Thursday, February 12, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 3
Baseball returners to anchor infield
Veteran players to cover home third, second
Junior third baseman Sparky Wilhelm tags a runner at Hagland-Maupin Stadium. Coach Bobby Randall said Wilhelm would start at third base this season. Photo by Geoff Kriener / KANSAN
By John Blakely Wilson Kansan sportswriter
Poor fielding killed the Kansas baseball team last season as it finished last in the Big 12 Confer
ence with a 947 fielding average. infielders committed 76 of the team's 120 errors.
But the infield looks to be improved in all areas this season as three of five starters return.
Randall: Returning infielders will lead to improvement
Coach Bobby Randall said experience and concentration would lead to improvement.
"We've spent more practice time than usual on ground balls and fielding situations," Randall said. "We've stressed the importance of concentration, and it will pay off on the field and at the plate."
Leading the way are senior catcher Josh Dimmick .313 batting average, five home runs. 38
runs batted in), junior second baseman Andy Juday (.365, 10, 37) and junior third baseman Sparky Wilhelm (.265, zero. 17).
Dimmick, who was a Third Team Academic All-American last season, will bat fourth in the lineup again.
"I try to work hard and lead by example," Dimmck said. "We have a chance at something special here if we keep things going through the long season."
Juday, who hit his 10 home runs during the final 30 games of last season, is the team's leading returning hitter.
"Andy can hit with power, and he runs well," Randall said. "He's also excellent at turning the double play."
Wilhelm, a veteran from Topeka, started at third base 31 time last season. Randall said Wilhelm was solid in all areas.
"Sparky plays a fluid game," Randall said. "He's not a superstar at any one thing, but he can do the little things that win games like picking up a ground ball or stealing a base."
Shortstop is a question mark as freshmen Brandon O'Neal and John Nelson fight for starts. O'Neal and Nelson are similar players with speed, solid fielding and strong arms.
"They'll both get chances, but Nelson will get to start in the opener," Randall said. "He's swinging the bat well, and he'll lead off for us to start the season."
Randall said he was comfortable with the freshmen up the
middle.
"I usually wouldn't trust two freshmen to do the job," Randall said. "But these guys have been aggressive and earned the right to play for us."
Senior Chad King (253, five, 17) will play both at first base and in the outfield. Randall called him one of the team's most improved players.
"He's poised to have a big year
production-wise for us," Randall said. "His ability to drive in runs will be a key for us."
Senior Paul Levens also will play as a utility infielder.
"Paul's glove is important to us," Randall said. "He'll come in and make big plays in the field."
Junior-college transfer Randy Case, who will back up first and third base, is recovering from back surgery and will not be 100
Randall said infielders would start the season in the first four spots of the batting order, indicating the importance of their contributions.
percent until mid-March.
"Our lineup will start with Nelson, Juday, Wilhelm and Dimmick," Randall said. "We can be competitive with anyone if these guys are playing up to their potential."
Volleyball coach signs two players
Kansan staff report
The University of Kansas volleyball team already has signed two recruits for the 1998-99 season.
Bechard said that Walker was a versatile athlete.
Kansas coach Ray Bechard said that both women would contribute immediately to the program.
Crystal Walker, Osawatomie, and Molly LeMere, Papillion, Neb., both committed this week with Kansas for the early signing period.
"Her athleticism jumps out at you right away," Bechard said. "As she concentrates on volleyball, we will see dramatic gains on the technical side of her game. She has a lot of versatility in the fact that she can be trained in more than one position."
Bechard said that LeMere would fill a setter position.
"We felt that Molly is one of the top setter prospects in the Midwest," Bechard said. "She should work well with Laura Rohde, our returning starting setter."
Walker was a three-time all-league pick in both volleyball and basketball at Osawatomie High School. She was a two-time all-state selection in volleyball and three-time selection in basketball.
Lemere was named to the Omaha World-Herald's All-Nebraska volleyball team following her junior and senior seasons. As a senior, she led the Papillion-La Vista Monarchs to a 29-7 record and a No. 6 state ranking while averaging 9.1 assists per game.
Kenyans adjust to climate change, struggle at Olympics
By Alan Robinson The Associated Press
Of course, like most Kenyans, he never thought he would see winter.
NAGANO, Japan — Kip Keino, one of the greatest Olympic runners ever, never thought he would see the day when homeland Kenya competed in the Winter Games.
"We don't have winter, but that doesn't mean we cannot do well in the Winter Olympics," said Keino, who will watch countryman Phillip Boit ski in today's Olympic 10-kilometer classical cross-country race. "The whole world is changing."
The thought of tropical Kenya,
where a cold front means temperatures in the 70s, competing alongside winter wonderlands Norway or Finland, seems as implausible as Hawaii winning the NCAA hockey championship.
Some things in the athletic world simply are meant to be, and this was not one of those. Except to Kenya track coach Mike Kosgel, who noticed in 1995 that middle-distance runners and cross-country skiers possess similar assets: speed, endurance, strong leg muscles and mental toughness.
There were two problems with adapting natural-born runners into unnaturally made skiers.
First, Kenya needed a lot of money to send them to train in a cold-weather country. Then, it had to find athletes willing to sacrifice
a lifetime of knowledge, training and success in one sport to take up another in which they might know nothing but humiliation and failure.
Kenya found them in Boit and Henry Bitok. Backed by considerable shoe-company funding, the pair packed off for Finland to begin training later that year. Whether they knew at the time that they were going to run or to ski seems to be of some question.
"It was very hard," said Bitok, who is Boit's backup and will not ski in Nagano. "I was told it was cross-country, and when I got there I found it was cross-country skiing. We didn't have any idea about it. The clothes that we were putting on were only for warm weather. We were really freezing so much."
Freezing — that, and slipping and sliding. Before they could ski on snow, they first had to learn how to stand up on it. It was not as easy as it sounded for two men in their mid-20s who had previously experienced snow only on TV.
"For them, the most difficult was balance, just standing up on the snow," said Jussi Lehtinen, Finland, the Kenyans' coach. "It is hard for them to compete against
the skiers ... who were born with skis."
They can stand up now — except to the competition. That competition includes Norway's Bjorn Dahlie, the 1994 champion who will defend his title today.
The Kenyans have finished last in all seven of their World Cup races this season, and Boit is expected to finish last again today. He got lost on his initial practice run last week but said navigation was no longer a worry.
Boit's times are the problem he usually finishes in about 34 minutes, or 10 minutes slower than most world-class skiers.
"The mind of an athlete says he can do it, but it cannot be forced." Keino said. "You must accept that you will make mistakes, that you
will fall down, that you will fail.
They have accepted it. Now, they
will learn to do it right."
The Kenyans insist that their participation in the Winter Games is not a shoe-company gimmick or a joke, and that they will be back in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympics. When they do, they will be last no more.
"This will show everybody this is something so serious and not something to be taken as fun," Boit said. "It is a very serious sport, and we are taking it very serious, like running or any other sport. I am taking this as my future sport. I am moving forward with my skiing."
"We love snow now. Without snow we cannot compete," Bitok said. "But the first day, we weren't so sure."
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Time: 7:00 p.m.
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