NBA
Charlotte coach Allan Bristow resigned yesterday under pressure from the Hornets' front office. Page 5.
SPORTS ERSITY DAILY KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24,1996
Hitting bug strikes during 24-5 victory
By Dan Gelston Kansan sportswriter
SECTION B
MANHATTAN — It started with a two-run home run in the first inning and ended with a grand slam in the ninth.
In between, Kansas pounded out a season-high 25 hits and 24 runs in a 24-5 victory against Kansas State last night at Frank Myers Field.
"I don't know if I've ever seen a team hit
it as flat and as hard," Kansas coach
Bobby Randall said. "You have about one of those a year, and we had one tonight."
Kansas evened its overall record at 21-21 and is 11-13 in the Big Eight Conference. K-State fell to 23-17, 7-11.
The Jayhawks scored in the first inning when center fielder Isaac Byrd hit a two-run home run — his third — giving Kansas a 2-0 lead.
"I think Isaac just got everybody going with that one," Kansas first baseman Justin Headley said. "Hitting's contagious, and we were all hitting tonight."
The Jayhawks continued hitting in the second inning when shortstop Joe DeMarco hit another two-run home run.
It progressed into the third, when
Headley drove in the first of his six RBI with a sacrifice fly.
Belovsky (5-5) won his first game since April 2. He pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowing five runs, three earned, and walked just one batter.
line score was 6-1 after three innings, and those were all the runs Kansas starter Josh Belovsky would need.
"I just felt really focused," Belovsky said. "I just got back to doing what I was doing earlier in the year, and more. I had my control going, and I seemed to have lost that for a while.
"With the way the team was swinging the bats, I knew that if I just kept throwing strikes, we'd win."
Kansas was leading 12-5 entering the ninth inning, when it put on its greatest single-inning offensive display of the year.
Les Walrand drove in four of those runs with a pinch-hit grand slam.
The final total in the ninth was enough for one game. The Jayhawks scored 12 runs on eight hits and sent 17 batters to the plate.
"I was sitting on that bench hoping I'd get at a crack at that pitching. Walrdon said, laughing. "I was just watching us; hit after hit. I wanted to at least get a single or something."
See BASEBALL, Page 3.
Heeb chases the Olympic dream
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Kansas senior Sara Heeb is the unofficial American record holder in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Heeb set
Kansas runner sets unofficial record at San Antonio meet
By Adam Herschman
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas senior distance runner Sarah Heeb stood in her Kansas track jacket in front of a stone monument with a big smile across her face.
On top of the monument a big torch blazed brightly in the night sky near the track at the MT. SAC Relays, in San Antonio. The monument's inscription read "Where The World's Best Athletes Compete."
The inscription on the monument fit gold medalist Carl Lewis and decathlete Dan O'Brien who competed at the meet, but it also fit Heeb.
the record last Saturday at the MT. SAC Relays in San Antonio. It was the first time she competed in the steepechase.
She won and unofficially set an American record in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase last Saturday at the MT. SAC Relays. Her time is believed to be the American record in the event, but it has not been confirmed. This was the Trial. It was 3,000.
meter steeplechase at the MT. SAC Relays.
"Before the race I was really nervous," Heeb said. "I just didn't know what to expect."
Heeb had never run the 3,000-meter steeplechase before last Saturday. She crossed the line in 10:34.4, and beat the second place finisher by 12 seconds.
"I wasn't really
AUTOPSY:
Former
Nebraska
quarterback
Brook
Berringer and
his friend
were killed
upon impact
when the
plane
Berringer was
piloting
crashed last
Thursday.
Page 4.
thinking, "I won." Heeb said, "I was thinking, God, that was fun."
The 3,000-meter steeplechase is an outdoor track event that consists of running around a 400-meter track seven and a half times.
Heeb said a runner who had been competing in the event for awhile told her that she thought Heeb had set the
Each time around, the runner encounters four hurdles and one water jump.
record.
"She said, I think that's the American record holder, I think there's only been one other woman to run that faster and she's from Russia," Heeb said. "I couldn't stop smiling."
Heeb's time should qualify her for the Olympic trials in the event. However, since the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase is such a new event it won't be an Olympic sport until the year 2000. The event will be included in the 1997 National Championships.
"I think it's been going on since 1900." Kansas assistant track and field coach Steve Guymon said. "It hadn't been getting kind of big, until the last three years."
Heeb walked on her freshman year as an intermediate hurdler, but between school and cheerleading which she also participated in, she stopped coming out for track.
"She was fast enough, she just didn't have enough confidence," Gymon said. "Plus she was cheering that year, it was just too much to do."
"I wasn't really thinking 'I won.' I was thinking, God, that was fun."
Sara Hoeb
KU director of student housing
During the indoor season this year she was fourth in the Big Eight in the 5,000-meter run, and she was a couple places away from qualifying for the NCAA indoor meet.
The following years Heeb ran on her own with different running groups. She also ran in marathons and road races. She rejoined the track and cross country teams last year.
fied and set a personal record in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:45. That time makes her the fifth best Kansas runner in that event.
She also ranks as the third best Kansas runner in both the 3,000-meter run outdoors, and in the 10,000-meter run outdoors.
in the 5,000-meter indoor run, she's second on the all-time Kansas list.
"She really doesn't know how good she is," Gummon said.
This season she provisionally quali-
Kansas volunteer assistant Tim Weaver was the only staff member of the Kansas track and field team in San Antonio, because of the Columbia Healthcare Kansas Relays.
With a couple of laps remaining, Heeb made her move and took the lead.
Weaver said he told Heeb to run with the pack.
"Sarah is just one of those special kind of people, who if you put her on the track and get her running in the correct direction, rarely is she going to come out second," Weaver said. "Her potential in this is unlimited right now."
Jayhawks looking for some relief
Quarterback depth depleted going into Blue-White game
By Evan Blackwell Kansan sportswriter
Even if that means quarterbacks coach Dave Warner and linebacker coach Tim Phillips, both former college quarterbacks, have to suit up.
"When I told them in the meeting, they laughed," Mason said. "I don't think they thought I was serious, but I was."
Kansas football coach Glen Mason is ready to take some drastic measures to make sure Saturday's annual spring game is played.
"This game will go on."
Injuries have forced Mason to extremes this year at spring drills, which will culminate Saturday with the Blue-White intrasquad game.
The Jayhawks already have lost their top two quarterbacks, senior Ben Rutz and junior Matt Johner, to knee injuries. Joher's injury, which Mason said probably isn't serious, occurred at practice on Sunday.
Glen Mason
A third quarterback, freshman Zac Wegner, has been hobbled by an
Achilles tendon problem. The only completely healthy Kansas quarterback right now is sophomore Hamilton Hill, who entered the spring fourth on the depth chart.
While all the injuries seemingly have made the starting quarterback job wide open for this fall, Mason said that's not unique to this season.
"It's always open," Mason said. "I guess it gives it a little more credibility now when I say that."
"The offense doesn't seem as good," Mason said.
"That's understandable, when you take into consideration all the players that figure into our offense that are sidelined right now."
while the offense has struggled, Mason said the defense was much further along than it was a year ago.
"We've got a lot of experienced players coming back, and we've got good players returning in Ronnie Ward and Tony Blevins," Mason said.
In fact, Mason said that Ward and Blevins, who both are returning from injuries that sidelined them all of last season, have been two of the spring's bonuses.
"They look like they haven't missed a beat, and that's really surprising," Mason said. "After sitting out a year, you expect them to be
rusty, but they haven't shown that one bit."
Ben Rutz
Now that he has used this spring as a jump start for his senior season in the fall, Ward is ready to cap off practice with a strong showing Saturday.
"I've been thinking about nothing but getting out there and making plays." Ward said.
Blevins said the taste of live action he's had this spring has made him that much more anxious for the fall to arrive.
"It's already been fun being out there, and feeling like part of the team again," Blevins said. "The real fun will be when the season starts."
Mason said having fun in Saturday's game was one goal that often was overlooked.
"It should be fun." Mason said. "The game of football is not a lot of fun to practice. Most of those guys never get to touch the ball, and some never even see the ball.
"We like to go into a game situation where it is fun for them."
KANSAS BASKETBALL
Doherty says no to another job
Kansan staff report
Matt Doherty looks to be out of the head coaching job market for now.
The Kansas men's basketball assistant coach has pulled his name from the head president pool.
coaching candidate pool at Manhattan College a little more than a week after doing the same with the head coaching position at Long Beach State.
Doherty has not been communicating with any other schools.
"I just need to be patient," he said. "If I'm patient, then things might be right in the future."
Matt Doherty
Doherty did meet with the Manhattan athletic director on Wednesday. After that meeting, officials at the school in Riverdale, N.Y., were ready to take the process to the
next stage, Doherty said.
But Doherty made the decision late last week not to take the selection process any further after he talked with Kansas coach Roy Williams.
Doherty has been actively involved with player recruitment, including all of the current freshmen class, which includes McDonald's All-Americans Paul Pierce and Ryan Robertson.
Williams' surgery will repair a nose fracture he sustained on March 9 in the Jayhawks' Big Eight Conference tournament game against Kansas State.
In other men's basketball news, both junior forward B.J. Williams and sophomore guard C.B. McGrath will undergo minor surgery in May.
"I feel like we need to have a great recruiting class to replace the current junior class," Doherty said. "I want to be a part of that."
McGrath will have his left wrist repaired. He suffered a stress fracture during a practice in November.
Softball team splits doubleheader
Four Jayhawks named to Big 12 Conference's All-Academic team
Kansan staff report
Playing Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, the Jayhawks lost the first game 3-2 before exploding offensively in the second game, winning 7-1.
It was another doubleheader and another split for the Kansas softball team yesterday.
Kansas moved to 29-22 overall and 9-10 in the Big 12 Conference. Iowa State is 16-20 overall and 6-10 in the conference.
In the afternoon's opening game, the Cyclones scored their three runs early. Iowa State leadoff hitter Angie Balakshin scored in the first inning on an Erin Woods RBI double.
Woods did more damage in the third inning, driving in a run and then scoring herself on a double steal.
The Jayhawks fought back in the fifth innning. Kansas senior Katie Morgan led on
Kansas didn't wait until the fifth inning to score in the second game.
After a Morgan single, the two Jayhawks executed a double steal, scoring Johnson and sending Morgan to second base.
The Jayhawks scored three times in the first inning with sophomore Kristina Johnson delivering a two-run single that scored sophomores Sara Holland and Sarah McCann.
Despite the two-run Jayhawk fifth inning, they remained scoreless for the remainder of the game, and Kansas senior pitcher Beth Robinson (14-9) picked up the loss.
The Jayhawks continued the onslaught as they scored a run in the second inning, two in the third and another in the fourth.
Richins crossed home plate later in the inning on a fielder's choice.
the inning with a double and scored when junior Heather Richins singed.
They pounded out 12 hits and forced the Cyclones to use three pitchers. Morgan led the way, going 3-for-4, and Holland also hit
her 20th double of the season.
The Jayhawks will close their regular season this weekend at home. They will face Oklahoma in a doubleheader a 1 p.m. Saturday and in a single game starting at noon Sunday at Jayhawk Field.
In contrast, Kansas freshman pitcher Sarah Workman pitched a complete game, scattering eight hits and not allowing Iowa State to score until the seventh inning. Workman also struck out eight Cyclones.
The Academic-All Big 12 Conference teams were announced yesterday. Kansas landed four players on the first team and one on the second team.
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McCann, Holland, Morgan and Richins were named to the first team. McCann carries a 3.53 grade point average in elementary education.
Holland has a 3.26 grade point average in psychology, Morgan a 3.02 in physical education and Richins a 3.01 in community health.
Kansas sophomore Julie True also was named honorable mention to the All-Academic team. True has maintained a 3.29 grade point average as an undecided major.
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