12 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 16, 2005
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Two individual titles not enough for Blue
By Ian Robinson
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - Winning a conference cham-
pionship in any sport requires a total team effort
with everybody contributing to the overall finish.
No team knows that better than the women's track
and field team. Entering this weekend's Big Ten
Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Colum-
bus, Michigan was in position to become the fourth
team in the program's history to achieve the confer-
ence triple crown - winning the conference title in
cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track.
Despite two individual conference titles and
three runner-up honors, the Wolverines fell
short of their triple crown hopes by 24.5 points
and finished in third place, behind Penn State
and conference champion Illinois. It was the first
time in four years that Michigan failed to win
the conference championship.
"Overall, I think the team did as well as we
could with the combination of Illinois doing
very well - they did some things that we
didn't expect - and us not doing some things
we (expected to do)," Michigan coach James
Henry said. "We just didn't get enough people
to scrap out those other points."
Michigan's two individual victories came in the
1,500-meter run and the 800-meter run. Gallo won
the 1,500-meters for the second year in a row.
After staying with the lead pack for the first 800
meters of the race, Gallo moved around teammate
Theresa Feldkamp and Indiana's Larra Overton
on the backstretch to take the lead. After making
her move to first, Gallo was all alone at the front
and cruised through the next 700 meters to claim
the victory with a time of 4:21.48 - three seconds
ahead of her closest competition.
Feldkamp finished in fourth-place nearly five
seconds behind Gallo.
In the 800-meter run, Erdman stayed near the
front of the pack through the first 600 meters of
the race before passing Illinios's Carlene Robinson.
Robinson responded and appeared to be in a posi-
tion to make it a close finish. But in the final 100
meters, Erdman drifted away from Robinson to
earn her first individual Big Ten title.
"I cannot believe I won," Erdman said. "I didn't
really do anything different than I have done all
year. I just found my stride and kept a good pace."
The busiest Wolverine on Sunday was senior
Sierra Hauser-Price, who competed in four events
and whose efforts contributed 20 points to the
team's total.
"I'm more disappointed than anything else,"
Hauser-Price said. "You always come out here to
win. That didn't quite happen today."
She was the runner-up in both the 100 and 200-
meter dashes and lost the two races by a combined
.34 seconds.
In the 100-meter dash, she was neck-and-neck at
the finish line with Ohio State's Jenna Harris. Both
finished with times of 11.61, but the video replay
revealed that Harris had edged Hauser-Price by two
one-thousandths of a second.
In addition to her two second-place honors,
Hauser-Price also anchored the 4x400 and 4x100- 4
meter relays.
While the Big Ten championships marked the
end of the season for much of the team, athletes
who qualified for the NCAA regional meet will
compete in Bloomington on May 27-28.
'M' Nine sweeps Hoosiers
Left-hander Drew Taylor earned his third win of the season against Indiana on Sunday.
By Pete Sneider
Daily Sports Writer
The Nielsen ratings took a dive in yester-
day's series finale against Indiana.
The Wolverines (14-11 Big Ten, 35-14
overall) piled up seven runs in the bottom
of the first inning against Indiana starter
Steve Nielsen en route to a 9-4 win. Nielsen
recorded just two outs and was credited
with six of the seven runs.
The victory completed a four-game
sweep overIndiana (8-20,25-27) in Michi-
gan's final home series of the season. Itwas
the seventh straight win for the Wolverines,
who have won 16 of their last 18 games.
"We've been battling all year," coach
Rich Maloney said. "To finally get over
.500 is refreshing considering the 1-8 start.
When you struggle as we did early on, a lot
of teams would fold, but we didn't."
Junior Chris Getz led off the first
inning with a bunt single, and sopho-
more Eric Rose was plunked in the
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next at-bat to give Michigan runners
on first and second with no outs. Senior
Kyle Bohm lined a single to right field,
scoring Getz to tie the game at one.
A four-pitch walk to senior Matt Butler
preceded a chopper up the middle by soph-
omore Brad Roblin. The single brought in
Bohm while Butler and Roblin advanced
on an errant throw by centerfielder Reggie
Watson. A triple by junior A.J. Scheidt and
a double by freshman Doug Pickens added
four more runs.
Senior Drew Taylor got the start for
the Wolverines and took full advantage of
the early run support. The imposing left-
hander yielded three earned runs on a sea-
son-high 7 2/3 innings while notching his
third win of the year. Taylor - who was
sidelined last season with a severe shoulder
injury - threw his second quality start in
as many games and looks to be returning
to his 2003 form when he was 9-1 with a
3.97 ERA.
"This was the first time in a long time
that I've thrown into the eighth inning;,"
Taylor said. "It seems like every time I go
out there I gain some more arm strength."
Sophomore Clayton Richard got the
final four outs, posting a team-best fifth
save of the season.
Bohm went 3-for-5 with four RBI,
including a two-out, two-RBI single in the
eighth inning - the senior's final at-bat at
the Fish. Bohm was dominant all week-
end for Michigan, batting 8-for-15 with
six RBI.
"I haven't really felt like I've been hot all
year, so I'm really trying to work towards
that as we get closer to the (Big Ten) tour-
nament," Bohm said. "I'm really trying to
be a little more aggressive down the stretch
because the scouting report on me is that I
take a lot of pitches."
Even though Michigan set the tone early
in the fourth game, it was the pitching staff
that carried them on Saturday's twinbill.
With Friday's game postponed due
to rain, the Wolverines played four
games in approximately 27 hours.
Unable to squander relievers, Maloney
needed his first two starters to go deep,
and they answered the call.
In the first two games, both Jim Brauer
and Michael Penn threw complete games, 4
allowing just two runs apiece. The Wolver-
ines swept the doubleheader, winning by
scores of 6-2 and 5-2, respectively.
The Wolverines' hurlers weren't as
sharp in the first game of Sunday's double-
header, allowing five runs on seven hits
and four walks. But the Michigan offense
took advantage of Indiana's sloppy defense 4
- the Hoosiers amassed four errors, two
coming in the five-run fifth inning.
Junior Derek Feldkamp got the win -
his fourth in nine appearances since being
sent to the bullpen - as Michigan beat
Indiana 8-5. Richard recorded the save,
retiring all five batters he faced.
Michigan's four-game sweep puts
them comfortably in sixth place in the
Big Ten standings - a crucial position
since only the top six qualify for the
Big Ten tournament.
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