The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2003 --31
Tankers fly bigh at Canham
I I
By Waldemar Centeno
Daily Sports Writer
Fully clothed, Michigan's men's swimming and
diving head coach Jon Urbanchek dove into Cah-
nam Natatorium's pool preceded by the entire
Michigan men's swimming and diving team. Over-
heating, the Big Ten Coach of the Year had all the
reason to celebrate. His Wolverines had just won
the Big Ten Championship.
"How am I going to describe this man in a cou-
ple of sentences?" senior co-captain Jeff Hopwood
said of Urbanchek. "He's unbelievable. He's such
an amazing man because he cares probably more
about us out of the pool than in the pool. You
know, that's really hard to come by in a coach. He
is like a father to all of us."
As they announced the winner of the Big Ten
Championship, the Wolverines awaited in ecstasy
for the results of a dramatically close tournament.
Pressured by the resilient Golden Gophers (689),
the Wolverines used their final few events to cap-
ture their first Big Ten title (727) since 2000.
"Every little thing counted," Urbanchek
said. "For us to win this meet we could not
give up any points."
After winning the 500-yard freestyle and being
a favorite throughout the Big Ten Championship,
Big Ten Freshmen of the Year Peter Vanderkaay
fell short to Minnesota's Justin Mortimer in the
1,650 free.
, "It's definitely disappointing, but it was a
good time," Vanderkaay said. "I gave it a good,
effort but I just got to refocus and comeback to
get ready for the NCAA, which we like to call
the 'Big Dance."'
Although Vanderkaay lost, he was able to cap-
ture a NCAA automatic qualifying time, and with
the help of four other Wolverines, allowed Michi-
gan to maintain its narrow lead over Minnesota.
Following Vanderkaay's loss, senior Garrett
Mangieri furiously entered the pool for the 100-
yard free. Mangieri's intensity turned into results,
as he came in second and helped Michigan gain
momentum going into the final events.
Feeling the thrust for victory, Jeff Hopwood then
attained a first-place finish in the 200-yard breast-
stroke with an NCAA automatic time of 1:56.31.
When all was said and done, Michigan had
seven all-conference first team finishers and an
individual all-conference second team finalist.
Michigan's first-place swimmers were Chuck
Sayao, who competed in the 400-yard individual
medley, and the 800-yard free relay team, which
consisted of freshmen Davis Tarwater, Mangieri,
Vanderkaay, and junior Dan Ketchum.
GYMNASTICS
Continued from Page 28
sophomore Kara Rosella on the first perform-
ance on beam, Michigan caught fire. Sopho-
more Chelsea Kroll tied a career high with a
9.925, and Deiley and Becca Clauson gave solid
contributions with a 9.85 and 9.825, respective-
ly. But those scores just paved the way for sen-
ior Janessa Grieco, who scored a 9.95, which
was a career high and also tied the Michigan
record for postseason beam scores. Ryals fin-
ished off the magnificent series of performanc-
es with a 9.925 of her own.
"Itwas really exciting, too, because I don't
usually watch anyone do beam, but I had seen
Kara fall, and so I was like, 'This is it, we want
to win Big Tens. This is going to be it,"' Grieco
said.
The Big Ten conference also handed out its
season awards. These awards included the Coach
of the Year and Freshman of the Year, which
were won by Plocki and Deiley, respectively.
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