4B - February 1, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaiiy.com
4B - February 1, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom *
bM' senior class
bids farewell
Group of 13 lead
Michigan past
Michigan State in
last home meet
By FELIX CARREON
Daily Sports Writer
When Michigan senior co-cap-
tains Margaret Kelly and Leigh
Cole completed their last swim
meet for Ann Arbor Pioneer, both
of their fathers jumped into the
pool along with their daughters
to celebrate an illustrious high
school career.
The duo helped Pioneer to four
state championships and three
national championships.
After the completion of their
last meet inside the friendly
confines of Canham Natotorium
this weekend against arch rival
Michigan State, the two, along
with 11 other seniors jumped into
the pool to celebrate the win. But
missing in the pool were Kelly
and Cole's dads who decided to
celebrate their daughters accom-
plishments from the stands on
Senior Day.
"It didn't hit me until we met in
the team room before the meet,"
Kelly said. "(Michigan coach Jim
Richardson) said he would miss
all of us and that's when we all
lost it. To look back here, the four
years we all had and to know this
is the last time we'll be here for a
dual meet is tough."
The Wolverines dominated
from start to finish, winning the
first eight events en route to a 127-
87 victory over the Spartans.
After seeing its 16-straight dual
meet win streak against Ohio
State snapped last weekend, No.
16 Michigan extended its winning
streak against Michigan State.
The Wolverines have not lost a
dual meet to the Spartans since
1985.
The team would have won all
of the meet's events but decided
to swim exhibition in the final
three events. The meet served as
an extension of its weekly prepa-
ration in that regard.
"We stuck to our training,"
Richardson said. "I was actu-
ally surprised as to how well we
actually performed. We aren't
compromising anything to win
dual meets. We are sticking to the
plan."
Since Michigan took an early
lead over the Spartans, it gave
many swimmers an opportunity
to swim events that they wouldn't
usually participate in.
One such event was the exhibi-
tion of the 100-yard breaststroke
which included distance special-
ists seniors Emily Brunemann
and Emily Hanson and sprinter
sophomore Natasha Moodie in
the field.
"Jim asked us before the meet
what event we would like to
swim," Brunemann said. "I want-
ed to swim something different
than what I always swim. I actu-
ally like breaststroke alot. It's one
of my stronger parts of my 400
(individual medley)."
Kelly and Cole competed in
their normal events, dominating
the competition. Kelly touched
the wall first in the 100-yard but-
terfly and was part of the winning
200-yard medley relay team. Cole
earned an event victory in the
100-yard freestyle and finished
runner-up in the 50-yard free-
style behind Moodie.
While the Michigan seniors
had strong performances across
the board, it was the younger
members who impressed Rich-
ardson the most.
Freshman Julia Andracki prac-
ticed through fatigue during the
week, but showed a lot of guts in
the 100-yard breaststroke taking
first place even though it was an
exhibition race. And sophomore
Megan Craig career lifetime bests
in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle.
These young members of the
team hope to have the impact of
this year's 13 member senior class
that has shown a bond that very
few teams have as Richardson
explained.
"When you look around major
college athletic teams, you'll find
very few who have a 13-member
senior class," Richardson said.
"There's no attrition. Our seniors
all come from diverse back-
grounds, but they are not diverse
when it comes to Michigan. That's
an important thing for us."
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ARIEL BOND/Daily
Sophomore Carmen Reynolds passed the ball to senior Krista Phillips with 13 seconds left in yesterday's game. Phillips's three sealed Michigan's win over Penn State.
Michigan uses a clu t and
second-halfspr to beat PS
By ZAK PYZIK basketball team in program histo-
Daily Sports Writer ry went absolutely wild when the
Wolverines biggest player sank the
Senior center Krista Phillips teams biggest shot of the game.
sometimes struggles to make key Michigan (5-6 Big Ten, 13-8
shots. But not last night. overall) started off slow in the
In fact, last night Phillips first half after letting the Nittany
drained a 3-pointer with just 13 Lions (7-4, 15-6) go on an 11-2 run
seconds remaining to the Wol- early in the contest. And the Wol-
verines' 66-62 victory over No. 23 verines went into halftime trail-
Penn State at Crisler Arena. ing 34-26.
"I knew when they were pres- Michigan struggled early. The
suring me I was not going to get Wolverines' perimeter shooters,
this shot out," sophomore forward freshman guard Jenny Ryan, junior
Carmen Reynolds said. "I saw KP guard Veronica Hicks, and fresh-
in the corner of my eyes, soI passed man Dayeesha Hollins, shot 1-for-
it to her and when she made it, I 12 going into halftime.
was so happy. Coach likes us to be "(Michigan coach Kevin Bors-
versatile, and it was good that KP eth) wrote on the board the totals
could do that. It really helped us for me, Jenny, and'Dayeesha com-
out." bined," Hicks said. "We were just
After Reynolds dished the ball like, wow, we can shoot way better
to Phillips at the top of the arc at than this."
Crisler Arena, a record-breaking Michigan shot 33 percent in
crowd of 5,926 attendees closed the first stanza compared to Penn
their eyes and crossed their fingers. State's 52-percent showing. It was
And then, it went in. And on a a combination of Michigan's offen-
night where the "Biggest Losers" sive woes and Penn State's impec-
were the halftime entertainment, cable defense.
the biggest showing for a women's "We just never really had any
rhythm in the first half," Bors-
eth said. "I will tell you that they
are probably, in my mind, the best
defensive team in the conference. If
you look at their statistics they hold
teams to 34 percent shooting from
the floors. That's off the charts,
that's Connecticut-type stuff."
It may have been due to a high-
charged Borseth locker room talk
or a loud record-breaking crowd
because it was "Pack the House"
night at Crisler, but something trig-
gered sparked the Wolverines to a
15-2 run to start the second half.
"I know as a basketball player
you can never be defeated if there
is still time on the clock," junior
guard Veronica Hicks said. "I'd
rather play good late than start
early and then simmer down."
The Wolverines can credit a lot
of their win to Phillips and Reyn-
olds, well, at least more than what
the stat sheet showed.
The duo set numerous screens
that generated open looks from
Hicks and Hollins.
"We all want to do whatever you
have to do," Hicks said. "We do a
lot of things that only if you're bas-
ketball savvy you will be able to see
because they don't show up on the
stat sheet. Those are really making
this team successful."
Besides screens, drawing fouls
proved to be a strength of the Wol-
verine offense. Reynolds got to the
line twice in the first five minutes
and made all four free throws. But
the overall execution was not as
much much of a strength.
The Wolverines went just 48
percent from the free throw line,
missing seven down the second
stretch of the game.
It was an eight year old boy that
described this game best at the
beginning of the second half. He
was a young Michigan fan sitting
with his family, all of whom seemed
to be lamenting the 15-point lead
that Penn State possessed at the
time.
But after Hollins stole the ball,
tossed a long pass off of a fast break
to Hicks who finished with a layup,
the mood changed.
"I smell a comeback baby," the
boy said.
Blue shows improvement in
non-conference track meet
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Junior Thomas Kelley scored an 85.900, which was enough to win the all-around competition this weekend '
Wolverines hope weekend
leads to a new No. 1 ranking
Seven top-five
finishes highlight
invitational
By CASANDRA PAGNI
For the Daily
With strong talent wacross the
board and motivation never in
short supply, the Michigan wom-
en's track and field team is quickly
making its case to be a top con-
tender at the Big Ten Indoor com-
petition at the end of the month.
After postingseventop-five per-
formances and setting several per-
sonal records at the Rod McCravy
Invitational this past weekend in
Kentucky, the Wolverines proved
they can step up and perform well
in high pressure meets.
"Everyone is really on par to
compete and get faster," senior
captain Shana Vinson said "We
want to give the impression when
we do go to Big Tens that we're on
top of our game."
Michigan faced competition
from 13 non-conference foes in its
largest meet of the year, includ-
ing No. 5 Florida State, No. 8 Ten-
nessee and No. 14 Louisville. This
meet gave the team a glimpse of
other levels of competition outside
the Big Ten.
"It's nice to see different ath-
letes from different schools,"
Michigan coach James Henry said.
"That can be positive, and help
motivate the kids as well."
Vinson - who took third place
and posted personal bests in both
the 200-meter dash and 400-meter
dash - clearly wasn't phasedby the
other competitors this weekend.
She was experienced success this
year and is quickly becoming a
threat in the Big Ten.
"(Vinson) is starting to run like
she is capable of running," Henry
said. "She's being consistent as
well as improving. I think she is
one of the better sprinters -in the
Big Ten and I hope she can prove
that now."
Other noteworthy performers
from the weekend included red-
shirt junior Abbey Breidenstein,
who took third place in the pole
vault and sophomore Jillian Pur-
vis, who took fifth in the 60-meter
hurdles. Purvis said that facing so
many different teams this week-
end helped her evaluate where she
stands at this point in the season.
"The team is pretty focused and
'all in,'" Purvis said. "I know I still
have some time still and I know
that it will all come together once
Big Ten Indoors come around."
Even the weight throwers, who
collectively struggled at the invi-
tational - taking 15th, 16th, and
20th place - know that with three
meets remaining before the con-
ference contest, there is more than
enough time to rebound from this
weekend's performances.
"You go back to basics," Pend-
leton said. "You just think about
how you can improve on your men-
tal game, how you can improve on
your physical game, look to the
week that's coming and work on
the things that weren't your strong
points at the meet."
With a meet every weekend
until the Big Ten champion-
ships begin, Michigan has plenty
of opportunities to elevate its
game. Consistency will be the key
ingredient in developing a strong
team before facing in-conference.
competition, and the Wolverine
captains are using their ranks to
ensure that the team trains hard
throughout the week.
"I'm always around asking
people how the practices were,"
junior co-captain Emily Pendle-
ton said. "Trying to get everyone
involved in everyone else's' event
groups, I think it's a really good
way to keep people motivated
and keep people focused."
The Wolverines will use the
week in practice to prepare
for the upcoming split meets,
as some members travel South
Bend, Ind. and some to New York
to compete this weekend. Fac-
ing varied competition like they
did at Kentucky will help Michi-
gan in the long run, as the team
knows that to be the best, you
must beat the best.
"We haven't really had the
opportunity other than at Penn
State to race against a lot of other
fast teams," Vinson said. "I think
everyone kind of took advantage
of that and put on their game face
and ran a little bit harder because
of the competition we had."
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0
Michigan cruises
to 12-point victory
over ninth-ranked
Hawkeyes in Iowa
By MICHAEL LAURILA
Daily Sports Writer
With a strong performance
over No. 9 Iowa, the men's gym-
nastics team could potentially
become the top team in the nation
when the newest poll comes out
later today.
Illinois is currently the No. 1
team in the country and with the
second-ranked Wolverines' score
on Saturday in Iowa City, a move
up in the rankings is possible.
Michigan's score of 352.50 points
was 12 points higher than Iowa in
the meet.
"I think we closed the meet out
strong enough to move up to num-
ber one," senior Kent Caldwell
said. "Looking at scores from
around the country it seems like
we put up good enough scores to
move up."
Leading the way for Michigan,
along with Caldwell who won the
vault, was junior Thomas-Kelley
and redshirt sophomore Devan
Cote. Kelley was the all-around
winner of the competition. Cote
won his first event title of the sea-
son with a career-best parallel bar
performance.
The one that stands out the
most - he added a new dismount
and that's a difficult thing to do -
is Devan Cote," Michigan coach
Kurt Golder said. "I was handling
a high bar enquiry while he was
doing his routine and all I saw was
his dismount. Reports were that
everybody said he did a great rou-
tine, so I would say that's the per-
formance of the day."
Other notable performances
were by junior Ian Makowske,
who tied for second in the floor
exercise, and senior David Chan
who placed second in the pommel
horse.
Even though the Wolverines
were victorious, they were not
without error. With miscues in
the floor exercise from some of his
teammates, junior Chris Cameron
was able to rise to step up and win
the event.
"I think we did pretty well,"
Golder said. "Sometimes it's tough
to travel and then have a good
competition. This was a long bus
ride and the kids did pretty darn
well."
Facing two teams ranked in the
top 10, Penn State and Iowa, six
days apart has proven Michigan as
a contender..
"I think we have a pretty tough
meet schedule," Caldwell said.
"It's good to go against really
strong opponents because it really
pushes you to do as well as you can
each meet and keep setting the
standard high."
Some members of the Michigan
team will be traveling to Las Vegas
on Feb. 4 for the 2010 Winter Cup
Challenge, a prestigious nation-
wide event. With non-conference
meets against Oklahoma and Stan-
ford also coming next month, the
Wolverines will need to rise up to
the occasion- and to their pos-
sible No. 1 billing.
"We have to get so we're just
as good on the road as we are at
home, and we were pretty close to
that tonight," Golder said. "When
you're Michigan, in every sport,
when you walk in the arena, you
have a target on your back. The
higher you get ranked the big-
ger the target gets. I think we're
going to see everyone gunning for
us."
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