SPORTS
Tuesday, July 31, 1984

Page 16

The Michigan Daily

U.S. women wipe out Yugoslavia

INGLEWOOD, CALIF. (AP) -
Cheryl Miller scored 23 points and
paced the U.S. team to an 83-55 victory
over Yugoslavia in the opening round
yesterday of the Olympic women's
basketball competition.
The 6-foot-3 Miller, who helped the
University of Southern California win
the last two national college titles, led
the American women's fastbreak of-
fense, several of them started by her
own steals.
YUGOSLAVIA, the 1980 Olympic
bronze medalist, threw an early scare
into the Americans. The Yugoslavs
wiped out a 12-3 U.S. lead by outscoring
the Americans 20-8 in eight minutes for
their biggest margin, 23-20.
Miller then sparked a U.S. rally. The
Americans, delighting a cheering, flag-
waving forum crowd, outscored the

Yugoslavs 16-2 for a 39-27 lead.
The United States was rolling, 43-29,
at halftime and led by as many as 31
points in the second half.
JASMINA Perazic, who plays for the
University of Maryland, led the
Yugoslavs with 24 points.
"I think the United States played fan-
tastically. Even if the Soviets had been
here, the United States would still have
won. They have a great defense," said
Milan Vasojevic, the Yugoslav coach.
Pam McGee, another Southern
California star, scored 13 points. Lynet-
te Woodard, the college game's career
scoring champion out of Kansas, hit 11
points.
The American women face a second
straight 9:00 a.m. PT, 12 noon EDT'
game today when they play Australia.

Women gymnasts take
surprise early lead

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Diminutive
teen-agers Mary Lou Retton and
Julianne McNamara paced U.S. gym-
nasts to the early lead yesterday in the
team compulsory exercises opening
women's Olympic competition.
Romania, favored for the gold medal,
and a strong Chinese team were com-
peting in the Monday evening session.
The Americans compiled 195.70 points
at midday to far out-distance West
Germany with 189.85, Japan, 187.60,
and Spain, 185.40.
Medal Count
Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States ...... 8 5 0 13
Wetn Germany.. 3 0 3
China .........2 1 1 4
Canada ............. 1 3 0 4
Australia.......... 0 1 3 4
France .......0 1 1 2
Neherlands. 0 2 2
sweden............ 0 1 0 1
Great Britain ...... 0 0 1 1
Japan ............. 0 0 1 1
Norway ........... 0 0 1 1
RETTON, 16, of Fairmont, W. Va.,
led the American team with 39.50 points
of a possible 40 in the program of
required moves on four apparatus
events.
The 4-foot-9 star had a high mark of
9.95 on the floor exercises and 9.90 in
vault. She had 9.85 on the balance beam
and 9.80 on uneven bars for a glittering
debut that drew wild cheers from 8,679
fans at Pauley Pavillion.
McNamara, 18, of San Ramon Calif.,
was right behind with 39.45 points, in-
cluding 9.90s on bars and floor exer-
cises, 9.85 on beam and 9.80 on vault.
U.S. COACH Don Peters of Hun-
tington Beach, Calif., was critical of the
scoring, particularly that of Romanian
judge Julia Roterescu, who marked the
balance beam.
"I don't understand why she wasn't
removed from the floor," the irate
Peters said at a news conference. "Her
scoring was abominable. We perfor-
med well on the balance beam and she

hammered us."
Retton graded her performance in
the floor excercise as "the best I've
ever done."
"I reacted to the crowd and played to
them," she said. "I was having a good
time."
The U.S. women haven't won an
Olympic medal in gymnastics since
taking a bronze in the team event at the
1948 London Games.
With the Soviet Union and other
strong Eastern European teams
boycotting Los Angeles, the Americans
seem assured ef at least a bronze, if not
a silver, in team, and medals in the ap-
paratus finals this Sunday.
Men Gymnasts
going for gold
LOS ANGELES (AP) - American
men gymnasts, buoyed by their first
perfect scores in Olympic history, go
for the team gold medal today against
China in the exciting optional exercises.
The U.S. men shocked the favored
Chinese by winning the opening com-
pulsories Sunday with 295.30 points.
CHINA WAS RUNNER-UP with
294.25, and Japan a distant third, 292.40.
If the Americans can preserve their
lead in the freestyle event Tuesday
night, it will be a triumph comparable
to the U.S. ice hockey victory over the
Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid
Olympics.
U.S. men gymnasts haven't won a
team medal since taking a silver at the
1932 Los Angeles Olympics behind the
winning Italians.
Mitch Gaylord, 23, of Van Nuys,
Calif., became the first U.S. gymnast to
score a 10 with his flawless performan-
ce on the parallel bars.
Peter Vidmar, 23, of Los Angeles
equaled the mark on the pommel horse
and soared into a first place tie with
Japan's Koji Gushiken in the individual
all-around standings with 59.25 points.
No American has ever won a medal in
the Olympic all-around event - the
most prestigious individual gymnastics
title at stake.

0

Cheryl Miller (9) and Cathy Boswell (8) of the U.S. women's basketball team
celebrate following the first half of yesterday's game against Yugoslavia.
Miller's 23 points helped the U.S. cream Yugoslavia, 83-55.
Gross grabs twoK
worldswim -marks

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael
Cross, West Germany's 6-foot-7
"albatross," set his second world
record and won his second Olympic
gold medcal in two days yesterday but
even he couldn't overcome a world
record performance by the United
States in the 800-meter freestyle relay.
Mike Heath of Dallas, David Larson
of Jacksonville, Fla., Jeff Float of
Sacramento, Calif., and Bruce Hayes of
Dallas out-touched and Gross-led West
Germans by the peach-fuzz thin margin
of .04 seconds.
HAYES, GIVEN a body-length edge
over Gross going into the final leg, ac-
tually fell behind the 200 freestyle world
record-holder in the final lap before
finishing in 7 minutes, 15.69 seconds.
The time broke the world mark set in
the morning preliminaries of 7.18.87 by
the U.S. team. Heath and Float
replaced Geoff Gaberino and Rich
Saeger in the final.

That brought to five the number of
events with world records in two days
of Olympic swimming competition, all
in men's races.
ALSO MONDAY, Alex Baumann
lowered his own world mark in the 400
individual medly and won Canada's fir-
st swimming gold medal in 72 years.
George Hodgson won two freestyle
races for Canada in the 1912 Games in
Stockholm for that country's only
swimming golds.
A few minutes later, Anne Ottenbrite
won another gold for Canada in the
women's 200 breaststroke.
Gross, who admitted after the mor-
ning preliminaries that "I don't like the
100 butterfly too much," nevertheless
outdueled Pablo Morales of Santa
Clara, Calif., for the gold in the event.
GROSS, WHO set a world record in
the Olympic 200 freestyle Sunday and
also holds the world mark in the 200 but-
See AMERICAN, Page 14