THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2012
SWIMMING
PAGE 7B
Jayhawks lose dual meet to Razorbacks
ALEC TILSON
atilson@kansan.com
In its third competition in as many weeks, the Kansas swimming and diving team lost its dual meet Saturday in Arkansas, posting just two first-place finishes on the road against a difficult SEC opponent.
The Razorbacks took first place in the first seven events, grabbing a lead they would control throughout the day, and eventually defeating Kansas 199-96 at Arkansas Natatorium in Fayetteville, Ark.
"We weren't that competitive," Kansas coach Clark Campbell said. "It was a pretty rough meet for us."
Campbell attributed the cumulative effect of classes beginning and the team's entering a new, more intense training phase as the reasonthe Jayhawks struggled.
Kansas senior Stephanie Payne placed first in the 400-yard individual medley, followed by teammates Alison Moffit, sophomore, in second and Rebecca Swank, junior, in third.
Swank, who Campbell called "quite the iron woman" for her performance, swam the three longest events. She finished second in the 1650-yard freestyle, fourth in the 500-yard freestyle and third in the 400-yard individual medley.
"They have a wonderful distance program at Arkansas so my goal going in was to be competitive."
Swank said. "I just took it one event at a time and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out"
The team's other first-place finish came in the 800-yard freestyle relay, with senior Shannon Garlie, junior Brooke Brull, sophomore Morgan Sharp and freshman Deanna Marks teams up for the victory.
Junior diver Christy Cash placed third in the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Cash and sophomore diver Alyssa Golden threw higher degree-of-difficulty dives than earlier in the season in preparation for the Big 12 Championships next month.
The team will train throughout the week as they work towards stronger, faster times.
The team begins a deserved bye week before traveling to Ames, Iowa for a dual meet against Iowa State on Feb. 3.
"It was a good opportunity for them to get up there and try new things," Campbell said. "When you try new things, the margin for error is very small."
Edited by Nadia Imafidon
"We need a break from competition," Campbell said. "We've spent time creating this huge engine on each of our athletes and we need that engine to speed up and it just takes some time to get there."
Junior Rebecca Swank swims in the 1650 yard freestyle against Illinois in October. According to Kansas Coach Clark Campbell Swank was iron woman this weekend against Arkansas by swimming in the three longest events.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Patriots survive the Ravens and head to fourth Super Bowl
PLAYOFFS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady waited out the final tense minutes on the sideline and somehow his fourth-quarter leap into the end zone held up, sending the New England Patriots back to the Super Bowl.
With New England leading by 3 points with 11 seconds left, Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal attempt and the Patriots escaped with a 23-20 win Sunday in the AFC championship game.
On his 1-yard scoring dive with 11:29 left, Brady took a huge hit from Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, then emphatically spiked the ball as he walked away. Earlier, Brady showed his fire by barking at Lewis following a hard tackle on a 4-yard run.
Next up as the Patriots chase their fourth Super Bowl trophy in Brady and coach Bill Belichick's tenure in New England is the winner of Sunday's NFC championship game between the Giants and 49ers. The Super Bowl is Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
In their last trip to the big game, the Patriots had an 18-0 record when they were stunned by the Giants four years ago. They won the NFL championship for the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons. This time, they had to the Sup Bowl with a 10-game winning
streak.
Brady's fifth trip to the Super Bowl will equal John Elway's achievement with Denver.
"We're going to try to go out and kick some butt in a couple of weeks," Brady said.
Before Cundiff missed, the Ravens had a chance to go ahead two plays earlier, but wide receiver Lee Evans was stripped of the ball in the end zone by backup cornerback Sterling Moore, who earlier was victimized for a touchdown that gave Baltimore the lead 17-16.
Then Cundiff misfired, and the Patriots stormed off their sideline in celebration as the chilled crowd roared.
Brady needed help not only from Cundiff's botched kick in guiding the patriots (15-3) to their fifth AFC title in 11 seasons, but from New England's maligned defense.
A three-time NFL champion, Brady didn't throw for a touchdown for the first time in 36 games, although he did pass for 239 yards.
"We stepped up," Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. "We all
"Well, I (stunk) pretty bad today, but our defense saved us," Brady said. "I'm going to try to go out and do a better job in a couple of weeks, but I'm proud of this team, my teammates."
stepped up big time. Being in this situation is a great moment. You have to cherish this moment."
The Patriots shut down Ray Rice, the league's total yardage leader, who was limited to 78 yards. Brandon Spikes made a fourth-quarter interception of Joe Flacco, who played well before that and threw for two touchdowns. And when the Ravens (13-5) were threatening to score a late touchdown to win their first conference title in 11 years, New England clamped down.
"It's two great football teams, two gladiators, I guess, just kind of going at each other at the end, and I'm proud of our guys," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "You know, we've got 53 guys, mighty men, as we like to call them — and they fought, and we came up a little bit short, as 53. You know, 53 win and 53 lose."
With Rice a nonfactor, Baltimore had to rely on Flacco, and he delivered one of his best performances. Flacco has led the Ravens into the playoffs in all four of his pro seasons, but not to the Super Bowl. He was 22 for 36 for 306 yards and touchdowns of 6 yards to Dennis Pitta and 29 to rookie Torrey Smith.
The loss hardly could be blamed on Flacco.
Operating against a maligned
secondary missing its top cornerback, Kyle Arrington, who left in the second quarter with an eye injury, Flacco gave Baltimore its first lead. His short pass on third down to explosive receiver Smith turned into a 29-yard scamper down the right sideline after Moore completely whiffed on the tackle.
Danny Woodhead's fumble on the ensuing kickoff set up Baltimore at the Patriots 28, but a third-down sack forced Cundiff to kick a 39-yard field goal, making it 20-16.
New England didn't flinch.
Brady took the Patriots 63 yards in 11 plays, and seemed to score on a 1-yard run. The call
"Those guys fought all year, and just like today, it wasn't
was overruled by replay, though, and on fourth-down, he dived just high enough over the line for the winning points.
held Baltimore to minus-4 yards on its first three first-down runs and forced the Ravens to go three-and-out each time. Meanwhile, the Patriots put together a methodical 13-play, 50-yard drive helped greatly by an illegal contact penalty on Lardarius Webb that negated a tipped interception by Bernard Pollard.
always perfect, but they fought to the final gun and we came out on top." Belichick said.
But Brady was sacked for the first time by Paul Kruger and Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 29-yard field goal.
Defense was particularly dominant early on — New England's 31st-ranked defense. The Patriots
"Those guys fought all year and just like today, it wasn't always perfect but they fought to the final gun and we came out on top."
Late in the first quarter, the Ravens changed tactics after Webb did pick off a pass intended for Julian Edelman at the Baltimore 30. Flacco rolled right on first down and threw deep down
BILL BELICHICK
Patriots Head Coach
the sideline to
the sideline to a wide-open Smith. Had the pass not been short, Smith likely would have sprinted into the end zone. Instead, it was a 42-yard gain, not bad at all given Baltimore's previous ineptitude with the ball.
Vicious impetus with the ball.
Cundiff's 20-yard field goal momentarily tied it.
Brady, perhaps peeved by his poor throw that Webb picked off, hit two passes for 29 yards on a
75-yard drive to make it 10-3. BenJarvus Green-Ellis rushed for 36 yards on that series, and also drew a personal foul against Webb, who ripped off the running back's helmet on a short rush. Green-Ellis surged into the end zone from the 7, then pointed to the patch on his jersey honoring Myra Kraft, the late wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Going back to the pass, the Ravens tied it on a 6-yard throw to Pitta — yes, Baltimore has some dangerous tight ends, too
that concluded an 80-yard march. Flacco opened the drive with a 20-yard completion to Evans and then Anquan Boldin escaped Arrington's attempted tackle to gain 37 more yards on a reception. Flacco was finding holes in New England's coverage, particularly when he moved out of the pocket.
New England's All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski made an error at the end of a 63-yard drive, failing to keep two feet in bounds on a catch. Gostkowski's 35-vard field goal made it 13-10.
Gronkowski left for a while with a left leg problem, but soon returned.
"It's a real credit to the players," Belichick said. "I am real happy they will get to play in this game."
SOFTBALL
Wounded Warrior softball team defeats all star squad
ASSOCIATED PRESS
But on a recent Saturday afternoon, a crowd at a Tampa-area stadium watched him drill a pitch from former U.S. Olympic softballer Jennie Finch over an outfielder's head and use his hightech prosthetic legs to run out a triple — finishing with a belly-flop slide into third base. His Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team crushed an all-star squad that included former pro and college players 23-8.
PLANT CITY, Fla.—When a roadside bomb in Afghanistan shredded Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Wede's legs in 2009, the former high school baseball star wondered if he would even survive —let alone walk, run or play ball again.
Wege, 22, plays first base for the barnstorming bunch of Army and Marine combat veterans, most of whom rely on prosthetic limbs. Corporate sponsorships have allowed the team to travel around the country playing local teams for charity, amassing a 14-13
All of the infielders are missing at least one of their legs. Two of the outfielders use those special carbon-fiber running legs, the ones that look like upside-down question marks, for speed. One outfielder is missing a hand, and the right-fielder plays without his entire left arm and shoulder.
record going into a game Sunday against a team of first responders in Orange County, Calif. And their schedule is growing, with 75 games already booked for 2012.
His name is Greg Reynolds, and after most Wounded Warrior losses he challenges the toughest dude on the other team to a push-ups contest. He lets opponents use both arms, but the 27-year-old Massachusetts native has only lost once. Seventy is his record.
"There is no better feeling than to get on the field and have people think, 'You can't play, you only have one arm,'" says Reynolds, a former soldier who survived a harrowing tour of duty in Iraq only to lose his limb in a motorcycle accident back home. "But watch me play. Watch me play."
They play slow-pitch softball, but this is not your casual Thursday night beer league. And the in-your-face nature of their disabilities doesn't inspire pity or sympathy — at least not after they start punishing the ball, flying around the bases and making highlight-reel plays in the field. Finch's Fellowship of Christian Athletes team won the other two games last weekend, including a 13-11 squeaker in the rubber match.
Watch what I do."
At Wounded Warrior games, kids ask for their autographs, women hug them and veterans pump their hands in gratitude.
"The first time we got to see him play with these incredible ballplayers, I couldn't see the field because I was crying too much," says Dave Wege, Josh's father, a Lutheran school principal in Waucousta, Wis. "It was such an emotional thing because at that point we knew that Josh was not only back, he was stronger than before in so many ways."
Coach David Van Sleet, who
worked in prosthetics for the military for 30 years, started the team 10 months ago and retired in December to manage it fulltime. He got some players from a tryout at the University of Arizona and picked up others along the way, relying on word of mouth at the Veterans Affairs hospitals and rehabs centers. They come together for the weekend outings from around the country, always trying to fit in a practice before the games.
The team travels with 11 players who proudly wear around $2 million worth of prosthetic limbs, and no matter the weather they won't wear long pants. They want fans — particularly those with disabilities — to see they are different, but just as good.
"We got a good bunch of guys," says the 55-year-old Tucson resident Van Sleet, who is not an amputee himself. "A lot of amputees are depressed, sitting at home, not getting off the couch. And we say, 'Look you don't have to do anything at this level, but you need to get up and go do"
something.' We try to encourage other amputees to maybe get back into a normal state of life, one way or another. They've got to get going."
Brian Taylor Urruela, 26, is the catcher and one of the players who wears a curvy running leg. The former solider from St. Louis lost his right leg below the knee to a roadside bomb in Iraq in October 2006, two days before he was scheduled to finish his tour and come home. The former high school baseball player said it took hundreds of practice swings and other physical therapy work to develop his hitting again, but he figures he's nearly as fast on the prosthetic as he was before.
"When you have a disability like this you have a feeling that you're never going to be able to do competitive sports again," said Urruela, who is going to school in Tampa. "If you look at us, we're just about as good as any team that plays as much as we do, and we do that with missing limbs. But we were ugly when we first started. It's just a testament to what kind
of rehabilitation this game gives to us."
5
Josh Wege, the team's only double amputee, said he jumped at the chance to play ball again but acknowledged his initial fears that he might not be able to do it at a level that suited him. He got help and encouragement from his sister, a physical therapist who worked with him to develop balance and other athletic skills he would put to use on the field.
The morning of the first of three games against Finch's team, Wege's dad tossed batting practice to him on a Plant City, Fla., softball field. Dave Wege watched his son spray line drives all over the lot, grinning with each satisfying "thunk" of the aluminum Louisville Slugger.
"One thing we say as amputees is we're trying to get back our new normal," Wege said. "Our limbs aren't going to grow back any time soon, so this is the normal you're going to have to get used to. Without this team, my new normal wouldn't be complete."