2B
SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY BARRY KANSAS
图
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15,2006
》 CLUB SPORTS
Kansas prepares to take on Missouri State before Big 12 Classic Hockey Tournament
BY KYLE CARTER
The KU Hockey Club starts its season with a home game against Missouri State this weekend. The teams play at 8 p.m. Friday and again at 3 p.m. Saturday at Ice Midwest in Overland Park, which is the team's home.
New coach Geoff Knight will direct the club's fourth season as a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association, or ACHA. Though this is Knight's first season as coach, he and assistant coach Timon Veach have been involved in the program for the past five years.
Other home games this season include Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Missouri. The two toughest games of the year will take place on
the road at Colorado and Colorado State. Both finished last season ranked in the ACHA's top 10. The team will also have a chance to compete for a league title in the first Big 12 Classic Hockey Tournament.
Several key contributors return from last season's team. Senior Adam Paulitsch anchors a trio of goaltenders, and seniors David Knight and Adam Crohn as well as junior Nick Hantge lead the offense.
"Most of us spent the summer working hockey camps and hitting the weights on our own," Hantge said. "We have a much stronger team this year."
Crohn and Hance said early March games against Missouri could be the biggest of the season. The Tigers took two close games
from Kansas last season, and Crohn said the team wanted to avenge those losses.
"That was our low point last year," he said. "It's fiery when we play them. We definitely don't like each other."
Hantge agreed.
"The whole team took those losses personally," he said, adding that offseason trash talking from Missouri and other Big 12 teams had goaded them to work harder.
The layhawks finished last season with a record of 11-17-2. For their complete schedule, go to www kuhockey.com.
— Edited by Shanxi Upsdell
BY EVAN KAFARAKIS
Colby Wissel is only the third Jayhawk in Big 12 Conference history to be named runner of the week.
Joining the likes of three-time winner Benson Chesang and former Jayhawk Brian Jensen, the conference awarded Wissel with the honor Wednesday after his performance at the K-State invitational on Sept. 8.
Jayhawk named Big 12 runner of week
He also competed in the Bob Timmons Invitational, held in Lawrence earlier in the month, where he placed second behind
Wissel's goal was to break 15 minutes at Memorial Park in Manhattan, and he did so with a winning time of 14:57.20.
teammate Paul Hefferon.
Competing well this early in the season isn't new to the Elm Creek, Neb., junior.
Wissel won both the Manhattan and Lawrence tournaments last year going into the Roy Griak Invitational, held in Minneapolis, Minn., where he placed 22nd.
The Griak, which will be run Sept. 23, kicks off the real season as far as Wissel is concerned.
"These first two meets are kind of like the preseason," Wissel said after his victory in Manhattan. "We need to come out and run well."
》 CROSS-COUNTRY
The men's team has performed well together thus far this season and is being recognized with a Top 25 ranking from the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country Coaches
Association.
The team's ranking of 10th is impressive since it was given without two-time Big 12 champion Benson Chesang running a race because of coach Stanley Redwine's decision.
"It's a great place to start and our goal is to finish there or better," coach Redwine said in a statement, "However, the season is long, so the rankings don't mean as much to us as the actual competition. It brings notoriety, but we have to live up to that reputation."
Kansan sportswriter Evan Kafarakis can be contacted at ekafarakis@kansan.com.
athletics calendar
Edited by Erin Wiley
TODAY
Soccer vs. Pepperdine, 5 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex
Football at Toledo, 7 p.m., Toledo, Ohio, ESPN2
Player to watch: Sophomore cornerback Aqib Talib returns for the Jayhawks tonight against Toledo after sitting out the first
Talib
two games of the season.
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Volleyball vs. Texas, 7 p.m., Horeksi Family Athletics Center
Soccer vs. UCF, 1 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex
》PGA
16-year-old female golfer loses to men in sixth try at tournament
BY ALAN ROBINSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FARMINGTON, Pa. — The course was too long, the competition too good. Michelle Wie has an exceptional golf game for a 16-year-old, except when she's playing against the men.
Heavy rain softened up the thirdlongest course on the PGA Tour and created ideal scoring conditions Thursday at the 84 Lumber Classic, but not for Wie. Her sixth attempt to became the first woman in 61 years to make a cut in a tour event looks to be unsuccessful, much like the other five.
Wie. "I had six or seven puts that looked like they were going to go in the hole and didn't. And that was really frustrating."
Wie, playing in her third and last U.S. men's tournament this year, shot a 5-over 77 on a day when there were 25 scores in the 60s on the large Mystic Rock course. She has almost no chance to make a cut that was at even par a year ago.
She was in a five-player tie for 125th, with the top 70 and ties after the second round advancing to weekend play.
Michelle *I* watches her tee shot on the 15th hole at Mystic Rock Golf Club in Farmington, Pa., during the first round of the 84 Lumber Classic golf tournament yesterday.
"I don't feel any extra pressure because I'm a girl out there," said
Nicholas Thompson, a 2005 qualifying school graduate who is 181st on the money list, took advantage of an early starting time on a course soaked by 1 1/2 inches of overnight rain for an 8-under 64. It was the tournament's lowest round since Vijay Singh's opening-round 64 in 2004. Thompson hopes to follow Singh and 2005 champion Jason Gore by turning at least a share of the first-round lead into a title.
"Had it not rained and the scores had been this low, I would have been surprised," Thompson said. "Due to the rain, it softened up the greens" and allowed golfers to aggressively go for greens they knew would hold their approach shots.
Mark Duncan/AP
Thompson, a former U.S. Walker Cup team member, had a two-shot lead over a crowded group of six
at 66 that included Rory Sabbatini and Reno-Tahoe champion Will MacKenzie. Six more were at 67.
Sabbatini, a speedy player, was paired with Ben Crane for the first time since becoming so upset with Crane's overly deliberate play in the 2005 Booz Allen Classic that he intentionally played out of order to show his unhappiness. Crane had a 73.
Wie also played slowly, and not all that well. She got off to an encouraging start with three consecutive pars after starting at No. 10, potentially calming her nerves on a course the Hawaii high school student knows well. But her round began getting away when she missed a short par putt on the par-4 13th, starting a stretch of three consecutive boeveg.
Playing in the last group of the day, she never had a chance after that despite being repeatedly encouraged by a large gallery that chanted her name on No.17.
Her best chance for the birdie she didn't get came on the par-4 No. 4, but she missed a 6-footer.
"We are always working on our offense," sophomore midfielder Jessica Bush said. "especially on getting into the attack."
outshot the Blue Devils and had more corner kicks. Kansas has also dominated opponents all season long up front. It has outscored opponents 13 to seven throughout the year, and averaged 14.4 shots per game compared to only 7.2 for its opponents.
The offense has been shining latey, but Francis wants to see his team's defense glisten just as brightly. The Jayhawks allowed only one goal in
SOCCER (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
"Our players say this is just a beginning for us," Francis said about the Duke game. "We will continue to build on it."
The victory over the nationally ranked Blue Devils gave the Jayhawks their third straight win and came after they trailed for most of the game. Freshman forward Shannon McCabe fired the game winner with 26 seconds left to give Kansas a 4-3 victory.
Francis said his team's four-goal outburst was its best offensive performance the season. The lajahawks
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their first two games of the season but have allowed six goals in their last three games.
Pepperdine (3-1-2) should prove to be a formidable challenge for Kansas on both the offensive and defensive fronts. The Waves have scored 12 goals this season while allowing only five. Last season in San Diego, Calif., the Jayhawks fell to the Waves 3-2.
"Defensively you don't like to give up that many goals," Francis said. "We want to shore it up in the back more and do a better job defending set pieces."
Central Florida (3-2-1) finished in first place in Conference USA last season and returns seven starters. The Jayhawks beat the Knights in both of their two previous meetings.
Neither team is currently ranked, but Kansas is expecting a test just as tough as it faced the last couple of weeks against top competition.
"Pepperdine was ranked early this year and Central Florida was almost in the tournament last season," Francis said. "These are very tough teams."
Kansan sportswriter Mark Dent can be contacted at mdent@kansan.com.
Edited by Elyse Weidner
FOOTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
And that situation is nothing new for Mangino. It's the same one he and his team have faced every time they've traveled on the road. Once again Kansas will be the underdog, since Toledo is favored by nearly a touchdown. But Kansas hopes that trend, along with its six-game road losing streak, ends tonight.
"It would be great to win on Friday," senior safety Jerome Kemp said. "It would start our march to being road dogs."
Kansan senior sportswriter Ryan Schneider can be contacted at rschnieder@kansan.com.
Edited by Erin Wiley
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