Women's tankers win Big Ten title

The 1996-97 season was an up and down one for the Michigan women's swimming team. After going 4-0, the Wolverines lost three straight meets before recovering to win an unprecedented 11th straight Big Ten Championship.

Early on in the season, the Wolverines concentrated on swimming fast and qualifying as many swimmers as possible for the NCAAs. Despite losing All-American Rachel Gustin to shoulder surgery in October, the Wolverines opened the season strong raking up dual meet victories against Michigan State, Penn State, Tennessee, and taking first place at the Northwestern Relays and the Miami University Invitational. By the time winter break rolled around, eight Michigan swimmers had swum times fast enough to qualify for the NCAAs.

Having accomplished their early-season objective, the Wolverines turned their attention to hard training with the hopes that they would be swimming fast when it counted -- at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. Before the beginning of the winter semester, the Wolverines spent two grueling weeks training in Coronado, Calif. at the Navy Seals' training facility.

Before returning home from California, a fatigued Michigan team was convincingly defeated by then No. 1 Stanford and No.15 California. Two weeks later, the Wolverines were blown out at home by No. 4 Georgia 172-130.

At the time, Michigan coach Jim Richardson insisted that the losing streak was nothing to be concerned with.

"I love where we are right now," Richardson said. "I can't think of a year in the 12 years I've been at Michigan where I felt better about where we are than I do right now."

Despite Richardson's optimism, the Wolverines went on to lose their first Big Ten meet since the 1992-93 season.

At the Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines faced a tough challenge from Big Ten rival Minnesota. After the first day of competition, the Wolverines led the Golden Gophers by a mere 29.5 points.

Things stayed close during the second day of competition, but on day three the Wolverines were able to pull away, eventually winning a record 11th straight Big Ten Title, 99.5 points ahead of second place Minnesota. The 99.5 point margin made the meet the fourth-closest finish in the meet's 16-year history and the closest since 1993 when Michigan defeated Northwestern by 48.

As was the case for most of the season, the Wolverines were led by senior Anne Kampfe and freshman and Canadian Olympian Shannon Shakespeare. Shakespeare was named co-Big Ten Swimmer of the Year after winning the 200-yard individual medley, the 200 freestyle, and the 100 freestyle. Kampfe won the 400 IM and the 200 backstroke and finished fifth in the 200 breaststroke.

"I'm just so happy for our team," Shakespeare said. "We've won 11 championships in a row. We've faced some rough times this year, but we overcame them, and that was the bottom line. This is just icing on the cake."

At the NCAA championships, the Wolverines were again led by Kampfe and Shakespeare, but unfortunately there wasn't much else. The two combined for 77 individual points. The rest of the team combined for only 43.5 points in individual events.

Shakespeare finished second in the 100 free, third in the 200 IM, and fourth in the 200 free, while Kampfe finished third in the 400 IM and sixth in the 200 backstroke.

Even though the Wolverines were struggling in the individual events, their relays were excellent with all five finishing in the top-five.

Despite the strong showing by Michigan's relay teams, the Wolverines finished sixth overall, 151.5 points behind first-place Southern California.

Next season, Michigan will look to win its 12th straight Big Ten title, and to improve on its finish at the NCAA meet.

Though Michigan lost Kampfe to graduation, Shakespeare will return to lead a talented Michigan squad. "She's a great racer, a great competitor, and a really good team person," Richardson said. "She's fun to have around."

09-03-97