Exhausted women split top 25 weekend By David S. Roth Daily Sports Writer What did the meet against Northwestern have in common with the meet against Notre Dame for the Michigan women's swimming and diving team? Absolutely nothing. No. 8 Michigan, which ousted No. 10 Northwestern, 154-135, on Friday at Canham Natatorium, was annihilated by No. 23 Notre Dame, 170-128, on Saturday in South Bend. The loss snapped the Wolverines' six-meet winning streak. Michigan fell to 8-4 overall, but the team upped its Big Ten record to 3-1. After rigorous training during the week, Michigan was too tired to sweep its back-to-back weekend foes. "We work hard," Michigan swimming coach Jim Richardson said. "We work so hard, it's really difficult for us to swim fast in season. Our philosophy is we want to get as much out of our training as we can for as long as we can." Julie Kern's 10:05.48 in the 1000-yard freestyle on Friday freefell into a 10:11.33 on Saturday. Shannon Shakespeare's 1:01.77 in the 100 breaststroke against Northwestern became a 1:03.77 against the Fighting Irish - even though she took first place both nights. And Lindsay Carlberg's time of 1:59.97 in the 200 backstroke slowed considerably, as she flickered against the Irish with a time of 2:02.77. So should Michigan be concerned? Absolutely not. "This year we might lose a couple of dual meets because we're training a lot harder because it's an Olympic year," Richardson said. "That's the commitment we made from the beginning. "We want (swimmers) to be their best at the Olympic trials." Though Michigan fans might find his philosophy hard to swallow, Richardson said he has no regrets. "I don't feel bad about keeping us a little more tired, a little bit longer because we're doing more work," Richardson said. "I think that is going to translate into really good swims (for the Olympic trials) in August." Senior Shannon Shakespeare led the Wolverines this weekend. Against Notre Dame, Shakespeare notched three individual first place performances in the 100 breast (1:03.77), 100 free (50.59), and 200 individual medley (2:05.12), as well as being part of a first place relay team. But on Friday, in her last meet at Canham, Shakespeare swam faster in every event against Northwestern. "We didn't want to lose in our home pool," said Shakespeare, a 1996 Canadian Olympian. "Especially as my last meet as a senior, I didn't want to have a loss. We were pretty psyched and ready to swim fast." Another notable performance was Julie Kern's 1000 free performance against Northwestern. In a 40 lap race, Kern took the lead in the 37th lap and held on to win with a time of 1:05.48. "There was quite a lot of electricity in there," Kern said. "I saw my teammates cheering for me - they were going nuts. So there was no stopping me. "I was just trying to get my hand to the wall and do it for the team." Originally on page 2B in the 1-31-2000 issue of the Daily.