By Steven Baker staff reporter The women's cross country team kept up with its season pace while the men's team tripped up Friday at the Texas A&M Cross Country Invitational.
Keitany and Singleton led the TCU women once again this week with second and third place finishes. Keitany improved over her previous 5K time of 18:12 with a 17:59 performance. And Singleton had another third place meet with a time of 18:06. "As a team we are just trying to continue running at a consistently high level with everything preparing us for conference and regional meets," Singleton said. "I was pleased with my performance. There were some quality people running this race. I just went out strong and tried to keep it going." The men's team fell far from last week's first place performance at the North Texas Cross Country Invitational. Senior Jared Pope said not having senior Adrian Martinez, who is out with an inflamed knee, run damaged the team's performance. "We've had a rough week," he said. "We've just completed mid-term exams, and we have been training pretty hard. But we fought through it." Even though Pope finished in 45th with a time of 27:38, Lagat had his third first place finish of the season. He led most of the race and crossed the finish line in 25:18.
Steven Baker
Basketball lost one of its heroes Tuesday when Wilt Chamberlain died at the age of 63 from a possible heart attack. The often-criticized Chamberlain may be remembered more for his off-court exploits than what he did for the game of basketball, and that's a shame. Some basketball enthusiasts may argue that "Wilt the Stilt," as he was known, was the greatest basketball player ever to lace up a pair of high tops. This really isn't that bold of a statement when the game of basketball is truly analyzed. Yes, Michael Jordan deserves consideration. In a perfect world, I would start my expansion team with Jordan in the backcourt and Chamberlain in the post, but the world is not perfect. Besides, Chamberlain and Jordan would never mesh. Chamberlain thought he was the best player of all time, and he never thought Jordan was up to his level. Unfortunately, rumors will swirl about Chamberlain's sex life in wake of this tragedy. He claimed in his autobiography that he had sex with more than 20,000 women during his lifetime. However, if anyone wants to sit in judgment of Chamberlain there are more important numbers to focus on than those 20,000 women. Yes, that's a lot of women, and there were probably more than a few broken hearts along the way, but basketball doesn't give its athletes a citizenship grade. Thank goodness for that. Chamberlain pieced together one of the most statistically impressive careers in the history of the National Basketball Association. He is one of only two players in league history to win the Rookie of the Year award and Most Valuable Player in the same season. He is second on the NBA's all-time scoring list, ahead of Jordan and trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He scored 31,419 points in his 14-year career. That works out to 30.1 points a game for his career. Chamberlain led the league in scoring seven straight seasons and was the league's leading rebounder in 11 of his 14 seasons. Those are some pretty staggering numbers. No one changed the way basketball is played like Chamberlain. If you ever wonder why teams line up for free throws the way they do, look no further than Chamberlain. In his early career, he would stand closest to the basket while a teammate intentionally missed his second free throw. "The Stilt" would be there for the offensive board and an easy two points. Not many players can say they directly changed a rule of the game. Jordan can't say that. Jabbar can't either. No fan of classic basketball will ever forget Chamberlain's legendary battles with Boston Celtics' center Bill Russell. Although Russell got the better of Chamberlain most of the time, the pair forged one of the league's greatest rivalries. Chamberlain was something of an enigma at the center position. He revolutionized the way the position was played. Centers are never among the league's leaders in assists. Today, it's a big deal if a center gets five in a game. In the 1967-68 season, he led the league in assists. He also averaged 50.4 points a game during the 1961-62 season. That's right, 50.4 points. No one will ever do that again. Ever. During that season, Chamberlain set another record that will never fall. He scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks. Yes, it was impressive to see Roger Maris' home run record be broken last year, but Chamberlain's is one record that will stand the test of time. If Jordan couldn't break the record, who will? Some detractors will choose to remember Chamberlain for the number 20,000. That's not doing one of basketball's all-time greats justice. In death, Chamberlain should be remembered for his accomplishments as a basketball player. If he is not, that is a sad commentary on our society.
Todd J. Shriber is a senior broadcast journalism major from Laguna Niguel, Calif. He can be reached at (tshriber@hotmail.com).
By James Zwilling skiff staff The TCU women's soccer team opened Western Athletic Conference play this weekend splitting games versus the Texas-El Paso Miners and the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. The Horned Frogs fell 1-0 in the WAC season opener to UTEP Friday at the TCU Soccer Complex, but managed a 4-3 overtime victory over Tulsa Sunday. TCU's nine attempted shots, coupled with UTEP's seven, contributed to a 16-shot game which remained scoreless until the 83rd minute of the match up. TCU senior defender Andrea Smith said she thought the team was playing too cautiously. "It seemed like we were trying to find the perfect shot instead of taking our chances," Smith said. "When we had a good shot, we tried to set up the perfect shot."
UTEP forward Ja'net Esparza found a shot with less than six minutes remaining when she headed the ball into the goal off a free kick by teammate Laura Glasspoole to give the Miners the lead 1-0. Smith said UTEP shouldn't have won the game. "We pretty much dominated the whole game, and they pretty much got lucky," she said. TCU's record stood at 7-6 overall and 0-1 in the conference following the contest. Heading into the Tulsa game, the players on the TCU team said they felt disappointed after the UTEP loss. "Everyone on the team was frustrated because we had just lost a game we should have won," Smith said. "Everyone on the team knew that we needed to score early." Sophomore midfielder Jeanine Rogers opened scoring for the Horned Frogs 37 seconds into the match on the first shot of the game. Junior midfielder Jennifer Mauder added TCU's second goal 17:17 into play to give the Horned Frogs a 2-0 lead. Mauder along with senior midfielder Allison Calleri lead the Horned Frogs in assists. Sophomore forward Crystal Platz added her second goal of the season 36:16 into the game giving TCU the three-goal advantage. Tulsa responded two minutes later when Marci Fergusoni put Tulsa on the board. The half ended TCU 3, Tulsa 1. Smith said the Horned Frogs came out unprepared for the second half. "We kind of relaxed a little because we scored the first three goals so quickly," she said. "In the second half (Tulsa) came out ready to play." Tulsa's Julie Twellman narrowed the point spread to 3-2 with a goal 58:53 into the game. Melanie Beaulieu followed Twellman's goal with the game-tying goal 74:02 into play. Regulation time ended a 3-3 tie. Just over one minute into the overtime period a shot by Rogers found the back of the net. The game continued, however, when officials called back the shot citing an offside foul by Rogers. Four minutes later, freshman Alecia Grieshaber tapped in the game-winning goal for the Horned Frogs. The victory evened TCU's record to 1-1 in conference play and 8-6 overall for the season. According to a press release, head coach David Rubinson was impressed that his team pulled off the win against Tulsa. "We were very disappointed to give up three goals, but you have to give the girls credit for not giving up and knowing they could win," Rubinson said. Smith said the team is satisfied with its 8-6 record. "I think everyone on the team is pretty much satisfied with our record," Smith said. "That win over Tulsa put us on the right track. We are now more focused than before because now we are getting into our conference games." TCU travels to California this weekend for its third and fourth WAC games vs. San Jose State Friday and Fresno State Sunday.
Staff reporter Steven Baker contributed to this report.
James Zwilling
By Paul Freelend skiff staff Trench warriors in team sports often go unnoticed by the masses. Linemen in football, fullbacks in soccer and left fielders in baseball toil in anonymity unless a minor slip up leads to some disastrous end and a tongue lashing by their coach. Such is the life of a Volley Frog defensive specialist. Defensive specialists play primarily in the back half of the volleyball court, diving across the court to dig spiked balls and ensuring that the ball gets to the team's setter. But senior defensive specialist Stacy Olson said much more goes into being an effective defensive specialist.
Junior defensive specialist Crissy Grimm agreed. "A defensive specialist should be able to go into the game and spark their team," Grimm said. "They should be able to pick up the game in every aspect except hitting and blocking." Head coach Sandy Troudt said she believes more than physical talent is needed to make an effective defensive specialist. "A defensive specialist needs to be a talented athlete," Troudt said. "They need to have good quickness and visual skills to help out their teammates. They have to know that they are there to do the hard work and not have the 'me, me, me' syndrome that some of today's athletes have." The TCU volleyball team harbors four defensive specialists in Olson, Grimm, senior Jessica Rangel and freshman Shannon Eurich. Even with only six players on the court at one time, defensive specialists do not receive most of the attention or the statistics given to outside hitters and middle blockers. The Volley Frogs' defensive specialists, though, have accepted and adapted to that fact. "When I decided to be a defensive specialist, I had to accept the fact of not being a star or getting a lot of stats," Grimm said. To date, Olson leads the defensive specialists and is second on the team with 17 service aces. Rangel leads her position in digs with 90, while Olson has 67 and Grimm has 19. The defensive specialists' statistics also reflect their lack of playing time at the net. Rangel is the only defensive specialist to have recorded a block (two assisted blocks) while Olson and Rangel have the only kills by defensive specialists with two and one. Even though the position of defensive specialist is not one of glory and fame, players in that position can still make their presence felt on the volleyball court. "If a defensive specialist is able to dig the other team's hot hitters, they get more recognition from their teammates than most fans," Troudt said. "They should also get a lot of joy from it or else they wouldn't do it." On occasion, some of the Volley Frogs' defensive specialists find fans confused about what it is they do and have to set the record straight. "We tell people that we play volleyball, and they see that we're short so they ask us if we're setters," Grimm said. "So we say no and that we play in the back row. That's when they usually say 'Oh, you're the ones who roll around on the floor a lot.' We just smile and agree."
Paul Freelend |
The women's team completed the 5,000-meter race in third
place with 91 points. It was aided by more strong performances from sophomores
Glady's Keitany and Katie Singleton. Senior David Lagat finished in first
place in the 8,000-meter race, even though the men's team had an eighth
place finish overall with 197 points.
UTEP'S goal keeper Amanda Smith recorded five saves on the
day, while TCU sophomore goal keeper Keith-Ann Wagner added two saves to
her season statistics.
"You need to bring energy, motivation and a lot of
talk when you come into the game," Olson said. "Also, ideally
a defensive specialist is the toughest server and best defensive passer
on the team."| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |