6B
SPORTS
---
SWIMMING/DIVING
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
New swim recruits get their feet wet
BY HALLIE MANN hmann@kansan.com
--citizenship.
Follow Kansan football writer Hallie Mann at twitter.com/halliemann11.
Monica Johannessen, Haugesund, Norway, freshman, and Lindsey Legako, Winfield freshman, are two of 10 freshmen on the swimming team. The swimming and diving team gained 13 new recruits from across the globe to bring fine talent to Kansas.
There's something about Kansas that attracts the best and brightest to its campus. For the swimming and diving team, 13 new recruits joined the team this fall from across the globe. Maybe it was last season's standout performances from the team — like Maria Mayrovich qualifying for NCAA or Erin Mertz earning All-American status as a diver. Or maybe it was the intensive recruiting done by coaches Eric Elliott and Jen Fox. Whatever it was, Kansas can look forward to a future of swimming and diving strength from this year's additions.
"We have to be patient this fall and we're going to take things slow," Campbell said, "The goal is to be a much better team in February than in October."
Even in this large class and this early in the season, some recruits have stood out on the team. Sophomore diver Erin Savas took a long road to make it to Kansas. Originally from Midland, Texas, Savas has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Cyprus and competed in the latter during her high school years. She also tried out for the Cyprus 2008 Olympic team. Savas tested out of high school when she was 16 years old to pursue competing in Cyprus, and used her grandparents' bloodline to attain
Coach Clark Campbell said the swimming and diving team looked for athletes with the best times and potential to grow. It didn't matter whether the athletes were from the U.S. or other countries. He said as recruiters, Kansas just tried to get potential athletes excited about being a Jayhawk and coming to Lawrence. This year, Kansas attracted 13 new team members: ten swimmers and three divers. Campbell said this was one of the largest recruiting classes hed had since he'd been coaching here.
Adam Buhler/KANSAN
"It ites both ways," Savas said, "On the one hand, I'm very blessed that I got to experience things people my age never get to experience but I've never been to a school dance before so it's a tradeoff."
"This year is kind of a transition year for me but I'd love to be able to do some pretty big things for KU," Savas said.
Savas said it didn't work out as she had planned in Cyprus so when she came back to the U.S. she looked for another way to keep swimming. One of her former coaches worked at St. Louis University and Savas went there to dive for a year. After not meeting her expectations, Savas looked to Kansas as another option for diving. Savas said she hopes to make a big impact during her four years at Kansas.
Also coming from abroad is swimmer Monica Johannessen from Norway. Johannessen swims the sprint freestyle and butterfly events for Kansas and said she hopes to make the sprint relay teams this season for Kansas. Johannessen said she was looking for a way to combine school and swimming — something that was hard to do in Norway — when she found Kansas.
"They presented the school very well to me," Johannessen said. "I had to take a chance and I'm not regretting it."
Johannessen said she wants to study psychology at Kansas but is taking mostly general education classes to adjust to speaking English on a regular basis. On top of the language barrier in the classroom, Johannessen has to adjust
to swimming in yards instead of meters which threw off her times a little bit.
Like Campbell, Johannessen said she thinks that the new recruits and the team overall has a lot of potential to do well this season. She said she is looking forward to competing for Kansas and back home in Norway this fall for the Norwegian Junior Nationals.
"Monica is really good, she's going to have a bigger fall." Campbell said, "We may be putting her on a different path for training
than the rest of the girls."
The swimming and diving队 also recruited some stars from right here in Kansas. Freshman Lindsey Legako is from Winfield and competed in the Kansas High School Championships all four years of her high school career. Legako started swimming competitively year-round during her junior year of high school when she joined the Wichita Swim Club. Legako placed 5th and 8th in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and it was definitely the best part of her high school career.
"Right now, coming into it as a freshman my main goal is just to improve," Legako said.
Legako said she was undecided on her major and was just trying to settle into college life. She said that between swimming and class she didn't have much free time but being with the team was always fun. Legako said that when she came to Kansas she fell in love with the campus and the team "just fit" for her.
Besides Savas, Johannessen and Legako, the team has 10 other
new recruits: Brook Brull, Lake Quivira, Ana Kuehler, Overland Park, Madi Landi, Baton Rouge, La., Cora Powers, Olathe, Brittany Rospierski, Valley View, Ohio, Alyssa Rudman, Baldwin City, Rebecca Swank, Wichita and Madison Wagner, Ft. Meyers, Fla. round out the swimming team. Freshmen Chirsty Cash, Lenexa, and Taylor Ilten, Edina, Minn., join Savas on the diving side.
— Edited by Betsy Cutcliff
INTRAMURALS
Teams have opportunity to compete at higher level
'The Fighting Seans' played intramural football at nationals last season and look to excel at the University level this year
BY PAT ELAND
peland@kansan.com
Members of the intramural football team "The Fighting Seans" pose for a photo. The team competed at regionalals and nationals last season.
There are two intramural organizations that offer national championships for flag football. The first organization is the American Collegiate Intramural Sports, and the second is the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association.
As the intramural flag football season end draws near, teams have an opportunity to extend their seasons and compete on a national level for flag football greatness.
Contributed photo
Teams travel to a regional tour
nament to compete in regions. Then the top two teams from each regional get a trip to the national tournament paid for, and compete for the national championship of intramural flag football.
Last year Kansas had a co-rec flag football team that decided to extend its season and test its skills against the top teams in the nation.
The Fighting Seans, as they
called themselves once their original team name was deemed too inappropriate, traveled to a regional tournament after blowing through the competition here at Kansas. The team went 7-0 and won the Kansas intramural co-rec flag football championship.
After taking home the championship at Kansas, the team took its game on the road to represent the University at the ACIS regional tournament at University of Nebraska.
"We didn't really know what to expect," said Sean Allhouse, Lenexa senior. Allhouse is team captain
"Most of us were in our senior year, so we were just going out to have a good time."
NICK TOBABEN Topeka senior
Follow Kansan writer Pat Eland at twitter.com/peland_uk.
and the inspiration for the team name.
"We thought we would just take a trip to Nebraska and have fun for a weekend."
The Fighting Seans were renamed Team Kansas for the regional tournament. It was
placed into a three-team pool for pool play, with the top two teams advancing to bracket play. Team
Kansas made it out of pool play after going 1-1, losing to the host school Nebraska.
In the first round of bracket play Team Kansas faced an experienced North Texas team that had been to the postseason before.
"They had plays and stuff and were organized, unlike us." Allshouse said with a chuckle.
Team Kansas won the match on a touchdown pass that it later named the "double ally-oop." On the last play of the first half, it was down 8-0 and threw a pass to the end zone where a male Kansas player caught it, while in mid-air, threw it to another guy, who then threw it to a girl. The girl on the team caught it and put Kansas up 9-8, because girls touchbacks are worth nine points to a guy's six points in co-rec flag football. The game ended with the score locked at 9-8 as Kansas moved on to the finals. Team Kansas faced Nebraska once again and lost, but was still going on a free trip to the national tournament in New Orleans.
Kansas was one of ten teams at the NCIS national tournament. It had a strong showing in pool play, as the team came out with a
2-0 record and earned itself a first round bye in bracket play.
In the semifinals, it faced the same North Texas team it had played in Lincoln. North Texas had to pay its way to New Orleans, since it did not place in the top two oat regionalists and merit a free ride to nationals.
North Texas was able to get the better of Kansas in the second meeting as Kansas was knocked out of the tournament. North Texas moved on to the championship where it won over Nebraska by a
score of 16-10 to be named the 2008 ACIS flag football national champions.
Even though there wasn't a consolation game, Team Kansas likes to say that it got third place at nationals since it had already played and beaten the team in the other semifinal matchup.
"We played the consolation game in pool play," Teopela senior Nick Tobenba said. "We beat them once, we could do it again."
Kansas players came home with a bitter taste in their mouths, but brought with them a very memorable experience. They got a free trip to New Orleans, and got to ring in the new year on the famous Bourbon Street of New Orleans.
INTRAMURAL
POSTSEASON
Most of us were in our senior
AC15 Regional Tournament
University of Nebraska-
Lincoln, Nov. 13-15
Visit www.acisports.com for registration
National Tournament University of New Orleans, Dec. 28-31, New Orleans, La.
NIRSA Regional Tournament
Oklahoma State University,
Nov. 6-8
Visit www.nirsa.org for registration
National Tournament University of South Florida, Jan. 3-5, Tampa, Fla.
This season The Fighting Seans are back, but they only return five players from the previous year. However, The team has kept up its winning ways as it is 3-0 going into the playoffs this year.
year," Tobaben said. "So we were just going out to have a good time."
Allshouse and Tobaben said that they will wait and see how this year's tournament goes at Kansas before the team decides whether or not it will go to the regional tournament again this year.
Edited by Tim Burgess