THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2009
SPORTS
3B
MEN'S GOLF
Senior finishes in top 10 at Big 12 tournament
Team takes seventh place at the championships
BY CHRISTIAN LUCERO clucero@kansan.com
Prior to the Big 12 Tournament at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas had not met its expectations with the team's finishes.
This week the layhawks surprised more than themselves. Senior Zach Pederson continued his steady play with a final round 74 to lock up a 10th place finish that earned him All-Big 12 Tournament team honors. Pederson was a big factor in overcoming a 10-seed and helped the team garner 7th place honors with a final score of 1191.
"Obviously, we're happy to beat some of these solid Big 12 teams," sophomore Nate Barbee said. "We all contributed in some way or another this week."
Barbee's 74 on Wednesday locked up a tie for 21st while senior Andrew Storm fired a final round 71 to pull into a tie for 25th. Junior Bryan Hackenberg and senior Walt Koeelibel shot a 78 and 80 to earn ties for 34th and 57th, respectively.
BIG 12
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Prairie Dunes Country Club
Hutchinson
The weather continued to play a role in determining the outcome of
Blustery conditions affected the way the players approached their games.
Kansas (7th, +71)
Zach Pederson (10th, +14)
Nate Barbey (T21st, +18)
Andrew Storm (T25th, +20)
Bryan Hackenberg
(T34th, +24)
Walt Koebel (T57th, +34)
"The weather played a factor for everyone," Kansas coach Kit Grove said. "It's a good golf course but add a little moisture and it plays flat difficult."
the tournament, which was won by an Oklahoma State squad that had a four-round total of 1149.
"It it was really tough the first two rounds, you had to hit a variety of shots to keep it out of the wind," Barbee said. "The weather was mentally draining, it was all
Coach Grove said the 7th place finish capped off a shaky season and ranked highly in terms of his team's performances this spring, a notion Barbie agreed with.
about grinding it out and staying focused."
"It was nice because the Big 12 conference has so many good golf teams so it was nice to show that we can keep up with some of those teams," Barbee said.
"It was pretty tough out there this week, we did good to cope with it though," Storm said. "I'm really happy for Zach, it was a great performance by him. I pleased we finished the season like that, a good positive note to go out on."
Storm also mentioned the resolve the team showed to give the season a proper ending.
Storm and the rest of the team now must wait for the decision to see who will be selected to play in the 2009 NCAA Regional Championships. Oklahoma State earned an automatic bid with their win.
— Edited by Chris Horn
RACING
Button is best in Bahrain Formula One racer gets a breather as rivals seek to close gap
BY CHRIS LINES Associated Press
SAKHIR, Bahrain - Ienson Button will use the weekend off to take stock of his amazing ride in Formula One's season-opening swing through Asia.
The teams that have struggled in the first four races will use the break to look toward the next 13 races, thankful the series still has a long ways to go.
Button recorded
his third win in four starts with a victory at Bahrain on Sunday, giving the Brawn GP driver a 12-point lead atop the standings.
Button recorded his third win in four starts with a victory at Bahrain on Sunday, giving Brawn GP driver a 12-point lead atop the standings.
The Englishman used what he acknowledged was the "finest first lap of my career" to win in Bahrain, yet also recognized that the advantage the Brawn cars enjoyed in the first race in Australia has gradually been eroded in Malaysia, China and in the Gulf.
Indeed, had the slower but hard-to-pass Lewis Hamilton not stood between Button and Bahrain runner-up Sebastian Vettel for the opening 13 laps on Sunday, Vettel's Red Bull would have had the pace to overhaul his Brawn rival.
Button's 12-point lead would normally be a considerable buffer after four races, but the F1 circus that is preparing to tackle a long European campaign starting May 10 in Spain has been anything but ordinary this season.
Just about all the teams in the field are expecting to make significant strides in refining the aerodynamics of their cars before hitting the track in Barcelona.
Brawn will have its own upgrade to the so-called diffuser that creates downforce, and Button will be hoping that it at least keeps him on an even footing with Red Bull and Toyota, allowing his points lead to stand up rather than be gobbled up.
For last year's dominant teams, the chance to improve their cars may have come too late.
Ferrari got its first points of the season in Bahrain, narrowly avoiding going through the opening four races of a season without a point for the first time in history. It should be more like its old self in the remaining races, but a championship challenge appears unlikely.
Ferrari's points leave BMW as the team with the most question marks. The team's cars were the last two across the line on Sunday after finishing third and fourth in
Bahrain last year and having had one on the pole.
BMW will be among the teams to fit a two-tiered diffuser to its car ahead of Barcelona, though it remains to be seen whether it can do a better job than other teams
making the upgrade.
Among those teams will be McLaren, which got a fourth-place finish from Hamilton in Bahrain and received good news Wednesday when it learned his bid to repeat as champion wouldn't be derailed
over a breach of rules in Australia and Malaysia.
The World Motor Sport Council gave the team a suspended three-race ban that would only be
applied if McLaren commits a further infraction or if new facts come to light in the case.
Of the pacesetters so far, Brawn and Toyota have the least room for improvement, given they had been using the
sion to run the long second stint of the race on medium-compound tires backfired when Button pulled away on super-soft tires, leaving Jarno Trulli to defend a second place he ultimately lost.
A maiden win remains elusive for the Japanese manufacturer, which has rarely had such an opportunity for victory.
With Toyota regularly wasting chances, Red Bull looms as the main challenger to Brawn. The team has had neither the two-tiered diffuser nor the KERS power-boost system all year, yet has had the quickest car in China and Bahrain.
double-decker diffuser all season.
Toyota came away from Bahrain with disappointing results considering it put its cars first and second on the grid in qualifying.
It may not have the good diffuser in Barcelona either, as the chassis of its car will need more remodeling than any other to accommodate the overhaul. The team expects it to be in place for
double-decker diffuser all season.
Toyota came away from Bahrain with disappointing results considering it put its cars first and second on the grid in qualifying. A deci-
Monaco on May 24.
Should the change be managed successfully, Vettel could prove hard to keep from his bid to become the sport's youngest ever world champion.
Or perhaps when F1 rolls around to its final race in Abu
Dhabi, minds will be cast back to that race a bit further up the Persian Gulf in Bahrain in April, when Button won, giving him just enough points to hold on.
MLB
Colorado Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki steals second base as San Diego Padres second baseman Edgar Gonzalez, right, flies in the air to avoid a collision in the sixth inning of a baseball game in Denver on Wednesday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rockies withstand Padres' rally
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ing from the team's No.1 starter.
DENVER — A minor adjustment in Aaron Cook's delivery made a world of difference Wednesday for the Colorado Rockies' right-hander.
Cook pitched seven strong innings for his first win, and Todd Helton and Chris Iannett both drove in three runs in Colorado's 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
"I knew once I fixed the mechanical part, things would come back to where they need to be," Cook said, noting he had worked with pitching coach Bob Apodaca over the past couple weeks to correct a tiny flaw in his release point. "Just breaking down my mechanics a little bit and fixing that one little thing made a huge difference. If I just keep doing that, I'll be a lot more consistent and give our team a chance to win some more games."
Colorado manager Clint Hurdle was encouraged by the solid out-
"I thought he was able to maintain and repeat his delivery solidly for six innings." Hurdle said. "He got the ball up a little bit in the seventh, really the only time in the whole game he got some pitches up. But it was a quality start and it was very, very good to see. He's our guy. He's our ace."
Adrian Gonzalez homered twice for San Diego, which fell behind 7-0 and lost for the fourth time in five games.
Gonzalez's seventh career multithomer game pushed his season total to nine, a Padres record for April.
Cook (1-1) allowed three runs and five hits and struck out three in beating the Padres for the 12th time in 16 decisions. He earned his 53rd career victory with the Rockies, tying Pedro Astacio for second on the team's list.
The key, Cook said, was his ability to keep his sinker down in the zone, with only a couple of exceptions which Gonzalez and Henry
Blanco tagged for home runs in the seventh.
"Today, I predominantly used my sinker," he said. "I threw only three breaking balls and I felt like my old self. I got a lot of pitches down in the zone. I got a couple pitches up and those were the ones that went over the fence."
The win was his first since Aug. 29, 2008, at San Diego, ending an eight-start string in which he had gone 0-2 with six no-decisions.
"We didn't give up. We had some good at-bats at the end. This was encourag," Gonzalez said. "(Cook) kept the ball down low and was aggressive. He uses both sides of the plate. You don't always know if you'll see fastballs or sinkers. He gets you to swing at pitches you normally don't want to swing at."
Huston Street earned his second save.
Kevin Correia (0-2) went five innings and allowed three runs and six hits, including home runs by Helton and Iannetta.
Race and Eat Pancakes Keep Me In Preschool.
To The River and Back 5K/10K Run & Pancake Feed Saturday, May 9, 2009
benefits Lawrence Community Nursery School
Timed 5K/10K:8 am Family Fun Mile:9:30 am Pancake feed:8:30 - 11 am
Runners registered by April 24th will receive a free T-shirt. All participants receive a free pancake breakfast!
www.totheriverandback.com
Red Lyon Tavern
A touch of Irish in downtown Lawrence 944 Massachusetts 832-8228
THURSDAY NIGHT... IS LADIES NIGHT ...only at THE HAWK
THURSDAY
No Cover for first 100 ladies $2 Double Wells $1 14oz Draws 1/2 Priced Martinis
FRIDAY
$3.50 Double Bacardi & UV vodka drinks $2.50 Domestic Bottles $2.75 Premium Bottles
BAR OPENS 2 PM ON FRIDAY!