Men's swimming splits pair in desert By Benjamin Singer Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's swimming team enjoyed its first night in Arizona with a win over Arizona State, but had to leave the state on a sour note after Michigan's two-meet winning streak was ended by Arizona this past weekend. The Wolverines entered the weekend ranked 10th in the nation, but moved up to ninth after defeating No. 12 Arizona State, 134-109. The following day, third-ranked Arizona knocked off Michigan 174-126. In its first day of competition, Michigan proved much more dominant in Tempe with seven first place finishes than the next day in Tucson with just four. In the Wolverines first meet against the Sun Devils last Friday, the seven first place efforts came from six different swimmers. With every Wolverine that came in first, another one was often close behind as Michigan had three 1-2-3 finishes. Sophomore all-American Tim Siciliano had two of the first place finishes to lead the way in 1-2-3 sweeps both times. Siciliano had a time of 4:24.24 in the 500-yard freestyle with junior all-American Chris Thompson and senior all-American and tri-captain Mike McWha following. Sophomore Chuck Kennedy was right behind to make the race a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Wolverines. Siciliano's other first place finish was in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:50.36. Junior All-American Scott Werner and freshman Tony Kurth came in second and third. Werner also had a first place finish in the 200-yard breast stroke with a time of 2:00.48. The third sweep for Michigan came in the 1,000-yard freestyle with Thompson's time of 8:57.56 ahead of McWha and freshman Justin Drake. Three standout freshmen took the other first-place finishes for the Wolverines, each coming in a 200-yard swim. Garrett Mangieri's 1:38.55 in freestyle, Paul Ely's 1:51.14 for the butterfly, and Ryan Earhart's 1:48.18 in the backstroke helped the Wolverines coast to victory. In Tucson, the races were measured in meters rather than yards. The Wolverines did not have the same kind of all-around success as they had the day before. Instead of six different Wolverines having first place finishes, only three could outdo the Wildcats. Werner followed up his solid meet against Arizona State with an even stronger day with two first place breaststroke performances on Saturday. His time of 1:05.18 in the 100-meter breaststroke headed a 1-2-3 finish for Michigan. Werner then turned in a time of 2:22.86 in the 200 breaststroke which led Michigan in its second 1-2-3-4 finish in as many days. Originally on page 6B in the 1-10-2000 issue of the Daily.