Posts filed under 'Sports'
Solar car team overcomes penalties to keep large lead
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 19, 2008
The University’s solar car team is enjoying Winnipeg, Canada right now, more than an hour ahead of its closest competition, the team from Principia College. Continuum arrived at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba at 11:32 this morning and the team is now enjoying themselves at a barbecue thrown by the college.
College of Engineering senior Jeff Ferman said the team was happy with the progress Continuum had made since leaving Sioux Falls, South Dakota Friday.
“The drive today was wonderful,” Ferman said. “We’ve been going right at the speed limit.”
But things haven’t been going as well as they might for the team. Continuum would be even further ahead of the pack if not for some costly penalties they picked up on the drive into Sioux Falls.
The team was set back twenty minutes for four counts of speeding. But the big penalty the team picked up was for an hour and ten minutes when Continuum’s emergency braking system began to wear out.
Continuum uses “regenerative braking” most of the time, Ferman said, because it regains some of the power that would otherwise be lost by braking. But they use mechanical brakes, like those found on any other car, when they need to stop quickly.
When they used the mechanical brakes to slow Continuum’s descent down a hill towards a stoplight, they had some trouble stopping, but just thought the driver hadn’t begun braking soon enough, Ferman said. About five miles later — after successfully stopping at a number of lights and stop signs using the regenerative braking system, Ferman emphasized — they tested the brakes and realized that their brake pads had worn through. Though they were only five miles from the site they’d chosen to stop for the night, but two miles later they pulled off the road, he said.
The team won’t file an objection to the penalty, Ferman said, but he also maintained that it hadn’t made any errors.
“While (our brakes) were reduced in one form, we have redundant systems for a reason,” he said. “We were operating safely.”
But he added, “Given that the penalty was for running with an un-ordinary brake system, we did do that, so we’re not going to appeal that.”
The team will submit a brief to race officials explaining why they decided not to stop immediately. But for the most part, the penalties seem to be in the past, and the team is pleased with their position. They even got to partake in a parade today, Ferman said.
“Morris (Manitoba) has an annual stampede,” he explained. “It just happened that this weekend was the parade.”
When Continuum arrived at the little town the parade was just getting organized. At first team members were worried they’d have to stop and wait for it to finish, but that didn’t happen.
“Rahter than wait for it, they let us join the parade,” Ferman said.
Parading through the town with the horses did slow Continuum by about ten minutes, but Ferman seemed philosophical about the loss.
“It would have been worse… if we had come later. They did stop teams,” he said, and added, “We did get some good press from it.”
Solar car team leads North American Solar Challenge Race
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 17, 2008
For many students, summer is a time to work, take an internship, and see their families. For others, summer is a chance to travel — to leave Ann Arbor, to leave their home town, and see a little more of the world. For 18 undergraduates, it’s an opportunity to usher a solar-powered car across the continent from Dallas, Texas to Calgary, Alberta.
Right now, the University’s Solar Car Team and their car Continuum are parked in Sioux Falls, South Dakota waiting for their competition to catch up. They arrived in Sioux Falls yesterday at 12:35 p.m., an hour and 40 minutes ahead of their closest competition, the team from Principia College. The next team to arrive, from Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany, pulled in an hour and 35 minutes after that, around 3:15 p.m.
The University’s team was also the first to qualify for the race, and won the right to start first by outlasting the other cars on a racing track. Engineering senior Steve Hechtman, Continuum’s project manager, said the early start allowed them to escape bad weather and was part of the reason the team was able to take a big lead.
“The front-running teams were able to use their battery packs to get out in front of the storms, but the slower teams got caught up in the storms and that really slowed them down,” he said.
Another reason for its success is the car’s ability to stay on the road. Hechtman, who is also one of Continuum’s drivers, said they haven’t had any mechanical errors or even a flat tire. Some “electrical bugs” kept them off the road for about 20 minutes in the first day of driving, he said, but there haven’t been any other problems in the 22 hours they’ve spent on the road.
In fact, he said the biggest constraint so far has been the speed limit, which has been about 55 mph on most of the highway they’ve driven. But they’ve done a good job staying at a legal pace, and haven’t picked up any penatlies, which are assessed for traffic violations.
We’ll see if they can keep it up. At about 2400 miles, the NASC is the world’s longest solar car race.
I’ll keep you up to date on the team’s progress here on The Wire, but you can also check the team’s blog for reports from the road.
ESPN on the Diag Monday
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jul. 12, 2008
Does the University’s athletic success make Ann Arbor the top sports city in the country? Maybe. It’s one of 20 cities ESPN is considering in its search to find TitleTown, USA.
An ESPN crew will be on the Diag Monday to film the segment on Ann Arbor, which wll air July 20. It’ll be hosed by Nicole Manske, and feature the University marching band, cheerleaders.
“It’ll be college game day in the summer,” said the segment’s producer Jon Fish, a University Alum.
Former Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1991 and now covers college football on EPSN, will also be on the Daig Monday. Fish said he hopes as many students as possible turn out for the taping, which will begin at noon (though he recommends students arrive between 11 and 11:30).
“Be loud and proud, wear your maize and blue,” he advised, “Sing the victors, chant ‘let’s go blue,’ (do) everything that makes Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor.”
Fish wouldn’t speculate on Ann Arbor’s chances at wining the TitleTown crown, but competition is stiff. Not only are pro-sports powerhouses Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Boston nominated, but so is Detroit, which may draw Michiganders’ votes away from Ann Arbor.
Clinton, Obama talk hoops in Hoosier State
By Chris Herring, written on May. 4, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS — Though polls suggest that Indiana residents are pretty much split when it comes to choosing between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, it is relatively safe to say that Hoosiers have one thing they can agree on one thing: Basketball.
Because of that, both candidates have invoked the sport in their stump speeches while campaigning throughout the state, which votes Tuesday.
Speaking Wednesday night before about 15,000 students at Indiana University, Obama said one of his first duties as president would be to replace the White House’s bowling alley with something that fit his style better.
“I’m going to take out the bowling alley and put in a basketball court and play some Hoosier basketball,” he said, drawing thunderous ovation from a crowd that views basketball similar to the way Michigan fans think of football.
Talking about the economy here last night, Clinton said she’d allow the nation to “play both defense and offense” as president “which is particularly appropriate for people in such a great basketball state as this.”
“We’re going to play defense by going after single benefit that remains in the tax code that gives one penny of your tax dollars to any business that moves a job out of Indiana to a foreign country,” she said.
Clinton then said that America would go back on offense with her as commander in chief. “We’re going to get back offense to create jobs and create wealth and get more people a shot at the American dream,” said Clinton, adding that she would invest more in the manufacturing industry if elected.
She then said she’d call a “timeout” on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, so the plan could be renegotiated for the future. Clinton said the agreement, viewed negatively in some areas that were once heavily industrial areas, has cost Indiana many of the 45,000 manufacturing jobs it has lost since 2000 because of outsourcing.
Athletic Dept. reverses field, rescinds new football ticket policy
By Chris Herring, written on Mar. 24, 2008
Facing criticism for a new policy that would have given incoming freshmen seating priority over some graduate students at football games, the Athletic Department has now scrapped the plan.
Originally, the policy would have given first priority to undergraduate seniors and then to graduate students who obtained degrees from the University. The thing that infuriated some, though, was what priority other graduate students would have received. Through the original plan, grad students who obtained degrees at others schools would have had the lowest priority — even below incoming freshmen.
According to the e-mail, sent earlier this afternoon to the student body, the policy will now give priority to students with the most credit hours.
The Athletic Department said one policy change would remain. Because of student ticket demand, the department will not offer partner tickets for a student’s spouse, child or domestic partner as it has in the past.
Student tickets are on sale at www.MGoBlue.com/tickets until this Friday, March 28 at 5 p.m.
U. Wisconsin sues Washburn U over similar ‘W’ logos
By Gabe Nelson, written on Dec. 6, 2007
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has sued Washburn University, a public college outside Topeka, Kan., based on concerns that the college’s logo is too similar to Wisconsin’s, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported yesterday.
Take a look for yourself at these images from the Capital-Journal.
It seems that the Wisconsin ‘W’ has more curves and is a little pointier. On top of that, they’re different colors. But both tilt to the left and have similar blocks at the top of the letters. Maybe Wisconsin has a case, maybe not, but there are some things only legal professionals can decide.
Now, if only Michigan would sue Delaware for stealing the fabled winged helmet.
Correction appended: Washburn University is a state university, not a private university.
Between football and academics, Big Ten fares well
By Gabe Nelson, written on Dec. 6, 2007
As the Ivy League might tell you, success on the gridiron and in the classroom doesn’t always overlap.
But according to an analysis of teams headed to bowl games released Sunday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, the Big Ten does pretty well on both fronts.
Michigan, headed to Orlando to play Florida in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, had a 73-percent graduation rate for football players last year. That places it tied for 12th among the 64 teams competing in bowl games this season. Michigan was tied with Illinois and two spots behind Penn State, which had a 76-percent graduation rate last year.
With three schools in the top dozen, Big Ten bowl teams fared better than any other conference with regard to graduation rates. The Top 12 also includes two Atlantic Coast Conference bowl teams, one Big East team, one South Eastern Conference team and one Big 12 team.
Surprisingly, no teams in the Pac-10 — which includes academic heavyweights Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC — made the list. Service academies, however, ranked highly. Navy and Air Force, both headed to bowls, had two of the three highest graduation rates.
The top three, in terms of graduation rates:
Navy — 95 percent
Boston College — 93 percent
Air Force — 92 percent
The bottom three:
Georgia — 41 percent
Texas — 42 percent
Michigan State — 43 percent
MSA to fund pep rally
By Scott Mills, written on Nov. 7, 2007
At its meeting tonight, Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution to fund festivities next week hyping the football game against Ohio State University. The events are being planned by the Student Athletic Advisory Council with help from the Athletic Department.
SAAC is planning a pep rally Friday on the Diag, which will be emceed by Jim Brandstatter, Michigan football’s radio announcer. The program also includes captains from the football team and performances by student dance teams and the University’s marching band. A pizza eating contest will follow the rally.
SAAC asked MSA for $2011.50 to fund the event in a resolution proposed by LSA representative Michael Moses. The resolution passed with a vote of 21 to 13.