Saturday, May 29, 1982 Page 16 The Michigan Daily Leach named Big Ten Athlete of t During a weekend when the 2nd annual Big In Ten baseball playoff and the 87th staging of Fla the Conference outdoor track meet grabbed and most of the headlines and held much of the at- the tention, it was the accomplishments of gan Michigan's senior tennis player Michael nine Leach that overshadowed them all when he ave won the NCAA singles championship in L Athens, Georgia, last Sunday. with For his efforts, Leach has been honored by Gill the Conference as its spring sports "Athlete- nis of-the-Week." not LEACH BECOMES only the second Big Ten sint tennis player in history to win the NCAA Tl singles honor. Michigan all-America Barry was MacKay was the first in 1957, leading the able Wolverines to their onlytand the Big Ten's pion only) NCAA team tennis title. Ern In opening round action, Leach beat Yale's juni Glenn Layendecker 6-4, 6-2; Trinity's Tomm L Warneke 7-6, 6-4 and Harvard's Howard San- Ope ds 6-2, 6-2. He then defeated Glenn Michibata Flut of Pepperdine 7-5, 6-2 to set up the dramatic L semi-final rounds. on E Neer Wi Special to the Daily COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Michigan's Penny Neer won the AIAW discus title last nighc with a toss of 183-0, easily beating runnerup Julie Ann Jones of Brigham Young, who had a toss of 168-10. Said head coach Francie Goodridge of Neer's performance in the discus, "Penny really capped four terrific years at Michigan. She's graduated into the big time as a national collegiate champion. This is a great sendoff for her and I think she's truly an olympic prospect." NEER ALSO competed in the shot put, but didn't fare as well there as she failed to qualify for tomorrow's final. Finishing behind Neer and Jones in the discus were Nadine Cox of Ohio State, 162-9, Pat Herrington of Idaho State, 162-5, and Jill Bess Palmer of Texas 160-5. he Week n his semi-final match against Miami, .'s Christo Steyn, Leach trailed 6-2, 4-6, 4-5 d faced triple match point. But he captured next three points and went on to win the me, evening the set at 5-5, eventually win- g the set and match by a 7-6 count. It nged an early season loss to Steyn. each then captured the national crown h a 7-5, 6-3 win over eighth-ranked Brad Bert of Pepperdine to become the first ten- player (since MacKay in '57) from a state in the south or west to win the NCAA gles championship. he senior from Weston, Massachusetts, a four-time all-Big Ten selection, but was to win the Conference's #1 singles cham- ship only once, losing three times to rival ie Fernandez of Ohio State his freshman, or and senior years. each qualifies to participate in the U.S. n Tennis Championships in September at shing, New York. each's title-clinching match can be seen SPN this afternoon at 4:00. C. 1 Leach ... NCAA singles champion ns AIA W title In the sprint medley, Michigan's quartet of Renee Turner, Brenda Kazinec, Lorrie Thornton and Catherine Sharpe finished in eighth place with a time of 4:43.01 seconds. "They pulled another second off their time today (yester- / day) after doing the same for yesterday's (thursday's) qualifying." said Goodridge. "Today's time was a school record, and the fact that they've been able to do so well under the stiff competition is fantastic." In the 10,000 mters, Michigan also garnered a tenth-place finish. Doing so, was the Wolverines' Melanie Weaver. Weaver crossed the finish line in a time of 36.05. Also competing yesterday was Melody Middleton. Neer Through four events, Middleton was in fourth place. .. .wins discus EMU batsmen upset FSU in NCAA's, 7-2 From AP and UPI AUSTIN, Texas - Eastern Michigan pitcher Mickey Weston shut down the nation's best home run hitting team, earning a 7-2 upset victory over Florida State in yesterday's opener of the NCAA Central Region Baseball Tournament. EMU will play the loser of yesterday's Texas-Hardin Simmons game at 5:00 today. Florida State will face the loser of yesterday's game between Oklahoma and Ohio State. WESTON, WHO came into the game with an 8-5 record, scattered eight hits while five FSU pitchers gave up 12 hits. Starter and loser Jamey Shuppe, 7-3, was knocked out of the game after four in- nings with the Hurons leading 4-1. His four successors didn't do much better, giving up seven hits between them. EMU broke an early 1-1 tie in the fourth when Shuppe walked three batters and forced a run home, giving the Hurons a 2-1 lead. Greg Howe, who went four-for- five, followed with a two-run single to left field that put the Hurons up, 4-l. FLORIDA STATE'S Jeff Ledbetter, the nation's home run leader with 42 on the season, knocked in a run in the sixth when his long fly ball carried to the warning track scoring Mike Yastzremski from third base. Yastzremski, who is the son of the Boston Red Sox' Carl Yastremski, had reached third on a triple. AP Photo Joining Howe in hitting hard for EMU were Gary Baker with two RBI, and Florida State Howard Simmons and Tom Seifert with one RBI each. Eastern Michigan was the regions fifth ranked team. Florida State was ranked second in the region entering the game. EMU'S TONY DeMarti is out at the plate, but the Hurons beat F anyway, 7-2.