THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 2007
SPORTS
3B
CROSS COUNTRY
Men,women take on rival
BY TYLER PASSMORE
tpassmore@kansan.com
After dominating its competition on Saturday, the University of Kansas cross country team will take the starting line tonight in Manhattan with a little swagger.
Both the men and women won their first event, outscoring their
opponents and running away with the Bob Timmons Invitational. Tonight they will look to continue their success against Big 12 foe and rival Kansas State.
Hefferon
Last season, the Jayhawks won both the men's and women's titles at the Kansas State Invitational. Colby Wissel finished first in front of Patrick McGowan and Bret Imgraurd, who were second and third. The women's team also outlasted many opponents when Alicia McGregor finished third, followed by Lisa Morrissey in fourth, Melissa Moody in sixth and Hayley Harbert in seventh.
"I got a second wind for the last 200 meters." Bonds said in a press release. "It was nice just to get out there and once I got tired I just held on for as long as I could."
All-Americans Colby Wissel and Paul Hefferon look to continue their success, as Sophomore Bret Imgrund looks to carry on his recent success and extend it even further. The Women will try to push the tempo with Sophomore Lauren Bonds, who finished second at the Bob Timmons Invitational.
Last week's performance was a team effort for the women as they had seven runners finish in the top 25. Although Bonds may have been out front, it was the core that helped win the title.
"I think our top five did very well," Morrisie said. "Everyone did well for the first meet and I think we can really build off it."
With last week's victory fresh in their minds and a trophy from a year ago, the Jayhawks have high expectations for tonight.
The Kansas State Invitational starts for the women at 6:45 p.m. and for the men at 7:15 p.m. in Manhattan.
NFL
WASHINGTON — Bids topped $10,000 Thursday on an Internet auction site for what an animal rights group says are notes from football star Michael Vick's speech apologizing for a dogfighting scandal.
Vick notes for sale on eBay; other memorabilia available
The Humane Society of the United States is selling on eBay the single-page, six-point outline of the speech Vick gave at an Aug. 27 news conference in Richmond after pleading guilty in his dogfighting case.
The group is planning to put all proceeds in a restricted account dedicated to the prevention of dog fighting.
"Our motive is only to help animals and it would be something if we can do that through taking the conduct of Michael Vick and turning it into something positive," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
Bidding has been fierce since the group first offered the notes on Tuesday, even though there is no
verification that the notes were used by Vick.
Vick attorney Billy Martin said through a spokesman that the notes were not taken by Vick. The spokesman would not say whether an adviser or attorney wrote the notes for him.
Pacelle said a society employee retrieving a microphone found the notes on a hotel ballroom podium after Vick walked away from it at the end of his news conference.
The talking points were written on a slip of notepad paper with the logo of the Omni hotel. The note reads:
1. Apologize for what I've done.
1. Apologize for what I've done.
2. Apologize Commissioner, AB,
Petrino, Ashamed, Disappointed.
3. Young Kids I acted immat.
5. Take Full Responsibility For my Actions.
4. Forgiveness + Understanding
6. We All Make Mistakes. I've made mistakes in judgement (sic).
Scrawled in the corner in similar handwriting and separated by a line is the statement, "Dogs have Suffered."
FOOTBALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Appalachian State football team celebrates after defeating Michigan on Saturday. FCS teams, formerly Division 1-AA teams like the Mountaineers can now receive votes in the Associated Press poll.
FCS teams eligible for 71-year-old poll Lower-division programs allowed votes in Associated Press rankings
BY PAUL NEWBERRY ASSOCIATED PRESS
"If I have any openings in my poll, they would certainly be strongly considered," said Van Brimmer, who works for the Georgia-based Morris News Service.
After pulling off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State is still shaking things up.
The Associated Press said Thursday that lower-division schools — that means you, mountainers — are now eligible for its 71-year-old poll.
"It's great they opened the door," Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore said. "Certainly we're not going to be the No. 1 team in the country. We know that. We're not even going to be in the top 10. But if you have a win over a nice football team, I like that it's not out of the realm of possibility for a school like us to be one of the top 20 or 25 teams in the country."
One poll voter, Adam Van Brimmer, said he wanted to put Appalachian State at No. 25 after their win over the Wolverines, largely as a symbolic gesture. He might still do it next week, assuming the Mountaineers beat Division II Lenoir-Rhyne.
Several AP voters expressed interest in putting Appalachian State on their ballots after a shocking 34-32 upset at then-No. 5 Michigan last weekend. But the poll guidelines, which mirrored the coaches' rankings conducted by USA Today, limited eligibility to teams competing in the former NCAA Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Mountaineers compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, known before this season as Division I-AA.
The AP decided to make the change because schools that show they can compete with big-time teams on the field should have a chance to be recognized with them in the top 25, Sports Editor Terry Taylor said.
"Why not? The poll was always intended to measure teams that compete against each other, regardless of division, based solely on on-field performance," she said. "It was that way long before Division I was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978."
In a previous job, he covered longtime Division I-AA powerhouse Georgia Southern, which, like Appalachian State, is a member of the Southern Conference.
"Having spent so much time watching those Georgia Southern teams, I'm sure the top teams in the Southern Conference are as good as any mid majors" in the upper
division," Van Brimmer said. "They're probably as good as anybody in the MAC (Mid-American Conference). They're better than most in the Sun Belt."
Joe Giglio of The News
"They could go unbeaten the rest of the way, which is certainly a possibility," Giglio said. "But that would be a problem, particularly in the methodology I use. They would never have a chance to improve their ranking."
getting into their conference schedule.
USA Today plans no change in
it would be pretty difficult to evaluate some of the I-AA teams they play, because they don't have the same exposure as I-A teams."
JOHN HEUSER The Ann Arbor, Mich., News
& Observer in Raleigh, N.C., said he would have voted for the Mountaineers this week, though he never considered where to put them after being told they weren't eligible.
He's not sure if Appalachian State will get another chance to crack his top 25 since the school doesn't face another big-time opponent, which affects strength of schedule. After Lenoir-Rhyne, the Mountaineers take on Northern Arizona before
its poll, which will continue to be limited to schools in the division formerly known as I-A.
State was a unanimous choice at No. 1) and a playoff system to determine its champion (the Mountaineers have won the last two titles).
As Giglio pointed out, the Football Championship Subdivision has its own poll (Appalachian
"We're probably better off just separating church and state, so to speak," he said. "How long is the shelf life for beating Michigan? At some point, it wouldn't be enough" to keep them in the top 25.
Another AP voter, John Heuser of The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, agreed that Appalachian State might
be able to crack the poll next week, but would have a hard time staying there the rest of the season.
"It would be pretty difficult to evaluate some of the I-AA teams they play, because they don't have the same exposure as I-A teams," said Heuser, who covered Saturday's shocking upset. "We know how good Appalachian State is because they beat Michigan. But I would not really be able to assess how good their opponents are the rest of the season."
Taylor said those sort of issues should be up to the voters, not the news cooperative that organizes the poll and tallies up the ballots.
"This was an issue we never had to face before," she said. "But we thought about it and decided there should be no rule against ranking a I-AA team, as long as that team competed against a I-A opponent.
"Oddities of one sort or the other frequently crop up where the poll is concerned, and it's not unusual for us to make adjustments. This one was just the fair and right thing to do."
Heuser said the Mountaineers were certainly deserving of being in the top 25 for at least one week.
"They are an impressive team," he said. "I thought they were Michigan's equal on the field. I didn't think it was a fluke at all."
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