2B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY HARRY KANSAN
ROWING
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2007
Kansas prepares for Big 12 rematch
Tricia Sawtelle was a bit skeptical when the members of the Kansas rowing team were told to close their eyes and row.
BY CATHERINE ODSON
"We were kind of nervous because we were afraid someone was going to get an aar handle in the back," Sawtele, a senior rower, said. "After we did it the first time, we thought, 'Oh, that was easier than we thought it would be', and just had fun with it."
Senior rower Lindsey Miles said the team wasn't sure whether to take the idea seriously at first, but the exercise helped them focus on moving together during a stressful point in the race.
Sawteille said that the rowers had to trust each other and depend on what they felt because they couldn't see what anyone else was doing.
"The start is a very hectic, nervewracking time, and we have a tendency to get over hyped up." Miles said. "We're not as in sync as well as we can be."
Starts have caused problems for the Jayhawks this season. Kansas first varsity eight boat fell behind early against Minnesota, and three Kansas boats did the same against Kansas State on April 7. It's one of the things the Jayhawks will try to improve in Sunday's Big 12
Invitational in Kansas City, Kan.
Kansas coach Rob Catloth said the exercise wasn't a "magic potion" but would help the rowers be aware of more than what they saw in the boat.
"It's just a little trick to help you think about things a little differently and get your focus on things that will help you so faster," he said.
Sophomore coxswain Katie Brosious said the team was ready to "get after" the title.
Kansas will race against Kansas State and Texas, the only other Big 12 Conference universities with rowing teams. Kansas finished second to Texas in all six races on March 24. The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats in Lawrence to capture the Kansas Cup two weeks later.
"I think we're ready to take the cup," she said. "Texas has had it way too long."
Kansas and Kansas State tied for second behind Texas at last year's invitational, Texas has won the past five years.
The regatta begins at 11 a.m. Sunday on Lake Wyandotte in Kansas City, Kan.
Kansan senior sportswriter
Catherine Odson can be contacte
ed at codson@kansan.com.
Edited by Trevan McGee
athletics calendar
TODAY
Baseball vs. Oklahoma, 7 p.m.
Noman. Okla.
- Tennis at Big 12 Championship,
All day, Kansas City, Mo.
* Track at Drake Relays, All day,
Des Moines, Iowa
SATURDAY
Softball vs. Oklahoma, 2 p.m.
Arrocha Ballpark
Baseball vs. Oklahoma, 3 p.m.
Norman, OK.
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, All day, Kansas City. Mo.
■ Track at Drake Relays, All day,
Des Moines, Iowa
SUNDAY
Baseball vs. Oklahoma, 1 p.m.
Norman, Okla.
Softball vs. Oklahoma, 1 p.m.
Arrocha Ballpark
Rowing at Big 12 Invitational, 11 a.m. Kansas City. Kan.
Tennis at Big 12 Championships, All day, Kansas City, Mo.
Team splits for weekend competitions
TRACK AND FIELD
BY TAYLOR BERN
The Jayhawks will have athletes at two different locations in the hopes of bringing home more regional qualifying marks.
Most of the track and field athletes will take the trip to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Drake Relays, while a small contingent of distance runners will travel west for the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford.
Sophomore Zlata Tarasova, also competing in the hammer throw, will look to build on her eighth place finish a year ago.
At last season's Drake Relays, a meet very similar to the Kansas Juniors, junior Egafonov won the hammer throw with his career-best toss of 233-0 feet. Agafonov won the Kansas Relies this year with a season-best throw of 227-05 feet and is the favorite heading into Saturday's competition.
Fresh off his Kansas Relays victory, senior Eric Babb takes on the long jump, with junior Barrett Saunders providing some friendly competition.
Junior Kate Sultanova will compete in the special section of the pole vault on Saturday, while freshmen Kirk Cooper and Jordan Scott each get their first Drake experience as a college athlete on Friday in the pole vault.
Throwing the discus will be senior Cody Roberts, and hurling the shot put will be senior Abby Emsick and sophomore Stephanie Horton.
Headlining the group of distance runners that will be heading to Stanford are junior All-Americans Paul Hefferon and Colby Wissel.
Hefferon and Wissel each ran in the 1,500 meters at the Kansas Relays in order to prepare themselves for this weekend's races. The goal was to work on certain muscles that the runners will need at the end of a long race.
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Julius Jiles, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, keeps pace with other runners during the men's 100-meter dash on April 20. Jiles finished his heat with a time of 10.96.
Wissel will run in the 5,000 meters and Heffernon is scheduled to run his first-ever 10,000-meter race.
Kansan sportswriter Taylor Bern can be contacted at tbern@kansan.com.
-Edited by Lisa Tilson
》 2008 OLYMPICS
Longest torch relay in history covers sensitive ground
BY STEPHEN WADE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
and reach Mount Everest.
BEIJING — Organizers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics announced Thursday what will be the longest torch relay in the history of the games, tracing a route that covers five continents and makes politically sensitive stops in Taiwan and Tibet.
The head of Taiwan's Olympic Committee, however, said it would not participate in the relay, because it "downgraded" the island's sovereignty.
"It will be a relay that will cover the longest distance and be most inclusive and involve the most people in Olympic history," said Liu Qi, the head of Beijing's Olympic organizing committee.
The relay is the latest grand plan associated with an Olympics that organizers and IOC officials have said should set a new standard for the games. But it also takes the games into politically tricky terrain.
At a Beijing ceremony attended by senior members of China's ruling Communist Party and the International Olympic Committee, organizers said the route would cover 85,000 miles, last 130 days
Stops in Taiwan and Tibet, where Mount Everest towers, have generated controversy ever since Beijing telegraphed its intentions to include them on the route years ago. Taiwan has resisted Beijing's overtures — and sometimes threats — to unify after splitting amid civil war while
China's often-harsh 57-year rule over Tibet has been widely criticized.
Four American activists were detained by Chinese authorities Wednesday on Mount Everest after they unfurled a banner calling for Tibet's independence.
Beijing is hoping that the torch relay will bolster its claims over both territories.
In a compromise, however, the torch will pass from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City to Taipei, Taiwan's capital, and then to Chinese-controlled Hong Kong. The route allows Taiwan to say it is part of the international leg, while allowing China to blur the distinction between the domestic and international parts.
But Tsai Chen-wei, chairman of
Taiwan's Olympic Committee, said less than two hours after the Beijing meeting that the island would not participate in the torch relay.
"This route is a domestic route that constitutes an attempt to downgrade our sovereignty." Tsai said. "It is something that the government and people cannot accept."
Tsai's comments contradicted an April 13 statement by another Taiwanese Olympic official, who said the island could accept a spot on the torch route that involved geographical contiguity with Hong Kong.
Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party has long pushed for a torch route that would reflect Taiwan's separateness from China, from which it split amid civil war in 1949.