THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013
PAGE 3B
SOFTBALL
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Junior pitcher/outfielder Alex Jones to steal at toulde base during Wednesday afternoon's game at Arrocha Ballpark. Jones contributed three hits and two runs to Kansas's win against Independence Community College.
Kansas takes on Paladins
JOSEPH DAUGHERTY
jdaugherty@kansan.com
The Jayhawks softball team is coming off the first road-series sweep of a Big 12 opponent since April 2007.
Freshman pitcher Kelsey Kessler pitched a no-hitter in the series finale against Texas Tech on Sunday. Kessler was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after her stellar weekend. Kessler made two starts and three appearances and went 2-0 with one save and 15 and two-third innings of shutout softball.
Last weekend also marked the first time a Jayhawk pitcher pitched a no-hitter since March 2007.
"The experience was incredible as far as the honor itself (Pitcher of the Week) hasn't happened in a while so I think that it's important for our team as well being incredible for me," Kessler said. "The no-hitter was a队 thing too, there is a lot of defense that goes into a no-hitter. So other than that I just think it is pretty cool."
Coach Megan Smith said that Furman University is typically a
very well-balanced team dating back from her time coaching at Western Carolina. Smith said the Paladins are pretty good at everything this season: good pitching, good hitting and good defense. Smith said Furman is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country so that's exciting for the girls to see a campus that they've never seen.
.262. The Paladins have two batters that play consistently hitting above .300. Junior Nikki Legg was named Southern Conference Softball Player of the Week, it was announced on Monday. LEGg batted .636 with a .667 on-base percentage and had a .818 slugging percentage in five games for the Paladins this past week.
The Jahawks are headed to Greensville, S.C., to take on Furman in a three-game series. The Paladins are 19-17 and are coming off a series against Western Carolina where the Paladins only won one of the three games. Furman is hitting .251 as a team and allowing opponents to hit
Sophomore third baseman Chanin Naudin hit a home run in each of the three games last weekend. Naudin said that it was a confidence builder for her because she doesn't think of herself as a player who hits a lot of home runs. Kessler and Naudin feel like the team can build on the success that they had last weekend and carry that throughout the rest of the season. This weekend also saw senior Maggie Hull extend her hitting streak to 20 games.
"What we saw last weekend was probably our best example of a complete game effort in all three games," Smith said. "We've had glimpses here and there of certain aspects of our game that have done well, but before last weekend, none of them had come together as consistently as it did those three games. So we just want them to take that same approach this weekend and have that same intensity level that we had."
"That is impressive for Maggie," Smith said. "She continues to impress us with things, and hopefully that doesn't end, and she has more to impress us with for the rest of the year."
Edited by Tyler Conover
BASKETBALL
Weber adds year to contract
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kansas State rewarded basketball coach Bruce Weber for winning a share of the school's first conference championship in 36 years with a raise and a one-year contract extension Wednesday.
Weber's annual salary will increase by $250,000 to $1.75 million next season, and increase by $100,000 each of the remaining years on his original five-year deal. That means Weber will make $2.15 million for the 2017-18 season, the year that has been added to his contract.
continued improvement under Coach Weber and his staff since their arrival last April," said Currie, who moved quickly last March to hire Weber once he was fired from Illinois and Martin left for South Carolina. "I am extremely excited about the forward trajectory of our program under his leadership"
"Whenever you have success, it is a direct reflection of your team and staff, and I have said all along we had great chemistry between our players and staff all year," Weber said. "I'm so proud to be associated with this group of players and coaches, and I can't thank them enough."
Weber, the AP's Big 12 coach of the year, inherited a program that returned most of its key players from an NCAA tournament team. He'll return several key players next season, too, though he'lose top scorer Rodney McGruder and fellow seniors Jordan Henriquez and Martavious Irving.
Weber, who was hired to replace Frank Martin, went 27-8 in his first season in Manhattan. More important, he went 14-4 in the Big 12 and tied rival Kansas for a share of the championship. The fourth-seeded Wildcats were upset by No. 13 seed La Salle in the NCAA tournament.
"Our men's basketball program, from top to bottom, has made
TRACK AND FIELD
Jayhawks prepare for weekend invitational, Kansas Relays
COLIN WRIGHT
cwright@kansan.com
Freshman distance runner Sara Seiwald competes in a heat of the women's 3,000 meter event in the Boid Tommies Classic, a Kansas home meet at Anschutz Sports Pavilion. Seiwald finished in 10:19.99 in the Classic on Jan. 5.
The track and field squad will continue their outdoor season this weekend at the John McDonnell Invitational in Favetteville, Ark., on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
After two successful meets in Arizona last weekend, the Jayhawks are in the middle of the outdoor season with the Kansas Relays just a week away.
On Tuesday, the women's team was named the No.1 team in the nation according to the U.S.Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). They have been in the top-five every week in 2013, including the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The Kansas Relays will have multiple features next week, including world class athletes and special events that will take place in downtown Lawrence on Wednesday and Thursday of the Relays.
The men are improving at the right time. They will be led this weekend by junior Josh Munsch, who ran his fastest 1,500 meters of his career. His time of 3:43.03 has him ranked in the top five in the nation this season.
Munsch will be joined by Brendan Soucie, who ran the 800 meters last weekend in a personal best time of 1:50.21. The junior from Osawatomie has the fastest 800 meter time run by a University male since 2005.
The women will be led by Natalia Bartnovskaya, who has been rewriting the pole vault record book this season. After winning the NCAA indoor championship last month, she broke her own school record
last weekend with a vault of 4.41 meters (14-5.5 ft.).
Joining Bartnovskaya and the No.1 ranked Jayhawks will be the 4x400 team that posted their fastest time of the season last weekend in Arizona. The quartet of seniors Denesha Morris, Taylor Washington, Paris Daniels and junior Diamond Dixon is ranked eighth in the nation right now, with
a season best time of 3:32.26.
The Kansas Relays are April 17-20. The John McDonnell Invitational in Arkansas is this Saturday, with the first event starting at 5 p.m.
Edited by Hayley Jozwiak
RACKETEERING
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bookies indicted for gambling
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses 34 people and 23 companies, many of them registered in Central America, of operating an illegal sports bookmaking business that solicited more than $1 billion in bets.
The 95-page indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City on March 20, accuses the defendants of operating from San Jose, Costa Rica, and Panama City to take bets almost exclusively from gamblers in the U.S.
The indictment says that since 2003 the operation known as Legendz Sports used the companies to operate as payment processors, launder gambling funds and make payouts to customers. It alleges a conspiracy and accuses the defendants of violating federal racketeering and money laundering statutes as well as operating an illegal gambling business.
The indictment also accuses the defendants of violating illegal
gambling statutes in several states,
including Oklahoma, California,
Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, New
York and Texas.
Legendz Sports solicited millions of illegal bets totaling over $1 billion on sports and sporting events from gamblers in the United States," the indictment alleges. As part of the conspiracy, Legendz Sports operated Internet websites and telephone gambling services from facilities located in Panama, the indictment savs.
U. S. Attorney Sanford Coats of Oklahoma City said the charges culminated a multiyear investigation by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service.
"The defendants cannot hide the allegedly illegal sports gambling operation behind corporate vells or state and international boundaries." Coats said.
The acting chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, Mythili Raman, said the government is determined to crack down on illegal online gambling by U.S. citizens, regardless of where the business operates or where the
"These defendants allegedly participated in an illegal sports gambling business, lining their pockets with profits from over a billion dollars in illegal gambling proceeds," Raman said.
Among the individual defendants listed in the indictment is Bartice Alan King, 42, of Spring, Texas, who's accused of conspiring with others to operate gambling services that took wagers almost exclusively from U.S. gamblers.
The enterprise allegedly used bookies in the U.S. to illegally solicit and accept sports wagers as well as settle gambling debts. The 34 individual defendants were allegedly employees, members and associates of the Legendz Sports enterprise, the indictment saves.
Bob Troester, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oklahoma City, said King remained at large Wednesday but that 22 other defendants including King's former wife, Serena Monique King, had been taken into custody.
defendants live.