The Michigan Daily - michigandailyrcom
January 12, 2009 - 3B
'II finishes
first ien Akron
Every runner on part of the traveling squad."
Senior team captains Tiffany
roster gets chance Ofili, Geena Gall, Casey Taylor
and Bettie Wade, along with pro-
to compete viding strong support for their
younger teammates, collected six
By AMY SCARANO combined first-place finishes.
Daily Sports Writer The four captains and other
seniors have set out to establish
There are 43 athletes on the themselves on the national level
Michigan women's track and field this season, a feat Taylor and
team - and all of them saw action' sophomore Allison Liske argu-
in last Friday's Akron Quad. ably already accomplished on
The Wolverines took advan- Friday. Taylor and Liske both
tage of the fact that the meet met NCAA provisional marks in
did not limit how many runners Akron, Taylor in the triple jump
could participate, and the entire and Liske in the shot put.
squad made the trip to Ohio for "The reason our captains were
the meet against Buffalo, Pitts- picked as captains is because they
burgh and Akron. The extra run- are leaders not only be example
ners didn't slow Michigan down but in competition," Takacs-
as it ran away with an impressive Grieb said. "They are trying to
victory. perform on the national level and
The meet gave younger mem- when we have a meet like we had
bers of the Wolverines an oppor- on Friday, a starter meet, you are
tunity to show what they can do trying to get a good baseline for
for the team. After the first meet, your season."
only 32 athletes are allowed The Wolverines' dominant
to travel with the team for the performance - second-place
remainder of the season. Buffalo finished 37 points back
"There are standout people - is promising for the season to
and people who are progressing come.
and people who are just begin- "We have a really broad, suc-
ning," Michigan assistant coach cessful team," Takacs-Grieb said.
Anne Takacs-Grieb said. "So it is "We have people in almost every
a chance for beginners or those event area, so we were feeling as
who are progressing to see what if (the Akron Quad) was going to
they can really do and become a be a win."
LaP lante begins new era
By ROGER SAUERHAFT
Daily Sports Writer
YPSILANTI - Fred LaPlante's
Michigan head coaching career
started this weekend with a trip
across town to face off against his
alma mater for the Eastern Michi-
gan Invitational.
LaPlante, who served as associ-
ate head coach for 11 years, traded
roles with nine-year head coach
Ron Warhurst in September.
LaPlante used his team's perfor-
mance at the non-scoring meet as a
warmup for next Saturday's home
opener, "The Dual" against rival
Ohio State.
One of LaPlante's main objec-
tives for the invitational was to
"shake the cobwebs out," but after
the Wolverines won just two of 35
events, he had mixed feelings about
their success.
"(The story of the meet was)
how close we were to winning
some events but not winning any,"
LaPlante said just before the team's
two victories. "It shows we are
competing, but next we have to get
over the hump. Certainly, nobody
can walk away resting on their lau-
rels. There's work to be done."
Redshirt junior Tony Nalli fin-
ished first in the 3,000-meter run
with a time of 8:24:87, seven sec-
onds ahead of his nearest competi-
tion.
Michigan took the next event,
the 4x400-meter relay, in 3:19:96
thanks to the efforts of junior Matt
Wheeler, sophomore Carl Bucha-
non, sophomore David St. Amant
and fifth-year senior Dan Harm-
sen.
LaPlante noted the two pleasant
surprises from the meet were in the
outcomes of the 60-meter hurdles
and weight-throwing events. The
Wolverines finished second and
third in both events.
Sophomore Troy Woolfolk, a
cornerback on the football team,
also caught the eye of his coach.
In the finals of the 60-meter dash,
Woolfolk dropped four-tenths of
a second off his qualifying-round
time. The finish left him just three-
hundredths of a second out of first
place with a time of 6.86. Fellow
sophomore Robert Peddlar fin-
ished third, just .03 seconds behind
Woolfolk.
"I honestly owe this to football
because Mike Barwis has such a
good program," Woolfolk said of
his improvement from last season.
"He teaches us more explosion, so
coming off the blocks, I feel more
comfortable with my top speed."
He added that he calls his father,
Butch, a former All-American tail-
back and Michigan track star after
each meet, to tell him of his prog-
ress. The younger Woolfolk says
his goal is to break his father's 200-
meter school record, but for the
moment, he has his sights set on
next Saturday's meet against Ohio
State.
"I'm real anxious about it,"
Woolfolk said. "Since they beat us
(in football), this is my chance to
make it even, even the score. So I'm
going to bring something extra for
that."
CHRIS DZOMBAK/Daily
Redshirt junior Tony Nalli finished first in the 3,000-meter run in Ypsilanti.
Michigan routs top competition
MAX COLUINS/Daily
Senior Michael Watts, ranked 11th nationally, won his first match of the year.
SWolverines fall
in national duals
Highly ranked
opponents no match
for Wolverines
By RYAN A. PODGES
Daily Sports Writer
In its 87-year history, the Michi-
gan men's swimming and diving
team has never faced Tennessee in
a dual meet.
And judging from the Wolver-
ines' 200-98 victory in their first-
ever meeting Saturday, it might
be a while before the teams swim
against each other again.
No. 4 Michigan expected better
competition from the sixth-ranked
Volunteers, but a Wolverine vic-
tory was never in question. Michi-
gan began the meet by winning five
of the first six events, including a
sweep of the top four places in both
the 200-yard freestyle and butter-
fly. By the end of the meet, Michi-
gan's strong start was too much for
Tennessee to overcome, and as the
Volunteers failed to win a single
swimming event.
"We started off with great swims
and that gave us an early advan-
tage," Michigan coach Mike Bottom
said. "Once we started to roll, they
just didn't respond. And that hap-
pens sometimes when you come in
with high expectations and you get
upset early."
The meet was held at the Counsil-
man-Billingsley Aquatics Center in
Bloomington where the Wolverines
also won their dual meet against No.
14 Indiana, 176-104. This was the
second meeting between the teams
this season and Michigan's second
victory against the Hoosiers. The
Wolverines defeated Indiana 227-151
on Nov. 1.
Michigan's decision to wear faster
swimsuits at the meet undoubtedly
impacted the final score. The new
suits are typically used for champi-
onshipmeets attheendoftheseason,
but Bottom said the coaches chose to
have the team wear the suits at this
meet to see what kind of technique
changes are necessary before wear-
No.17 Michigan
disappointing against
top-15 teams
By MICHAEL FLOREK
Daily Sports Writer
The Sweet 16 was nothing but
sour for the Michigan wrestling
team.
The 17th-ranked Wolverines
participated in at the NWCA/
Cliff Keen National Duals this
weekend. The Duals take 16 of the
nation's top teams and pit them
against each other in a tourna-
ment bracket.
But Michigan was relegated to
the consolation bracket early in
the competition after a 23-9 loss
to third-ranked Cornell in the
first round.
"We've got to be more aggres-
sive," Michigan coach Joe
McFarland said. "That's one
thing I think we need to make a
big improvement on. We're not
getting our shots off, and we're
not going out there with the
intent on scoring right away in
some of our matches, and often
times, that can be the differ-
ence."
The Wolverines tried to make
the best of their drop to the con-
solation bracket with a convinc-
ing 29-10 win over host No. 21
Northern Iowa. But two hours
later, their hopes of a comeback
were dashed in a loss to Big Ten
rival No. 14 Penn State. It was
disappointing end for Michigan
after finishing third at last year's
tournament.
The Wolverines trailed Penn
State by as many as 12 points
but stormed back to tie it at 18
heading into the final bout. An
unnecessary roughness penalty
in the closing minutes sealed
Michigan's fate and the Wolver-
ines left the tournament without
placing.
"We probably should have
won that (last) match," sopho-
more Kellen Russell said. "I
think when we wrestle them in
the Big Ten season, we'll be a lot
more confident than we were
maybe going into that match."
Ranked fourth nationally in
his weight class, Russell was one
of the few bright spots for the
Wolverines. Along with senior
Steve Luke, Russell led the team
with a 3-0 record. Russell also
extended his overall win streak
to nine.
"The matches I lost (this sea-
son) I shouldn't have lost," Rus-
sell said. "So I think my win
streak should be longer than
that. I think it is just about being
mentally prepared for all of our
matches, just going out and get-
ting the first takedown."
The High Bridge, N.J., native's
wins came in three close match-
es. His widest margin of victory
was just three points.
Against Penn State's Frank
Molinaro, Russell almost saw his
win streak stop at eight. After
an uneventful seven minutes,
the match extended into over-
time. Russell scored the pivotal
takedown with just 12 seconds
remaining on the clock.
"I knew it was going to come
down to a takedown," Russell
said. "I knew if I got in on his
legs, I was going tobe able to take
him down. I was able to dive in on
a shot and grab one of his legs and
bully him over to get the kill."
After losing two of the most
decorated wrestlers in program
history in Eric Tannenbaum and
Josh Churella, this year's ver-
sion of the team has shown some
flashes but has come up just short
a number of times.
"We just don't have the same
team as we did last year," McFar-
land said. "We had opportunities
to win that last dual. We lost two
one-point matches. We lost an
overtime match. We beat Penn
State and we're in reach of third
place. As disappointing as it was,
we were right there at the same
time."
JEREMY CHO/Daly
Senior Matt Patton won a pair of individual events, including the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle, in Bloonington yesterday.
ing the suits again at the Big Ten
Championships in February.
Senior co-captain Matt Patton
won both the 1,000-yard freestyle
and the 500-yard freestyle (4:22.14)
Saturday. His time of4:12.80 on Dec.
4th is currentlythe country's fastest
collegiate 500-yard freestyle time
this season. Sophomore Tyler Clary
also had a pair of individual wins in
the 200-yard backstroke and indi-
vidual medley events.
Michigan showed significant
improvement in the breaststroke,
one of the Wolverines' weak strokes.
One of the more exciting races was
sophomore Jared Miller's second-
place finish second in the 200-yard
breaststroke (1:59.77). Miller lost to
Indiana's Heath Tameris by just 0.42
seconds, and Bottom said swimming
under two minutes was a "big step"
for Miller as a breaststroker.
The meet came just one week
after Michigan competed in the
Orange Bowl Classic in Key Largo,
Fla. where the Wolverines held
a training camp. Freshman Dan
Madwed, who won the 200-yard
butterfly Saturday, pointed to the
time the team spent together train-
ing in Florida as a key to helping
everyone come together as a team.
"We really bonded a lot on our
trip and instead of 29 individual
guys we became one united team,"
he said. "Mike (Bottom) really
understands the value of team
chemistry and I think we're begin-
ning to understand how powerful
that can be when we get behind
each other."
Junior Alon Mandel, who won
the 100-yard backstroke said the
team has become more confident
together and with first-year coach-
es Bottom and Josh White.
"We all really supported each
other throughout the meet," he
said. "When we swam Indiana the
first time, we had just met Mike
(Bottom) a few weeks earlier, but
now we know him a lot better and
our confidence has grown, as well
as our physical abilities in the
water."
Bottom has also noticed a differ-
ence as well. With the help of the
captains, he said the team is in the
right mindset and is now more sure
of itself.
"I think they're gaining an
understanding of who they are,
which is what we talked about at
the end of the meet," Bottom said.
"These guys are looking in the mir-
ror and see that they are getting
better and are capable of compet-
ing at a high level."
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