2B - March 8, 2010
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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
{)Ol ts Ion The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Michigan's own Oscars
This is a sad scate of affairs,
when I'm more excited for r'
the Academy Awards than
a Michigan-Michigan State basket-
ball game.
And the
game really
lived up - ors
down, I guess?
- to my expec-
tations. Thee
Wolverines'
dive-bombed '
through 40 ANDY
minutes of lack- REID,
luster play that
wasn't really
worth watching. It was a great way
to round up the season as a whole,
which was, you know, disappoint-;
ing or whatever.
So what do you say after anP
afternoon like that? When an
Izzone member boasts a sign that
says, "At least you still have football
...hockey...uh, Ice Dancing" and -
you know what? - there's no come-
back for that at the presenttime.
You focus on the Oscars and
pretend the game didn't happen,
obviously.
So, in that weird state, I got to
thinking what it would be like if
the Michigan Athletic Depart- SAID ALsALAH/Daily
ment decided to roll out its own red Former Wolverine Brandon Graham accepts the Silver Football earlier this season.
carpet and hand out some Oscar-
inspired awards. ment was. Lexi Zimmerman, who the draft was a bad choice.)
BEST ACTOR: This one is pretty . was named to the All-America BEST HORROR STORY: Michi-
obvious, right? There's only one team after the season, seemed to be gan hockey. What the hell is going
dude who hasn't broken the heart the team's rock, though I'll admit I on with that team? Maybe the
of Michigan fans everywhere at really don't know that much about Wolverines are finally gettingtheir
some point this year. Brandon Gra- the sport. crap together, but it's definitely too
ham. BEST COMEDY: The Delaware little, too late.
He did everythingthis season, State football game. Halfway For a teamto be pegged as a
save literally devouring Terrelle through the second half, Hornet potential national champion, a
Pryor, and I'm not so sure he players were jokingly asking Gra- seventh-place finish in the confer-
wouldn'thave if he was given the ham why he was still in the game. ence is totally unacceptable.
opportunity. By the end - when even David I'm looking at you captain Chris
He gave Wolverine Nation a Cone looked good - it was down- Summers.
reason to cheer over the last two right hilarious. ,.BEST PICTURE: There's really
seasons, and he deserves every- BEST LEAD ACTOR WHO'S not a lot to choose from this year,
thing he's about to getwhen he's TOTALLY NOT READY FOR THE is there? If you forget about every-
drafted in the first round of April's BIG LEAGUES: Manny, heed the thingthat's happened since then,
NFL Draft. words of the student section during the Notre Dame football game defi-
BEST ACTRESS: Michigan the waning minutes of the Illinois nitely fits the mold. It had every-
sports fans have been so desper- game: thing - drama, suspense, upsets
ate this season that a deep run in "ONE MORE YEAR." and Greg Mathews's awesome
volleyball's NCAA Tournament I'll admit that I want Manny to touchdown catch for a climactic
seemed like something to get really stay for selfish reasons, butI really ending.
excited about. think he could gain a lot from Oh my, how times have changed.
And, I'll admit, I got pretty into another year in Ann Arbor.
it - I didn'treally know volleyball (Close runner-up: Donovan War- - Reid can be reached at
could beas exciting as that tourna- ren. Seriously, dude, declaring for andyreid@umich.edu.
Rough season ends with
disappointing Big Tens
By ZAK PYZIK semi-finals. Biondo finished in
Daily Sports Writer third-place.
"It was a tough weekend,"
Heading into the final round of sophomore Mark Webber said.
the Big Ten Wrestling Champion- "This tournament is such a huge
ships in Ann Arbor this weekend, transition for (younger guys). But
each of the competitors gave an we learned a lot from this tourna-
interview about their thoughts on ment."
their upcoming final matches. Overall Saturday;s events went
No Wolverines appeared. None well for the Wolverines. Redshirt
were in final contests. sophomore Dave Johnson of the
Only redshirt junior captain 157-pound weight class defeated
Anthony Biondo advanced to the Illinois Clidton Arlis 12-9. Johnson
semi finals and finished in the top advanced to the semi-finals where
three. After usingthree takedowns he lost 5-3 to Iowa's Jake Kerr. Asa
to oust Indiana's Matt Powless result of winning, Kerr received an
8-1, he advanced to the 197-pound automatic bid to the NCAA Cham-
weight class semi-final match. pionships.
Biondo was bested by second- Redshirt freshman Ben Apland
seeded Trevor Brandvold from had a bye in the first round in the
Wisconsin. This loss meant that heavyweight class. But in the sec-
the Wolverines no longer had any end round, Apland was pinned
wrestlers eligible to be a 2010 Big by Iowa's Dan Erekson in a quick
Ten champion. So Michigan had to decision. But Apland regained
set its eyes on other podium posi- composure and in consolations he
tions. won a 9-1 majority decision against
Seven competitors advanced to Illinois's Martin Smith. After a
Sunday's competition at the two- few takedowns and an escape he
day Big Ten Championships. All defeated Ohio State's Corey Morri-
seven battled for potential spots at son 5-2 to finish in sixth place.
the podium on Sunday's competi- Sophomore Zac Stevens, one of
tion. The Wolverines finished day Michigan's top-young talents, lost
one in second to last place, on top of to last year's national champion,
only Northwestern. Michigan State's Franklin Gomez
On Sunday, Biondo defeated the in a 10-2 majority decision. But
Fighting Illini's Patrick Bond in with a spark of confidence, Ste-
a 5-3 decision in the consolation vens went on to win back to back
matches against Penn State's Bryan
Pearsall and Ohio State's Ian Pad-
dock, winning 6-2 and 5-0 respec-
tively.
"I definitely didn't expect to
land here," Stevens said. "The goal
was to be an All-American. We
need to keep getting better. I'm not
sure what happened, I just had one
match that wasn't great but then I
finished winning."
Stevens landed himself in the
seventh-place match against
Northwestern's Eric Metzler. Tied
up at 5-5 the contest went into
overtime when a scuffle broke out
and Metzler took a few minutes to
shake off an injury that seemed to
effect his leg. Stevens locked Met-
zler's leg up in the last 30 seconds
of overtime'and secured himself
seventh-place in the 133-pound
weight class.
Webber also finished in seventh
place in the 141-pound weight class,
defeating Michigan State's Dan
Osterman to reach the podium.
"It was a tough tournament,"
Webber said. "I came in ready to
wrestle, but I had a few bad matches.
It was difficult to win. I'm not real-
ly satisfied. I didn't make it to the
national tournament. Its good to win
my last match but I'mnot happy."
That seems to be the whole
team's attitude after, a disappoint-
ing Big Ten season.
Penn State ends Michigan's
conference unbeaten streak.
10
After counting a fall
on uneven bars,
Blue can't recover
By STEPHEN NESBITT
Daily Sports Writer
It was a bittersweet finish to the
Big Ten regular season for the No.
12 Michigan women's gymnastics
team - a small victory, but a big-
ger defeat.
The squad posted its second-
highest mark of the season, but
was overpowered by the 17th-
ranked Nittany Lions in the Penn
State Quad, dismantling the Wol-
verines' hopes of an undefeated
conference schedule.
The Sunday meet saw Michi-
gan take second place, in front
of Maryland and Bridgeport, but
trailing Penn State by a score, of
196.725-196.575.
The finish was the Wolverines'
first Big Ten loss in over three
years, a streak of 32 consecutive
wins stretching back to Feb. 16,
2007 - also a loss against Penn
State.
"Unfortunately, we had to count
a fall on the uneven bars," Michi-
gan coach Bev Plocki said. "And at
this level of play and this late in the
season, you can't expect to count a
fall and walk away with a victory.
Except for several falls on the
night, the Wolverines (4-1 Big Ten,
12-2 overall) were very consistent.
But after two falls on the beam, the
team was all but doomed.
Going into the final rotation on
the balance beam trailing by .475,
the team erased most of its deficit,
boosted by a season-high score on
the beam, but it wasn't enough to
close the gap.
"We've had our trouble on
beam, but when we hit it, it's one
of our best events," Plocki said. "I
was very proud with how they fin-
ished beam tonight, and how we
almost caught back up with Penn
State."
And taking the top crown for
the balance beam was a surprising
performer, freshman Katie Zura-
les, who won her first collegiate
event with a career-high 9.925.
Zurales also nailed a 9.900 on
the vault, another career-best, but
her victory on beam capped off a
great afternoon.
"There was no way I was let-'
ting my team down," Zurales said
of her beam routine. "I did every-
thing in my power to make it, and
it was just very exciting and suc-
cessful."
From a coach's standpoint, the
breakout performance was no sur-
prise.
"Katie started off the season
slow because she had mono and
some other injuries," Plocki said.
"But she was very, very impressive.
She is just startingto come into her
own, and I hope that it will con-
tinue and carry her into the post-
season."
Another standout routine came
from freshman Natalie Beilstein,
who received scores of 9.900 for
both her vault and floor routines.
In the all-around, junior Kylee
Botterman paced the Wolverines
with a 39.500, while senior Sarah
Curtis hit with a 39.450 total.
But even with the successes
across the board, it was the slight
slip-ups that cost the team this
time. The Wolverines will aim to
fix those mishaps as they gear up
for the postseason.
As Michigan looks ahead to a
looming matchup against No.5
Georgia at Crisler Arena next Fri-
day, it will be searching for consis-
tency and precision.
"We're just looking forward to
trying to continue to improve and
drop our low scores," Plocki said.
"And with that we can hopefully
improve our ranking as much as
possible before we go to regionals
to help us with our seeding."
Q nter Class of 2010 T-Shirt Design Contest
and Win $250 Cash!
6u9L~1.V
4
The Alumni Association is sponsoring a T-shirt design competition to
celebrate the Class of 2010. Picture your design on the backs of your
classmates!
The T-shirts will be for sale in April and May on our Web site, with
all proceeds benefiting student programs like Welcome Wednesdays,
30-Minute Mentors and free memberships for new graduates.
Deadline: Monday, March 22.
Prizes: Winning design: $250 cash 2nd place: $150 cash
and your design produced 3rd place: $75 cash
by the Alumni Association
Complete rules and entry details at umalumni.com/classof20l0tshirt.
o 'ptions
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