SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26,1994
Defensive end also tackles engineering
SECTION B
By Matt Irwin
Kansan sportwriter
Harold Harris might not be the most intelligent player on the Kansas football team, and he might not be the most talented player.
But Harris is a great example of what Division I-A athletics strive to accomplish.
Harris is a starting defensive end for the Kansas football team and is studying civil engineering.
"Harold is probably the most dedicated student I've ever worked with," said Tim Allen, administrative assistant to the football team. Allen is also the academic liaison to student support services.
Harris said his schedule comprised Civil Engineering 455, Hydrology; Mechanical Engineering 312, Basic Engineering Thermodynamics; Physics 212, General Physics II; and Philosophy 160, Introduction to Ethics.
Peter TenPas, associate professor of mechanical engineering, used to teach thermodynamics. He said that it was a rigorous course requiring six to nine hours of homework outside of class each week.
Harold Harris
"Thermodynamics has the reputation of being a back breaker," TenPas said, "mostly because it has to deal with abstract concepts."
Besides the 14 credit hours of class that Harris is taking, he must study a new offense every week for each football game.
Paul Buskirk, assistant athletic director, said that because of the football team's schedule, Harris was always busy. He said that the players who live on campus must check in at the Burge Union and eat breakfast between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.
They must be enrolled in at least 12 hours and go to class until about 2 p.m. each day. After class they have football meetings with the coaches of their individual positions. He said that physical practice began about 3:30 p.m. and ended about 6:30 p.m. The players then can eat at the Burge Union and go study.
Aerospace Engineering student Hsin-Fu Wu, Wilmette, Ill., senior, said he thought he could relate to what Harris went through during the football season.
Wu said that he trained for about 1 1/2 hours per day, three to four days per week, to prepare for Marine Corps Officers candidates' school.
"Some nights I caught that second wind," he said. "Sometimes I was just exhausted."
Wu said that he didn't train as hard as Harris practiced and that his training had less possibility for injury than football practice.
"He's pretty busy," Wusaid. "It sounds like he's got a very solid load."
Harris said he rarely had fallen behind in classes during his college career. He concentrates on school every day but Friday, when he finally has time to relax.
Harris has also had to learn a new position on the football field. He was moved from reserve outside linebacker to defensive end in the Jayhawks' final game of the 1993 season against Missouri.
Harris had eight tackles and a fumble recovery in that game and was named the Big Eight Conference's defensive player of the week. He has started every game at the position since.
As a 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior defensive end, Harris is one of the smallest defensive ends in the conference, but also one of the quickest.
In five years with the Jayhawks, Harris has had to learn many new concepts on and off the football field.
"Through the years, you mature," Harris said. "You definitely learn to concentrate."
BRIEF
Football team loses player to ankle injury
Kansan staff report
The same day that the Kansas football team got one of its 1993 starting tackles back from a knee injury, it lost one of its starting tackles of the 1994 season.
Mark Allison, a 6-foot-3, 295 pound junior, was thought to have sprained his ankle in Kansas' 41-23 defeat of Iowa State on Oct. 15. Allison was X-rayed at a hospital in Ames, Iowa.
Allison's ankle wasn't broken, but the tendon damage was so severe that he had surgery last week to have a pin inserted into his ankle.
Rod Jones, 6-foot-4, 300 pound junior, started Saturday for the first time this season. Jones started all 12 games of the 1993 season, but tore his medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee during spring practice.
Compiled by Kansan staff writer Matt Irwin.
Kansas freshman Kristin Nilsen swims the butterfly stroke during practice. Nilsen has been swimming since the second grade.
Above:
Kansas freshmen swimmers
Kristin Nilsen and Karen
Kissinger walk back to their room in Oliver Hall after practice.
Right: Kansas freshman swimmer Karen
Kissinger listens to one of the coaches during practice.
Jay Thornton / KANSAN
Aquatic roommates share thrills, spills
Competing, living together results in fun, frustration
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
Several team members are roommates with each other. There is no mandatory policy on living arrangements for swimmers or divers, but Kansas swimming coach Gary Kempf said he encouraged new members of the team, particularly freshmen to live together.
"I think they need that dorm experience," Kempf said. "They make some of the best friends of their lives in the dorm."
Freshmen freestyle Karen Kissinger and backstroker Kristin Nilsen are roommates in Oliver Hall. Kempf said team members have lived in Oliver for many years. The hall's location is close to campus as well as Robinson Natatorium, where the team practices.
will room together. Kempf said the process was difficult because the only knowledge the coaches have of the athletes was from recruitment
Being on similar schedules is one of the positive aspects of living with a teammate.
Members of the coaching staff pair up freshmen team members, who
"They seem to do fine, though," he said.
Nilsen said she was not a morning person. And with early morning practices, she benefited from having Kissinger as her roommate.
"She kind of helps me get up," Nilsen said of Kissinger.
Kissinger said having someone around that was sympathetic to her busy schedule and lifestyle was a positive for her.
"We know what each other's going through," she said. "She helps me out when I'm having a bad day."
However, Nilsen said swimming did not dominate their conversations.
"We talk about a lot of other things, too." she said.
Kissinger and Nilsen said they intended to live together again next year.
They would not be alone. Several other members of the team live together even after their freshman year.
Junior freestyle and butterflier Dan Philippas and junior freestyle B.J. Walker live with four other current members of the swimming and diving team. Philipps said there were also three ex-swimmers and divers living in the house.
Like Kissinger and Nilsen, Philipps said being on similar schedules and having the opportunity to bounce frustrations off each other were two of the good things about living together.
Walker agreed.
"It helps to feed off each other," she said. "I think the positives outweigh the negatives."
However, living with fellow teammates can have its bad moments, Philips said.
"We see each other a little too often sometimes," he said. "There is not much variance in friends."
When emotions get too high, Philippis said they proved that they have an outlet on Sunday. In what Philipps called a war, he and his roommates tossed raw eggs and two-month-old milk to get out their frustrations.
They have also had several other unique instances. One of their roommates, who Philipps would not name, fell off the roof of their house. Also, when the group was preparing to move into the house, they left some furniture on the front porch that was stolen and never returned.
"Anything can happen," Philipps said, smiling.
Kansas, Iowa State gear up for rematch
Kansan sportswriter
By Chesley Dohl Kansan sportswriter
A month of practice and experience won't make a team perform perfectly.
But the Kansas volleyball team hopes for an improvement tonight at Allen Field House when it takes on the Iowa State Cyclones for a second time this season.
"We're playing a lot more consistently now," Kansas coach Karen Schonewise said. "When we played Iowa earlier, we were just trying to turn the corner. We couldn't seem to finish a match. Now we're playing through the course."
Kansas last played Iowa State on Sept. 28 in Ames, Iowa. It was the Jayhawks first Big Eight Conference contest of the season and they lost in three games, 13-15, 9-15, and 11-15.
Kansas, now 5-14 and 3-4 in the conference, will take the court with the intent of shutting down the left-side hitting game of the Cyclones, she said.
"We hope to serve better than the first time we played them," Schonewise said. "In that match we needed to cut down on service errors. I think we've come a long way since then."
The Jayhawks also will have the home-court advantage in their favor.
"Home will definitely be an advantage," Schonewise said. "Not having to travel for a while, after two months of being constantly on the road, is something we all enjoy."
Iowa State coach Jackie Nunez said the Cyclones' performance had improved through the month after going through a losing slump at the beginning of October.
"In the last two weeks we went into four games with Nebraska, we beat
in their earlier match with the Jayhawks, the Cyclones' two leading outside hitters, juniors Kirstin Hugdahl and Stephanie McCannon, recorded 12 kills each.
Iowa State enters tonight's match third in the Big Eight, 15-6 overall and 4-3 in the conference. Nunez said Iowa State had been concentrating on three major areas of its game since the last meeting with Kansas.
"Our control game is a lot better now," Nunez said. "We've been focusing a lot on passing, blocking, and serving."
Oklahoma in five, and we beat K-State in three," she said.
"We didn't hit very well that night," she said. "We've been competing with the top teams in the conference, and we've moved up to a ninth place ranking in the Mideast region."
Still, Nunez said Iowa State had improved drastically on its hitting game.
Kansas freshman setter Trisha Lindgren said Kansas had gained more confidence since the early part of the season.
"It's been hard this year," she said. "But all the experience we've been gaining will pay off down the road."
The Jayhawks also have improved in a month's time.
Lindgren said earlier in the year that the Jayhawks had a goal to be one of the top four teams in the Big Eight midway through the season.
But after losing games to K-State and Iowa State early, Lindgren said the Jayhawks would probably have to settle for less.
"We want to finish very competitively with wins against MU, Oklahoma and K-State," she said. "Those are our attainable goals for the rest of the season."
Big Eight track meet highly valued by teams
Kansan sportswriter
By Kent Hohlfeid Kansan sportswriter
The Big Eight Conference is enjoying some of its best national success in recent years, with four men's and three women's teams ranked in the top 25. That would appear to give the league meet this weekend added importance.
Coaches differ on the importance they put on the conference meet. The Big Eight cross country meet does not have the same importance to a team's postseason aspirations as conference tournaments in basketball and baseball.
The league champion does not get an automatic bid to the national meet. Automatic bids are awarded to the top two teams in district meets which are held in November. At-large bids are awarded to teams based on the performance over an entire season.
Gary Schwartz Kansas cross country coach
Dirksen, look at the conference meet as the start of the season.
"The structure has kind of hurt the league meet," said Dick Wes, Oklahoma State head coach. "Over the last 10 years the league meet has gone down some."
Kansas coach Gary Schwartz said that the importance of the Big Eight meet had to be kept in perspective.
Other coaches, such as Nebraska's Jay
He said the conference, district and national meets constitute Kansas' championship season.
This year's meet may hold more importance to teams hoping for an at-large bid because of the conference's high-caliber competition. Currently, four Big Eight men's teams are ranked nationally including No. 4 Iowa State, No 8 Colorado, No. 10 Oklahoma State and No. 25 Kansas.
Defeating nationally ranked teams weighs more heavily than other victories in consideration for at-large bids.
"It's an important meet and we want to do very well," Schwartz said. "But it's not the end all, be all. It's the first in what we hope are three championship meets."
Weis said another factor that has hurt the conference meet is the yearly dominance, especially in the men's competition, by Iowa State and Colorado.
"In the past, it has basically been the Bergan and Quiller show," Weis said, referring to Iowa State coach Bill Bergan and Colorado coach Jerry Quirler.
The last time a team besides Colorado or
iowa State won the Big Eight men's crown was 1975.
historically the Midwest hasn't been a strong distance running region," Weis said. "Arkansas, Iowa State and Colorado are the teams in this area with the tradition behind them."
He said that running against those teams on a regular basis bred familiarity that developed rivalries. Those rivalrys help to boost recruiting.
"We run against Arkansas seven times during the track and cross country seasons," Weis said. "When you see that competition a lot you tend to recruit to that level."
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