The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 4, 1991- Page 7 I Five in a row, In Th e -Tan by Andy De Korte Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - By dominating the Big Ten Championships for a sixth straight year, the Michigan men's swimming team proved it is still the class of the Big Ten. To those who follow swimming that is no surprise. "Until somebody can come along and beat them," Iowa coach Glenn Patton said, "they are clearly the elite team of the conference." A look at the All-Big Ten list quickly reveals that while Michigan world championship medal winners riddle the list, the divers are nowhere to be seen. This quandary results because only an event winner and three at-large athletes, usually swjmmers, can garner the honor, and as par for the season, the divers performed without fanfare. In many of the dual meets this season, including high-ranked Cal-Berkeley and lesser-ranked Michigan State, only the influence of the Michigan divers allowed the squad to come home victorious. When Michigan could not dom-inate the Buckeye divers, the Wolverines lost. During the Big Ten Championships, Steve Hamer- ski, Eric Lesser, Jeffrey Jozwiak, and Brad Lambert, averaged 43 points for the one, three, and ten-meter boards. This was almost 12 points higher than the aver- age gain for Michigan's swimming events, and rep- resented approximately 18 percent of the team's points. "Michigan is one of the two strongest diving squads at this year's championship," Iowa diving coach Bob Rydze said. Hamerski, who finished 4th, 5th, and 2nd, in the 1, 3, and 10-meter dives respectively, made the NCAA cut Divers deserve recognition too in all three. He was joined by Eric Lesser, who qualified in the three-meter, in confirming Rydze's conjecture. The 43 point average really shows its significance when compared to Ohio State's divers, who only mustered 36. While Michigan had four divers, compared to the Buckeyes' three, any imbalance between the squads is equalized by OSU's dependence on Big Ten Diver of the Year, David Pichler, who finished with 57 out of a possible 60 points. Besides, the fact that Michigan had more divers in Indianapolis only speaks to the fact that Michigan has better divers. "You've got four guys in the top ten, that's just tremendous," Michigan diving coach Dick Kimball said. The presence of a strong diving squad is a hallmark of a strong team. Of the bottom six teams, only two teams put divers in the final heat of any of the three diving events. Wisconsin's Terry Butler won the one- meter dive and came in third in the three-meter dive. It is no coincidence that Wisconsin claimed seventh, ahead of two teams, Illinois and Northwestern, who only had one diver earn receive points, between them. The upper echelons would have been impacted by diving had the title race been closer. Iowa, a principle contender, could only manage 34 points on the diving boards. As long as Iowa continues to lose 100 points to Michigan in diving alone it will be almost impossible for the Hawkeyes to mount a serious challenge. Michigan would have been able to win the Big Ten title with a smaller contribution from its divers. However, this does not diminish the divers' accomplishments. It's obvious that with the strength of the diving corps, Michigan could have won with a smaller contribution from the swimmers. Missy McCracken swims during the time trials at the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis last weekend. W om-en continue Bi Ten fI ny Yoav irom Daily Sports Writer For the fifth year in a row, the Michigan women's swimming and diving team captured the Big Ten Championships. Following a tough season of long road trips and rigor- ous preparation, the Wolverines are extremely satisfied with their performance. Michigan entered last week- end's meet in Minneapolis very confident about their chances for a five-peat. The Wolverines achieved what one might call diversified success, placing well in all events. Some Michigan swimmers also put in particularly outstanding per- formances. Lisa Anderson, Tara Higgins, Kathy Diebler, Mindy Gehrs and Val Hyduk all set new meet, conference or pool records. The Wolverines' main worries entering the Championships had to do with specific events, not the meet as a whole. .Our concern was if we would have the type of tempo to succeed at the 50 and 100-yard relays," said Richardson. "We knew about the 200, that we would do well." Throughout the season, Michi- gan has had greater success in the longer events, and the Big Tens was no exception. The Wolverines swam exceptionally well, placing first in both the 200-yard back- stroke and the 200-yard breast- stroke. "The meet reflected the way we felt about our chances," Richardson said. "We were posi- tive about the 200 and less about the 50." Michigan dominated the meet, winning by more than 250 points. The Wolverines attribute their good fortunes to a season of tough training and good work ethics. "The team worked hard all sea- son," said Richardson. "The extra preparation helped us." During the three day competi- tion, Michigan showed no signs of letting up and improved as the meet progressed. "The team asserted themselves very well on the first and second days and just kept on pouring it on. Each day, we seemed to be getting stronger," Richardson said. Individually, this was also a successful meet for the Wolver- ines. Anderson and Gehrs finished third and fifth in the overall com- petition, respectively. Michigan placed six swimmers in the top twelve. Michelle Swix, Jennifer Love, Karen Barnes and Minoo Gupta also swam well. The diving team contributed many stellar performances of their own. They excelled in the 10-me- ter diving event, in particular, fin- ishing with eight of the top 12 divers. Margie Stoll, Whitney Scherer, Julie Greyer and Lisa Cribari were also outstanding. This past weekend, at the Michigan Open, the Wolverines once again displayed their winning ways. Ann Louise Francis swam her lifetime best in the 500-yard freestyle and Missy McCracken and Kathy Diebler qualified for the senior national championships. The Open was the final home! meet for Michigan. On March 8 and 9, the Wolverines will partici- pate in the EMU invitational in Ypsilanti, and then look forward to the NCAA Championships March 21-23 in Indianapolis. MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING Bic TEN CHAMPIONSHIP Team (Nat. Rank) 1. Michigan(6) 2. Minnesota(13) 3. Indiana 4. Iowa(7) 5. Ohio State(14) 6. Michigan State(18) 7. Wisconsin 8. Purdue 9. Northwestern 10. Illinois Points 696.50 573.50 492.50 459 424.50 399 303 194.50 118.50 106 _o *SWIMMERS Continued from page 1 competition, trailing Minnesota, 207.5-187. "I think Minnesota is swimming extremely well. They deserve to be where they are," Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said at the time. "This is a very good day for them. It's a very good day for them point- wise, and not so good for us." Friday's session was abuzz with talk of Glenn Patton's Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa entered the meet entertaining thoughts of dethroning the Wolverines, but a disqual- ification in the 400 medley relay put a dent in the plans. "Obviously we're disappointed with our team placement," Patton said after the disqualification. "We were hopefully trying to come in here to compete for the title. We're totally out of the title hunt." After Friday's proceedings, everyone else was out of the title hunt as well. Michigan claimed its first relay title of the meet, as it won the 200 medley relay. Eric Bailey, Wun- derlich, Gunn, and VanTassell cruised to a relatively easy win, as they won in 1:29.58, comfortably under the NCAA-qualifying time. Junior Eric Namesnik took the 400 I.M. in 3:49.02, yet another clocking under the NCAA cut. Brice Kopas followed suit, finish- ing over a second under the stand- ard as well. Kopas hit the wall in 3:54.04 for a fourth-place finish. Gunn proceeded to upset defending champ Sean Quack- enbush of Minnesota in the 100 butterfly. Winning in :48.40, Gunn added yet another NCAA-qual- ifying time to the Michigan collection. Eric Wunderlich was next with a victory in the 100 breastroke. Wunderlich, who "pretty much wanted to go under :54.5," did exactly that, erasing former Wolverine Jan-Erick Olsen's Big Ten meet record in the process with a time of :54.44. The last Wolverine victory of their explosive second day came from sophomore Steve Bigelow. Due to an ankle injury, he had not been able to train a maximum amount, yet he still managed to swim past top-seeded Mike Johnson of Iowa to win in :49.92, another NCAA-qualifying mark. "Rick (Wilkening), my back- stroke coach, the grad assistant, wanted me to take it out a lot faster tonight because he knew that the guy from Iowa (Johnson) was more of a 50 man than a 100 man," he said. "So I wanted to stay as close as I could to him and then bring it home as hard as I could." By the day's conclusion, Michigan had pulled well in front of its nearest competitor, Minn- esota, by just under 100 points. During the meet's final day, the Wolverines padded their advant- age even more. Bigelow claimed another backstroke event, this time at his favorite distance, 200 yards. His time of 1:46.33 lopped .8 of a second off the Big Ten Champ- ionship record and .06 off his own all-time Big Ten record. Gunn duplicated Bigelow's dual championships with a victory in the 200 butterfly, while teammates Bailey and Jim Hume placed fifth and eighth respectively. Mike Barrowman pumps his fist after winning the 200 yard breaststroke at the Big Ten Championships which the Wolverines won last weekend. Helping is Learning By donating plasma, you are helping hemophiliacs as well as other patients to enjoy a healthy productive life. Now, more than ever, we need your help. At Cutter Biological we are committed to improving the quality of life world-wide. Through education and service YOU can help make the difference. We value your time and effort and we'll help by compensating you. You can even study while you donate! 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