2B
Friday, January 17, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Big 12 baseball teams ready to play ball
Six teams picked for 'Fabulous 40' in preseason poll
By Harley Ratliff
Kansan sportswriter
College baseball fans beware: Big 12 Conference Baseball is coming. The season starts Feb. 14 in Las Vegas.
Heading into the inaugural Big 12 baseball season, six conference teams are ranked in College Baseball Weekly's preseason "Fabulous 40."
The Big 12 placed more teams in the poll than any other conference except the Southeastern Conference, which had seven.
The ranked teams are: No.5 Oklahoma State, No.18 Texas A&M, No.19 Missouri, No.20 Texas, No.24 Texas Tech and No.39 Oklahoma. The Big 12 plans to flex plenty of baseball muscle in its first season.
That muscle begins in College Station, Texas.
Texas A&M head coach Mark Johnson has high expectations and thinks that the Big 12 will have plenty of baseball power.
"This conference has quality written all over it," Johnson said. "We have great universities, great academics and great teams."
the Aggies return 15 lettermen from a team that placed third last year in the Southwest Conference and finished the season 37-21.
Although Johnson downplays his team's talent, Kansas baseball head coach Bobby Randall knows that the Aggies are for real.
"We're just like everybody else; we want to win it all," Johnson said. "We have a decent ball club that can do some good things."
"They are one of the most talented teams in the nation, no question." Randall said. "Down at A&M, they think that this is their year."
Oklahoma State and Texas, two schools rich in baseball tradition, spent the off-season replacing coaching legends.
For the first time in 18 years, Gary Ward won't be in the dugout at Oklahoma State's Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
Ward, who retired because of health problems, has the seventh best winning percentage of all time in college baseball at 75.6 percent. His replacement is longtime assistant Tom Holliday.
Holliday is convinced that his fifth-ranked Cowboys will make a smooth transition into the Big 12.
"I'm not overwhelmed by the new league," Holliday said. "It won't be that big of an adjustment for us."
At Texas, they're replacing one coaching legend with another. With the departure of head coach Cliff Gustafoson, the Longhorns lose the most successful coach in college history.
His replacement, former Cal-State Fullerton head coach Augie Garrido, has 1,151career victories and three national championships.
Randall walks the Longhorns as a team with plenty of talent but has lingering questions.
"This conference has quality written all over it. We have great universities, great academics and great teams."
Mark Johnson Texas A&M head coach
"They are an unknown commodity," Randall said. "But Augie Garrido is one of the great minds in college baseball."
Both Texas Tech and Oklahoma lose more lettermen than they return, putting pressure on the newcomers to fill in quickly.
"We lost all of players from last year," said Texas Tech baseball coach Larry Hays. "The key for our club is for our new guys to come through."
Missouri will try to build on last season's 39-19 record. With six starters and seven pitchers returning, the Tigers have a solid nucleus.
"We have one of the three best conferences in the nation," said Missouri baseball coach Tim Jamieson, "Every team in the conference, not just those six teams, is solid."
Rankings:
Big 12's 'Fabulous 40'
Six Big 12 Conference baseball teams were ranked in College Baseball Weekly's preseason "Fabulous 40." The Big 12 was beaten out only by the Southeastern Conference, which had seven.
Track team to meet Missouri
Weekend event will be unscored
By Matt Woodruff Kansan sportswriter
It will not just be two rivals meeting this weekend when Kansas and Missouri compete in the Missouri Invite. Two old buddies will get together, as well.
head coaches are best friends," McGuire said in reference to Schwartz.
The teams will compete in an unscored meet tomorrow against each other and several other university, college and club teams.
Kansas track coach Gary Schwartz and Missouri track coach Rick McGuire have known each other for years.
"Obviously Kansas and Missouri know each other very well, and the
It will be Kansas and Missouri's second meet in the 1997 indoor season.
Last weekend, Kansas garnered 13 first-place finishes in the Kansas Invitational in Lawrence.
"Our first meet was kind of to get things rolling and just see what's happening." Schwartz said. "This meet is the next step. We'll be up against a little bit better competition.
"Missouri has a very well-rounded
team. On the men's side, it will be us and Missouri, and on the women's it will be us, Missouri and Arkansas. Schwartz said.
Missouri competed at Southern Illinois against 11 other teams last weekend, among them Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas. The men won by one point, and the women tied for first place.
"We'll be using it as a barometer, and we've tried to set it up in a way to provide good races," McGuire said.
McGuire also said the two rivals would have somewhat similar teams this season because both teams had proven veterans and unproven newcomers who could benefit from the meet.
Swimmers ready for invitational
Kansan staff report
The University of Kansas women's swimming and diving team will take to the pool this weekend when they will be the host of the Kansas Invitational. Houston, Arkansas and Colorado State will compete.
The meet will begin at 6 p.m. today
at Robinson Natoriatior in Robinson
Gymnasium. The Saturday session
will begin at 10 a.m., followed
by the late session at 5 p.m.
Gary Kempf, Kansas head swimming coach, expects a complete team effort.
"This is a team type of deal."
Kempf said. "Everybody can contribute and will have an opportunity to contribute."
Kempf said that Kansas' competition is tough and keeps improving.
"Colorado State is an excellent team, and Houston and Arkansas
have been getting better every meet," he said. "This should be a good meet."
Kansas will be led by junior Kristin Nilsen, sophomore Adrienne Turner and senior Nicole Paplham. Divers Kelly Norton, freshman, and Deanna Beiswanger, sophomore, also will be called upon to help the team, Kemfm said.
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Japanese still has some spots open.
The two-time champion needed 3 hours, 37 minutes to edge Czech player Slava Dosedel 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Courier's second straight five-setter.
No. 1 Pete Sampras lost the first set but still needed less than two hours to oust Romanian Adrian Voinea 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The fourth-seeded Hingis, No. 2 Sanchez Vicario and other seeds playing yesterday advanced without much trouble into the third round, except for men's No. 11 Jim Courier.
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won before she had a chance to worry about strategy. After only six points, she found herself applying ice to her opponent's sprained ankle.
Hingis found Raymond's game a little puzzling at first, but said, "I knew after the first set what I was going to do and how I can make the point." Hingis has vaulted up the rankings from 16th a year ago.
Sanchez Vicario, who lost to Hingis in the U.S. Open, put in five of her six first serves and had an ace in her brief encounter with deVille but would have preferred playing a full match.
Top seeds gain easy victories in Australian Open matches
Hingis defeated Lisa Raymond 6-4,
6-2. Sanchez Vicario's score reached
just 1-0 before Stephanie de Ville of
Belgium had to quit.
KANSAS SWIMMING
She practiced for an hour before her doubles match with partner Gigi Fernandez.
KANSAS WOMEN'S INVITATIONAL
- RIDAY & SATURDAY
FRIDAY JAN.17TH • 6:00 PM
MELBOURNE, Australia — Martina Hingis played near-perfect tennis once she figured out the right strategy.
In playing nurse, Sanchez Vicario was following in the path of Graf and men's No.2 seed Michael Chang.
Graf also brought ice for an injured opponent Monday, and Chang contributed a wet towel in the treatment of a ball girl who collapsed in the heat.
Kansas Arkansas Houston Colorado State Robinson Pool
The Associated Press
SATURDAY
JAN. 18TH • 10AM & 5PM
ADMISSION IS FREE!
If all the seeds win, Hingis would face No. 8 Irina Spirle of Romania or No. 9 Karina Habudova of Slovakia in the quarterfinals and Sanchez Vicario in the semifinals. No. 1 Steffi Graf is in the other half of the draw.
Last year's runner-up, No. 5 Ankie Huber of Germany, defeated Italy's Francesca Lubiani 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in her match.
No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic beat Karol Kucera of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2; No. 5 Thomas Muster breezed past South African Grant Stafford 6-3, 6-2; No. 8 Wayne Ferreira beat Argentina's Javier Frana 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; No. 10 Albert Costa beat Jan Kroslak of Slovakia; and No. 16 Alberto Berasategui ousted fellow Spaniard Tomas Carbonell 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.
Next, she faces 34th-ranked Barbara Schett of Austria and also could face an unseeded player in the fourth round.
"Hanging in there in these tough matches does nothing but help me in my mind. I know I'm in there through the long run. The guys are going to have to knock me out," said the former world No. 1, now ranked 16th. "I think I'm in the best shape of my life right now. I feel great after that match."
"I put ice in my hand and put it on her ankle to help until the trainer came," Sanchez Vicaron said.
"I played almost perfect tennis, especially in the second set. I hope I play even better, knowing how I played in the second set, and I feel very happy how my draw is in the next round. I know all the players, so hopefully it will be even easier then."
In the men's tournament, Courier said he was unbothered about needing 100 games and 7 1/2 hours on court to advance to the third round.
"It never happened before so quickly," she said of her three-minute victory. "It wasn't a difficult shot. I don't know what happened exactly."
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