COLLEGE BASKETBALL Kansan sportswriter Jenni Carlson reveals important information regarding the future of Jacque Vaughn. Page 4.
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MAY 6, 1996
Thanks for your support
SECTION B
Turn out the lights — the party's over.
After two semesters of speaking to the sports world at this University via the printed word, it's time to hang up my keyboard and mouse.
What I have been doing since last August is sharing my normal convers
25,000 of my closest friends
Sports is my life, and although I gave up on my dreams of being an athlete years ago, I'm still living out those fantasies as a journalist.
Judging from the number of comments I still get from players and fans, I will be
remembered as the guy who dogged the Kansas football team.
I haven't lost a minute of sleep worrying about it, though.
There weren't many who thought the Jayhawks would finish with a No.9 ranking and 10 victories.
This time I'll be six hours away, but I plan to make it back for at least one game at Memorial Stadium, so save me a seat on the 45-vard line.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Every high school, college and professional league should adopt a "three strikes, and you're out" rule. Any athlete who is arrested three times should be dismissed from their team and league.
That means former Nebraska football player Christian Peter wouldn't even have been given the chance to get drafted. Perhaps this should apply to Hall of Fame candidates as well, since former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor was picked up by police for attempting to buy crack.
I wouldn't want to leave without leaving my mark, so here goes.
It's time for the Kansas University Athletic Corporation to start pouring its top-secret bank account into a new football stadium. While having one of the oldest stadiums west of the Mississippi River is a great honor, it's time to tear Memorial Stadium down and build a new one in its place.
My only stipulations are that it should have more restrooms and natural grass. Let the Jayhawks play in Arrowhead Stadium for a few years while the new stadium is being constructed.
Royals CEO David Glass is pulling the wool over an entire city's eyes. When George Brett and his brother attempted to buy the team last year, he sent them away, further rumors that Glass wants the team for himself.
Soon he may pull an Art Model and move them to the city with the highest bid for a new ballpark. Without strong support from local fans, one of our area's greatest treasures will soon be gone.
I plan to attend the Royals-Blue Jays game on the 17th. My guess is that only about 9,000 others will be there as well, and that is pitiful.
Dennis Rodman is just like Deion Sanders. He's another example of how corporations and the media exploit players to the point that they become schizophrenics.
This column can't end without a barrage of kudos and thanks. My four years here have been shaped by many people whom I have met and shared time.
I've had many outstanding professors who have taught me more that what was on their syllabus. Four who immediately come to mind are Allan Cigler, Dennis Dalley, Tom Eblen and Carole Rich.
While it is easy to remember all of the negative feedback I have received, I can't go out without thanking everyone who had positive things to say about my work.
I guess that's about it. Now it's off to Liberal and the rest of my life. Our sports conversations must come to a close.
But if all of you want to come out there to chat, that's fine with me.
From those who called and wrote letters, to all the nameless faces who come up to me in class or at a bar, thanks a million.
Former Kansas track and field team member Jim Ryun in Lawrence recently. Many Big Eight schools are and current Jayhawk Lewis Theoold pose for a picture actively recruiting foreign athletes.
TRACKING DOWN A CHAMPIONSHIP
Foreign athletes are recruited heavily by many Big Eight teams
By Adam Herschman Kansan sportswriter
Two days after arriving in Kansas from Sierra Leone, Africa, freshman Pierre Lisk walked into Anschutz Sports Pavilion for the first time.
"I didn't go to the track office first," Lisk said. "I didn't know where the office was."
At the beginning of the 1993 spring semester and the indoor track and field season, Lisk approached the Kansas track and field coaching staff unannounced. After the coaches heard his track times, Lisk was allowed to walk-on.
Lisk, who attended school at Prempeh College in Kumasi, practiced with the team for weeks to see if he could handle Division I track.
"They said come to practice tomorrow." Lisk said.
After redshirting his freshman year, Lisk, now a junior, earned a scholarship and proved he could handle Division I track just fine. He holds school records in the indoor 55- and 200-meter dashes.
Lisk is one of only a few foreign athletes who have competed for the Kansas track and field team.
The reluctance to recruit foreign talent may have hurt Kansas in the past 15 years. In fact, the Jayhawks have not won a Big Eight Conference championship in track and field or cross country since 1983. In the meantime, other schools such as Iowa State, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State, whose rosters are rich with foreign athletes, have dominated the conference and the nation.
In fact, even Lisk was not recruited to run track for Kansas, instead he came to Lawrence to get an education. He is majoring in mechanical engineering.
Kansas has a long legacy of shy.
ing away from foreign track and field athletes.
Former Kansas track and field coach Bob Timmons did not recruit foreign athletes during his 23 years as Kansas' track and field coach. Before his retirement in 1988, Timmons had won 27 track and field Big Eight titles, three NCAA indoor titles and an NCAA cross country title.
Timmons said that, in his time, coaching could win a national championship, but now recruiting wins one.
"You're not going to win at the national level without foreign athletes," Timmons said.
Colorado track and field coach Mark Wetmore said that his team
does not actively recruit foreign athletes, but he knows the price and the rewards of international recruiting.
"Searching the world for international superstars is an easy way out." Wetmore said.
However, plenty of other college track and field programs do recruit foreign athletes.
"You don't have to be a coach, you have to be a travel agent," Wetmore said.
Reliance on foreign track and field talent raises questions larger than a school's win and loss record. Critics of foreign students in track and field say that the United States is not only failing to develop it's own young athletes, it is also training the very stars who will compete against the United States in the Olympics.
Timmons was part of Kansas' 40-year dynasty of winning Big Eight Conference titles in either cross country, indoor or outdoor track.
Timmons was opposed to recruiting foreign athletes because they would compete against the United States in international competition.
"It goes clear back to the Olympic games for me," Timmons said. "I wanted to see Americans standing on the top step of the Olympic podium."
Timmons said schools bring in foreign athletes, train them, give them scholarships, and then athletes go back and represent their
home countries in international competitions. After the foreign athletes win, Timmons said, some countries turn around and say that the United States' athletic system is a poor excuse for a world level program.
"What it was, was that we were doing the job for any athlete who was in our school, and they were whipping us at the Olympic games, and maybe they got all their good training in this country," Timmons said. "That's why I was really opposed to it."
Timmons said there have only been two national track and field championships won in the last 20 years without international athletes.
"I know Wisconsin won one in cross country, and Tennessee won one in track without foreign athletes. As far as I know those are the only two that have been won in the last 20 years without foreign athletes."
Kansas track and field coach Gary Schwartz said that 10 years ago he thought he didn't have to recruit foreign athletes, but in reality, to stay competitive a coach needed to get quality athletes from overseas.
At present, Kansas has only four foreign athletes on the track and field team, and only one runs on the cross country team. Besides Lisk, senior long jumper Ajmon Moxey is from Nassau, Bahamas, junior spinner Carleen Roberts is from Spanish Town, Jamaica and sophomore distance runner Lewis Theobald is from Nepean, Ontario.
"I'm recruiting the foreign athletes who are interested in an education," Schwartz said. "I think there's a difference to win at all cost and recruiting within an educational framework."
Nebraska's women won NCAA indoor titles in 1983 and 1984.
Iowa State and Nebraska are the only Big Eight schools that have won a national title since 1984. Iowa State's men won NCAA cross country titles in 1989 and 1994.
Both teams won their titles with the help of foreign athletes and also dominated the Big Eight Conference during that same time period.
See ATHLETES, Page 10.
Women's tennis season is over
By Spencer Duncan
Kansan sportswriter
It was a loss that will linger in the minds of the No. 16 Kansas women's tennis team for a long time.
The Jayhawks lost 5-4 to Big Eight Conference rival Oklahoma State in the Central Regional NCAA Women's Tennis Championships yesterday at the Allen Field House courts.
Oklahoma State will move on to the Sweet 16, May 18 to 26 in Tallahassee, Fla., and Kansas will be staying home.
"We had some chances to win this one," Kansas women's tennis coach Chuck Merzbacher. "Nobody quit, gagged or choked. We just didn't get it done, and I feel bad for the team."
With the overall score tied at four, the championship came down to the doubles match between Kansas' Bianca Kirchhof and Christie Sim and Oklahoma State's Carolina Hadad and Monika Wirthova.
Kirchhof and Sim won the first set,
6-4, and took a 1-0 lead in the match.
However, Kansas lost the second set. 3-6.
With the match tied at 1-1, the team that won the third set would go to the championships.
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Sim and Kirchhof took a 4-3 lead in the set until Hadad and Wirthova fought back and tied it at four.
The teams then traded points and played five points at deuce before Hadad and Wirthova broke Kirchhof and Sim and took a 5-4 lead. Sim and Kirchhof could not regain the lead and lost the set, 6-4.
"They just played very well and were able to squeak it out," Sim said. "I feel bad because we should have been able to win."
Kansas sophomore Maria Abatogui returns a shot in her match with Monika Wirthova of Oklahoma State yes-
They lost the match, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4,
and Kansas lost the finals, 5-4.
"I said coming in here that we had nothing to lose," Lubicz-Majewski said. "I have no words for what this team has done. They did a great job, and this is a great reward for our season."
Oklahoma State women's tennis coach Julius Lubicz-Majewski was impressed with the Cowgirls' victory.
Kansas had opportunities to earn the victory.
To begin the competition, the Jayhawks and Cowgirls split the singles matches, 3-3. Teams were awarded one point for each individual match.
terday. Abatoglou won the match, but the Cowgirls defeated the Jawhaws to advance to the Sweet 16.
Kansas' Kylie Hunt and Jenny Atkerson won their matches in two sets.
Maria Abatjoglou took her match to three sets before defeating Monika Wirthova. 6-3.
Kirchhof lost her match, 3-6, 4-6, to Hadad. Kris Sell and Christie Sim both took their matches to three sets
before losing.
Kansas then needed to win two of its three doubles matches for the victory.
Hunt and Atkerson defeated Martina Hautova 6-2, 6-3 to give Kansas the first doubles win. But Amy Trytek and Abatjoglu lost to Correne Stout and Kym Hazzard, 6-7, 1-6.
The championship then came down to Sim's and Kirchhof's match.
The Jayhawks were the No. 1 seed in the region and 11-0 against conference opponents this season. They were also 1-0 against the Cowgirls.
Making it to Tallahassee had been a team goal.
"Winning this was a goal of ours and something that we had expected," Sim said. "We are a top 16 team, and we should be in, but we are not. This is very disappointing."
Second baseman makes history at Oral Roberts
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team was able to achieve some long-awaited goals last weekend.
The Jayhawks split a two-game series with Oral Roberts University, but for the first time in a while, Kansas got strong back-to-back pitching performances.
Senior second baseman Josh Kliner rewrote the Kansas record books with the Jayhawks'
14-4 victory yesterday afternoon.
Kliner went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI. The RBI brought his season total to 72, eclipsing the old record of 71 set by Darryl Morrone in 1994.
His 22nd double moved him into a tie with Jeff Niemeier's 1993 record for first on Kansas' single-season list.
Mario Oipari (2-2) won his second consecutive start for Kansas (23-27) allowing three earned runs while striking out five in seven
innings.
Kliner said he had been encouraged with the team's play.
"The guy they started was good but we batted him hard and wore him down in the third innning," Kansas coach Bobby Randall said. "Dimmuck's grand slam was really the key."
Kansas shortstop Joe DeMarco was 4-for-4, including hitting his fifth home run of the year, and Josh Dimmick hit his first career grand slam for Kansas in the third inning.
"It was really big to bounce back from yesterday and actually earlier in the week," he said. "It gave us the feeling of how good we could be if we get focused and come to play."
Kansas received its first strong pitching outing on Saturday when Josh Belovsky pitched the Javhawks' first complete game of the year.
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But Belovsky (5-6) and Kansas lost 3-1 on Saturday.
Kansas will play Rockhurst at 7 tonight at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
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