COLLEGE FOOTBALL Former Nebraska quarterback Brook Berringer was killed in a plane crash yesterday. Page 6.
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1996
Heptathlete sets new record
Brian Flink / KANSAN
Kansas sophomore Candy Mason, right, begins her heat of the 800-meter run in the heathpatellum at Columbia Healthcare
Kansas Relays yesterday in Memorial Stadium. Mason won the hentathon, setting a new school record.
By Adam Herschman
Kansan sportswriter
Mason wins Relays event, meets goal
Dreams do come true.
Kansas sophomore Candy Mason first saw Ann O'Connor's Kansas heathapthion record on the wall of Anschutz Sports Pavilion about five years ago.
"I saw that record when I was, gosh, I was probably 14 or 15 years old when I came to indoor meets up here for nationals." "Mason said."
SECTION B
After seeing O'Connor's name in the Kansas track and field outdoor records list, Mason broke her score of 5,319 points yesterday at the Columbia Healthcare Kansas Relays.
"She's wanted her name on the wall for a very long time, even when she was in high school," Laurel Mason, Mason's mother, said. "She'd come to KU meets and dream of having her name on the wall, so it's a great day for her."
After being redshirted and missing the outdoor season last year because of a stress fracture, Mason's name will now replace O'Connor's after only her second collegiate heptathlon.
Besides setting the school record, Mason provisionally qualified for the NCAA Outdoor championships. Her score of 5,329 points was good enough for a second place finish to Lisa Wright of Barton County Community College.
"My technique is catching up with me," Mason said.
Mason was only 21 points away from provisionally qualifying for the Olympic trials.
sne also set personal records in the 100-meter hurdles, javelin and high jump.
Going into the final event, the 800-meter run, Kansas junior Michael Evers told Mason what she needed to run for the provisional qualifying scores.
"Right before she ran the 800, she knew what she had to get to provisionally qualify and to get the record," Kansas sophomore Molly Smith said. "Amer (Mounday) paced her through the 800, so Amber did a good job with that."
Mounday, who finished sixth with 4,355 points, helped her teammate out by pacing her in the 800.
lap, I wouldn't be able to finish on the
lap second because of my adrenaline. I had to run a 2:17 to score 5,370, which is
provisional for the trials, and I ran 2:18."
"If she wouldn't have paced me, I would have been just hauling." Mason said. "I would've been going so fast on the first
Freshman Mandy Schroeder, who finished ninth with 3,720 points in the heptathlon, said Mason knew how to stay focused.
"I really look up to her, and hope I can be as good as she is someday,"
Schroeder said.
"When she came in last year, she didn't like to be beat and she didn't like to ever get second," Wilder said. "So I knew she had the guts to do everything. If she's dissatisfied with something she'll do better next time."
Big Eight baseball race is up for grabs
Jayhawks hope to sweep series against Wildcats
By Dan Gelston Kansan sportswriter
Kansas helped its chances with a two-game sweep of Nebraska this week at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium. That allowed the two teams to swap the fifth and seventh spots. The two will play again in a three-game series this weekend in Lincoln.
There are only seven teams in the conference, Colorado doesn't field a team. Only six teams will qualify for the Big Eight Tournament. May 16-19 in Oklahoma City.
With a little more than a week left in the Big Eight Conference season, all seven spots are still up for grabs.
A big roadblock for Kansas has been winning games on the road. Kansas is 0-8 in Big Eight road games and has not won a road game
In just one week Missouri has gone from first to third place and Kansas has gone from fourth to seventh and then back up to its current fifth spot.
See BASEBALL, Page 2.
Long Beach job not right for Doherty
Kansas second baseman Josh Kliner throws out a Nebraska baserunner.
But assistant coach indicates he may take Manhattan post
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
Kansas assistant coach Matt Doherty is staying with the men's basketball team for now.
Doherty withdrew his name Tuesday from the candidate pool for the coaching job at Long Beach State, which hired Syracuse assistant coach Wayne Morgan on Wednesday.
"It was more of a gut feeling," Doherty said of his decision. "That wasn't the most ideal fit for me."
Long Beach State wasn't the right move for Doherty, but Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., might be. Doherty said that he had been in contact with the Ignersky, who are looking to replace.
Jaspers, who are looking to replace Fran Fraschilla.
Fraschina recently became St. John's coach.
Long Beach State's time frame was similar. Doherty said the 49ers contacted him on April 4 or 5, and then interviewed him in Long Beach, Calif., on Sunday.
Doherty was Manhattan expected to name a new coach in the next two weeks.
Matt Doherty
Upon returning to Lawrence on
Monday, though Doherty decided
that the opportunity was not for him. But it did look quite promising...
"I felt I was in a good position," he said. "I felt confident that they were comfortable with me."
On Monday, Doherty decided he would stay at Kansas. He made the decision official when Kansas coach Roy Williams called him on the telephone that evening.
"When I told Coach Williams, my wife was there in the living room, and she let out a little scream of happiness," Doherty said. "That was the first time she really heard it from my mouth. She knows how good I have it here."
Doherty knows it, too. He said he
Doherty knows it, too. He said he felt fortunate to be working for Williams and Bob Frederick, Kansas athletic director, and with the Jayhawk players. That was reemphasized during Monday's basketball banquet.
"But I already realized what I have," Doherty said. "I don't feel I have to go get a job. Working for Coach Williams and Bob Frederick, I've got one of the best jobs in all of college basketball — head coaching or assistant coaching."
Wavne Morgan
However, Doherty would probably move on to become a coach at some point, Kansas sophomore guard C.B. McGrath said. If that time comes, Doherty will have a good set of qualifications backing him up.
"He wants everything done the right way," McGrath said. "He's very intense about getting things done."
Kansas junior guard Jerod Haase agreed that Doherty was a perfectionist, but two of the top college coaches taught him those skills.
"He learned things from the best coaches around — Dean Smith at North Carolina and Coach Williams," Haase said. "I think it will help our team out quite a bit to have him back."
Batty personality makes softball jester a gem to her team
Katie Morgan contributes with humor and hitting
By Jenni Carlson
Kansan sportswriter
Katie Morgan stood behind the portable backstop, feeding orange softballs into the pitching machine.
True. "This is the last one."
"Come on, Julie. Make it good," Morgan yelled to sophomore center fielder Julie
And with that, Morgan went into a pitcher's wind up and ended it by placing the softball into the machine. It whizzed out toward True. She swung and missed.
"I'm having enough trouble hitting without you screwing around," True holder.
morgan was doing her Jodie Foster impression from The Silence of the Lambs in the back of the bus. Some of her teammates prompted her to go to the front and do it for everyone.
Last season on the trip to Oklahoma State,
"I said, 'This is Clarice Starling. He're really impulsive. He never stops,'" Morgan recalled. "They were just rolling in the aisles."
Laughing, being good-natured and having a good time is a way of life for Katie Morgan, a senior left fielder on the Kansas softball team.
She doesn't consider herself a team motivator, but Morgan does have a positive impact on the Jayhawks.
"She makes everyone laugh," True said. "And she really doesn't hang out with a particular group."
Morgan proudly admits that most of what makes her who she is comes from her mother, Lynne, who rode on the team bus back from Omaha, Neb., after two games against Creighton on Wednesday, telling stories like a teen-ager the entire time.
Then, there are Lynne Morgan's year-ending videos. She compiles video tape, some real and some staged, on her handheld cam
corder and puts it together after the season.
"The last few years she's put a video together, and it's worth at least a couple laughs," Kansas softball coach Gayle Luedek said. Much of Morgan's personality comes from her mother, but Morgan got the softball bug from her father. Gordon Morgan played major league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox before becoming his daughter's high school
Bests and worsts can help train those who don't know sports
See MORGAN,Page 2.
When I took the job of associate sports官员, I thought I could make
and more widely
read. And I had a
plan — I was
going to write my
columns so that
the readers don't
have to be Sports-
Center junkies to
follow them.
But to be honest, I've fallen flat on my face in that attempt.
So in order to make up for my failed idea, I'm going to focus my
ASSOCIATE
SPORTS
EDITOR
going to learn about efforts today on writing about the
best and worst of the '90s. For those of you who haven't been glued to Channel 18 for the last six years, I'll give you a Cliff's Notes summary to get you caught up in the sporting world.
To do this, though, I've called upon a virtual dictionary of sports knowledge, Justin Willett, Overland Park senior.
Clutch performers: Basketball: Michael Jordan. Three consecutive NBA titles and the leader of this year's Chicago Bulls, who may be the best ever. Football: Troy Alkman. Quietly, this hired gun has stepped up in every big game he's played in. He's also got the hardware to prove it — Super Bowl rings. Baseball: Tony Gwynn. A strike-shortened season was the only thing that separated him
from a legitimate shot at batting .400. He's quietly won five batting crowns. Hockey: Mario Lemieux. Through chronic back pain and Hodgkin's disease, this humble star has managed to win two Stanley Cups.
Dumbest athlete: This was a tough one. But after some consideration, Michael Irvin, the hotel party boy with drugs and self-employed models, takes the top prize. Boxers Mike Tyson and Tommy Morrison get the parting gifts for the runner-up awards.
best career move: Marcus Allen. After realizing that he would have been a second-stringer in Los Angeles, Allen took off for Kansas City and was reborn with the Chiefs. He has reminded fans that there is no better short-yardage runner in the
gametoday.
Worst career move: Felipe Lopez. Why play for a consistent top-five team at Kansas when you can play for Big East doormat St. Johns and have to carry them on your shoulders?
Most classy figure: Jim Valvano. The late basketball coach personified everything that is right with athletics. His passion for basketball and life still lives on. 'Other candidates include tennis' Pete Sampras, Roy Williams, the NBA's Grant Hill and baseball's Cal Ripken.
Least classy: Although I might be able to fill the entire Kansan with names in this category, some anti-role models stand out more than others. Vince Coleman: Despite trying to turn his career around, throwing a
Most underdert: The NBA's Glen Rice, with a nod to unsung heroes
firecracker at a knee-high autograph seeker gives Vince the award. However, great efforts in this category by baseball's Albert Belle, and the NBA's Nick Van Exel, Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman were noted.
Most overrated: Ron Powlus. Has this Notre Dame quarterback and Helsman Trophy candidate done anything significant besides getting hurt in his college career? A consolatory pat on the back goes to the NBA's injury-prone Chris Webber, and the 1995-96 Florida Gators defense who looked more like Gainesville High School against the high-powered Nebraska offense in the Orange Bowl.
Vin Baker and Tony Gwynn. After a storybook college career, culminating with a national championship, Rice has gone largely unnoticed in Miami and now Charlotte, where he's averaged about 20 points a game each season.
Best SportsCenter duo: Dan Patrick and Craig Kilborn. From Patrick's "Gone" to Kilborn's "Jumanji," there is no finer tag team in sports broadcasting.
Sports figure that America would be better off without: Top vote得客 for this esteemed prize were football owners Jerry Jones and Art Modell. But neither greedy owner stands in the same class as Reds boss Marge Schott. This racist, insensitive dog-loving owner is in a class of her own.
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