SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, May 2, 1994
11
Heather Lofflin / KANSAN
Kansas senior pitcher David Meyer throws out a Kansas State runner at first base during the first game of yesterday's doubleheader. The Jayhawks swept both games from the Wildcats 7-4 and 16-3. Kansas will play today at Oral Roberts University and tomorrow at Wichita State.
'Hawks sweep doubleheader
By Andrew Gilman
Kansan sportswriter
Pitching for only the second time in a month due to a shoulder injury, sophomore Jamie Splitteroff wasn't overpowering in yesterday's second game against the Big Eight Conference's last place team, Kansas State.
Splittorff said that he was concerned about pitching for the first time since a five-inning stint against Wichita State on April 13.
"I was scared about throwing strikes," he said. "I only threw about four or five strikes when I was warming up in the bullpen."
Guess what. Splittler surprised himself and moved his record to 9-0 with a solid six-inning outing in Kansas 10-3 victory. The Javhawks won the first game 7-4.
"He does some magical things out there," Kansas coach Dave Bingham said of Splittorff. "All of us have fun watching him. He is something special."
In the second game of the doubleheader yesterday, Kansas got three runs in the second inning and never trailed.
Splittorff allowed three hits and no earned runs and helped the Jayhawks sweep the Wildcats at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
Kansas took four of the K-State this season and improved its record to 34-13. The
Jayhawks finished the conference season at 17-9.
A three-run home run by sophomore left fielder Brian Turney, his second home run of the day, provided the final score.
Turney hit a first-pitch curve ball over the left field wall for his 11th home run of the season.
Turney also showed no fear in the first game. He went two for four with a pair of RBI including a solo home run in the eighth inning. Turney played second base, his regular position, in the first game.
"I was sitting on the curve ball," he said. "I have a lot more confidence this year. Last year as a freshman, I was afraid."
But the move to left field in the second game didn't bother him with help from senior center carrier Dairyl Monroe.
"Darryl takes control out there," Turney said. "He keeps me in the game."
Monroe went two for three with an RBI and was hit twice by Wildcat pitchers.
by virtual players.
The first game also had effective pitching.
Senior David Meyer pitched Kansas to a victory and went the distance.
"I got better as the game went on." Meyer said. "Anytime you get a complete game, you'll keen 'em."
Meyer, 7-4, allowed nine hits and three earned runs in his second complete game of the season.
"He pitched the way he has all season," Bingham said. "No walks, a few strike outs and about 90 pitches."
Kansas State committed four errors in the first game, including two in the second inning that led to two Jayhawks runs, and Kansas added runs in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings as well.
"I wasn't pleased at all offensive today." Bingham said. "I didn't think we did the little things. Things we did today were by luck. Right now we are not playing a good brand of baseball."
Although Bingham said the Jayhawks were not playing well, they have put together seven consecutive victories. And Turney said he thought the team was improving.
"We had a drought," he said. "But now we're getting back into it."
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
1 The Kansas women's crew team practices under the early morning sun at Clinton Lake. If a proposal is approved Wednesday by the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation, the crew and women's soccer would become varsity sports.
The Kansas women's crew and soccer teams are approaching a turning point in ... JOINING THE VARSITY RANKS
But Kansas women's crew is not a varsity team — yet.
Not many varsity teams sleep on the floor during road trips.
The money pays for the teams' equipment and a stipend for the coach. Team members have raised money by selling concessions at football and basketball games and by doing odd jobs.
As a club team, crew members frequently have slept in odd places, such as gymnasium floors, to save money when they traveled to regattas. Student Senate allocates about $16,000 to the crew teams, which is then divided between the men's and women's teams.
But all that could end Wednesday when the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation votes on a proposal to make women's crew and soccer varsity sports. In the step up in intercollegiate athletics, both crew and soccer would receive funds for a full-time coach, an assistant coach, operating expenses, scholarships and valet rooms.
If the proposal is approved, crew members such as Maggie Romens won't have to worry about getting to their next regatta, just winning it.
Romens, Edina, Minn., junior, estimated that some rowers have had to spend about $1,000 a year of their own money on crew. Most of that is on travel expenses, she said.
"The question always is "Can I afford to go to the next race?" she said. "Right now, the better we do, the more it costs us."
The high expenses have kept some team members from competing, she said.
"It's only money that is holding them back" she said.
Betsy Stephenson, associate athletic director, said that she believed the proposal would be approved, but that the athletic department might stagger the times each sport began varsity competition.
"I think it is reasonable to say within four years we should have everything in place," she said. "But it could happen quicker than that."
Achieving gender equity
The motivation for the Athletic Department is not generosity, competition or pride.It's gender equity.
Title IX of the Education Amend
ment of 1972 prohibits sexual discrimination at public universities that receive federal funds. A federal regulation requires all public universities must provide women an equal opportunity to participate in inter-collegiate athletics.
Stephenson estimated that making women's crew and soccer varsity sports would provide more than 100 additional opportunities for female athletes. According to the department's proposal to add crew and soccer, the crew team has attracted more than 100 women each fall during the past six years. The soccer team had 15 members last fall. As varsity sports the crew team would offer 20 scholarships and the soccer team would offer 11 scholarships.
The two sports were not random choices, Stephenson said.
"Women's soccer is the fastest growing sport in the country," Stephenson said. "We think we could recruit a great team."
The department looked at participation in club programs and intramural sports and women's crew and soccer came to the top of the list.
lished success, national reputation and popularity among students made it a strong candidate for varsity status.
Stephenson said she believed that the women's crew team's estab-
"We have to accommodate the interests and abilities of the student population," she said.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs and ex-officio member of the KUAC, said that even if the proposal passes, Kansas would not completely satisfy gender equity requirements.
"Will it achieve gender equity?" he said. "No, but it will get us substantially closer."
Paying for equity
Stephenson remains adamant that men's programs would not suffer because of women's crew and soccer becoming varsity sports.
But where will the money come from if other sports are not eliminated to make room for women's crew and soccer? A large chunk of it will come directly out of the students' pockets.
"It's not an option for us to diminish our other sports because of what we have to do for Title IX requirements," she said. "There have to be priorities. We have to balance what is driving our program with what is fair."
In February, the department submitted a request to Senate for an increase in student fees. Initially rejected by Senate on March 2, the bill to increase fees was passed March 16 on a second attempt.
The fee will be increased from $14 a semester now to $17 a semester starting next fall and will rise to $20 in Fall 1995.
Stephenson said the fee increase would only partially fund women's crew and soccer.
She estimated that the $3 increase would raise about $125,000 annually. The second increase should bring in about $270,000.
The estimated cost for adding both sports is $480,000, according to department figures.
But that figure is not final, Stephenson said.
The remainder of both sports budgets would come from inside the department from contributions and revenue sports such as men's basketball and football, she said.
"We looked to the students for
STORY BY FRANK MCCLEARY
Sporting Scholarships Student athletes who were on scholarship during the 1993-94 academic year.
Source: Athletic Department Dave Campbell / KANSAN
help, not to carry the program," she said. "The fee is only for women's and non-revenue sports."
Stephenson said it was not unreasonable for students to pay for part of the cost.
The "whole premise is that athletics are part of this campus," she said.
See JOINING, Page 13.