VOLLEYBALL Nerves are helping Emily Brown gear up for her first game tonight as well as her first year in college. PAGE 38
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Football
Tulsa much improved
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
rcolaiani@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWRIVER
www.kansan.com
When the Tulsa Golden Hurricane enters Memorial Stadium this Saturday, it will bring last year's most improved team in the country.
Tulaa went 8-5 last season under first year coach Steve Kragthorpe, only a year after going t-11 in 2002. This year, Kragthorpe is back and so is the team's
strongest offensive weapon, senior quarterback James Kilian, who should bring a strong test for the Kansas defense.
Kilian passed for 2,217 yards last year with 22 touchdowns to go along with his 605 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
He returns for his senior season, and is already the subject of national attention, having received a couple preseason accolades. He was recently named as one of the 22 college quarterbacks
of short passes, some dumps and things like that, then he will turn around and throw a deep pass on a vertical and get it there."
on the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list. Only seniors are named to this list, and the lone quarterback from the Big 12 on the list is Oklahoma's Jason White.
earlier in the summer, Killian was no named to the Davey O'Brienational Quarterback Award Watch which considers all quarterbacks.
"He's poised; he looks like a great leader for them," said Kansas coach Mark Mangino. "He will throw a bunch
To go along with his passing ability, Kilian also has the ability to scramble out of the pocket and rush for big gains
— something else the Kansas defense has to watch out for.
"He is a versatile quarterback," said
SEE KILIAN ON PAGE 4B
ALISSA BAUER
abauer@kansan.com
Serve up the fall fun at Horesji
As the autumn sports lineup reveals itself to us once again, sports fans are gearing up for another season of volleyball?
Although the more common fall tradition is played between the hash marks in Memorial Stadium, another team will surely be turning heads not too far away in Horeisi Family Athletic Center.
The Jayhawk volleyball players may not be getting the same preseason hype as the football guys, but not because they don't deserve it. The volleyball team has also experienced its share of improvements, which will carry over into the upcoming season.
RELATED NEWS
Expect the fans to take notice this year, packing Horesei to the rafters as they try to get in on the action, just as they did on certain occasions last season. If the fun-loving promotions — such as Jayhawk-rally-towel night on Sept. 10 or free-tee-shirt night on Sept. 25 — fail to bring the 'Hawk fans out in droves, remembering last year's record-breaking season ought to get them sufficiently pumped.
Fans are already getting excited. The Athletics Department announced that all home-match tickets would be sold by reservation seating only. The team filled the seats so fast last year, general admission in Horejsi Family Athletic Center had to be eliminated to accommodate the huge fan support. The team enjoyed homecourt sellouts against Nebraska, Kansas State and Iowa State last season.
In 2003, Kansas volleyball enjoyed the best season in its 28-year history with a 22-11 record. The team also appeared in its first ever NCAA tournament - as climactic a finish as any bowl game.
Adding to the eye-catching news and urging you to share your fall football focus with this deserving sport is the acquisition of the Big 12 preseason newcomer of the year, outside hitter Paula Caten.
Success beckons again this season as the Jayhawks return four seniors; setter Ashley Bechard, libero Jill Dorsey, middle blocker Ashley Michaels, and outside hitter Lindsey Morris. Also in the lineup are the Jayhawks' first ever All-Big 12 preseason picks, first-team middle blocker Josi Lima and freshman of the year Emily Brown.
Caten transferred to the team as a junior from volleyball-powerhouse Barton County Community College. That name should ring a bell for Kansas volleyball buffs out there, as coach Ray Beard coached there for
SEE VOLLEYBALL ON PAGE 4B
Stretching his limits
Kit Leffler/Kansar
Kansas runner Bensan Chesang, Ravine, Kenya, sophomore, is the fastest runner on the men's cross country team. Last year, he was the team's lone qualifier for the NCAA Championships.
Going the distance
BY FRANK TANKARD
ftankard@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Chesang, a sophomore, finished first on the team in every meet last season and was the Jayhawks' lone representative at the NCAA cross country championships. He came to the University of Kansas in January 2003 from his hometown of Eldama Ravine, Kenya.
Some cross country greats are fronttrunners. They take the lead at the start of the race and never let go. Benson Chesang is just the opposite.
Chesang, Kansas' fastest cross country runner, is what might be called a natural "backrunner." He said he likes to stay behind the lead pack for more than half the race. Then he makes what he calls his "serious move," in which he catches as many runners as possible in a charge to the finish.
"I've always been doing that," Chesang said. "I just sit back and wait. I know that after a certain number of miles people will drop off."
Growing up as the youngest of 10 children in Eldama Ravine, home to 12,000 people, his life was very different than it is now. He was not a runner, no more than anyone else in his small
town. He did run three miles to and from school three times a day. But so did everyone else.
In 2001, his brother Matthew left for a faraway place called Kansas to get an education at Kansas State University. To pay for it, he got a running scholarship. Benson said he was intrigued by the idea of an American education. He wanted to study science, so he decided to follow his brother to Kansas.
Chesang applied to K-State, but a paperwork glitch delayed his acceptance. But a school a few miles east accepted him: the University of Kansas. Because he had entered only one official race in his life before coming to the United States, he was mostly unknown to American coaches. Chesang said the University took a chance on him based largely on his brother Matthew's accomplishments.
When Chesang got to Lawrence in January 2003, he said he found it easy to adjust to the American lifestyle. He could still do many of the things he enjoyed back home, like listening to music and watching movies. He also picked up a hobby that was unavailable to him in Eldama Ravine: surfing the World Wide Web.
"I love messing around on the
Internet," he said. "I always spend my time there."
But he still had to get used to some differences,he said,like how much Kansans drive.
"Here, people use cars when going anywhere," he said. "In my country, sometimes we have to walk 10 or 15 miles to get somewhere."
He also noticed cultural differences. He said he was surprised the first time he saw a woman smoking, an activity reserved only for men in Kenya. But the thing he learned first, as soon as he stepped off the plane in Kansas City, was how cold Kansas gets in January. Eldama Ravine rarely gets down to 50 degrees, even in the coldest months.
"When I came here, it was really cold and snowing all over the place," he said. "That's one thing that I just thought was weird; I was not used to snow."
Although Chesang said he did not feel comfortable running in cold meets at the beginning of his first outdoor-track season, he excelled anyway. When spring came, he won the 10,000-meters at the Big 12 championship
Last fall, Chesang individually
SEE CHESANG ON PAGE 3B
Jayhawk forward Alex Galino, a freshman originally from Mayaquez, Puerto Rico, shoots during a men's basketball scrimmage last weekend.
Courtney Kublen/Kansar
New addition finds Kansas a better fit
BY JESSE NEWELL
jnewell@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRIST
Editor's Note: Bill Self's first recruiting class at Kansas has been highly touted. Kansan sportswriter Jesse Newell will profile this year's freshmen as they prepare for their first game as Jayhawks on Sept. 4 in Vancouver Canada.
Alex Galinio will be the first to tell you he's made mistakes.
The 6-foot-7 freshman forward from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico just wanted the opportunity to play basketball in the United States. When Sergio Rouco, assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso, helped him accomplish that goal, Galindo said he felt indebted to him. After two years of playing high school basketball in Newark, N.J., Galindo made headlines by signing with the Miners.
"I thought, 'I have to be loyal and go there,'" Galindo said. "'I have to, because it means a lot to me, coming here and being able to play in the United States.'"
It was then Galindo said some things he now regrets.
"I think everybody felt I could have gone to a high-major school, but that's not the way I am," Galindo told the El Paso Times upon signing with UTEP. "I chose UTEP because that's where I'm going to live the next four years of my life, and you've got to feel comfortable. I can't even describe the feeling I got there. I felt like I was at home."
But Galindo said his home at UTEP was not where his heart was.
"Being honest, I really didn't feel like that," Galindo said. "I really wanted to go there because the guy that put me here was there."
The situation became awkward when coach Billy Gillespie and Ruco both abandoned UTEP in the off-season, leaving Galindo to decide whether he would choose another school or stay at a place that didn't feel right. In the end, Galindo picked Kansas.
Galindo said he had developed a good rel.tionship with coach Bill Self, which included a running joke about Self's favorite Puerto Rican player.
"I'm the only Puerto Rican that he ever coached." Galindo said with
SEE GALINDO ON PAGE 4B