'M' honors program's legends

By Nathan Linsley

Daily Sports Writer

It definitely will not be business as usual for the Michigan women's swimming team this weekend.

Past All-Americans from the highly successful program will converge on Canham Natatorium this Saturday for the first-ever women's alumni swim meet. Wolverines from the years 1985 to 1995 will return for the meet, which is meant to be fun for both the returning swimmers and the alumni.

The non-scoring meet should provide the youngsters with an exciting introduction to collegiate swimming while providing a low-pressure atmosphere. Michigan coach Jim Richardson expects good things from his team this year, even with a very young roster.

"We've got nine freshmen, so the freshmen will have some fun," Richardson said. "We'll see lots of laughing, but hopefully also some good swimming."

Highlighting the freshman class is Olympic gold medalist Samantha Arsenault, who swam the opening leg of the 800-meter freestyle relay in Sydney.

Also leading the team will be seven-time All-American Jennifer Crisman in the backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle, and senior Melissa Sugar, an All-American in the freestyle.

Richardson predicts the Wolverines will be especially strong in the backstroke and in distance events and that they will rely on their wealth of solid swimmers to contribute.

"We're definitely deeper than we were last year," Richardson said.

The meet, which starts at 11 a.m., will include half-distance events, mostly to make the meet more competitive for the alumni, who have not gone through the rigorous preseason training that the varsity swimmers have.

Richardson will be looking for his squad to establish a level of competitiveness and a winning attitude in the early meets, but expects the team to be better than last season when Michigan went 8-4 overall and were runners-up to Minnesota in the Big Ten championships.

But, the focus is on having fun this weekend. The team is very excited about the meet, which will be a definite change of pace from the interscholastic meets the Wolverines will encounter after they open their season a week from tomorrow.

"It'll be fun. Of course they're excited - they're swimming half distances," Richardson joked.