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SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TRACK AND EIELD
Squad splits up for meets
Athletes pass up Ames in favor of Fayetteville, Seattle
BY TAYLOR BERN
While the schedule has the Kansas track and field team headed for Ames, Iowa, this weekend, several layhawks will find themselves at other locations across the country in hopes of improving upon provisional marks before the Big 12 Indoor Championships on Feb. 23 and 24.
The ISU Classic will give Kansas a good look at the 300 meter track on which they will compete for a Big 12 title, but it will not necessarily offer the best competition at this point in the season. A handful of competitors will instead travel to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., and two will fly to the University of Washington in Seattle.
Most of the 13 lashwavers who currently rank in the top five in the
Big 12 for their respective events will make the trip to Fayetteville for the Tyson invitational. This includes sophomore thrower Egor Agafianov, who leads the Big 12 and ranks second in the nation with his mark of 74-0 3/4 in the weight throw.
joining him will be sophomore thrower Zita Tarasosa, who currently has the fourth best throw in the big 12, and junior Ashley Brown, whose time of 8.43 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles puts her at second in the conference.
Pole vaulters Kate Sultanova, junior, and Brittany Parker, freshman, who rank first and second in the Big 12, will also travel to Arkansas, Tom Hays, vertical jump coach, thinks that Favetteville offers the best venue for his athletes.
Hays added that the faster track and bigger poles used in Arkansas will help when it comes to the conference meet.
"We were going there because it's the national meet surface and its prob
ably the best place in the country to jump high at. Hays said.
Junior distance runners Colby Wissel and aul Hefferon will travel to Seattle for the UW Invitational, and both will run their first 5,000-meter runs of the season.
"I'm excited, but I'm also a bit nervous," Heffron said. "It's basically my only chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 5,000, so there's a lot of pressure on the race."
Kansan sportswriter Taylor Bern can be contacted at tbern@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kelly Lanigan
BASEBALL
Freshman pitcher plays with fire
BY SHAWN SHROYER
Heading into his first series of the season, coach Ritch Price didn't know what to expect from the five pitchers he had slated to start.
The group consisted of two returning sophomores, two transfers and a freshman. To make Price even more uneasy, his own pitching coach, Ryan Graves, wasn't sure how he'd perform either.
"Couch Graves and I talked before the first game and I asked him point blank. How are we going to pitch?" He said, "Coach, I have no idea." Price said.
All five pitchers came away with victories, but it was freshman left bander Wally Marcel who had his coaches most excited.
"I can't tell you how thrilled we were with him." Price said. "The competitiveness, the fire and the emotion he showed were really impressive."
His competitive side came out in the second innning after the first three Hawaii Hilo batters loaded the bases. Marceliel responded with back-to-back strikeouts. Although two runs eventually scored before he got out of the jam, Marceliel showed his coaches what they needed to see.
"I just couldn't believe how competitive he was in that environment and that was the biggest thing I
thought he brought to the table"
Price said
The environment Marcel pitched in wasn't that foreign to him. While Hilo was thousands of miles from home for most jayhawks, it was only a short distance from Marcel's
hometown of Kailua, Hawaii.
With the familiar surroundings came added pressure. Marcelic had nearly 20 supporters, including family mem
bers, friends and high school teachers, on hand to watch his collegiate debut. He was also familiar with some of the opposition.
"It was my first collegiate start, playing against some of my ex-taminates from high school and it was pretty hard playing against them because they would just talk a lot to me," Marcel said.
Outside of the second inning; Marceliel was on cruise control. The second inning proved to be the only inning he allowed the Vulcans to score or even earn a hit. The southpaw ended up striking out six batters in five innings.
Marcel's performance wasn't a fluke. In fact, he was a hot commodity coming out of high school as the No. 1 recruit in Hawaii.
He even caught the attention of at least one major league baseball team as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays picked him in the 36th round of last spring's MLB amateur draft.
But before he made a final decision, he talked to Price and thought back to the first time he met him at a high school baseball camp sponsored by Stanford University.
"I met coach Price at the Stanford camp and right from that point I knew I was going to play for him," Marceli said.
Price said he was excited Marcel chose to come to Kansas and so are the pitchers Marcel is competing with for a weekend starting spot.
"I'm not sure what his role's going to be, but he's got a lot of talent, a lot of potential, and he's definitely going to help us out this spring season, 2007," sophomore pitcher Nick Cazz said.
Price has yet to name weekend and midweek starters, but he has high hopes that the young Hawaiian will thrive in whatever role he's given.
"He has a chance to be the best freshman we've had since I've been here," Price said.
Kansan sportswriter Shawn Shroyer can be contacted at sshroyer@kansan.com.
Edited by Trevan McGee
Smith, Salina junior, is looking forward to returning to the court as Kansas takes on Arkansas this Sunday, and said the time off might have renewed her passion for tennis.
》 WOMEN'S TENNIS
Smith ready for Razorbacks KU player returns after three months on the injured list
"I've been really sick and injured," Smith said. "Our whole team has been in the same situation."
Yes, you have to go all the way back to the North Carolina Tournament on Nov. 12 to find Smith's name in the box score.
BY RUSTIN DODD
Do not blame Stephanie Smith if she does not vividly remember the last time she took the court for Kansas.
"Well, it was in the fall." Smith said. "It must have been early November."
It has been awhile.
“It's tough having to sit out so much. I've learned how much I love playing and how much I miss it when I'm not.”
NFL
Cowboys hire Wade Phillips to replace retired Parcells
Smith's story parallels the entire season thus far. It has not been poor coaching or terrible play that has led the layhawks to a 1-5 start. Instead, they have been doomed by a few unfortunate bounces, a demanding early season schedule, and an inability to foster a lineup of six healthy players.
IRVING, Texas — Twice during his introduction of Wade Phillips as Dallas Cowboys coach, Jerry Jones had to stop and gather himself. The decision was that emotional for the team owner.
"Arkansas is great competition," Smith said. "It could be a great win for us. We're just trying to stay positive and get over the hump."
"We needed to get it right," Jones said, pausing as tears welled up in his eyes. "In my mind, we got it right."
Kansan sportswriter Rustin Dodd can be contacted at rdodd@kansan.com.
Smith and junior Ksenia Bukina have both missed time this year. While Bukina's status is unknown, Smith should give the Jayhawks a complete lineup against Arkansas. A healthy Smith might be able to provide the spark needed to get the Jayhawks past a tough Arkansas squad.
The Razorbacks will venture into Sunday's duel ranked 55th in the country. The team is 4-1 on the season and had a strong showing against Sam Houston State and St. Louis last weekend. The Razorbacks captured both duals 7-0. The Razorbacks also feature the 65th ranked singles player in the country, sophomore Ela Kaluder. No.
1 singles player Elizavita Avdeeva
will have to at her best to drop
Kaluder, who has not dropped a
singles match all spring.
By just glancing at the 4-1 record of Arkansas and the 1-5 record of Kansas, this contest might appear to be a mismatch. Yet, it is still a winnable duel for the Jayhawks. These two teams met a year ago at Arkansas and the Razorbacks squeaked out a 4-3 victory. In addition, Arkansas' lone defeat came at home to Tulsa, 4-3. Kansas lost at home to the same Tulsa squad 4-3 on Jan. 21st.
Edited by Trevan McGee
Phillips was hired Thursday, providing Dallas with an experienced replacement for Bill Parcells and someone well-versed in the 3-4 defense.
Maybe more significantly for Jones was getting a coach who can win now. The Cowboys haven't won a postseason game in 10 seasons, the longest drought in team history.
The seventh coach in team history, Phillips is only the second to arrive in Dallas with previous
NFL head coaching experience.
The other was Parcells, who retired
Jan. 22 after four seasons with the
Cowboys.
Phillips, defensive coordinator at San Diego the past three seasons, has a 48-42 head coaching record over three seasons with Buffalo, two with Denver and season-end-interim stints with New Orleans and Atlanta. The 59-year-old son of longtime Houston Oilers coach Burn Phillips has been in the NFL for 30 of the last 31 seasons.
Rusty Kennedy/Associated Press
Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury stops a shot in front of Philadelphia Flyers' Todd Fedoruk in the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday in Philadelphia.
A form dive
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