THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18,2007
SPORTS
7B
MEN'S GOLF
Team finishes last at Prestige; players have individual success
BY BILL WALBERG bwalberg@kansan.com
The Kansas men's golf team continued to struggle through the fall
ished last in the Prestige at PGA West in Palm Springs. Calif. Monday and Tuesday. This marks the second consecutive last place finish for
Koelbel
the Jayhawks. First-year coach Kit Grove gave his take on today's result in a press release.
"As a team we are making steps in the right direction, but we are still frustrated with the overall result," Grove said.
Placing last in the past two tournaments may propose a grim future, but the Jayhawks made personal gains this tournament. Junior Walt Koelbel shot three under par in the final round of the Prestige, his second under-par round of the season.
Koelbel added to his great day on the Greg Norman Course by finishing tied for 19th, his second top-20
finish of the season.
Freshman Brad Hopfinger followed Koelbel in the rankings finishing tied for 23rd. Hopfinger's total three-day score was his lowest tournament score of his young career.
Although Hopfinger placed in the top 25, he did show signs of being a freshman. Hopfinger went into the final round tied for 20th but missed the opportunity to crack the top 20 in a tournament and beat a career-high finish of 22nd. He did get his coach's attention after day one.
"I was really happy with how Brad played as a true freshman," Grove said in a statement after day one at the Prestige.
Junior Zach Pederson, sophomore Bobby Knowles and senior Joey Mundy followed Hoffinger and Koelbel in the standings, all placing behind 70th.
The layhawks did not move in the tournament standings from day one. Charlotte finished on top at the Prestige taking the team title. Minnesota's Clayton Rask and Wisconsin's Dan Wolton tied with eight under par to take the individual title.
The Jayhawks tee off for the last time this fall in Wilmington, N.C., next weekend in the Landfall Tradition.
Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
Leaderboard
Team Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Total
1. Charlotte 281 285 288 854
2. Stanford 285 293 284 862
3. Central Florida 284 286 299 869
T4. Pepperdine 287 294 295 876
T4. TCU 299 286 291 876
16. Kansas 304 298 295 897
>> NFL
Holmes completes first practice
BY DOUG TUCKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Priest Holmes went through a full practice Wednesday, a giant step toward what could be turning into one of the NFLs great comebacks.
Now 34 and out of football since suffering neck and spinal injuries two years ago, Holmes was cleared to practice for the first time since he shocked the Chiefs last summer and showed up at training camp.
He's been working out diligently and trimming away the 15 or so pounds he gained while staying home the previous 22 months, hardly going near a football field.
Now, he says, he's ready to resume a career that took him to three Pro Bowls and made him one of the league's most productive backs before the injury that just about everyone assumed ended his career.
"One of the things I can take from practice is I still have a lot in me," he said. "That was one of the surprising things not so much for the team to see, but also for myself to see, how well I performed."
touchdowns.
He acknowledged he's not yet the athlete who had almost 6,000 yards rushing and 2,360 yards receiving from 2001-06, and in 2003 scored a then-NFL record 27
"There were a few things that took me by surprise," he said. "There was one play where they sent two line-backers in on me and ... my awareness wasn't there initially. I'm seeing two guys coming at me. Which one do I take? And the better one gets a good hit on me. But I stood in there, I got hit pretty hard. But I bounced back and got ready to play the next snap."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coach Herm Edwards admits he never expected to see Holmes in uniform again. For one thing, the injury he sustained in San Diego in October 2005 was not merely career-threatening. It was possibly life-altering because doctors feared a risk of further spinal injury.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes practices Wednesday at the indoor football facility in Kansas City, Mo.
By now, Edwards says, nothing about the enigmatic running back would shock him.
"What's surprising was when he decided not to retire and said he was coming back. That surprised me," Edwards said Wednesday.
"But once he showed up, nothing else surprised me about the guy. He has great focus on what he wants to do. He wanted to attempt to come back. A lot of
people probably anticipated that he would check out before now. But he didn't."
Edwards said he still did not know if Holmes would be activated for this week's game at Oakland — or, for that matter, ever.
"We'll see how he feels tomorrow. That's the whole key now, how is he going to feel tomorrow? And then the next day? Where is he going to be the next couple of days?"
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Fourth-place finish in'Give'Em Five' invitational good sign for season
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Consistent performance motivates team, O'Neil says
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"They didn't get ahead of themselves and that's probably the hardest thing to do when you are that close," she said. "We were only two shots out of first heading into today, and I think they
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BY ANDREW WIEBE
awiebe@ku.edu
Despite beginning the third and final day two strokes off the lead, Kansas finished six strokes behind tournament champion Oklahoma, who used a final round of 297 to finish four strokes ahead of runner-up Idaho. O'Neil said that although the team did not get the final result it wanted, she was satisfied with the result and the progress it represents for the program.
Powers
"We just want to play our best and not get mad when we do make bad shots. If we do that, we will be fine." Powers said. "Of course you want to
"I'm very proud of the girls and they all work really hard. It's a neat time for the golf program I think," O'Neil said.
win, but most of all we want to stay positive."
Thiry and Bal finished with identical scores to tie for 23rd at 13-over par, Giangrosso shot 14- over par to finish tied for 29th, and Wilson was only four strokes behind her, finishing in a tie for 47th.
For Kansas women's golf coach Erin O'Neil, the team's third toppive finish in four tries is an encouraging sign of what could come from her talented group.
While Powers carded the best finish among Kansas golfers, senior Annie Giangrosso and freshmen Grace Thiry, Meghna Bal and Sydney Wilson did their part to ensure a second-straight finish in the top-five.
O'Neil said the only thing holding young players like Thiry, Bal and Wilson back from the top-five finishes they were capable of was unnecessary shots. Despite their lack of experience, she said the poise they gained would be invaluable during the spring and the years
"I think it really helps them with their confidence. That's the main thing." O'Neill said. "They can see that they can do do that on a consistent basis, and at the same time, I think they know that they can still improve and get better. I've been talking to them and trying to help them realize that the difference between being top five and where they are is basically around the greens."
Kansas finished tied for fourth out of 16 teams at the Price's "Give 'Em Five" Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M., on Tuesday. The team used consistent play and a steady mindset to better tricky wind conditions and a strong field. The top-five finish represents a marked improvement from last season's disappointing 12th-place finish in the same event.
to come.
"I think that they are starting to see what they can do," she said. "They are really close to breaking through and winning another tournament."
Regardless of the progress Kansas made so far this spring, it will face its toughest test of the fall when it travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in the UA-Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate on Oct. 26-28, O'Neil said the team would need to continue to use a steady mindset to keep up the streak of top-five performances.
"I think that's the biggest thing for a team as young as we are, just not to get ahead of ourselves and stay in the moment," she said.
Sophomore Emily Powers led the team once again by finishing tied for eighth, trailing winner Chelsea Stelzmiller of UC Davis by only four strokes. Powers said the team was disappointed not to come away with a second-straight title but attributed its consistent play to the positive attitude O'Neil preached.
For now, Kansas can enjoy another solid performance from its group of talented underclassmen. But not for long. Powers said the group had loftier ambitions for its final tournament of the fall.
With that kind of attitude, winning will always be a possibility.
"We are all happy but we are all going to go back out and practice and hopefully do better at the next one," she said.
just played real steady and hung in there."
— Edited by Rachel Bock
If there is anything more frigid than winter in the Black Hills, it is in coolers kept well below freezing in order to preserve various specimens. These specimens, delivered to Rapid City Regional Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, included arms, legs, cysts, blood, kidneys, and the like—in short, anything but the living. Some unfortunate soul inevitably had the job of delivering these.
And who else could that unfortunate young man have been but my future father? And the intern at the hospital's lab, where, by law a pathologist had to analyze anything removed from bodies, was, as fate would have it, my future mother.
During a routine drop-off (this time a leg), the confident microbiology student in the hospital lab caught the eye of the cooler-toting delivery boy. As luck would have it, a snowstorm swept down outside and consequently my father could not leave. Of course, he also had an excuse to talk with the pretty intern. So, my parents struck up their first lively conversation, albeit discussing dead things.
Naturally, there was a spark. And when the snow outside eventually let up, my father decided to try to drive to his next delivery, asking the intern to wish him good luck. "Well, break a leg," she said.
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