SPORTS
PAGE 1B
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2005
SOFTBALL
Kansas sweeps rival
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Mike Poznanskv/KANSAN
Pitching crucial to Sooner defeats
Christina Ross, freshman pitcher, throws home during the yesterday afternoon game against Oklahoma at Arrocha Ballpark. Ross pitched all seven innings, allowing one walk, four hits and striking out five. The layhawks defeated the Sooners 4-1.
BY DREW DAVISON
ddavison@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
The Kansas softball team swept No. 5 Oklahoma this weekend in a Big 12 Conference match-up at Arrocha Ballpark. The Jayhawks won 5-4 on Saturday in nine innings and 4-1 yesterday.
Christina Ross, freshman pitcher,
carried the team to both victories,
throwing 15 of the 16 innings played
during the weekend.
"Christina was the right match-up against Oklahoma," coach Tracy Bunge said.
"We just put it to them," Ross said.
Ross gave up nine hits, three walks and struck out three on Saturday before Serena Settlemier, junior pitcher, relieved her. Yesterday, she held Oklahoma to four hits, one walk and struck out five in her complete game victory.
Early in the season, Ross struggled with confidence but she has turned things around.
"She is aggressively throwing out on the mound and she decided to come out and pitch her game," Bunge said.
On Saturday, she had four hits with a home run and three RBI. Yesterday, she ignited the team with a three-run home run in the first inning. Moppin said she has become a more consistent hitter this season. She said the timing for these big games came at a good time to start building off of.
Offensively, junior second baseman Jessica Moppin led the Javhaws.
"Sweeping OU is probably the biggest weekend we had the past couple years," Moppin said.
Defensively, Destiny Frankenstein, junior shortstop, had two catches yesterday in the sixth
that helped secure the victory.
Although Frankenstein was from Oklahoma and was recruited by that school, she opted to come to Kansas.
The sweep improved Kansas' record to 22-19 overall and 5-7 in conference play.
"There's nothing better than beating Oklahoma." she said.
The Jahawks have an upcoming break from conference play. Tomorrow, Kansas hosts Arkansas in a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. at Arrocho Ballpark.
She came to Kansas because she felt more at home in Lawrence.
On Thursday, they will take on North Dakota State in a doubleheader at Arrocha Ballpark at 3 p.m.
"We need to find a way to keep the momentum going. These are important games for us," Bunge said.
— Edited by Jennifer Voldness
▼ WORDS ON PAPER
JONATHAN KEALING jhealing@kansan.com
Event increases Relays' turnout
Tim Weaver, Kansas Relays meet director, said there would be two types of people this weekend: those who were at the Gold Zone and those who would say they were at the Gold Zone.
I feel like I should have a new mug shot taken for this column, to prove that I'm one of the ones who was at the Gold Zone.
Believe me, the sunburn is awful.
For those of you who can only say you were at the Gold Zone, it was a three-hour window on Saturday in which the Athletics Department crammed every imaginable final or invitational event together. The new event's claim to fame was that 39 Olympic athletes were supposed to compete. While several, including Stacy Dragila, backed out at the last minute, crowd favorites Maurice Greene, Marion Jones and Leo Bookman all showed.
They drew an announced crowd of 24,200. Weaver and Athletics Director Lew Perkins said. They said it was the second-largest crowd in the 78-year history of the Relaws.
In my estimation, that count probably included every member of the media — and there were quite a few — as well as any number of volunteers and Relays committee members.
Whether the number was inflated doesn't really matter. The Relays certainly garnered more attention than they have in recent years.
Congressman Jim Ryun, KU alumnus and holder of several track records was on-hand for what he estimated was his 40th Kansas Relays. Ryun competed from 1963-72, he said, and continued to attend through the meet's heyday, when the Relays were highlighted by Cold War battles between the United States and the Soviet Union.
He gushed over the intensity of the crowd and the great
SEE KEALING ON PAGE 3B
KANSAS RELAYS
Rachel Seymour/KANSAN
Benson Chesang, Uganda junior, maintains his first-place run in the men's invitational mile against KU graduate Charlie Gruber, and Kansas State junior Christian Smith, during the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium. Earlier this year Chesang broke Jim Ryun's 3,000-meter run record with a time of 7:59.46.
Kansas rocks Relays
The lajayhawk track and field team had something to prove at the Kansas Relays. The team wanted to show fans that track stars don't have to be imported to Lawrence. They can be grown here, too.
BY PATRICK SHEHAN
pshehan@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Track and field team, fans show stuff at Memorial Stadium
Senior Jeremy Mims proved just that on Saturday. He impressed local fans in the men's 800-meter invitational with a convincing victory over
Peterson was one of the Olympic athletes brought in for the Gold Zone Invitational. At the U.S. Olympic trials last year, he qualified for last summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece. Milkevics finished second by running in 1:50.29. Peterson finished third with a time of 1:51.62.
Big. 12 rival Dmitrijs Milkevics of Nebraska. Mims ran a regionally qualifying time of 1:50.00. The field he defeated included University of Missouri alumnus Derrick Peterson.
"The conditions today aren't really
timed," Mims said. "Timewise, I wasn't really worried about it."
Mims spoke of the deep field of competition that was brought in for the invitational, and whether this was the most competitive race of the season.
"As far as names, yes," Mims said. "Dimitri's a guy I can forward to racing against in conference. It's going to be like that all season."
Mims credits his victory in part to his confidence.
SEE RELAYS ON PAGE 3B
BASEBALL
Rachel Seymour/KANSAN
Matt Baty, junior outfielder, slides back to first base to beat the ball to Baylor first baseman Kyle Reynolds on March 17 at Hogglund Ballpark. During the Big 12 Conference series this weekend, Baty scored four runs and the Jayhawks split with Texas Tech.
Rain kills Jayhawks' Big 12 shot
BY ALISSA BAUER
abauer@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
A pair of hard-hitting games capped by a rain-out ended the Kansas baseball team's shot at a Big 12 Conference series victory.
Kansas (25-20, 4-10 Big 12) split with Texas Tech (25-13, 7-8 Big 12) after the first two nights of the series, losing 9-7 Friday and winning 13-9 Saturday. The pair of games played out as slugfests, something the Ivahawks are growing accustomed to.
Despite only picking up the split, the Jayhawks outscored the Red Raiders 20-16 in the shortened series. The team offenses combined for 46 hits.
Neither team out-hit the other. In game one, Kansas collected nine hits while Texas Tech had 14. Their numbers were exactly the opposite in game two.
"We're swinging the bats as well as anyone in our conference," coach Ritch Price said.
Price also said that if his club continued hitting that well, the team would have a chance to win every game.
Fellow outfielder A.J. Van Slyke followed up with a two-run homer, his eighth of the season, in the same inning, earning the first two of the three RBI he collected in the series opener. The junior is now tied with junior outfielder Gus Milner to lead the team in home runs.
Kansas looked to be the dominant team as it scored first in both games this weekend. In game one, the Jayhawks jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. Junior outfielder Matt Baty opened the series with a double in his first at-bat. He went 5-5 on the evening and hit 5-11 with four RBI and four runs scored on the weekend.
In the top of the sixth, Kansas led 6-4 when it loaded the bases on three different Red Raider pitchers. Junior lefty Carleton Hargrove, the third pitcher of the inning, ended the Jayhawks threat by throwing into a ground-out double play and a strikeout. Despite loading the bases with nobody out, the Jayhawks plated just one run.
"We've been really competitive," Price said. "The frustrating thing is, in the past 15-16 games, we've really been giving ourselves chances to win."
Senior third baseman Carey Avants led the Red Raiders at the plate, going 2-5 with two RBI. One was an RBI double in the eighth that proved to be the winning run.
SEE SHOT ON PAGE 4B
FOOTBALL
Cleveland drafts former Jayhawk in fifth round
Former Kansas defensive end David McMillan was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Draft yesterday.
McMillan was the 138th overall selection and the third pick of the fifth round.
McMillan led the Jayhawks with seven sacks last season, including three in the season finale against the Missouri Tigers. He impressed scouts at the NFL's Scouting Combine in Indianapolis as he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.55 seconds.
McMillan may move to outside linebacker, as many teams he worked out for have expressed interest in moving him from defensive end.
McMillan's agent, Craig Domann, believed McMillan could have been a third round pick. He entered on the bubble of being drafted on the first day of the draft, which has three rounds.
The Brown's will begin next season with a new coach, Romeo Crennel. Crennel left the New England Patriots, where he was the defensive coordinator, to become coach in Cleveland. Crennel helped lead the Patriots to three consecutive Super Bowls.
Ryan Colaianni