University Daily Kansan / Monday, April 18, 1988
Sports
11
John Autenrieth, redshirt freshman strong safety, tries to tackle Frank Hatchett, sophomore tailback, in the last spring scrimmage.
Mason surprised by spring scrimmage
By Elaine Sung
Kansas sportwriter
Saturday marked the last day of Kansas football coach Glen Mason's 15-day experiment.
The result was surprising. Mason had divided his roster into two teams. The Blue team had mostly older and experienced players. The White team had more walk-ons and redshirt freshmen.
The White team scored at least seven points in each quarter and held on to defeat Blue 31-28.
"All we did is take what we perceived as the top guys and put them on one team, and put the others on another," Mason said. "Obviously it should end up differently than it was today."
White, with quarterback Kevin Verdaug, stunned blue by coming out 10-0 in the first quarter. White team's Frank Hattchett ran 87 yards for the first touchdown. Hattchett, a sophomore tailback, rushed for a game-high 123 yards in seven possessions.
Blue team scored the bulk of its points in the second quarter, taking a 21-17 lead when Blue team's linebacker Tony Barker intercepted Verdugo's pass and touched it for a 46-yard touchdown.
Mason did some switching in the second half, exchanging quarterbacks Verdugo and Kelly Donohoe and moving tailback Arnold Snell from Blue team to White.
"Coach Mason wanted me get a feeling for both teams," Snell said. "It's working out best for me because it makes me work harder. I got good competition."
White held Blue scoreless in the third quarter while White's wide receiver Jim New took a 44-yard pass from Donohoe to retake the lead 24-21.
"More than anything is the excitement that I saw in the White team." Mason said. "I just saw them and the way they came out. They took a lead, the lead and then go the lead right back. As the
game went on, they got more and more excited. After the game, the White team was joking around and laughing. The Blue team had their tails between their legs, as they ought to have been."
The work is far from over. Mason and his staff now have some idea of who belongs at what position, but nothing is definite
"Evaluations are still being made." Mason said. "This game will affect our thinking. Nobody has a lock on any position. Now I have the basis to evaluate.
"Offensively we executed pretty well. We threw the ball deeper better today than we did all spring," he said. "We've improved in some areas, but we still have a long way to go. You don't change things and then they finally getting the idea of what it's like to compete."
linebacker Kyle Schenker had two sacks.
The Jayhawks still have many problems. Three of Verdugo's passes were intercepted, and outside
"We're still learning, and we're making a few mistakes," Snell said. "It's all in the learning. This spring went better than last year's. There is more enthusiasm, and people are willing to work. Come September, I hope we'll have it down perfect."
One tradition Mason already has instituted is the post-game run. If the team is practicing in Memorial Stadium, the team has to run back to the lockroom in Parrrot Athletic Center. After Saturday's scrimmage and a team meeting on the field, more than 80 football players in full gear were seen jogging up the hill, past the Campanile, across campus and back down the hill to the lockroom.
Mason also has warned his players that they will have to do some more running, including a 12-minute run before they leave for the semester.
Brett's blast clears Tiger Stadium roof
The Associated Press
DETROIT — George Brett joined some select company yesterday when his fourth-inning home run cleared the Tiger Stadium roof.
Game story p. 12.
Ted Williams, then a rookie, was the first to hit a ball out of the ballpark on May 4, 1939. It didn't happen again until 1953, when Mickey Mantle connected for the first of three times.
"I was 3 years old then," Brett said. "But I know how they all must have felt."
A strong wind, blowing directly toward right field, was gusting between 24-30 mph yesterday, the National Weather Service said.
Detroit manager Sparky Anderson said that Brett's shot clearly was crushed but that he thought the wind been a factor in getting it over the roof.
Only 22 home runs have cleared the roof since the stadium was rebuilt in 1938. Only two people, Harmon Killebrew and Frank Howard, have ever cleared the left field roof. It's 340 feet down the line in left, 325 in right.
Brett's home run, his third of the season and the first of two he hit yesterday, was the first ball out of Tiger Stadium since Kirk Gibson's shot against Milwaukee's Bosio
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't hit it.'
George Brett Royals first baseman
on Sept. 10, 1986.
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't hit it," said Brett, who stood in the box, watching it go out. "I very seldom watch like that. It felt tremendous. I lost it when it went over the roof. I didn't see it bounce, so I figured it went over."
"I didn't want to stand there too long. I'm not the type to show anybody up. The kid who threw it (Jeff Kendall) pitched a no-hitter up to that point."
Brett's second home run of the game, a solo shot in the seventh, bounced off a pillar in the second deck in right.
"I feel very comfortable here," Brett said. "I've always liked to hit in this ballpark. As long as I don't try to pull the ball, just stay with my good punch, I've always got a chance in this park."
Norm Cash has hit the most home runs over the roof, four.
Weekend meets ready track teams for Relays
Others who accomplished the feat include Don Mincher, Boog Powell, Jim Northrup, Jason Thompson, Cecil Cooper, Reggie Jackson, Ruppert Jones and Lou Whitaker.
Kansan sportswriter
By Keith Stroker
The Kansas track teams fought their final skirmishes Saturday and are now preparing themselves for this week's Kansas Relays. The Relays will be Wednesday through Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
The women's team competed against seven teams at the Arkansas Relays in Fayetteville. It was a competitive meet and had some encouraging results, said KU women's coach Cliff Rovello.
Many of the Kansas women's track members competed in events they do not normally compete in, and they did quite well.
"I was resting some of the women for the Relays," Rovelto said. "Others were busy in a lot of events and they displayed good stamina. I was pleased by their effort and I think we are doing pretty well."
were: Yolanda Taylor, first in the triple jump (38-feet-8%), third in 400-meter relay (47.10) and second in the mile relay (34.208); Veronda D'Hara, fourth in the 200-meter run (24.62) and second in the mile relay; Vanessa Johnson, third in the triple jump (35.6%) and second in the 400-meter hurdles (1:02.45); Ann O'Connor, first in the high jump (5-6), Kelly Hagan, second (5-2) and Andrea Schwartz, third (5-0); Kim Hutoeher, second in the 100-meter hurdles (14.81) and Julie Howerton, second in the 800-meter run (21.30).
Some outstanding performances
Sherlanda Brooks and Janice Turner completed the mile relay team, whose time is 3:42.08 is the best in the school's history. Mylene Maharaj, Turner and Brooks completed the 400-meter relay team.
Other teams in Arkansas on Saturday were Alabama, Wisconsin,
See TRACK, p. 12, col. 3
Kansan sportswriter
By Tom Stinson
The Kansas men's and women's tennis teams defeated Colorado in Boulder, placing the men in the lead of the Big Eight Conference and keeping the women in contention.
The men won 8-1, and the women won 6-3.
The men are 13-7 overall and 4-0 in the Big Eight. The women are 18-5 and 3-2 in the league.
"When you're the champion every-body is after you," men's coach Scott Perelman said of the defending Big Eight champion Kansas men. "They all want a piece of you, which is fine.
"You've got to be able to deal with that from a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint, and I think we've done that," he said.
The Jayhawk men won all three of the doubles matches and lost only the No. 5 singles match. Senior Larry Pascal, who was undefeated in league play, lost in three sets.
"I thought we played pretty well." Perelman said. "Playing in the altitude is an adjustment. Obviously, in this league, with every point counting
Kansas had to adjust to the altitude of Boulder, where the Jayhawks lost 6-4 two years ago.
toward the championship, we'd like to win 9-0.
"I think we're in control of our own destiny. We've got the talent to determine the championship," he said.
The Kansas women went ahead 5-1 in the singles and won one of the doubles matches by default to stay in the Big Eight title race.
Seniors Tracy Treps and Marie Hibbard, junior Jessons Jonnet and Susie Berglund, and freshman Stacy Stotts won in singles.
"It's a mental thing," Hayes said. "Earlier we were very confident. Our confidence level has to be the same as two months ago when we were 11-0. Now we are playing better tennis, and our confidence has to be where it was. And I know it's going to happen."
KU baseball rematch with K-State slated
Hayes said the women's doubles play needed to improve for Kansas to contend for the conference championship.
The doubles team of Treps and Stotts won by default after a Colorado player was injured in the first set of the match.
"In singles we went out and did real well," said women's coach Eric Hayes. "In doubles, every match we were up. The girls just got tenative."
Kansas catcher Troy Mentzer gets the force out at home plate and looks toward first base for a double play against Kansas State. The game was halted in the 8th innning yesterday because of rain.
By Tom Stinson Kansan sportswriter
Kansas State had the lead, Kansas had the momentum, and everybody got the rain.
Yesterday's baseball game in Hoglund-Maupin Stadium was called in the top of the eighth inning with a 3-1 victory. It will be completed at 3 p.m. today.
"It's a real shame," said KU coach Dave Bingham. "We almost had the game in. We were coming back well; being just one run down. We had two innings and we never know what will happen. We'll find out tomorrow."
Big Eight conference rule states that a four-game series cannot have more than two seven-inning games. Because both of Saturday night's games were seven innings, the teams must to complete a nine-inning contest.
Kansas State, 24-13, won the other three games of the series, extending the Jayhawks' losing streak to nine games.
The Wildcats won 12-7 Friday night, 22-14 in the first game of doubleheader Saturday night and 23-2 in Saturday's second game.
Yesterday, the Wildcats took an early lead scoring four runs off of three hits and two Jayhawk errors in the second inning. Kansas came back with three runs in that inning with
See BASEBALL, p. 12, col.
Former Kansas track team co-captain selected as coach
By Keith Stroker
Kansan sportswriter
In the 85 years of Kansas track, only nine men have held the position of KU coach. On Friday Gary Schwartz became the 10th.
Friday, Gary Schwartz became the luth. Schwartz, a 1966 Kansas graduate, was the coach of the University of Tennessee women's track and field team until Friday. He had coached the Volunteers since 1984. Kansas Reles Manager Al Fereshetian was pleased with the choice of a well-respected coach.
"Gary was a fine selection to replace Timmy (Bob Timmons). "Fereshetian said.
"He will have to build a new system here, but he will blend in well because of his background in this sport."
Schwartz was the 1966 Big Eight discuss champion as a junior and a KU co-captain as a senior. Schwartz's experience as a track member and as a women's coach should work well when KU combines the men's and women's teams next year.
Timmons, the current Kansas men's track coach, was the coach during the final two years of Schwartz's college career. Timmons said it is "necessary to be a track coach when he was in
"Gary was a good student, had a good personality and was a very dedicated athlete," Timmons said. "The men on the team liked him very much and he was a good leader. He was a hard worker who never tried to get out of things just because he was an athlete."
college.
Schwartz was selected by a committee of seven people: a faculty representative, athletic director Bob Frederick, assistant athletic director Richard Konzem, women's track member Angie Helmen, men's track
The committee interviewed each of the seven thoroughly before selecting Schwartz.
member Michael Rich, KU alumnus Bill Penney and a Kansas Athletic Corporation board member.
The Athletic Department had been accepting applications for the job since late February, though it was known last August that Timmons would retire after this season. Seventy applications were received by April 1 when the selection committee reviewed them and narrowed its choice to seven finalists.
Schwartz was an assistant coach at Ohio University, the University of Massachusetts and West Point before he moved on to Penn State. He was an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions in 1971 and became the coach of the women's team there in 1979. Schwartz remained there until moving on to Tennessee see.
While with the Volunteers, Schwartz's women's teams finished in the NCAA's top 10 from 1985-87, including fourth in outdoor and second in indoor competition in the 1986-87 season.