Monday, May 14,2001 - The Michigan Daily - 13 Five first-place inishes for 'M' Shawn Kemp sily Sports Writer Michigan men's track coach Ron Warhurst wasn't st happy that Michigan junior Ike Okenwa won the )0- and 200-meter dashes at this weekend's Len Pad- & Invitational. He was pleased with how Okenwa acted after the races. Warhurst enjoyed seeing his athlete break his season sts in both events, winning the 100 in 10.49 and the O in 21.08. But his praise went further. "The best part about it is after a 200 like that, he's ually on the ground," Warhurst said. "But he was on s feet looking around, and pleased with his race." With just one week before the Big Ten Champi- aships, the Wolverines racked up five other first- ace finishes in addition to Okenwa's. Senior co-captains Andy Derr and Josh Sellers each their respective events putting up season highs. tossed 209-0 in the javelin, while Sellers clocked .44 in the 400 hurdles. Michigan's Andrew Ochs finished fourth behind fllers in the 400 hurdles, running 53.31, his best of e season, Freshmen Ryan Hesselink and David Sage took the rst two spots in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, run- ng 9:12.69 and 9:21.14, both season bests. But per- ips the best performance out of a freshman came Mason Ward, who ran 3:47.07 for third place in 1js1j S and Bickett CCHA tourney expands; new goalie may not come MARJORIE MOOSHALL/ Daily Junior sprinter Ike Okenwa (left), won his race during the Len Paddock invitational track meet on Saturday. the 1,500 meters behind world-class runner Tim Broe and Eastern Michigan's Neil Kirk. Also performing well for Michigan were Kevin Rogan and Brian Turner, who finished fourth and fifth in the 800 meters, running 1:52.37 and 1:52.62, respectively. Off the track, Bob Arnold jumped 6-8 in the high jump and Nick Rogers tossed 166-6 in the discus, each good for fourth-place finishes. star in home imvite By Joe Smith Daily Sports XWriter In an already busy summer for col- lege hockey, CCHA coaches and athlet- ic directors felt it was time for even more change in a recent six-day conven- tion held in Naples, Fla. No longer will CCHA teams be fight- ing for their playoff lives at the end of the 28-game conference schedule. The com- mittee approved a move from the current 10-team tournament field to allow all 12 teams to qualify for postseason play, start- ing in the 2001-02 season. But while there were a few naysayers among the coaches, most notably Michi- gan coach Red Berenson, it was agreed upon that the implementation will increase excitement to a league battling with parity. "The excitement at the end of the year will still exist because teams are fighting for home ice, better seed and some are battling for RPI and NCAA positions," Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said. Daniels cited a unanimous reason for the change - "the Tuesday play-in game was becoming inoperable logistically- speaking." In the former format, the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds had to play a game on Tues- day H order to advance to Joe Louis that Friday, causing travel problems for many teams. Although the move gives the top two teams an even bigger advantage - playing the two lowest seeds and then receiving a bye in the second round - there will now be six teams hosting a first round game, and six advancing to Joe Louis Arena, making it much more of a league event instead of the usual Michigan-Michigan State showdown. "I like the idea of each year having six teams host," said Daniels. "With a lot of great teams in this league, to have only four teams host is kind of a shame." SEEIN' GREEN: While not in favor of the playoff change, Berenson was very much in favor of the newly set rivalry- parings to be implemented in the 2002-03 season. Michigan will have a rivalry pair- ing with Michigan State allowing them to face off at least four times a season for five years. The Wolverines were 1-4 against Michigan State this past season and both advanced to the Frozen Four. "Both (Michigan State coach Ron) Mason and I agreed it would be better for the league and the fans to put ourselves on the line more often," Berenson said. "At least we're playing our archrivals four times. It will be good for us, the fans and the league." The two legendary coaches have also been tinkering with the idea of having one of the games being played in Spartan Stadium next season, a thought that still needs to be mulled over before a decision is made. PIPE DREAMS: Jason Bacashishua, Michigan's highly-heralded goalie recruit and heir-apparent to Josh Blackburn, may not be donning the maize and blue as planned this coming Fall. Although Bacashishua, 18, wants to be a Wolverine, he may be academically ineligible, which won't be discovered until his final grades and test scores are posted in late June. The Plymouth Whalers star and Dear- born Heights native could decide to play another year ofjunior hockey and forego his college eligibility by jumping to major juniors and enter the NHL Entry Draft. But Berenson said he feels Bacashishua still wants to come to Michi- gan, barring any grade problems, and is the type of kid attitude wise that he wants in a Wolverine uniform. Shawn Kemp ity Sports Nriter Women's track coach James nry coined this past weekend's n Paddock Invitational "the calm fore the storm" of the Big Ten sampionships, but two Michigan es created some thunder of ir own. Sophomore April Phillips and shman Melissa Bickett lit up the y with their individual perform- ces. These two have been a consistent rce in the thrlws this season for ichigan, and this past weekend :ved such. .ilips, who normally pushes. ckett in the hammer throw and shot put, did so by winning the mmer in 183-6 and finishing rd in the shot put in 47-4 1/2. Bickett finished sixth in the shot put with a toss of 44-1 1/4, but led the pair in the discus, tossing 154- 6, good for second. Phillips fin- ished fourth in the event with an effort of 144-7. Adding to the force on the field were Nicole Denamur, who fin- ished runner-up in the high jump in 5-5 3/4, Anna Fisher, whose jump of 11-5 in the pole vault was good for fourth and Janelle Jaha, who finished sixth in the javelin with a toss of 123-4. On the track, the 400-meter relay team of Adrena Williams, Regine Caruthers, Tamika Craig and Carly Knazze broke their previous sea- son's best time by .06 seconds, running 45.92 to finish first. Knazze and Caruthers also fin- ished second and third in the 100- meter dash, each running 11.90, respectively. Williams added a fourth place finish in the 200 meters, clocking 25.53. In the hurdles, Tasha Phillips won the 100 hurdles in 14.24, while Vera Simms was third in the 400 hurdles in 61.48. Adrienne Hunter and Lisa Ouel- let led the distance races for the Wolverines, as Hunter took fifth in the 800 meters in 2:11.92, and Ouellet finished fourth in a talent- stacked 1,500 meters, running 4:36.31. $kr15 Earn up to $15 per session in negotiation experiments being held in the business school throughout May, June and July. Experimental sessions last under an hour. You will be eligible to participate in more than one experiment and possibly more than one session in the same experiment. Days: S unday through F riday Times: 5:00 and 6:30 PM. To be included in the pool of possible subjects, register at: http://ddm.bus.umich.edu/-s ummer0t To participate, you must be over the age of 18. Michigan women's track team landed on both feet, when they hosted the Paddock invitational this weekend.