14 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, June 1, 2004

SPORTS


WOMENS ROWING
Late flourish
brings season
to a happy end
By Sharad Mattu
Daily Sports Editor
After its third-place finish in the NCAA Championships,
the Michigan women's crew team can finally look back at its
early season struggles and smile.
But on April 17, the day they suffered a shocking loss
to Michigan State, the Wolverines were far from confi-
dent they'd be able to have such fond memories of the
2004 season.
"Early in the year I was pretty concerned," Michigan coach Former Michigan
Mark Rothstein said. "I'm happy that I can now look back
and think about how much we've improved, but we had a
long way to go back then."
Michigan showed tremendous progress in both the first
and second varsity eight boats, finishing third and fourth in
the finals, respectively. By Josh Holman
In the first varsity eight race, the Wolverines' boat finished Daily Sports Writer
with a flourish and caught three boats in the final 750 meters.
"Our design is to get faster as the race goes on," junior LANSING -
Brett Sickler, who was on the boat, said. "But this time we Wolverine catche
started our sprint with 750 meters to go instead of 500 to to forgo his senio
keep up and pass the boats ahead of us. Fortunately we had- contract from th
n't had to sprint in any of the earlier races, so we knew we luck in the Mino
had a good sprint in our back pocket and just went for it." told him he'd be
The Wolverines' second varsity eight boat used the oppo- ing ace Mark Pr
site strategy in its race, jumping out to a lead at 1,000 meters. called you crazy.
It crossed the finish line in 6:47.2, just 0.4 seconds from sec- "I wouldn't ha
ond place. Fox said. "Even
"They really went out hard in the first 1,000 meters and Prior, it would tat
just got caught towards the end," Sickler said. "It's always work my way thr
disappointing to finish fourth and be just half a second from If you told me t
second place. But they were supposed to finish fifth or sixth, said 'I'm not that
so they definitely can be proud of how they finished." Sure enough, I
With its strong finish, Michigan now considers April 17 as But Fox hadn't b
a turning point in its season. Its third-place showing this the Major Leag
weekend is the second-best finish at the NCAA Champi- have preferred t
onships in the program's eight years. Majors came to]
"When we lost to Michigan State, we knew we had to turn - who is recov
things around," Sickler said. "We were always working hard, Achilles and a so
but everything just started to fall into place. Going into Big starts for Fox's
Tens, we could feel we were just getting faster and faster, and Lansing Lugnuts
then we finished first. And it's been the same since regionals. "Working with
This was the best weekend of the season, and we couldn't be him," Fox said. "
more pleased." it helped me ou

ELISE BERGMAN/Daily AP PHOTO
catcher Jake Fox celebrates after a 9-3 win last season (LEFT). Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior stretches in the dugout (RIGHT).
r' exerience heps flonner cachr

Less than a year ago, former
er Jake Fox made the decision
or year at Michigan to accept a
te Chicago Cubs and try his
r Leagues. If you would have
catching for the Cubs' pitch-
ior a year later, he may have
ve believed (you) right away,"
if I got to work with Mark
ke a two- to three-year span to
rough the system as a catcher.
hat a year ago, I would have
good.'"'
Fox got his chance on May 20.
teen promoted that quickly to
ues - the scenario he may
o catch Prior in. Instead, the
him. The Cubs assigned Prior
ering from an inflamed right
re elbow - to a pair of rehab
current team, the Single-A
Prior, I learned so much from
From the baseball aspect of it,
it a lot with dealing with my

pitchers. So when (other players) ask me 'how
do I compare to him,' it's really not that much
different. They just make more mistakes than
him and leave more balls out over the plate."
Those nuggets of education straight from the
top level of baseball have helped Fox assess
what he needs in order to make it to the Cubs.
Fox faced major league pitching during spring
training, allowing him to gauge how close he
is. Surprisingly, Fox's ability to hit pitchers as
good as Prior is one of the last things he needs
to concentrate on. The Cubs had a whole list of
concerns for Fox when he arrived.
"They told me that, number one, we want
you to get used to playing every day because
that's the hardest thing for guys to get used to,"
Fox said. "And number two, we want you to
worry about being a catcher first and a hitter
second. I've been doing real well on both those
things, but I didn't quite believe them on the
every day thing."
That 'every day thing' is one of the adjust-
ments that college athletes face when going
pro. Baseball isn't just that thing after class
anymore - it's a full-time job.
The minor league season is only two months
old, but Fox is already starting to show signs of
fatigue.
During Prior's second rehab start, Lansing

manager Julio Garcia gave Fox the day off.
After Prior pitched 4.1 innings -allowing just
one run off two hits - the game against the
West Michigan Whitecaps ended up going 11
innings. The late innings had plenty of high
pressure opportunities that Fox would have
loved to be a part of, but he spent most of the
night watching down the right field line, filling
the role of bullpen catcher.
But that is just part of dealing with life in the
minors and, luckily for Fox, he's been able to
make the professional transition just up the
road in Lansing, a short trip from Ann Arbor
and within driving distance of his home in
Greenfield, IN.
"There was a possibility of me going to Day-
tona Beach and playing high A ball, but I
wouldn't want it now," Fox said. "I got a
chance to go back to (Michigan) and watch the
Wolverines play a game against Western
Michigan. I got a chance to talk to coach
(Rich) Maloney and (volunteer) coach (Scott)
Mallernee. It kind of gave me a second wind."
Fox is going to need that boost.
Prior did his work in Lansing and is set to
make his first start for the Cubs on Friday. If
Fox wants to catch him again, he's going to
have to take that long road through the minors
and reunite with Prior at Wrigley Field.



164

I

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Health

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BIG TENS
Continued from Page 13
that they started."
Saturday's starter, junior Phil
Tognetti, spent most of the season in
the bullpen. The Buckeyes jumped
out to an early lead and continued to
pile on runs in each of the first
seven innings. Ohio State surprised

"They got out ahead of us early,"
Husain said. "They just kind of kept
the momentum the whole time. It
was a good job by them."
While the Wolverine deficit con-
tinued to grow, the Michigan bats
sat idle. It wasn't until the fifth
inning that Carroll yielded a base
runner. The following inning, soph-
omore second baseman Chris Getz

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the Wolverines the rest of the way,
ending the Wolverines season.
Perhaps the highlight of tourna-
ment for Michigan came from the
play of a pair.of youngsters in Getz,
freshman shortstop Leif Mahler and
veteran senior DH Brandon Roberts.
Getz - who batted .600 - and
Roberts were named to the All-Big
Ten tournament team. Mahler fin-
ished third on the team in the tour-
nament with a .357 batting average.
"Chris Getz is truly one of the
better players in the country at sec-
ond base. That's an inarguable fact."
Maloney said. "It's too bad that we
didn't win the (tournament) because
he would have been the MVP."
Getz and Roberts also received
regular-season honors, joining jun-
ior Jim Brauer as First Team All Big
Ten players. Juniors Kyle Bohm and
Paul Hammond were named to the
second team and Matt Butler to the
third team.
"Next year we are going to
expect big things out of ourselves,"
Busain said. , f . ., ,I