Sports
Page 16 Tuesday, June 9, 1981 The Michigan Daily
'M'traeksters fade at NCAA's

I

Ross takes sixth in long
jump for only team point

By JOHN FITZPATRICK
Daily Sports Writer
Long jumper James Ross was
Michigan's lone point scorer at the
NCAA track championships held at
Baton Rouge, La. this past weekend.
The junior Wolverine finished sixth in
the long jump with a leap of 251%4";
Carl Lewis of Houston won the event
with a distance of 27'%".
A NUMBER of other Michigan
tracksters almost finished in the top six
in their events. Shelby Johnson
qualified for the finals of the 400-meter
hurdles, but could manage only an
eighth-place finish in the race. Johnny-
Neilson finished 13th in the qualifying
round of the shot put, missing the finals
by one place.
This meet was somewhat anticlimaic-
tic for the Blue squad, coming in the
wake of a pair of impressive victories
at the Big Ten meet and the Central
Collegiate Conference championships.
The 1981 Wolverines are a young
team, and the vast majority of
Michigan's top performers will be
returning next year, including Ross,
Johnson, Neilson, and sprinters Butch
Woolfolk and Andrew Bruce. Bruce won

the Big Ten 100-meter dash in a con-
ference record of 10.25 and has a per-
sonal best of 20.80 in the 200. Woolfolk
has a 10.40 100 to his credit this year and
was sixth in the 200 meters at last
year's NCAA meet.
DISTANCE RUNNERS, such as
cross country All-American Brian
Diemer, Central Collegiate indoor two-
mile champ Gerard Donakowski, Cen-
tral Collegiate indoor three-mile winner
Bill O'Reilly, and 3:44 1500-meter man
Dan Beck, will also be returning in for-
ce.
Michigan was not the only Big Ten
school in attendance at this year's
national meet, as several other schools
were ably represented. Indiana's Nate
Lundy, one of the favorites in the 400-
meter hurdles, finished sixth with a
50.25 second clocking, despite several
sub-50 second races this year.
Another Hoosier, freshman Dave
Volz, proved that his 18'3" vault of
earlier in the season was no fluke by
easily handling talented Anthony
Curran of UCLA and defending champ
Randy Hall of Texas A&M with a height
of 17'8%". Indiana's scoring efforts
were rnunded nut hv Jim Snivoev's third-

place finish in the 1500-meter run.
Spivey recorded a personal best of
3:38.33 (a time equal to a 3:56 mile), but
was far behind the phenomenal 3:35.30
of Villanova's Sydney Maree, whose
time was a meet record. Wisconsin's
Jim Stintzi was a surprising fifth in the
5,000-meter with a time of 13:51.4.
THE UNIVERSITY of Texas atEl
Paso (UTEP) won the team title as ex-
pected, as the team's 70 points was
comfortably ahead of Southern
Methodist's 57.
UTEP's effort was led by Sulemain
Nyambui, who won the 10,000 meters in
28:30 and the 5,000 meters in 13:38.8.
Nyambui, who runs with a serene,
loping gait, defeated a number of tough
competitors in each race.
OTHER TOP-NOTCH performances
were displayed in the 100-meter and
400-meter dashes and the 3,000-meter
steeplechase. The 100 was won by
Houston's Lewis, who became the first
man since Jesse Owens in 1936 to win a
field event and a running event in this
meet. Lewis' time of 9.99 was only .05
seconds away from Jim Hines' world
record, but will not be officially
recognized because of a following wind
of 2.54 meters per second, .54 above the
allowable amount.
The 400 was the highest-quality race
of the meet. UTEP's Bert Cameron, the
defending champ, had turned in the
fastest qualifying time for the final in
dr AA c--ns chii Ari-- n Ctnt'c

Howard Henley had run a world-
leading 44.92 prior to the meet, and was
seen by some as the pre-meet favorite
for the one lap dash.
Cameron disposed of Henley, and
everyone else, easily in the final, as his
44.53 was the fastest time in the world
this year and a meet record. Henley
proved he could handle the pressure of
a championship meet, as he finished a
strong second in 44.93. It was the fastest
400 since that of the Moscow Olympics
race last year, where three men dipped
below the 45 second barrier.
The high jump was not made high-
class by the winning height, which was
a good but not outstanding 7'414", but
by the winner, Leo Williams of Navy.
Williams came from nowhere to win the
indoor NCAA high jump, and has an
awkward naivete which is a refreshing
change from the professionally-
detached attitudes of most world-class
track men. At the NCAA indoor,
Williams' mother, hysterical with
jubilation, ran down to the infield after
Williams' winning jump to hug her son.
The cast of characters was as diverse
here as it always has been and will con-
tinue to be at an NCAA meet, but next
year there might be a change in the
script: though Michigan has never done
spectacularly well as a team here, it
might makea memorable showing next
year, with a squad which is gaining in
experience and ability every season.

Ouch, that's myfoot
San Diego's Gene Richards jars the ball loose from Pirate Tim Foli with a because of rain after three-and-a-half innings. In the American League,
slide into second base last night at Pittsburgh. The game was postponed Texas beat Detroit, 8-1.