/ SPORTS / MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Sports is human life in microcosm."
Howard Cosell
FACT OF THE DAY
When the men's basketball team hosted Nebraska earlier this season, Kansas had 25 points in the first half. In Lincoln Saturday, the Jayhawks had 25 in the first 10 minutes.
www.forbes.com
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: How many times has Brady Morningstar led Kansas in scoring during his career?
A: Saturday was his first.
www.usefultrivia.com
MORNING BREW
Jayhawks, Tigers face off on ice
On the eve of the biggest game in KU basketball, I would like to talk about hockey. While most people are focused on the game Bill Self and his players have to win tonight, many people missed another contest. Last Thursday the Independence Center was the home of the Border Showdown On Ice.
My main experience with hockey up to last week was the movie "Miracle" and watching the Florida Panthers with my dad when I was three. All I remember is that everything smelled funny and they had really good ice cream. But last Thursday I made the drive to Independence, Mo., to check out the KU-MU hockey game. Why? Because I wanted to see people hit each other.
I mean, hockey is supposed to be the sport where tough guys are tough guys. They are supposed to slam each other into walls and no player is supposed to have a full set of teeth. I figured that if the fans at the KU-MU game got into some knock-out brawls, these hockey players would be pretty fun to watch.
players would be preyed. The Independence Center was a little far from packed, but quite a few fans did show up dressed up in their teams colors.
When the teams skated onto the ice KU fans cheered for the Jayhawks and booed the players dressed in black and gold, and the MU fans did the same for their teams. It felt like a good old-fashioned border war.
BY SAMANTHA ANDERSON sanderson@kansan.com
And the players noticed it too
And the players noticed it as "When they step on the ice it's a big deal," coach Tom Pendergast said. "When they step
The emotions carried the University of Kansas to a 2-10 lead and Jayhawk fans were rocking. There were signs and chants. The players seemed to enjoy their larger audience. "It kind of pumps you up," Freshman Schilar isser said.
Kessler said.
At this point I realized that hockey was kind of elegant. When the players weren't slamming into each other on the ice, with padded guys carrying around big sticks.I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that hockey was a little more than an all out brute fest, but I never really saw it illustrated in person.
box. At the end of the game I wasn't going to scan the ice for missing teeth.
While I was envisioning the hockey players skating to a beefed up version of "Swan Lake", Missouri scored two goals and it was a tied game. It was then that hockey turned into hockey. KU players started to slam MU down like the Lawrence burning thugs that they were (or their ancestors were). There were fights and people getting put in the penalty
Unfortunately for KU fans, Missouri beat Kansas. They scored two more unanswered goals that gave them the 4-2 win.
When the players walked passed me on the way to the locker room, with their heads hung and tired eyes, I realized that this loss, to them, was like losing to Missouri at home tonight. This was their big game and they let a two-point lead slip away from them.
two-point lead slip away. He will
"We look forward to this game all year,
both teams do," Senior forward Price Duncan
said.
Unfortunately for the seniors this was then last opportunity, pending a playoff match to beat Missouri players to a pulp, but the rest of the team will only have to wait a year for their chance.
Edited by Brittany Nelson
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Men's basketball
vs. Missouri
8 p.m.
TUESDAY No events scheduled
WEDNESDAY Women's basketball vs. Iowa State 7:00 p.m.
THURSDAY
No events scheduled
FRIDAY Softball
vs. Buffalo
10:45 a.m.
at Jacksonville University
vs. North Carolina 8:30 a.m.
ISU Classic All Day at Ames, Iowa
Track
SATURDAY Men's basketball vs. Iowa State 3 p.m.
Swimmers, divers continue winning streak
BY BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
Emotions during the final swim meet of the year were running high before the competition even began. With blown up pictures of Joy Bunting, Iulia Kuzhil, Alyssa Potter, Brittany Potter and Amanda Maez on the wall behind the starting blocks, Friday night at the Robinson Center opened up with the Kansas swimming and diving team honoring its five departing seniors. The team then went on to take a 116-34 lead over the Iowa State Cyclones to end the first half of the competition.
after the meet
The Jayhawks did not lose an event on the first day of competition, and sophomore diver Christy Cash experienced her career moment when she set a new personal high score of 261.45 in the 3-meter dive.
after the meet. Campbell attributed the short distance swimmers' poor performance to not getting a good warm-up before the meet.
With their victory Saturday
When the butt finished, it ended an era of swimming for the five seniors, all of whom were saddened that they would never swim again in Robinson for the University. "When you're with these girls for four years, it's hard to say goodbye," Bunting said. "It's such an intimate sport. When you get your butts kicked with each other every single day, you make a special bond with each other."
against the Cyclones, the Jayhawks continued their recent streak of success, giving them seven wins in their last eight meets. However, coach Clark Campbell
Coach Campbell said he will also have a hard time saying goodbye to his senior class.
tive to his senior "I've been coaching for 18 years, and this is one of the best senior classes I've ever had the pleasure of working with," Campbell said. "All five of them brought something unique and different to the pro
"This is one of the best senior classes I've ever had the pleasure of working with."
CLARK CAMPBELL Coach
Senior swimmer Joy Bunting surges through the water and adds to her team's lead in the women's 200-yard medley relay Friday evening at the Robinson Center where the Jayhawks competed against Iowa State. Bunting's team finished in first place with a time of 1:44:55. Competition will continue tomorrow morning.
direct focus when it came to the
pretest against Iowa State.
"Our distance group, they did a lot better job, but our sprinters were not here today." Campbell said
Team captain Bunting contributed four victories to the Jayhawks, and Kuzhl had three wins, which helped the Jayhawks beat the Cyclones 195-99. The Jayhawks would win all of the events.
"The meet today is all about the seniors," Campbell said.
gram to make it a lot better. I'll miss all of them in different ways, Joy Bunting for her leadership, the Potters are very hard workers and good teammates, Amanda Maez
The Kansas swimming and diving team has the Big 12 Championships up next, and to prepare, Campbell is going to gradually reduce the intensity of the practices before the February 23 meet in Austin, Texas.
has improved so much, and Iulia is probably arguably one of the top two or three swimmers that has ever been at KU."
Edited by Amanda Sorell
Chris Bronson/KANSAN
Junior swimmer
Stephanie Payne
surges through the water in the women's 300-yard IM Saturday morning at the Robinson Center where the Jayhawks took on Iowa State. Payne did not place in the event with a time of 3:16:27.
The Jayhawks won the meet 195-99.
Jayhawks achieve personal records at Invitational
Sophomore thrower Mason Finley paced the Kansas track and field team in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York, N.Y., where his meet record throw in the shot put marked one of numerous personal bests set by Jayhawks in their first road meet of the season. The men's team placed 12th out of 41 teams, and the women finished ninth out of 42 teams.
GEOFFREY CALVERT
gcalvert@kansan.com
642 teams.
Finley won the shot put with a throw of 66 feet, 11.25 inches, and was named Male Athlete of the Meet. Although he was the only Jayhawk to win an event, 14 of
his teammates set personal bests, including freshman Diamond Dixon, who placed fourth in the women's 400-meter dash championship division with a time of 53.93 seconds, which wassoneb best of all time at the University of Kansas, according to a press release from the athletic department. Dixon joined senior Kendra Bradley and sophomores Denesha Morris and Taylor Washington on the 4x400 meter relay team, which set a season best time of 3:42.74 and placed ninth.
and placed him in the championship division of the women's 500 meters, junior Shayla Wilson notched a fifth place finish with a time of 1:13.63, missing out on second place by a little more than half a second.
Washington placed 11th in the event. Junior Cori Christensen also had an outstanding race in the women's college division 800-meter run, outrunning 71 other competitors to capture third place with a season best time of 2:11.97.
In the championship division of the mile run, junior Rebeka Stowe placed fourth and set a personal best with a time of 4:46.62. Senior Amanda Miller paced four Jayhawks in the college division of the 3,000-meter run, placing second and clocking a personal best of 9:46.11.
The women pole vaulters and jumpers had a solid meet, as senio Jaci Perryman placed fifth in the championship division of the pole vault and set a personal best by
clearing 13 feet, 5.5 inches. In the college division, seniors Abby Jones and Tara Turnbull cleared 11 feet, 11.75 inches, good for 10th and 11th out of 27 competitors. In the championship division of the long jump, sophomore Francine Simpson claimed fourth place with a personal best jump of 20 feet, 5 inches. Sophomore Rebecca Neville placed sixth out of 67 competitors in the college division of the same event, jumping 19 feet, 1.5 inches.And in the women's triple jump, sophomore Andrea Geubelle placed fourth out of 21 competitors, jumping a season best of 42 feet, 2.25 inches.
On the men's side, senior Keron Tousaint placed fourth in the championship division of the
In the college division of the men's mile, freshman Josh Munsch set a personal best by running a 4:12.67, good for eighth place. Two Jayhawks competed in the college division of the men's pole vault, and both found success. Freshman Alex Bishop placed second, and senior Cooper Merrill placed sixth.
The men's 4x400 meter relay and
500-meter dash, with freshman Dominique Manley finishing 10th. In the college division of the 800-meter run, freshman Dalen Fink placed fourth, freshman Brendan Soucie placed 20th, and freshman Nick Seckfort placed 21st. They all set personal bests with times of 1:54.36, 1:55.45 and 1:55.50, respectively.
distance medley relay team both set a season best, with the 4x400 team of sophomore Kyle Clemons, freshman Dominique Manley, Pieter Marx and Toussaint placing sixth with a time of 3:12.39. The distance medley relay team of Fink, Marx, Munsch and junior Donny Wasinger ran a 10:06.57, good for ninth place.
Along with Finley breaking the meet's shot put record, junior threater Joel Krause set a personal best with a throw of 52 feet, 5 inches, good for 16th place. Senior Brian Bishop was close behind him in 18th place.
- Edited by Amanda Sorelli