Freshman flirts with personal record

Chris Thompson hauled himself out of the water, dripping with disappointment.

Well, not completely - he just won the 1,000-yard freestyle for Michigan in Saturday's dual meet with Indiana, but he missed his personal best by the slimmest of margins - three-tenths of a second.

In mid-season, laid-back dual meets, especially against weak Big Ten foes, swimmers sometimes have to find other things to compete against besides the other swimmers.

Thompson was very pleased with his swimming in practice the week before the meet, and he wanted that to carry over into his race - which it did. Just not enough.

Unseen by anyone else, Thompson made a few small errors that, all tolled, probably amounted to around .3 seconds. A few turns too far from the wall to allow a good push. A sporadic breathing pattern.

And the hope for a personal best was dashed, dissipated like a kick that only finds water.

As he walked to the warm-down pool he passed Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek.

"Hey, don't worry about it, people don't know your personal best," Urbanchek said. "At least show some sign of outward happiness, though."

"I'm working on it," Thompson said.

The little mistakes he made weighed on his mind as he slipped into the warm-down pool.

He swam his laps slowly, thinking about the missed turns, the choppy breathing.

Fine. OK.

"I mean, that was a good 1,000," said Thompson, dismissing his disappointment. "It was kind of frustrating, but I'll have more chances ... we're going to do the mile (1,650 yards) this week (against Michigan State and Ohio State), so I'm looking forward to that."

The 1,000 free is not an event at NCAAs, but the 1,650 is. Thompson said swimmers have to find excitement in races that don't offer any significant competition from the opponents.

"That's one of the great things about the sport - there's always a goal there," Thompson said.

Packing the Pond Part II: Three more Wolverines may have earned trips to Auburn for the NCAA Championships during Saturday's meet.

Owen Von Richter earned consideration in the 200 Individual Medley (1:49.00) and the 500 free (4:28.04). Scott Werner posted an NCAA consideration time of 2:01.34 in the 200 breaststroke and former olympian Tom Malchow swam to a 1:48.04 in the 200 butterfly.

Confidence Crisis: Indiana assistant coach Bruce Zimmerman said the Hoosiers had a "confidence problem" this past weekend. The Hoosiers "didn't expect to come in and upset the Wolverines," he said, but he expected better races from his swimmers.

"They just didn't believe they could win," Zimmerman said. "The coaches believe, but we don't get in the water and swim."

Diving Surprise: The Wolverines were expected to be knocked out in Saturday's one- and three-meter diving events. But junior Brett Wilmot managed to steal second place in the one-meter and first in the three-meter. Only the top three divers score points for their team in diving.

02-03-98