'M' tankers drown Rice, win one for seniors By David Roth Daily Sports Writer Canham Natatorium turned into a wok on Saturday as the Michigan women's swimming and diving teams fried Rice 153-119. It was senior day for the Wolverines, and despite another week of intensive practices and training for the upcoming Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines still had enough steam left to cook their opponents, winning all of the first 10 events. "It was all for the seniors," freshman breaststroker Heather Dehainaut said. And before the meet even started, the underclassmen had already put in some extra effort to pay tribute to their seniors - Canadian native Shannon Shakespeare in particular. "It was Shannon's wish to have one meet have the Canadian National anthem playing, so we secretly planned that," Dehainaut said. "It was really special to her and really special to us." With the maple leaf watching over her, Shakespeare notched first place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:11.20, a whopping 3.8 seconds ahead of the pack. Shakespeare, with the help of fellow senior Emily Cocks, junior Jennifer Crisman and sophomore Lindsay Carlberg captured first place in the meet's first event, the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:58.39. "I think we swam a good opening relay," Michigan coach Jim Richardson said. However, the coached seemed to have mixed feelings on the dual meet. "I think there were some spots where we were very good," Richardson said. "I think there were some spots where we were tired. I think overall it was a good meet." Michigan had two standout performances. Carlberg, along with winning the 100 backstroke, blew away the competition in the 200 backstroke, with an NCAA consideration time of 2:14.97. Depending on how other swimmers across the country perform, she could be invited to swim that event in the NCAA finals come March, if she doesn't get an automatic time first. Julie Kern also swam brilliantly, putting Rice in hot water. Flanked by two incredibly fast Rice swimmers on both sides, Kern upped her time and took second place as she swam the 800 in 8:52.74. "I think Julie Kern's 800 was an excellent, excellent swim," Richardson said. Kern herself was also pleased. "It was my best event," Kern said. "I did a nice job of that. I have been doing quite a bit of distance training so it carried over and had an effect." "The meet overall was a fine effort by U of M swimmers," said Kern. "We really pulled together. There was a lot of unity, team effort, and camaraderie." In diving competition, Michigan swept both the one and three meter diving events. Junior Amanda Crews set the pace in the one-meter diving (275.63) and senior Hanna Shin, last week's Big Ten Diver of the Week, flipped her way to victory on the three-meter board (280.05). The two Wolverines turned in NCAA zone diving qualifying marks in both the competitions. Originally on page 3B in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.