Section:
B
Shockers signing
The University Daily Kansan
Jamar Howard, a 6-foot-4 forward from Bishop Miege in Shawnee, signed a letter of intent to play basetball for Wichita State.
Sports
Inside: The Kansas softball team defeated Missouri 6-1 yesterday at Jayhawk Field.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: The Kansas bowling team had a successful start at three-day championship yesterday.
SEE PAGE 3B
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2001 For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Stars in the Stadium
'Hawks start Relays with solid finishes
By Michael Sudhatter
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
Although the Kansas Relays started Wednesday, fans got their first taste of the host team yesterday, and several Jayhawks posted strong finishes during the second day of the Relays.
On the women's side, junior Katy Eisenmenger, 2 minutes, 14.34 seconds, and senior Amanda Reves, 2:16.63, posted a one-two finish in the women's 800-meter run.
Eisenmenger said not even weather conditions were going to stop her from winning the race.
"It felt pretty g o o d , " Eisenmenger said. "It was a little windy, but we ran with it and it worked."
"We feel very good about Katy, Amanda — and Brent in the 5,000," Redwine said.
It worked well for Kansas coach Stanley Redwine, too.
Other Jayhawk women also had strong performances yesterday. Junior Courtney Deutsch gained a second-place finish in the women's 1,500 meter run with a 4:50.89 time.
Freshman Paige Higgins placed eighth (18:35.96) in the women's 5,000 meters. Teammates sophomore Carly Kimbrough (20:02.06) and freshman Kelli Reid (20:04.23) placed 17th and 18th, respectively. Freshman Kelly Temple finished 20th with a time of 20:31.59.
On the men's side, Brent Behrens provided the highlight of the day by finishing third in the 5,000 meter run. Junior Steve Vockrodt finished seventh in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (10:14.95).
chase (10.4.15.3)
In the men's 1,500 meters, freshman Brian Raggett placed 10th with a time of 4:22.21. Junior Derec Lacio, 1:58.25, finished 17th in the 800-meter run, and freshman Leonard Hansen took 25th place with a time of 2:03.97.
Coach Stanley Redwine said the team would use yesterday's performance as a building block for the next two days at the Relays.
"Overall, we had some good and some bad but we will continue to work hard and get better," he said.
In the second and final day of the multi-event competitions, both of the first day leaders went on to victory.
Joe Obulski of Bell Athletics won the decathlon with a point total of 6,613. Obulski proceeded to the victory despite not competing in the pole vault event. Junior Andy Basler of Wisconsin-Lacrosse finished second with 6,425 while senior Adam Strainer of Concordia College-Moorhead (Minn) placed third with 6,256 points. Senior Dan Culp of Missouri Southern State, 6,205 points, and sophomore Michael Curran of Wichita State, 6187, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Nebraska junior Katherine Livesey won the women's heptathlon with 5,385 points. Livesey jumped 5.69 meters in the long jump, threw the javelin 102.07 and ran a time of 2.1:67 in the 800 meter race. Sophomore Kristy Naef of Wisconsin-Milwaukee finished a distant second with 4,810 points. Sophomore Koya Webb of Wichita State (4,697), and independent competitors Taylor Cates, 4677, and Jessica Walters, 4661, rounded out the top five.
The Kansas Relays will resume at 9 a.m. today at Memorial Stadium.
— Edited by Liae Schultz
Kansas freshman Steve Vockrodt splashes through the unsteamed men's steeplechase. The Kansas Relaxes will resume at 9 a.m. today at Memorial Stadium. Photo by Jamie Riper/KANSAN
Sands finds niche on offensive line
By Jeff Denton
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Justin Sands will start at left tackle tomorrow when the Kansas football team plays its spring game at 7 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
But Sands has had a long journey finding his spot on Kansas' offensive line.
When the Jayhawks were beaten by Notre Dame 48-13 in their 1999 season opener, one of the few bright spots for Kansas was Sands, then a 19-year-old redshirt freshman from Lawton, Iowa.
Starting in his first college football game, Sands had a notable debut as a defensive end. The 6-foot-7 Sands intercepted a pass and blocked a 37-yard
field goal attempt against the Irish.
Sandus showed potential that Saturday, but his duties as a pass rusher were short-lived. Last spring, Kansas switched him from the defensive line to the offensive line.
"I liked playing defensive, but I knew I had
■ Blue vs. White
■ Tomorrow
■ 7 p.m.
■ Memorial Stadium
■ Game will be a 75-play scrimmage
a better future on the offensive line," said Sands, who finished the 1999 season with 15 tackles and one sack.
SPRING GAME
The frustration mounted as he spent more time in the film room than on the football field during the last five weeks of last season. Sands watched as Kansas dropped four of its last five games and finished 4-7.
Sands struggled with the transition. He started his first game last season at left guard, 13 months after his debut against Notre Dame. In that contest and the next three games he started, Sands was overmatched.
First-year offensive line coach Sam Pittman has enjoyed watching his new left tackle grow during spring practice. Sands' tireless work at one of the offer
"I can't stand the word potential," he said. "It's time for me to show what I can do."
sive line's more trying position has been outstanding, Pittman said.
Kansas football notes
The quarterback race is far from finished. Kansas coach Terry Allen has been partial to Zach Dyer because of his consistency, but Mario Kinsey's athleticism and ability to pull off the big play has made it harder for Allen to name a No. 1 quarterback.
In the spring's two scrimimages, both Dyer and Kinsey have put up identical passing numbers.
- De Nard Whitfield, who was ruled academically ineligible at the start of spring practice, is doubtful to return next season, Allen said.
See INJURIES on page 4B
Kansas track star Al Oerter was one of many athletes to compete in front of large crowds at the Relays in the 1950s. Contributed photo
Olympic stars mark Relays' unique history
By Michael Sudhalter sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
On the surface, the Kansas track and field program may not appear to have quite the tradition of the University's storied men's basketball team.
The Kansas Relays, however, are one of the most historic traditions in the University's athletic career.
The Relays began in 1923 after then-Kansas football coach John Outland talked basketball coach Phog Allen into holding the meet at then-new Memorial Stadium. Referees of early Kansas Relays included James Naismith, legendary Kentucky basketball coach and Kansas graduate Adolph Rupp and former Notre Dame football coach Knute Rocke.
By the 1950s, the Kansas Relays were a premiere event on campus and in the region. Kansas athletes and Olympians, such as Al Oerter, who won four consecutive Olympic gold medals in the shot put, and Billy Mills, who won the 10,000-meter run in the 1964 Olympics, competed in front of large audiences. Jim Ryun, who broke six world records and won five NCAA titles, became a Jayhawk in the 1960s and won the outstanding athlete award at the Relays for three consecutive years (1966-68).
Kansas track and field Coach Stanley Redwine said he was pleased that the Relays were bringing prominence back to the event by including Olympic competitors.
Mills: Olympic gold medalist participated in Relays
Ryunt: politician,
Olympian competed
in Relays in 1960s
pettors'.
"I think it's a great honor for us as a University," Redwine said. "The fans will show their support and want to watch these athletes run."
By 1962, female athletes began competing in a limited number of events and were able to compete in a full event schedule by 1976. Former Nebraska standout and Olympian Merlene Ottey won the most outstanding performer title in 1981-83 for her record-breaking 100-meter and 200-meter dash outings.
See RELAYS on page 4B
Spandex is only a fringe benefit of Kansas Relays
Two days into the Kansas Relays and you're not there yet.
However, I don't want you to come just for the Spandex — I want you to come out because the event is one of the most exhilarating athletic experiences you can find at this University. But, even more important, I want you to come because the Relays are the only time you can get out and see the faces and feats of some of the most underappreciated athletes on campus.
Well, to anybody who hasn't bought an entrance button to the Relays yet, you've got two days of exciting track and field left, so hop to it!
The Relays are the only outdoor track and field meet that the University holds each year, and, as one chalk advertisement said, it contains "2,000 highly trained athletes, in Spandex!"
Quite frankly, it would be a shame not to see the Relays
Sports Columnist
Sarah Warren
because, for example, how many of you knew they must force their bodies through a dual season (one indoor season and one outdoor season) that stretches from January to June? I bet almost anybody didn't know that unless they were a track kid or a former track and field reporter like myself.
sports@kansan.com
First, I said the track and field athletes are extremely underappreciated
What's worse, though, is that these athletes do amazing things, but they blend in on campus, as faceless bodies in a mass of students.
And it's important that you see their
faces.
For example, it's important that you can pick out the two Andrea Bs who consistently perform above the bar. There's one, Andrea Bulat, who is the Jayhawks leading female javelin thrower. (Note: she's often overshadowed by that other javelin thrower from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Scott Russell.)
Then there's the more famous Andrea Branson, who broke Kansas' outdoor pole vault record (which was her own record, by the way) in front of a large crowd at last year's Relays just before Maurice Greene ran the anchor leg of a professional 4x100-meter relay.
Now, I know track and field isn't exactly a sport in which you can easily make out the faces of the athletes. Neither is basketball, yet we know all the faces of the men's basketball players.
"But," you say, "the basketball players' faces are all over the television!"
Au contraire! The face of Maurice Greene, the world's fastest man, is constantly flashing across television screens and being printed in the papers, but he could probably walk down Main Street of Any Big City, USA, and not draw a second glance. In Europe, he would draw throngs of fans.
This summer, I studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain. As most of you know, Barcelona was the sight of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. And even though the games were almost a decade ago, the Olympic stadium is still used periodically for outdoor sporting events, including an annual international track meet.
America has just lost interest in track and field. Interest is sparked momentarily every four years before and during the Olympic games, only to wane once again after the torch goes out.
I purchased tickets to this track meet and headed up to the stadium with a few of my friends, including a former Kansas middle-distance runner, R.J. VonMerveldt. The event was amazing.
Olympic games In Europe, a track star is recognized by almost anyone on the street. They are treated like movie stars, gawked at by fast-food workers, bankers and even little children.
There were thousands of Spaniards of all ages and sizes eating popcorn and standing in line for the autographs of their favorite tracksters. Each person in the stands knew who each athlete was, their records, and if they were going to the Olympic games in Sydney.
In the United States, though, even the most famous track athletes, like Greene, can go unnoticed. And, unfortunately, this trend extends to our campus.
So, I urge you, go to the Relays. Order some Yello Sub for dinner and sit in the stands this afternoon. And then come back tomorrow and get a tan while memorizing the faces and the feats of our own amazing track and field athletes.
Warren is an Overland Park appscounsel in journalism and Spandish.