Who holds the Michigan hockey record for most goals in a season? Inside Sports Monday 'M' Sports Calendar 2 AP Basketball Top 25 2 College Hockey Top 15 2 Athlete of the Week 2 Q&A 3 Gill Again 3 Baseball 3 Men's Basketball 4 Ice Hockey 5 Women's Basketball 6 Swimming 7 tot r. . . t s . The Michiaan Daily - Sports Monday March 4, 1991 'M' sweeps past Buckeyes into CCHA final four INDIANAPOLIS - After a while, it almost became routine. Turn leftalong the pool deck, right onto the bulkhead, left onto the awards platform, and up onto the awards stand. Even the coaches got into the act, as they were * asked to hand out the awards. But Saturday night, the Michigan men's swimming team made the walk which they were most familiar with. That was when they went en masse to accept the Big Ten Championship plaque, their sixth in a row. Over three days, the Wol- verines asserted their depth and talent. Senior captain Mike Bar- rowman probably summed it up best: "You don't mess with Mich- igan swimming, at least not in the Big Ten." The final standings weren't even close: Michigan 696.5, Minnesota 573.5, Indiana 492.5, Iowa 459, Ohio State 424.5, Michigan State 399, Wisconsin 303, Purdue 194.5, Northwestern 118.5, Illinois 106. All told it was a. remarkable performance. Twelve NCAA qual- ifying times, three automatic berths by the divers, and three re- lays qualified for the National Championships to be held in Austin, TX. Michigan's biggest weakness, a dearth of quality sprinters came to light during the first day of tourn- ament. The Wolverines watched Minnesota's Delano Cerney win the 50 free in the only event that Michigan didn't qualify a finalist. In the 500 free, sophomore Brian Gunn and junior Eric Bailey earned third and sixth-place finishes with times of 4:20.94 and 4:26.22, respectively. In the 200 individual medley that followed, and in Urbanchek's words, the I.M. was "definite raking in the points." Barrowman led the way with a second place finish behind Minnesota's Paul Nelsen in 1:49.00. Close behind were teammates Eric Namesnik, Eric Wunderlich, and Kent Tschannen in third, fifth, and seventh-places, respectively. All told, the race would garner . sixty-one points for the Maize and Blue, almost a third of Michigan's first day total. Despite this dominant event, the Wolverines stood in second- place following the first day of See SWIMMERS, Page 7 And Sunday, the Wolverines rested. But the Michigan hockey team (24-5-3 in the CCHA, 31-6-3 overall) almost didn't get the coveted seventh day off. The team was saved from the possibility of a third game in the best 2-out-of-3 series with Ohio State (9-19-4, 11- 25-4) Friday night with only :37 left in the third period. With the score knotted 4-4, sophomore center Mark Ouimet scored on a pass from linemate David Roberts and gave the Wolverines a 1-0 advantage in their first round CCHA playoff matchup. Michigan then wiped out all possibility of a Sunday night matchup, defeating the Buckeyes 9-4 Saturday. The Wolverines still seemed to be in a vacation mode Friday night. Their lackadaisical play was rescued only by a few individual efforts and their power play. "For playoff hockey you expect everyone to come up a notch, and you'll play a smarter, safer, better defensive game, but we didn't do it," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "It was a little bit a lack of intensity, lack of concentration, lack of doing a lot of simple things. We struggled. Our overall team defense was not strong; our overall offense was not strong. It wasn't our team." During Michigan's first power play, rookie defenseman Aaron Ward took a pass from fellow frosh Cam Stewart and sent a hard shot from the left point past Ohio State netminder Mike Bales to put Michigan on the board. Ward's goal was followed minutes later by center Brian See HOCKEY, Page 5 JOSE JUAREZ/aily Michigan players celebrate after Aaron Ward's first period goal against Ohio State Friday night. The Wolverines swept the Buckeyes to advance to the CCHA semifinals this weekend at Joe Louis Arena. GUNN GETS BACK ON by Ken Sugiura Daily Sports Writer Like many students, swimmer Brian Gunn came to campus with big plans for his first year in Ann Arbor. "I'd set out some pretty big goals for myself. I really wanted to contribute to the team in a big way. I definitely wanted to come in and make a bang," the sophomore said. He arrived from Hinsdale (Ill.) Central High School last year, having led his team to three state championships. The previous summer, he was a finalist at the Olympic trials in the 200-meter butterfly. Certainly, good things were heading his way. But, like many students, Gunn ran into problems on his way to success. "He was leveled off. He didn't make any progress, in training or in competition," Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said. "He was just 'blah', just flat." A blood test after a mediocre performance at the Big Ten Championships revealed Gunn had been infected with the Epstein-Barr virus. The illness had been responsible for sapping his energy, and this became more apparent as the long season dragged on. His first year with the Wolverines had been going well, but not great. Inconsistent swims and a lack of improvement hampered Gunn throughout the season. Probably already infected with the virus, Gunn did not show typical symptoms of illness, but was having other problems. "I'd have a really good practice, then I'd get really tired and I'd have kind of a mediocre practice," he said. "I think I was swimming my meets kind of the same way." As the training load and yardage began to increase, Gunn, unaccustomed to "harder training than I'd ever done before," in addition to a demanding course load, began to falter. In the middle of January, the team traveled to California for consecutive meets with USC and UCLA. "He swam real well against USC, (and) the next day Swimmer Brian Gunn regains form after last season' s illness TARGET against UCLA he was way off of his times," Urbanchek said. "He looked pale. In fact, he had no life left in him." When the team returned, the training continued to increase. Gunn, refusing to submit to the cries of his body, fell even more. "I probably should have started resting when my body got that broken down," he said. "But I kept on training hard through Big Tens. I backed off a very, very ,minimal amount." Then during the Big Ten Championships at the beginning of March, Gunn's train bound for the NCAA Championships finally derailed. He swam his fastest unshaved time ever in the preliminaries of his first event, the 500-yard freestyle. However, he failed to recuperate from that swim. Gunn struggled.to seventh-place finishes in the 500 free and 200 butterfly, as well as a fourteenth-place in the 100 butterfly. His times were neither personal bests nor NCAA-qualifying times. "I just couldn't get up. I couldn't do it," he recalled. Another failed attempt at the NCAA standards and a blood test later, Gunn was taken out of the water - a far cry from his aspirations of months before. "It was extremely frustrating. From Illinois swimming I'd never come out of a season without doing my best time and without improving," he said. Urbanchek kept Gunn out of the water for almost two months, not allowing Gunn to begin heavy training until May. During that time, Gunn picked up the pieces of a disappointing season and prepared to try again. "I did a lot of studying, a lot of sleeping, and really tried not to think about swimming," he said. "I just tried to stay away from everything and kind of regroup. I kept myself out of the water, I rested up, so when I finally got back in, I was really, really ready to get back in." if With new fervor for the pool, Gunn made incredible strides throughout the summer, surpassing his personal See GUNN, Page 3 Michigan swimmer Brian Gunn captures first place in the 200 yard butterfly at the Big Ten Championships in Indianapolis last weekend. Blue wrestlers finish " second to Hawkeyes NIT a reality after Cagers beat Gophers by Andrew Gottesman by Josh Dubow Daily Sports Writer CHAMPAIGN - Entering this weekend's Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Michigan coach Dale Bahr conceded first place to Iowa but expected a fierce five team battle. for second place. The Hawkeyes did not fall short of Bahr's expectations as they qualified all ten of their wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, had five Big Ten champions, and scored 164 points. Bahr's own squad overcame a slow start and exceeded his expec- tations by grabbing a second-place finish with 92.5 points, but Sun- day's finals left the Wolverines disappointed. Controversial offici- S -- -+ i inir- ...rmtlr Tr p Following Iowa and Michigan were Ohio State (85.75), Wiscon- sin (78.75), Purdue. (73.75), Michigan State (56.5), Minnesota (55.5), Northwestern (37.5), Illi- nois (28.75), and Indiana (26.5). However, the battle for second was not as close as the scores in- dicated, as Michigan had, for all practical purposes, clinched sec- ond before Sunday's action. In the most exciting match of the weekend, Gilbert went up against Iowa's defending national champion, Tom Brands, who boasts a No. 1 ranking and a per- fect 40-0 record. Gilbert opened the match with a high level of in- tensity and took down Brands in Daily Basketball Writer Apparently, Demetrius Calip and the fans smelled different things during Sunday's Minnesota- Michigan men's basketball game. In a game dominated by missed shots and fouls, the fans smelled something ... well, something not so good. However, Calip, Michigan's only senior, smelled a little more playing time. With the NCAA tournament out of reach, Calip smelled the National Invitation Tournament - and played well. enough to almost ensure Michigan a bid. Calip poured in 29 points, in- cluding five three-pointers, to lead the Wolverines over the Gophers. sides. The Wolverines shot 42 percent from the field while Minnesota (4-12, 11-15) hit on 37 percent of its shots. The teams didn't fare much better from the free throw line, where Michigan was 17-for-28 and the Gophers were 15-for-22. During the second half, Minnesota and Michigan shot only 31 and 33 percent, respectively. "This has been an off year for the Gophers," Haskins said. "There's nothing to do now but look forward to coming back hard next year." Michigan coach Steve Fisher was more concerned with the victory than with the Wolverines' poor shooting. ;t:;ai4 _: