By Steven Baker staff reporter TCU runners from Kenya won first place in the men and women's debut cross country meet this season. The women's and men's cross country teams opened the season Saturday with first and second place finishes in the UTA season opener at Vandergriff Park. Dan Waters, TCU cross country head coach, said the women's team has a legitimate chance to finish strong this year if they continue to get wiser, stronger and faster.
The women accomplished just that by winning the 2-mile run with 25 points and finishing in the top three positions. Sophomore Glady's Keitany finished in first place, 11:13; sophomore Katie Singleton in second, 11:34; and sophomore Robin Schacht in third, 11:40. Keitany, 1998 Western Athletic Conference freshman of the year, said she made an effort, in the beginning, not to run too far ahead of the pack. "In some meets last year, I ran too fast at the start of the race," she said. Singleton said there are some kinks that the team needs to improve on after this first race. "For the first race you really cannot complain," she said. "The more races we get under our belt, the better we will be." The women of Stephen F. Austin ended the race in second place with 61 points. North Texas finished in third with 73 points, trailed by Texas-Arlington with 77 points and Southern Methodist with 139. Centenary was last with 182. Waters said despite the women's good performance, the men could have done better. "The guys who finished the race today did a nice job," he said. "We just kind of ran into a little bit of bad luck." Two TCU men did not finish the race because of injuries. Senior Jared Pope and junior Ryan Womack sprained their ankles in the cracks of the dried course that plagued many runners. Waters said the injured men should be back for the next race. On the other hand, one TCU runner passed his rival in the last leg of the race. Senior David Lagatcompleted the men's 4-mile run first, 20:13 ahead of UNT's Paul Ndachi, 20:31. "At the right time David put the surge on the second place runner," Waters said. "He ran a smart race for a senior." Lagat said he is in better shape at this point of the season than he was last year. "Every race is mental now," he said. "It does not matter how you run in the middle of the race. You have to pace yourself. Whoever is the strongest towards the end wins the race." Senior Adrian Martinez finished in fourth place with 20:55. Behind him were junior Adam Helm in 13th and freshman Justin Speer in the No. 14 spot. The UTA men's team finished in first by two points over TCU 48-50. Close behind in third and fourth place were UNT with 56 and SMU, 58. Centenary was last with 160 points. The men and women's cross country teams will compete next Saturday at the SMU Invitational in Dallas.
By Matt Welnack staff reporter When senior quarterback Patrick Batteaux fumbled the ball inside the Northwestern 5-yard line in the fourth quarter, the game and maybe his season took a turn for the worse. Batteaux led the Frogs down to the Northwestern territory after his 21-yard run to put TCU within scoring distance, but on this play he suffered a torn ligament between his thumb and index finger on his left hand. Trailing 14-7 at the time, the Frogs were on the verge of tying the game. On the next play, however, Batteaux let the ball slip out of his hand as he tried to pitch the ball to junior tailback LaDainian Tomlinson and the Wildcats recovered the ball to end the scoring threat.
The turnover prompted head coach Dennis Franchione to put freshman Casey Printers in the game to give a spark to a stagnant offense that had not scored since the first drive of the game. Printers is the first true freshman to play quarterback since Max Knake held the position in 1992. Printers came out firing in his college debut, hitting his first three passes to give TCU another chance at the end zone. Facing a third-and-two, Printers set up in shotgun formation, but the snap from junior center Jeff Garner was high and Printers could not handle it. TCU's best chance at a comeback was again fumbled away. "You prefer to let him get his feet wet, either when we are up by a lot or we are down by a lot," Dodd said. "On the whole, though, I was pleased." Northwestern went down the field and added a 32-yard field goal by Tim Long to make the score 17-7. The Frogs looked as if they were going to dominate the Wildcats after marching 80 yards down the field in 10 plays to score the game's first points. Those would be the only points the Frogs would put on their side of the board the rest of the day. "We had execution problems," Dodd said. "They just changed some defensive looks on us." TCU gained just 80 yards on their next nine drives. Senior punter Royce Huffman punted for more yards (412) than the offense produced for the day (318). Senior safety Reggie Hunt ran back a kickoff for 65 yards that put the Frogs into Wildcat territory, but junior kicker Chris Kaylakie missed a 35-yard field goal. Tomlinson, who had a big day against Arizona with 170 yards, ended with 94 yards on 18 carries and the lone TCU touchdown. Printers finished with 9 of 13 passing for 109 yards. Senior receiver Mike Scarborough led the team with six receptions for 55 yards. The Frogs are off this weekend, and they will return to action Sept. 25 at Arkansas State.
By Omar Villafranca staff reporter A massive downpour at the University of Massachusetts this weekend made teams playing in the UMass Classic compete against each other and the field. The TCU Women's Soccer team finished with a 1-1 record this weekend after heavy rain postponed the first round of play at the University of Massachusetts Classic in Amherst, Mass. The Lady Frogs fell to their first opponent in the tournament, the Harvard Crimson, 3-1. Harvard capitalized first when Crimson senior midfielder Julia Blain scored on TCU sophomore goalkeeper Keith-Ann Wagner in the 28th minute of the match. At halftime, the Lady Frogs were behind 1-0 and had not yet attempted a shot against Harvard. TCU avoided being shutout twice in as many games when senior midfielder Allison Calleri scored with eight minutes left in regulation, but couldn't overcome the three-goal deficit. "The fields played a really big factor....We didn't come to play. We were off on our first touches," Calleri said. This game was Harvard's first of the season. Calleri said that the Lady Frogs still should have won. "For their first game, they (Harvard) were excited. They came out 120 percent," Calleri said. "They had things we had seen before, so we should have won." TCU fared better in their second match, defeating the UMass Minutewomen 2-1. A crowd of 410 fans watched a slow first half, as both teams combined for only seven shots. The pace of the game picked up in the second half when UMass senior forward Emma Kurowski scored on a chip shot for the first goal of the game. TCU answered with a goal in the 67th minute when freshman defender Alecia Grieshabertook a dropped save by UMass keeper Cori Stevens and put it past her . With eight minutes remaining in regulation, TCU freshman forward Sherry Dickscored the go ahead goal off a Calleri free kick. The goal gave TCU their fourth win, Dick her fourth goal and Calleri's third assist of the season. The Lady Frogs next home game is Saturday, September 18th, when the Lady Frogs seek revenge from the Oklahoma Sooners of the Big 12. Oklahoma beat TCU last year. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at the TCU Soccer Complex. |
"There really shouldn't be a race this year where we
can't finish one, two or three including the conference meet and the district
meets in qualifying for the nationals," he said.
"Obviously if we had known that (Batteaux's hand was
injured), we would have taken precautions to avoid that," offensive
coordinator Dan Dodd said.| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |