PAGE 8B THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN Kansas rowing glides across the Kansas River beneath I-70 during the Jayhawk Jamboree on Oct. 18. The Jayhawks head to Chattanooga, Tenn., this weekend to compete in their second regatta of the season. Rowing team travels to Tennessee for regatta PAIGE STINGLEY @paigestingley The Kansas women's rowing team will head to Chattanooga, Tenn., this weekend to compete in their second regatta of the season. Head of the Hooch. They will compete against teams from all over the country, including several from the Big 12 and Big 10 conferences and a couple of the nationally ranked teams. "This regatta gives us an opportunity to see how we fair against other teams, particularly other teams in our conference," said Erin Brogan, a senior from Haddonfield, N.J. Erin will compete on the second Varsity Eight boat on Saturday and the first Open Eight boat on Sunday. The Jayhawks hosted their own regatta, Jayhawk Jamboree, two weekends ago. Erin said their results are what helped them prepare for this upcoming event. "Our results put us in the mindset of where we stand among our competition and what we need to do to improve," Brogan said. This regatta is the last competition of the fall season. Afterwards, the team will begin training for spring competitions. Kansas only competed in two regattas this fall, but most schools have competed in as many as five already. Brogan attributed this to the fact that they lost many seniors last year and gained freshmen who have never rowed before this year. "We lost a lot of girls at the end of last year, so we needed to rethink and rework our team dynamics a bit this year," Brogan said. "So instead of competing against other schools, we've been competing a lot against ourselves to see where we as individual rowers stand... It's been kind of like our secret strategy, to stay quiet and figure out our team in the fall so we're ready in the spring." Races in the fall are distance races while races in the spring are much shorter. The first spring competition is the Louisville Invite on March 14. Brogan said the time period between the fall and spring competitions is a time for the team to go back to the drawing board and restru格ize. "This year has been fun because, since we lost so many seniors and have been mainly competing against ourselves, everyone has had the opportunity to step up as a leader," Brogan said. "It doesn't matter what year you are or how long you've been rowing. We've got a whole new team." Edited by Logan Schlossberg ONLINE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES 1 Barton Community College is an equal opportunity provider and employer Visit equal bartoncco.edu for more information. Cross country to compete in conference tournament GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN JOEY ANGUIANO @joey_anguiano Freshman Grace Morgan is a runner to watch out for this weekend at the Big 12 Championships in Lawrence. Morgan dominated the field at Rim Rock Farm early in the season during the Bob Timmons Classic. On the men's side, the meet will feature four top-30 teams, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa State, along with the other six Big 12 schools. For the women's side there are also four top-30 teams, Iowa State, West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Baylor. Kansas has gone up against this type of competition all season long, and it has been great preparation for them. A team to lookout for on Saturday is Oklahoma State. The Cowboys might as well have targets on their bibs instead of numbers as the men's team looks to extend their dominant streak of six straight conference championships to seven straight. A few of the Cowboys runners to watch out for are junior Kirubel Erassa, freshman Luis Martinez, senior Shane Moskowitz, junior Craig Nowak, and junior Justin Wilhauer, who have all been placing in the top 20 finishers consistently. This upcoming weekend has been circled on the Kansas cross country team's calendar since the schedule was announced. The teams will play host to the Big 12 championships this weekend at their home course of Rim Rock Farm, where they already run twice this season. On the women's side, junior Crystal Nelson of Iowa State is fresh off of her victory at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, and being named the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association athlete of the week. Additionally, Iowa State senior Katy Moen will look to assist Iowa State to their fourth straight Big 12 Title. As for the Jayhawks, who had eight runners named to the Big 12 All-Academic list, look for junior Jacob Morgan and senior James Wilson to perform well at Rim Rock. Morgan already has a first and second place finish at Rim Rock this season. For the women's side, The women's race will start at 10 a.m., and the gun will go off for the men an hour later at 11 a.m. make sure to keep an eye on sophomore Nashia Baker, who has led the Jayhawks in every race that she's competed in this season. Additionally watch out for freshman Grace Morgan, who dominated the field at Rim Rock early in the season during the Bob Timmons Classic. Edited by Logan Schlossberg Basketball more than a game for Saudi women JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — As the NBA season kicks off in America this week, a group of Saudi women and girls will be pursuing their own hoop dreams. Women's basketball is gaining in popularity in a kingdom rife with public restrictions on female movement and activity. With the help of some U.S.-trained coaches, female enthusiasts are using basketball to push for greater rights for women on and off the courts in Saudi Arabia. "We are an activist team," said Lina Almaeena, who started the first women's basketball team here 11 years ago. That led to the creation of Jiddah United in 2006, the first sports club in Saudi Arabia to include women. "We took it upon ourselves to really promote the sport at a time when it was a big time taboo ... when there was a self-imposed censorship on women's sports." ASSOCIATED PRESS For the players, basketball is not merely a sport but an act of defiance in a country where female access to exercise is outright shunned by ultraconservatives; physical education is still not on the curriculum for girls in Sau14 At a recent afternoon basketball practice in Jiddah, girls as young as four years jumped, took shots and ran on open-air basketball courts behind gated concrete walls. Boys played in nearby courts. The children and their coaches stopped for daily prayers. Nevertheless, Saudi women's basketball is on the rise, and women from the ultraconservative kingdom are even playing in other Arab countries. Hadeer Sadagah, 20, started playing eight years ago with Almaeena at Jiddah United. She now plays at the collegiate level for the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. "I wouldn't be the person I am today without the sport and the team," she said. "It made me be more active in society, school and in studies. It made me more social. It made me confident." Women are bound by strict rules when it comes to their attire, so they cannot be seen by men while jogging in sweat pants, much less wearing fitted or revealing shorts. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab and all women are required to wear a loose black dress known as the abaya in public. public schools. Almaeena says basketball is becoming popular among Saudi girls because it offers the camaraderie of a team sport. Basketball is also seen as more societally acceptable since girls can practice in loose, conservative clothes, and the sport can be played indoors and outdoors. From its humble beginning at Jiddah United, the sport has grown into a network of teams in different cities. No formal league exists but women's teams play in privately organized tournaments against a handful of other private schools, universities and club teams across the kingdom. Despite the growth, women's basketball in Saudi Arabia still faces a host of logistical obstacles due to the kingdom's strict gender-segregation rules. Women's teams are not part of the kingdom's federation that oversees sports, and women often struggle to find facilities to train and are not allowed to attend matches in stadiums. In Jiddah, the older female players practice and play in a female-only gym. They only play tournaments in front of other women, and even their male coaches do not attend games. 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