'M' swimmers trail Gophers after a day

A slow and steady pace won't win the sprint events, but it might eventually win the tournament.

Michigan men's swimming coach Jon Urbanchek knows that the Wolverines are not in hot water, just because they got off to a slow start in the first day of the Big Ten Championship yesterday in Minneapolis.

Michigan's strength is - and for years has been - in the distance events. So Urbanchek isn't surprised that Minnesota, the other conference powerhouse, is winning the tournament after cleaning up in the sprinting events.

"Last year we were down 20 after the first day," Urbanchek said. This year the deficit is only 16. So we're still in a pretty good position to go for the title on Saturday."

The Golden Gophers lead Michigan, 208-192, after fairing well in the 200-meter individual medley and dominating the 50 freestyle. Minnesota took three of the top eight spots in the 200 preliminaries and just dominated the 50 free. The Gophers' Ty Ba

FILE PHOTO Despite dominating the 500 freestyle, Mike McWha and the Wolverines trail conference rival Minnesota after one day of the Big Ten Championships.

thurst won the 50 free with a time of 19.8, and Jeremy Rients finished in third place only 0.38 seconds behind.

But Michigan did fair well in the 500 freestyle, yesterday's only distance event. Wolverines occupied the top five spots and six of the top eight in the preliminaries. Freshman Chris Thompson swam a 4:19.67 to win the race. Tom Malchow, Andy Potts, Mike McWha and Joe Palmer all finished within 2.5 seconds of each other to fill out the top five.

"That's our domain," Urbanchek said. "That's the event we've been well prepared in. We're just following in the footsteps of previous teams."

Urbanchek says he is not worried about the deficit. Minnesota led until the very last event last year. The Wolverines managed to salvage their 11th title in the past 12 years, winning a majority of events on the last day of competition.

But the Gophers have the home pool advantage this year, which may translate into a few more Minnesota points by tomorrow evening.

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