The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

April 2, 2012 -3B

Wolverines finish first, second, fourth at Georgia Tech
By DYLAN MCKENZIE While the team felt like the
For the Daily winning times could have been
faster, the value of the experi-
The Michigan women's track ence and practice of running in
and field team sent just three the smaller meet was not lost
participants to the Georgia Tech upon them.
Invitational, the small group of "The object of the sport is to
Wolverines had a strong show- beat people," McGuire said. "And
ing. we certainly did today."
After sending the entire team Added Addison: "These meets
to California for a meet the week are good because they're not as
before, the team decided to only much pressure, so it's good to get
send junior Rebecca Addison, back into racing. And it's fun to
junior Jillian Smith and fresh- come down where it's warm and
man Brook Handler to compete run."
in the 1,500-meter race on Sat- For the first meet of the season
urday. It was clear the meet was for the Wolverine trio, it was a
not goingto have a Michigan fla- success, but the three have their
vor to it. sights on improving and get-
The 1,500-meter race clearly ting ready for bigger meets later
did, though. on. McGuire believed it was a
Addison, Smith and Handler good start to their season, but
finished first, second and fourth, he thinks that a good training
respectively, just narrowly miss- regimen will really get the girls
ing a sweep of the field. The to challenge in nationals and Big
trio competed against various Tens.
schools from across the South, "You need to have a training
but it was clear the lone northern group that has good balance of
school had the event locked up. harmony and competitiveness,"
"I thought they did a nice job TERRA MOEGAFF/aih curlady"ha r h
"I thought they did a nice job Junior Rebecca Addison (right) finished in first place in the 1,500-meter race at the Georgia Tech Invitational over the weekend. TcGuire said. "Those are the
for an opener," said Michigan ingredients you need if you're
distance coach Mike McGuire. While it was an early-season other runners. The only drama vail. But Addison held off Smith ishes like that, so I need to prac- going to have success."
Addison added: "Our time meet, Addison and Smith ran like came on the final straightaway, with a winning time of 4:25.75 to tice finishes like that and just The full squad will be compet-
wasn't that fast, but it was a good they were in late-season form, where it wasn't clear which Smith's 4:25.82. staying with people at the very ing at the Stanford Invitational
opening meet." easily holding off the field of 26 Michigan runner would pre- "We've had a lot of close fin- end," Addison said. on Friday.
WOMEN'S ROWING
Michigan rowing squad scores nine victories in Columbus

By ALEJANDRO ZUNIGA
For the Daily
The Michigan women's row-
ing team adopted a more rigorous
training program over the win-
ter, and it paid off on Saturday as
the third-ranked Wolverines won
nine events at Griggs Reservoir in
Columbus.
A week after defeating Princ-
eton and defending national
champion Brown, both of the
Wolverines' varsity-eight squads
went unbeaten, sweeping No. 12
Michigan State and No. 9 Yale. In
the morning, the first varsity-eight
rowed 6:18.10, outpacing its rival
from East Lansing (6:30.69). The

secondvarsity-eight followedwith
a time of 6:32.24, overwhelming
the Spartans by almost 28 seconds
(6:50.15). Later in the day, the first
varsity-eight (6:16.7) defeated Yale
(6:28.92) and the second varsity-
eight (6:25.62) followed suit.
The second varsity-eight has
yet to lose this year.
"I'm pleased with our per-
formance," said Michigan sec-
ond-varsity senior Ariel Piotter.
"We have a remarkable group of
seniors, and we've really come
together."
Michigan coach Mark Roth-
stein praised the grit of the sec-
ond-varsity squad, highlighting
Piotter's effort all season long.

"Piotter has been having an Piotter attributes the Wolver-
outstanding year," Rothstein said. Ines' success to a new practice reg-
"Her hard work is paying off." imen implemented by the coaches
The Wolverines also won the this year. Borrowing tactics
first varsity-four against Michi- from other elite programs across
gan State, the coun-
while both the try and even
second varsity- , the women's
four and the W e re doing national team,
first novice- i for the Rothstein made
eight swept it each practice
the Spartans seniors." more competi-
and Bulldogs. tive, introduc-
Michigan's ing a training
only defeats program that
came in the pushes rowers
first varsity-four to Yale, both to improve every day.
third varsity-four events, and the "No one has a chance to take
second novice-eight. an off-week," Piotter said. "It's

helped tremendously."
After Michigan's impressive
performances against Princeton
and Brown last weekend, first-var-
sity coxswain Colleen Macke said
the team struggled at first to focus
for the competition in Columbus.
Then, the players decided to use
the matchup against arch-rival
Michigan State as motivation.
"It's always a big deal for us to
face them and to come home with
a win, so it helped us refocus in
practice," Macke said.
While Rothstein was happy
with Michigan's performance,
he stressed that the Wolverines
are not competing at the level he
expects. He noted several techni-

cal issues that he hopes his new
training program will alleviate
quickly.
"It was a good day, but all of our
boats have improvements we need
to make," Rothstein said.
Michigan will next hit the
water in Iowa City on Saturday,
where it will face Iowa and Lou-
isville. The women's rowing team
will then host its only home event
of the season on April 14th, as the
Wolverines continue their prepa-
ration for the Big Ten Champion-
ships.
"We have a lot of seniors, and
this is their last chance to win a Big
Ten Championship," Macke said.
"We're doing it for the seniors."


GOPHERS
From Page 1B
"I was really impressed with
(Szkutnik) and happy for him
today," Biondi said. "(The pitch-
ers) have had their ups and downs,
just like the hit-
ters have, but I
thought a cou-
ple guys really "I thot
stepped up
and picked the (few) gui
pitching staff
up this week- steppe
end."
The bullpen
out-shined the
starting pitchers in the games
against Minnesota, even though
their arms were more tired. Bal-
lantine, Brosnahan, and Sinnery
rested up the entire week lead-
ing up to the start of Big Ten play,
while Lakatos, Perry and three

other relievers played in last
Wednesday's game against East-
ern Michigan.
Maloney was disappointed
with the game on Wednesday, and
thought the spotty pitching con-
tributed to the 12-2 loss.
The Wolverines tried to forget
about Wednes-
day's .unfortu-
nate game and
ught a focus solely on
playing well
ys really in the Big Ten
opener.
d up. "I don't
think the loss to
Eastern really
had that much
to do with what happened this
weekend," Biondi said. "It was
a midweek game and we put it
behind us."
The relievers left the loss
against Eastern in the past and
continued to prove themselves.

Senior right-hander Brandon Sinnery allowed six runs in six inning on Friday.


INDIANA
From Page 1B
half, and Michigan's Meagan
Cobb was the first of the seniors
to score on senior day.
But the Hoosiers came out
firing in the third period, scor-
ing two goals in the first three
minutes, and

later.
The back-and-forth pattern
continued until the very end of
the game, as junior attacker Kiki
Golden scored to give Michigan a
one-goal lead for the fourth time
in the game.
The Wolverines would not
score after that, though, as Indi-
ana scored twice in the final
three min-

Fournier
added yet
another tally
to her record-
breaking sea-
son. With
Indiana up 5-4
in the closing
minutes of the
third period,
the Wolver-
ines' senior
captain Claire Ivr
of the cage to kn
5-5 heading into th
"I was really har
I could to help it
said.
Ivry played lik
veteran on Satu
scored her secon
match just 13 sec
fourth.
But Indiana tie
again when Hoos
Alexis Jones scr

utes, placing
a damper on
"I've gained senior day
and tarnish-
so much from ing Michigan's
perfect divi-
being a part of sional record.
Though it
this team." was a tough
loss for the
Wolverines,
Ivry was able
y hit the back to reflect on her career at Michi-
ot the score at gan after the game.
ie final period. "Rewarding," was the word
ppy to do what that Ivry used to sum up here
iy team," Ivry time as a Wolverine.
"I've learned so much about
e a seasoned water polo, and I've gained so
rday, as she much from being a part of this
d goal of the team," she said.
onds into the The Wolverines will look for-
ward to next weekend as they
ed the match take on a Western Division foe,
sier freshman Maryland, in a battle for the
red a minute divisional title on April 7.

MEN'S TENNIS
From Page 1B
and Michael Zhu at No. 3 doubles.
"Definitely, throughout the
beginning, everybody seemed
to be struggling," Zhu said. "But
when (King) and (Bernstein)
won, we definitely got motivated
to win. Itwas like seeingthatlight
at the end of the tunnel."
Zhu and Petrone saw their
break lead turn into a 6-5 nail-
biter, but broke right back to take
a 7-5 lead. In the final game of the
pro-set, Zhu hit what he thought
was a service winner. He and
Petrone celebrated, but the Boil-
ermakers called the serve out,
to Zhu's disbelief. After a min-
ute of debate with himself, the
line judge overruled the call and
deemed the serve in, awarding
the point, set, and doubles point
to Michigan.
"With Bernstein out of the
lineup, everybody definitely has
to step up if we want to win,"
Petrone said. "(Bernstein) did a
great job serving underhand and
winning that doubles match, and
that could've been the difference.
If we didn't win that doubles
point, who knows what would've
happened."
Against Indiana (2-3, 14-7) on

Sunday, Michigan split doubles
matches at No. 1 and No. 2, leav-
ing the point up to the freshman
pair at No. 3. Like Saturday, they
responded to the pressure and got
the job done for the Wolverines.
At 7-7 in the pro-set, Petrone
and Zhu were down 0-40. The
freshman duo won the next nine
points to take an 8-7 lead, before
breaking Indiana's serve to win
the pro-set and doubles point.
"They're good at adjusting
their strategy to their strengths,"
Berque said. "You had two seniors
against two freshmen, and I
thought our guys did terrific,
competing really well under pres-
sure two days in a row."
On each day, Michigan car-
ried its momentum into singles.
At No. 1 singles, King made quick
work of Szymon Tatarczyk, one of
Purdue's six foreign-born players.
King won ten straight games en
route to a straight-set victory over
the Poland native.
King did nothing different on
Sunday against Isade Juneau,
winning a 6-1, 6-1 decision that
was filled with flashy winners,
impressive serves and few errors
from King.
Because Michigan won the
doubles point, Berque took a
calculated risk on Saturday and
decided to rest Bernstein. As a

result, every Wolverine singles
player except King was moved
one spot up in the lineup to
replace Bernstein at No. 2 singles.
The move showed Berque's con-
fidence in his young team, and it
also paid off.
Petrone and Zhu, at No. 2 and
No. 3 singles, respectively, deliv-
ered straight-set victories for the
Wolverines, not even blinking
about playing higher in the lineup
than ever before. Petrone defeat-
ed Purdue sophomore Mark
Kovacs, 6-2, 7-5, despite a late
second-set scare that saw Petrone
squander a chance to serve for the
set at 5-4. Zhu finished off fresh-
man Diego Acosta with a volley
winner on match point, 7-5,6-3.
"To win at No. 2 and No. 3 for
those guys is great," Berque said.
"We had a lot of confidence in
their skills when we were recruit-
ing them, but that's a lot to ask of
two guys like that to be winning
so high in the lineup, but they're
getting better every time."
On Sunday, Berque thought
that Bernstein would match up
well with his opponentfromIndi-
ana. But Bernstein wasn't able to
hold serve once and was defeat-
ed 6-1, 6-1. Bernstein - whose
shoulder has been bothering him
since late last week - hopes tobe
healthy by next week.

Because Bernstein was in the
lineup on Sunday, Petrone and
Zhu were pushed back down to
No. 3 and No. 4. Petrone won in
dominating fashion, while Zhu
squeaked out a match in the
third-setwinning a ten-point tie-
breaker.
Only Buzzi, at No. 5, was able
to win for the Wolverines, in the
final three singles matches. But
that was all Michigan needed,
as any other victory would have
simply padded the stats for the
Wolverines.
Buzzi won again Sunday,
clinching the dual victory over
Indiana. Buzzi cruised in the first
set but struggled to close out his
opponent.
At one point, Buzzi was down
two set points in the second set.
But with the match on the line,
Buzzi held serve to give Michigan
the dual victory for the second-
straight day.
The win marks the Wolverines'
seventh in eight contests, good for
atie for second in the BigTen.
"To come away with two wins
against two good teams was
great," Berque said. "We don't
have a big squad, and we've got a
youngsquad, and (Bernstein) was
banged up. I am really pleased to
come away with two wins in the
Big Ten against two good teams."