enrollees.
"The nice thing'about it is
I think they've really blended
into our program," Rodriguez
said.,"They've not tried to be out
front and brag about themselves.
They know they have to earn the
respect, and I think they've tried
to do it. I'm tickled to death the
way they worked so far."
But'a quarterback can't be good
without a solid offensive line,
which was one of the Wolverines'
-biggest issues last year.
Rodriguez said Saturday he
hopes to "at least to be able to pick
up where we left off froni" offen
sively.
It already looks like they'll be
able to do that.
The.offensive line has one .
more year of experienc. and last
year's crop of redshirts are now.
ready for action..Rodriguez said
Saturday he might have 10 poten-
tial offensive linemen - a drastic
change from last year, when the
line was constantly in flux with
injuries and inexperienced play-
And the sunny, 40-degree
weather meant the Wolverines
held their first practice outdoors
for the first time in recent his-
tory. Last year, the team didn't
work outside until the last few..
spring practices. Practicing in the
low-ceilinged Oosterbaan Field-
house made itdifficult to work on
special teams, and kick and punt.
returns were one of Michigan's
most embarrassing weaknesses
last season,
This spring, Rodriguez said
he thinks the Wolverines can
hold outdoor practices for the
first three or four sessions--
.,and that up to half of practices
may be spent working on special
teams. In just the first half'hour
of Saturday's practice, the Wol-
verines worked on kick returns,
punt returns and blocking
punts.
Last yearstarting from that
first spring practice, it often felt
like Rodriguez and some of the
other coaches were just putting on
a happy face during press confer-:
ences.
That quickly vanished during
Michigan's five-game midseason
losing streak.
The difference this year is
that it doesn't already feel likea
facade. $ure, not everything will
he rosy this season..But it.definite-
ly won't be as painful, either.
- Ratkowiak can be reached
'at cratkowi@urnich.edu.
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