No. 1 gymnasts set season high

By Dan Dingerson

Daily Sports Writer

In the midst of spring break and spring training, the No. 1 Michigan men's gymnastics team took to the road for spring competition. On tap for the Wolverines were a pair of sixth-ranked foes, and the best-nicknamed team they would face all year.

On Saturday night, the Wolverines' week in southern California culminated in a tri-meet with No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 18 California-Santa Barbara. The Oklahoma Sooners are currently the top-rated team not in the Big Ten; the Santa Barbara Gauchos are winless - perhaps due to their location near the beach which renders college a permanent spring break site.

The Michigan gymnasts responded to their week of training in the sun by posting their best score of the year, 231.975. The effort was led by Scott Vetere, who easily took the all-around with his score of 58.55 - outperforming teammate Kevin Roulston, who scored 56.475 to take second-place.

Vetere won three events, and scored above a 9.9 in three events, all team records. On both still rings and vault, Vetere recorded a 9.95 en route to the event title. Despite his 9.9 on the floor exercise, Vetere finished third, but managed to take first on the pommel horse with a 9.85. It was only a poor performance on the parallel bars that kept him from breaking 59.0.

The meet may have been the most dominant individual performance ever by a Michigan male gymnast and set a new school record in the all-around - only missing the NCAA record by .05.

'He has been nursing a sore lower back for a couple of weeks,' Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. 'We brought him back slowly, and everything came together for him at once.'

The Wolverines also received strong performances from freshman Kris Zimmerman, senior Lalo Haro and junior Kenny Keener. Zimmerman won the event title on the parallel bars with a 9.85 and tied Keener for second on the still rings with a 9.90. Haro tied for second on the vault with Roulston and took third on the parallel bars and high bar.

The performance by the Wolverines was timely because Oklahoma recorded its best meet of the season, scoring 231.25 to finish a close second. The Sooners led the meet by two points through four events, but could not hold off the strong charge by the Wolverines, who set new team records in the high bar and the rings.

'I started coaching in 1972,' Golder said. 'This was the best comeback victory I have ever seen.'

Shannon Carrion took the event title in the two events Michigan did not win, the floor exercise and the high bar. ÒOklahoma has the talent to be one of the best teams in the country,Ó Golder said before meeting the Sooners.

The Gauchos finished a distant third, scoring 213.75. Prior to traveling to sunny California, the Wolverines made a stop in Champaign, Illinois to take on the then No. 6 Fighting Illini. Although Illinois posed a legitimate threat to Michigan, they were easily downed by the Wolverines. Michigan won all six events as a team and individually, scoring 230.35 to Illinois' 227.20.

The performance was a very balanced attack, with five gymnasts winning event titles, and nine placing in the top five of at least one event. Vetere again led the team, winning the all-around with a 56.85, taking titles in the vault and still rings. Vetere's performances over break will probably boost him to No. 1 in the all-around rankings when they come out today.

Zimmerman had the highest score of the Illinois meet with his 9.925 to win the parallel bars, he also claimed second on the high bar. With the two meets over spring break, Michigan extended its streak to four meets scoring over 230.00. The high scores will pull the Wolverines even farther away from the rest of the country in the scoring poll, and should cement their lead in the coache