2B- November ,2010
Keep a smile on and your glass
halffull, Michigan fans
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Pair of top-10 runs*
puts Wolverines in
eighth at Big Tens
or the last few years, I've
watched my predecessors
write this colunii and
gripe at some time or another
about how bad Michigan sports
were during their time as the
Daily's Sports-
Monday col-
umnist.
And in some
ways, I sym-
pathize with
them. Sports at
the University,
especially the
three major RYAN
revenue sports KARTJE
- football,
basketball
and hockey - haven't lived up
to many expectations in my four
years in Ann Arbor.
But I'm here to provide a shin-
ing ray of hope, a reason to be
optimistic, a reason Michigan's
cup is half full. Because nobody
likes a downer, right?
So you aren't happy with the
football team's recent loss at
Penn State, I'm guessing. So let's
talk about something else. in
case you didn't know, basketball
season starts back up again this
weekend!
And I may be going out on a
limb here, but I'm going to say
tht Michigan has a winning
record after this weekend.
But you never know, those
Cardinals from Saginaw Valley
State really know how to play
ball. If they win, they'll be the
first of the three major sports
to finish a week above .500 in
three weeks, so that's good news,
right?
That is, ofcourse, only if you
count exhibitions as real games.
But hey, why not?,
The Wolverines should really
be able to score this year, now
that DeSbawn Sims and Manny
Harris are gone. Clearly, they
just hogged the ball away from
the Wolverines' real scorers,
Michigan basketball coach John Beilein g
team opens its season this Friday with anE
especially in the paint, where the
team is loaded with experience
in Jordan Morgan, Blake McLi-
mans and Evan Smotrycz - com-
bining for zero starts.
But hey, you hear zero starts, I
hear fresh legs.
See! Glass half
rimaces from the bench during a game agair
exhibition matchup against Saginaw Valley S
guaranteed to win half of the
games every weekend, so that's
better than watching the football
team lately.
Neither of those teams will
replace your beloved football
team though, will they? Well, I
can't blame
st Penn State last year.
:ate at home.
eOND/Daly
:etball I
full!
And that's not
even counting I have a sweet spot
Tim Hardaway,.
who might be for watching high-
little ruste since --1
his time in the scoring games with
NBA but... o defense
Oh, it's Tim too.
Hardaway
Junior you say?
Well ... LIInMm ... like
father, like son, right? friend Coop in Nt
Anyway, if you want a little pay for student tii
more certainty in your life, I Big House. Trust
suggest you head down to Yost wicked on a QB1 S
for a weekend matchup to watch Denard.
goaltender Bryan Hogan...errr... But I still have
Shawn Hunwick...errr...someone Wolverines. After
anchor the Wolverines from their best playerg
between the pipes. Plus, they're in every single ga
you. I have
a sweet spot
in my heart
for watching
high-scoring
games with no
defense, too. It
just happens
to be a whole
lot cheaper to
watch myself
dominate my
CAA 2011 than
ckets at the
me, I'm pretty
weep with
ing long stretches where Michi-
gan fans are forced to hold their
breath and pray.
It's not like Rodriguez basi-
cally admitted his secondary's
incompetence after the Penn
State game and justified it
because six months ago, half of
them were in high school.
And it's not like the team is
looking at a bowl as embarrass-
ing as the Little Caesars Pizza,
Pizza Bowl where Marshall beat
Ohio in a barnburner last year.
Either way, they'll probably play
a MAC team if they make it to
Detroit, and that's always gone
well, right? So no need to worry.
See! Put a smile on! All will
be well! The grass is always
greener!
You know, I don't know why
the guys before me were such
downers. This glass half full
thing is a piece of cake.
By EMILY BONCHI
Daily Sports Writer
After two Michigan men's
cross country team members
finished in the top 10, it looked
like the Wolverines would repeat
history and take a high position
at this year's Big Ten Champion-
ships. In the past 20 years, Mich-
igan has placed outside of the top
two just six times.
The youth of Michigan's
three-to-five slot runners proved
too much, however, as the next
Wolverine to cross the finish line
came more than a minute later -
in 53rd place.
The Wolverines took eighth
place on Sunday at the Big Ten
Championships in Madison, fin-
ishing with a score of 185. Wis-
consin took the number-one spot
for the 12th consecutive year.
"The execution on race day is
really where our big improve-
ment is going to have to come,"
Michigan coach Alex Gibby said
after the race. "We've got some
guys running hard, certainly, but
they're not racing and there's a
little bit of a difference there."
Junior Bobby Aprill set the
pace for the Wolverines for the
second time this season, previ-
ously crossing the line first for
Michigan at the NCAA Pre-.
Nationals on Oct. 16. Aprill fin-
ished with a time of 23:50.9,
earning him seventh place in
Madison. It was a personal best
in the 8,000-meter event, shav-
ing 32 seconds off his previous
time.
"Over the past few weeks you
could see him taking a step for-
ward physically," Gibby said of
Aprill. "And now he's starting to
form mentally at the level he's
been training at, in a competitive
sense."
Redshirt junior Craig Forys
crossed the finish line just seven
seconds after Aprill, captur-
ing the final slot in the top 10
with a time of 23:57.6. It was the
12th time that Forys finished in
the top 15 during his collegiate
career at Michigan.
"Bobby and Craig were tre-
mendous; they really did a very
good job," Gibby said. "Bobby
earned his first All-Big Ten hon-
ors, and Craig, after a layoff last
year due to -injury, was able to
return to form."
The Wolverines could not
keep up their fast pace as several
other schools pulled ahead with
numerous finishes over the next
minute.
The next two Michigan run-
ners to finish took 53rd and 55th
place. Freshman Sean Bone fin-
ished with a time of 25:02, and
freshman Morsi Rayyan fol-
lowed him in shortly thereafter,
finishing in 25:07.
"We had good races out of Sean
Bone and Morsi Rayyan, who
are two walk-on freshmen, but
they're just not ready yet to be at
that Big Ten level," Gibby said,
"We just need to get a lot better
production out of our sophomore
class right now. They're not com-
peting at a level that will help us
move forward."
Michigan boasts a young team,
and Gibby said that though the
freshmen will be much better in
the future, the Wolverines are
currently going through some
growing pains.
"What I see as the key to our
success at the regional level are
the performances by sophomores
like Derek Henning, Zach Orne-
las and Dallas Bowden," Gibby
said. "In practice, they're run-
ning respectably close to what
Craig has been doing and pretty
close to what Bobby's been doing.
The racing results just haven't
reflected it yet."
The Wolverines will take next
weekend off as they prepare for
the NCAA Great Lakes Regional
in Rochester, Michigan on Nov.
13.
hope for the
all, it's not like -Kartje drank his half-full glass
gets banged up this weekend in State College. He
me, often miss- can be reached rkartje@umich.edu.
Blue impresses
in Madison as Big
Ten runner-up
Led by Tauro, five
Michigan runners
finish in top 30
By EMILY BONCHI
Daily Sports Writer
Prior to Sunday's 6,000-meter
race in Madison, senior Dani-
elle Tauro had set the pace for
the Wolverines in all five of her
appearances this season.
The Big. Ten Championships
proved to be no different, as
Tauro was the first Michigan
women's cross country team
member to cross the finish line,
clinching fourth place with a
personal-best time of 20:20.1.
"This was her highest perfor-
mance ever in a Big Ten cham-
pionship," Michigan coach Mike
McGuire said after the race. "Our
goal going in was that we felt she
could be in the top five, so she
achieved that goal. She's led the
team across the line, but she's
also led the team in a lot of other
things.
" I think her best running is
still ahead of her."
No. 21 Michigan had five
runners finish in the top-30,
capturing second place in the
conference. The Wolverines
earned a season-best 88 points -
just 14 shy of Big Ten champion
Michigan State.
"We're back knocking on the
door," McGuire said. "Obviously
there's a degree of disappoint-
ment in not winning the cham-
pionship, but there's not any
disappointment in the effort we
put forth."
Tauro was not the only one
responsible for the Wolverines'
runner-up finish, as Michigan's
next four runners finished with-
in 43 seconds of her time.
Sophomore Jillian Smith
clinched 12th place with a time
of 20:44.0, just three seconds shy
of her personal-best time in the
6,000-meter event.
"I also felt we got a really good
race from Jill and (sophomore)
Becca (Addison)," McGuire said.
"Jill was 38th last year as a fresh-
man and 12th this year as a soph-
omore, and Becca moved up a few
spots as well. I actually think the
depth of the field is better this
year, looking at the quality of the
athletes in the field. We're going
in the right direction."
Smith joined Tauro in earning
All-Big Ten Second Team honors.
Addison was the third Wol-
verine to cross the finish line,
securing 18th place with a time
of 20:52.5.
Redshirt junior Kaitlyn Peale,
a former All-Big Ten performer
from last season, captured 26th
place with a time of 21:00.1. This
was Peale's first race since Oct. 2,
as she missed the past two meets
due to injury.
"I think her
best running
is still ahead
of her."
"That's about what I thought
we were going to get from Kait-
lyn," McGuire said of her return..
"She's been running, but she's
been doing a different type
of running on an anti-gravity
treadmill, and it's just not the
same. She competed hard and
we wouldn't have gotten second
without her.
"If we can merge her back into
the group a little bit more over
the last two championship races,
I think we'll continue to get bet-
ter."
Sophomore Kaitlyn Patterson
rounded out Michigan's scoring
for the race, coming in 28th place
with a time of 21:03.3.
Michigan will take a two-
week hiatus before carrying on
with postseason competition on
Nov. 13 at the NCAA Great Lakes
Regional in Rochester, Michigan.