CHIEF CUTS
The Kansas City Chiefs have released running back TODD McNAIR, wide receiver VICTOR BAILEY, linebackers MARTIN BAYLESS and TRACY ROGERS, defensive lineman BRAN PROBY, and tight ends REGGIE JOHNSON and BILLY KHAYAT.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
The Chiefs filled some vacancies by signing 12 rookie free agents. Those players include: cornerback Clayton Baker, Missouri; running back Michael Blair, Ball State; running back Jesse Haynes, Northwest Missouri State; running back Shawn Walters, Southern California; linebacker James Burgess, Miami; linebacker Mark Smith, Arkansas; linebacker Larry
Walker, Texas A&M;
and punter Nick
Gallery, Iowa.
BULLS. SONICS COMING TO LAWRENCE
The NBA has announced that the Chicago Bulls and the Seattle Supersonics will play at Allen Field House on Oct. 11.
Tickets are not vet on sale, and ticket
prices have not been set. For more information, contact the Kansas Athletic Ticket Office. The game is being played to help promote NBA basketball.
RIPKEN DRIVE
MONDAY, APRIL 28.1997
Welcome to Cal Ripken's version of the three
R's—"Reading, Runs and Ripken."
Baseball's Iron Man donated $250,000 to the Ripken Learning Center on Thursday and hopes his on-the-field activities will add to it.
Ripken, the Baltimore Orioles third baseman, kicked off a fund-raising drive in which donors pledge money for every run he drives in this season.
The Ripken Learning Center opened in 1990 with a $100,000 donation from the baseball star. Since then, the center has helped about 1,450 people receive reading, writing, math and computer instruction.
"Reading, Runs and Ripken" raises between $60,000 and $100,000 annually, said Maggi Gaines, executive director of Baltimore Reads.
Kansas basketball loses two top-notch recruits
For the second time in two days, the Kansas men's basketball team lost a highly touted point guard recruit. On Friday, Minnesota North High School's Khalid El-Amin selected Connecticut.
Bernard Smith of Conroe, Texas,
announced Thursday that he will
attend texas in the fall.
Although recruiting
expert Bob Gibbons said
Smith's finalists were Kansas or Florida.
Amin surprised everyone when he decided to be a Huskie.
"Obviously this is a major, major occurrence for Connecticut. He's one of the top point guards in the country," Gibbons told the New Haven Register. "We have him ranked No. 8 overall in the country, and it's debatable whether he or Baron Davis (of Santa Monica, Calif.) is the best point guard in the country."
The Jayhawks now will focus their recruiting efforts on Davis. The 6-foot-1 inch guard is the final player that Kansas has offered a scholarship to.
It is believed that Davis will announce his decision this week. The Jayhawks are competing with UCLA and Georgia Tech for Davis, a first-team Parade All-American and USA Today AllAmerican.
Dixon eagerly awaiting tonight's WNBA Draft
Kansas guard Tamecka Dixon is hoping to play for the New York Liberty, one of eight teams in the Women's National Basketball Association.
Dixon's wish might be granted when the WNBA has its draft today in New York. She flew to New York yesterday afternoon to attend the draft and interview a potential sports agent. WNBA teams that could draft Dixon include the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, Los
SECTION B
Angeles Sparks, New York Liberty,
Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz.
Dixon and former Kansas forward Lynette Woodard are the only women in Kansas basketball history to record more than 1,600 points and 300 assists during their careers.
Sean McDermott fights for more ground while Avery Randle holds on during the annual scrimage at Memorial Stadium. The Saturday afternoon scrimmage marked the end of the spring football season.
Dixon was the Big Eight Conference Player of the Year in 1996 and the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year in 1997. She was one of 10 women selected for the Kodak All-America team last season, and she was a second-team All-America selection by the Associated Press.
—Kansan staff report
Norman, who recaptured the world's No. 1 ranking, took the lead into the final round. One birdie, one bogey and an eagle, good for a 70, weren't enough for Norman to win on the par-72 La Moraleja course and left the Australian tied with James at 277 after 72 holes. James had a 3-unior-par 69 in the final round.
Spanish Open champion beats world's top golfer
Geoff Krieger / KANSAN
MADRID, Spain — England's Mark James beat Greg Norman on the third playoff hole yesterday to win his second Spanish Open.
"This victory means a lot to me, and I got it after a good day," James said. "I played my best golf of the week."
The Associated Press
Blue team triumphs in spring scrimmage
Penalties, general lack of efficiency trouble practice
By Tommy Gallagher Kansan sportswriter
In the Kansas football team's Blue-White spring scrimmage on Saturday, it was the starters, in blue, against the reserves, white.
The outcome was as predictable as it sounded: Blue 35, White 0.
But the rout didn't start during the first quarter because both offenses were plagued with penalties and a general lack of efficiency.
"The first quarter slapped us all in the face," coach Terry Allen said. "It let us know just how inexperienced we are on the offensive side of the football. But after everybody got rid of the first-quarter jitters, you began to see what some of those players are canable of doing."
On the first play of the second quarter, Kansas quarterback Matt Johner threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Kansas wide receiver Eric Patterson, giving the Blue a 7-0 lead.
The Blue increased its lead to 14-0 before halftime when Kansas quarterback Zac Wegner connected with Kansas wide receiver John Gordon for a 19-yard touchdown pass. Wegner had waited in the pocket for more than five seconds before rolling to his right and finding Gordon wide open in the corner of the end zone.
Johner started the second half and hit Kansas running back Mitch Bowles on 14-yard touchdown pass, ending the first drive of the third quarter.
Johner added another touchdown pass to starg the fourth quarter, connecting with Gordon on a 53-yard reception. Kansas cornerback Manolito Jones fell hard for Johner's pump fake, and Gordon easily ran past the coverage for his second touchdown of the day.
Johner was 13-for-16 with183 passing yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions during the scrimmage. Wegner, who said he was disappointed with his play, was 8-for-16 with 109 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception.
The Jayhawks will begin the 1997 season at home against Alabama-Birmingham on Aug. 28. Until then, Allen and his staff also have had to evaluate players on the defensive side of the football.
"I think you saw what Matt was capable of doing and what Zac was capable of doing," Allen said. "Both of these young men will have a great shot to be our starting quarterback in the fall. It's still an even horse race, but we'llId like to identify a winner of that race a week before our first game."
Kansas defensive end Dewey Houston had five tackles, which included four sacks of quarterbacks, who needed only to be touched for the play to be whistled dead.
On defense, the white team was led by cornerback Jason Cromerdie, inside linebacker Lamar Sharpe and outside linebacker Dariss Lomax.
Cromerde recorded a game-high seven tackles while Sharpe, who has been pushing the incumbent starter Jason Thoren for a starting position during the spring, had the
The scrimmage concluded the spring season for the Jayhawks, and Johner said the team must learn faster when fall practice begins Aug. 5.
lone interception of the day. Lomax had four tackles.
"Coach Allen makes everything much more enjoyable, and we're having a good time during practice," Johner said. "We're not where we want to be right now, but we're making good strides."
Sims grabs title by upsetting OSU player
By Andy Rohrback Kansan sportswriter
Christie Sim pulled off a surprise victory against Oklahoma State's Kim Hazzard, capturing the Big 12 Conference title at No. 1 singles. But her tennis team didn't fair as well.
The Kansas women's tennis team broke a six-year conference streak by falling short of the Bit 12 title.
After beating Colorado 5-4 in the quarterfinal round, the team faced No. 6 Texas in the semifinals on Saturday. At the teams' only other meeting this season, the Longhorns defeated the Jawhawks 9-0.
The meet Saturday was not much
different. Texas took five consecutive matches from the Jayhawks, winning 5-0.
On the positive side, the women had two individual conference champions in singles and one in doubles
Christie Sim
In addition to Sim's upset, No. 3 Brooke Chiller defeated Texas A&M's Lisa Dingwall.
The doubles team of Sim and Kris Sell took the conference championship at the No. 2 spot, ousting Sophie Goldschmidt and Julie Hamilton of Baylor—the only school besides Texas to beat Kansas in a Big 12 Conference game.
The men's match against Texas was moved indoors because of inclement weather, and the time had to be changed from the original 1 p.m. start to an evening start, which ensured that the match would last until well after 11 p.m. The late matches were to decide the Big 12 Conference men's team tennis tournament champions.
The meet against Texas marks the second time the Jayhawks and Longhorns have met this season. In their previous meeting, Texas handed Kansas its only conference loss, 5-4. The meet wasn't decided until the last match ended, when Xavier Avila dropped the third set of his match.
Individually, the Jayhawks produced four runners-up and two sets of doubles champions from the Big 12 Conference records during the season.
Enrique Abaroa, Xavier Avila, Fernando Sierra and Trent Tucker took the runner-up spot in their respective singles positions. Abaroa placed at No.1, Avila No.2, Sierra No.3 and Tucker No.5.
In doubles, however, two out of the three champion duos are from Kansas. Abaroa and Avila won at the No. 1 spot against Oklahoma State's Pavel Kudrnac and Martin Dvoracek, and Tucker and Jeff Erin won at No. 3 over B.J. Stearns and Michael Blue of Texas.
Baseball team loses three games
Kansan staff report
Texas A&M sweeps series against 'Hawks
The University of Kansas baseball team had only the performance of shortstop Joe DeMarco to be happy about after the weekend.
The Jayhawks dropped three games to No. 15 Texas A&M in College Station.
Despite the losses, DeMarco surpassed the 187 run-scored mark—a new school record.
That was the team's only positive.
The losses dropped Kansas to 28-21 overall and 12-15 in the Big 12 Conference. Despite the losses, Kansas is still in sixth place in the conference, but the gap between Kansas, Missouri and Texas is now closer.
Only the top six teams in the conference make it to the Big 12 tournament.
Kansas was unable to generate any offense yesterday, as three Texas A&M pitchers combined to shut the Jayhawks out, 8-0.
Not only did Texas A&M not allow a run, but they also exploded on offense in the fourth inning. With a 2-0 lead,
the Aggies scored five runs off Kansas pitchers Jake Good and Rusty Philbrick in the fourth.
Kansas also racked up six errors in the game.
In a Saturday doubleheader Kansas put themselves out of the first game early.
The Jayhawks shot out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when shortstop DeMarco scored on a ground out by center fielder Justin Headley.
But the lead didn't last long.
Texas A&M came back with a run of their own in the bottom of the first. Then it got ugly.
Kansas pitcher Tim Lyons
The Jayhawks did attempt a comeback in the ninth.
Down 10-3, Kansas scored two runs without an out.
allowed five runs on four hits in the second inning. The Aggies took a 6-2 lead. Lyon, who took the loss, was pulled early.
Kansas jumped on Texas A&M early, shooting out to an 8-0 lead by the fourth inning.
But it didn't last, as the Aggies got three quick outs and gave Kansas the first loss of the weekend.
The Jayhawks squandered an early lead to fall in game two of the doubleheader.
Kansas pitcher Mark Corson pitched a shutout until the seventh inning but then allowed three runs on five Aggie hits.
It was 8-3 Kansas.
The Jayhawks could not hold on to their lead.
Entering the ninth inning, the Jayhawks had a commanding 9-4 lead.
But Kansas pitcher Josh Wingerd, brought in for relief, allowed the Texas &M hitters to light up the ballpark.
The Aggies scored six runs on five hits in the ninth inning and came away with the second win of the series.