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REDEEM TEAM
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BEN ASHWORTH EXPLAINS HOW THE REDEEM TEAM HAS SWEPT PAST DREAM TEAM'S FEATS COMMENTARY | 6B
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008
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Russell's Olympic dream fizzles
Mowder
Russell's first trip to the Olympic games ended in a whimper. The former KU javelin throw finished 10th after his longest throw in the javelin finals plummeted to the earth after just 80.90 meters.
The gold medal went to Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway, who won the javelin event with an impossibly long throw of 90.57 meters. It was an Olympic record. His throw seemed to challenge gravity, soaring up and up, and for a second it looked like it might fly out of the Bird's Nest in Beijing. It flew more than 297 feet, just shy of the length of a football field.
That's the Olympics for you. So much has to be perfect. Four years of preparation and sweat and focus, and then it all come down to a couple of throws in front of 90,000 people in a stadium in China.
While Lawrence slept in on Saturday morning, Scott Russell was miles away, trying to do the impossible in front of 90,000 people.
Russell's 29-year-old body wouldn't let him. His knees were shot.
And in the preliminary round, Russell delivered. The pride of Windsor, Canada, stepped out onto the javelin runway. The rain was pounding down and Russell's soaked blond hair was matted down by a backwards baseball cap.
Russell hopped down the runway, stopped for a split second, and uncorked a majestic throw through the rainy Beijing air.
The javelin landed 80.42 meters away from Russell. It was the sixth-longest throw of the preliminaries. With one throw, Russell had qualified for the finals.
But this was the Olympics. And in the finals, Russell had to throw against guys like Thorkildsen. Guys who grew up throwing the javelin in countries where the javelin is a national pastime.
To medal, Russell needed to throw a javelin longer than he ever had.
His body wouldn't allow him.
In the past two weeks, we've seen an American swimmer defy the limits of human endurance. We've seen a Jamaican sprinter run so shockingly fast that we have to ask ourselves if anyone will ever run that fast again. We've seen so many radiant performances, that, after a while, you become numb to their brilliance.
And you forget that athletes are human and they have limitations.
A groin injury kept him out of the Olympics in 2004. He had surgery on his knee last fall.
"My body let me get to the finals," Russell would say to members of the Canadian press.
And that was all his body would allow. He's battled nagging injuries ever since he finished his All-American career at Kansas.
Russell knew he would throw his best on one of his first two throws. And in the finals, with his competitors throwing javelins inconceivable distances, Russell sputtered and finished 10th.
Edited by Adam Mowder
That's the Olympics for you. Some dreams were realized, but thousands more were left to die in front of 90,000 people.
"It's bittersweet," Russell would say. His mind told him he should be competitive. But his body wouldn't allow it.
And that's where the story ends. Olympic medals are awarded in maddening four-year cycles. Russell still has hopes of continuing his Olympic dream in four years. The 2012 games will be in London.
But Russell will be 33, ancient by Olympic standards. And who knows what his body will allow.
FOOTBALL
Kansas prepares for opener
Despite past success, Mangino still tense about first game
rains@kansan.com
BY B.J. RAINS rains@kansan.com
Mark Mangino has coached in the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and even the Fiesta Bowl. But one game in particular worries him more than any - the first one.
As the Jayhawks prepare to open the season this Saturday against Florida International, Mangino is beginning to sleep less at night knowing that the season opener is just five days away.
"I've said it before, the first game makes me more uneasy than any other game of the year," Mangino said. "Even more than a bowl game or a championship game."
Mangino and his staff don't have any 2004 film on FIU, but they will surely dig into last years box to find tape on the Golden Panthers
- including the 55-3 trouncing by the Jayhawks in Lawrence. FIU was 1-11 last year, but don't tell that to coach.
"The first game is always the toughest in terms of knowing what you have." Mangio said. "There's no preseason games in college football, no exhibition games or preseason scrimmages. You line up and play for keeps
from day one. And you really have to make sure that you have the right people in the right spots. The first game is always a challenge."
At a Friday pep rally in Prairie Village, Mangino also talked about one of the best position battles going into camp, the punt returner spot. The battle seems to have been decided, but Mangino wasn't quite ready to announce who has come out on top.
"There's probably a guy in my mind that will be the returner," Mangino said. "But I want to keep competition at that position because you need more than one of those guys, and I want to just keep it going and keep it competitive. I really haven't named anybody but I have a pretty good idea of who it will be."
Mangino also said that nothing had changed regarding the eligibility of kicker Jacob Branstetter. Branstetter appears to be five credits short of being eligible stemming from his transfer from the Air Force Academy, but his parents submitted paperwork to the NCAA to try to get him cleared to play.
"We'll be fine at that position. I'm not concerned at all," Mangino said of a kicking corps that also lost potential starter Stephen Hoge who transferred last week. "In fact, I think
we've improved ourselves in the last few days. I'm not going to
body at this point in time because I want to stay open-minded about it. I want to continue the competition."
Even after four weeks of intense practices, Mangino knows that the team still has some unfinished business that it needs to take care of before the clock hits 6 p.m. on Saturday.
"We have work that needs to be done," Mangino said. "We have a week before
SOCCER
SEE FOOTBALL
ON PAGE 3B
KU soccer team shuts out nationally ranked Purdue
awiebe@kansan.com
BY ANDREW WIEBE
Mark Francis may want to consider letting the team's associate head coach, Kelly Miller, take over halftime speech duties.
Francis was forced to take in the action from a camera tower just behind the field because of a red-card suspension from the last season's final game, leaving his longtime assistant to take the reins in Kansas' opening game of 2008.
KU redshirt junior defender Jenny Murtauh, left, and senior midfielder Jessica Bush, right, struggle upfield against Purdue's Loredana Riverso during Friday night's onnine name at the KU Soccer Complex.
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
But the Jayhawks didn't miss a beat, bouncing back from a sluggish first half to defeat nationally ranked Purdue 3-0 at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex Friday afternoon behind three second-half goals.
Kansas was fortunate to limp into halftime without conceding a goal after absorbing pressure for the better part of the first half while battling 93-degree heat. But it was the Jayhawks who came out in the second half determined to break open the game after Miller challenged them to retake the momentum and push for a goal.
"I talked to Kelly, and he talked to them at halftime about wanting it more because I felt we took our foot off the gas a little bit," Francis said. "In the second half our mentality was completely different, and I thought we were consistent with that mentality and not backing off."
Back off they didn't, putting three past the Boilermakers in a 27-minute stretch. Freshman Emily Cressy scored her third goal in two games to go along with an assist, and senior Missy Geha and junior Kim Boyer each found the back of the net as the Jayhawks outshot their opponents 9 to 3 in the second half. The victory marked Kansas' second consecutive 3-0 result following an exhibition game against Drake last weekend.
Geha broke the deadlock in the 54th
minute when she bundled the ball in from a corner kick. Freshman Kortney Clifton flicked Shannon McCabe's service toward the back post where Geha muscled her way in to stake the home side to a 1-0 advantage.
Cressy followed that up 12 minutes later, latching onto junior goalie Julie Hanley's booming punt and slotting the ball just inside the far post on the half volley. It was the kind of poacher's goal Cressy has shown a knack for in two games during which she has found herself in the right place at the right time to score three times.
Luky as it may have seemed, Cressy said the play was something the two had discussed before the contest.
"Before the game, Julie and I had a talk," Cressy said. "She would kick it over, and I would just shoot it. So, I was really thinking about it the whole entire game, waiting for it at the right time, and it just came."
Cressy gave Kansas another boost later on when she assisted on Boyer's
goal in the 82nd minute. With her back to the goal, Cressy flicked yet another Hanley feed into the path of the onrushing Boyer, who drove the ball low into the bottom left corner.
Kansas returns to action next Sunday when Auburn travels to Lawrence for an afternoon matchup.
— Edited by Adam Mowder
VOLLEYBALL
Injury-plagued team wins alumni scrimmage
BY JOSH BOWE jbowe@kansan.com
As with any team sport, opening scrimmages and exhibition games are generally for knocking the rust off before the season officially starts.
And for the Kansas volleyball team, it's no different.
"We knew thered be some rough spots, and there were a lot," Bechard said. "But there were some bright spots too."
Coach Ray Bechard watched his team through some sloppy moments in the team's scrimimage on Saturday, although his team ended up successful over an alumni squad, winning in three sets.
The Jayhawks, Bechard said, tended to be inconsistent most of the night, following a great play with one that made
Bechard scratch his head. The team is using these scrimmages, as well as an inter-squad match that Bechard thought was equally important, to hammer out these mistakes - one being a more consistent offense - before the Jayhawks open their season at the VCU Invitational this weekend.
"I thought wed have a little bit better flow offensively," Bechard said, noting that the Jayhawks were playing against a far more experienced alumni team, which threw them off balance.
Senior middle blocker Natalie Uhart echoed her coach's sentiments.
"There were some kinks here and there," Uhart said. "We do need to communicate better."
Another main concern for the jayhawks was how Uhart and junior middle blocker Brittany Williams moved and played
after experiencing major injuries last year. Williams missed most of last season with a knee injury, and Uhart missed 20 matches with complications from a congenial heart defect.
"I thought Natalie did fine." Bechard said.
"Brittany's very comfortable. I was very pleased, I think she'll continue to get better."
Jibert and Williams
both contributed to the Jayhaws' effort Saturday. Uhart had a team-high four blocks and seven kills; Williams had nine kills of her own. Uhart said she felt fine, although "a little rusty," and Williams noticed that she felt fatigued toward the end of the match, but understood that is part of the process of getting back into
Sophomore outside hitter Jenna Kaiser, who led the team in kills last year as a freshman, did not participate in the scrimmage because she is recovering from an elbow injury. Bechard said she could be out "for a couple more weeks."
game shape.
As for the rest of the team, sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington led the Jayhawks with 11 kills, helping stop any momentum the alumni had in the second and third sets, the only sets the Jayhawks trailed in.
Freshman outside hitter Allison Mayfield also looked sharp, finishing with nine kills and taking advantage of the playing time from Kaiser's injury.
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
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