Sections

`M' men take 6th in track at Big Tens

It was a disappointing weekend in Columbus for the Michigan men's track and field team. The Wolverines finished sixth at the Big Ten Championships.

After the first day of competition the Wolverines were in seventh place with 6 points, and six men headed to the finals of their respective contests.

The first event was the heptathlon, where Alex Lengemann was in ninth place after the first four events. He finished day one with 2,647 points, 471 points behind the leader James Dunkleberger of Wisconsin, and hoped for more success on day two.

The 55-meter dash was the fourth event of the day, and the team might have had a better chance with the presence of Felman Malveaux, who posted the second-best time in the Big Ten before fracturing his right foot.

Damon DeVasher came in 16th place with a time of 6.59 seconds, and Kevin Bowman had 22nd place with 6.81, keeping Michigan out of the finals of the 55.

The results of the preliminaries for the 200-meter run were tight, but the Wolverines were .4 seconds from tying for the final spot with the time posted by Andy Schoelch of 22.54.

The highlights of the first day's competitions should not go unrecognized.

Neil Gardner leaped into a third-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 7.37 meters and won his heat of the 55-meter high hurdles with a time of 7.44 seconds, qualifying for the finals.

Todd Burnham was a qualifier for the 600-meter run with a time of 1:21.18, and returning Big Ten champion Kevin Sullivan (4:12.37) qualified for the finals of the mile run along with teammate Scott MacDonald (4:10.58).

Trinity Townsend headed to the finals in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:54.84, and Jeff Wood posted a time of 49.60 seconds in the 400-meter run to give the Wolverines hopes in Sunday's competitions.

"It's hard to say how things are going," Michigan coach Jack Harvey said after day one. "We're hanging in there, but it's going to be tough."

The standings after the first day of events showed Wisconsin with 49 points, Purdue with 14.5, host Ohio State with14, Minnesota with 12, Iowa and Illinois tied with 8, Michigan, Penn State and Indiana each with six and Michigan State none.

The second day of competition sent the men on a roller coaster ride in the standings. In the high jump, Damon DeVasher marked at 6-feet-9 1/2 for eighth place and Alex Lengemann at 6-feet- 9 1/2 for ninth place, just shy of earning points.

At the end of five events the Wolverines moved down to ninth place still at 6.5 points. Neil Gardner's time of 7.30 seconds in the finals of the 55 high hurdles put him in second place and the team in fourth.

Kevin Sullivan repeated as the Big Ten champion in the mile run with a time of 4:12.18. Teammate Scott MacDonald finished fifth with a time of 4:13.56, earning Michigan a combined 12 points in the event while moving the Wolverines up to third place.

Jeff Wood finished in fifth place in the 400 with a time of 49.07 seconds and the Wolverines slipped to fifth place after seven events.

Trinity Townsend sprinted his way to a second place finish in the 800-meter run, but as a team the Wolverines kept falling and were then in sixth place. Todd Burnham finished eighth in the 600-meter run (1:22.18), and Brian Wildfong placed eighth in the shot put with a mark of 52-feet-10.

Taiwo Okusanya came in 12th place of the triple jump at a distance of over 44-feet, and Alex Lengemann finished the heptathlon in eight place with a total of 4,684 points, but Michigan was still fighting. The Wolverines made a short climb to fifth place and desperately tried to hang on. In the final event, the 1600 relay, Michigan finished in sixth place with a time of 3:18.87, clinching a tie with Indiana for sixth place overall with 37 points.