Weekly Release #2

Upcoming Schedule
Friday, Nov. 2 -- vs. Indiana (Canham Natatorium), 6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 3 -- vs. Georgia (Canham Natatorium), 1 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 16 -- at Michigan State Invitational (East Lansing, Mich.), 5 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17 -- at Michigan State Invitational (East Lansing, Mich.), 9 a.m./6 p.m.

This Week
The University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team will attempt to improve its dual meet record to 4-0 for the first time since the 1994-95 season when it hosts Indiana and Georgia this weekend. The Wolverines will face Indiana on Friday (Nov. 2) at 6 p.m. and Georgia on Saturday (Nov. 3) at 1 p.m. at Canham Natatorium.

Series History with Indiana
Indiana and Michigan are the class of the Big Ten Conference in the sense that they have won 54 of a possible 91 league titles. Both schools also own the distinction of having a member of their team win four NCAA championships in one event. Mark Spitz accomplished the feat from 1969-72 for Indiana in the 200-yard butterfly while Michigan's Gustavo Borges won the 100-yard freestyle from 1992-95. Michigan leads the all-time series with a 27-24-1 record against the Hoosiers, including victories in 12 of the last 14 dual meets. Last year the Wolverines traveled to Bloomington, Ind., and posted a 132-110 victory.

Scouting Indiana
The Hoosiers added 17 new faces for the 2001-02 season after posting a sixth-place finish last year in the Big Ten Conference. So far, the new additions for Indiana have competed in only one dual meet on the year, which resulted in a 189-103 victory over the Evansville Purple Aces on Oct. 20. The strength of the Indiana team lies in its diving program. Despite losing senior All-American and two-time one-meter U.S. national champion Tom Davidson to graduation, the Hoosiers return two members from last year's squad that won the school's seventh consecutive indoor and eighth consecutive outdoor team national titles. Sophomore Marc Carlton and junior Adam Hazes both placed in the top 25 this last summer at the U.S. Outdoor Nationals. In the swimming events, Indiana is trying to make up for points it lost in NCAA qualifier Don Gold, as well as departing seniors Joe Trent and Will Bernhardt. The Hoosiers strongest events are the 400-yard individual medley, the breaststroke and the butterfly. Dave Schulze will carry the burden of leading the team in the 400-yard IM as well as the breaststroke while freshman Murph Halasz is expected to carry the team in the butterfly since his high school time is only a second off of Mark Spitz's school record in the 200 fly.

Series History with Georgia
Michigan will face Georgia for the fourth consecutive year after the two teams started the series in 1998-99. Last year the Wolverines defeated the Bulldogs for the first time with a 131-112 victory in Athens, Ga. In the teams' first two meetings, Georgia was able to secure wins by a score of 135-106 in 1998-99 and 175-125 in 1999-2000.

Scouting Georgia
Georgia enters its dual meet with Michigan owning a 1-0 mark on the year after defeating North Carolina 163-137 on Oct. 17. The Bulldogs return two members who placed in the top eight at the 2001 NCAA Championships as the team finished 15th overall. Sophomore Kyle Salyards earned a third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke and senior Marc Lindsay placed third in the 200-yard backstroke. Georgia also returns its top performers in 12 individual swimming events, with the only loss coming in Chris Murray, who was the Bulldogs' best last year in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Among Georgia's other top returnees this season are junior Andrew Mahaney in the distance freestyle events and senior Jason Gagnon in the sprint freestyles.

Last Week Recap
Michigan opened the season at home with two dual meet victories last weekend over Florida (Oct. 26) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 27). The Wolverines knocked off the Gators 137-106 on Friday before winning every single event in a 174-115 defeat of the Eagles on Saturday.

Ma-gnificent
The turning point in Michigan's victory on Friday (Oct. 26) against Florida didn't come in a first-place finish. With only a two-point lead, U-M entered into the 200-meter butterfly facing one of Florida's strengths as the Gators feature two of the best in the nation in Eric Donnelly and Duncan Sherrard. However, freshman Zayd Ma (Ann Arbor, Mich./Clonlara HS) posted a personal-best time of 2:05.80, to finish second and senior Eric Wilson (Portland, Ore./Sunset HS) followed in third at 2:06.58 to prevent Florida from pulling away in the dual meet.

Fab Freshmen
Freshman Zayd Ma was not the only member of the Michigan team to make a huge impact in his debut weekend wearing the Maize and Blue. U-M had three freshmen event-winners in Andrew Hurd (Oakville, Ontario/Universal HS), Chuck Sayao (Mississuaga, Ontario/Cawthra Park HS) and Brendan Neligan (Hempstead, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy HS). Against Florida, Neligan posted a win in the 800-meter freestyle (8:31.38) and then led the Wolverines to a 1-2-3 finish in the 400-meter freestyle (4:08.65). Hurd placed second in the 400-meter freestyle at 4:10.92 against Florida and he was victorious in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:29.90) on Saturday against Eastern Michigan. Sayao won the 200 backstroke on both days to go along with competing on the winning 400-yard medley relay team (3:26.93) against Eastern Michigan.

Fast Start
One reason Michigan has gotten off to a good start in the 2001-02 season is because of its sprinters. Heading into the year, Michigan head coach Jon Urbanchek noted that in order for the Wolverines to compete on the national level, the team would have to perform better in short-yard events. Over the weekend the Maize and Blue accomplished that by winning three of the four sprint freestyle events. Junior Garrett Mangieri (Closter, N.J./Mercersburg Academy, Pa.) was the top performer in the 100-meter freestyle against Florida (51.88) and followed that up with victories in the 50- (20.94) and 100-yard freestyles (45.86) on Saturday. Junior Tony Kurth (Toledo, Ohio/St. Francis de Sales HS), who has dropped down to competing solely on sprints this year after spending most of 2000-01 in the butterfly, notched a third-place showing in the 50-meter freestyle (24.59) against Florida.

Sophomore Jinx
Sophomore Dan Ketchum (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore HS) is easing any worries about a sophomore jinx this season after being named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year in 2000-01. So far this year Ketchum has won the 200 freestyle twice, the 500-yard freestyle once and was a part of the 400-meter freestyle relay that placed first against Florida.

On the Boards
Sophomore Jason Coben (Newtown Square, Pa./Maple Newtown HS) won three of the four diving events over the weekend. Against Florida, Coben edged out a first-place showing on the one-meter with a score of 307.12 before finishing second on the three-meter with a score of 310.27. Both scores against the Gators were worthy of Zone Qualifying standards. On Saturday, Coben swept both events with scores of 296.25 on the one-meter and 295.72 on the three-meter.

Sweeping Success
Michigan swept four events over the weekend with three coming against Eastern Michigan. Against the Eagles, the Wolverines took the top three spots in the 50-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle and the 1,000-yard freestyle. However, the biggest event that the Maize and Blue dominated was in the 400-meter freestyle against Florida. With Michigan clinging to a small advantage, Brendan Neligan, Andrew Hurd and Tim Siciliano (San Marcos, Calif./San Marcos HS) took the top three spots to seal the dual meet victory for Michigan.

The Last Time
Michigan's 2-0 dual mark record this season marks the first time the program has been 2-0 since the 1996-97 season. In that year the Maize and Blue went on to post a 6-2 record en route to winning the Big Ten championship. If the Wolverines can win both their meets this weekend, they will be 4-0 for the first time since they won the national championship in 1994-95.

Contact: David Crabtree (734) 763-4423