Sports
PAGE 5 | Iowa State Daily | Friday, March 12, 2010 Editor N. Sandell | sports@iowastatedaily.com | 515.294.3148
PGA Tour
Women’s Basketball
Woods likely to return for Masters
Team takes ‘March mindset’
By Doug Ferguson AP Golf Writer DORAL, Fla. — Tiger Woods intends to remain out of golf at least until the Masters, two people with knowledge of his plans told The Associated Press on Thursday. Woods has been practicing at Isleworth near his Orlando home the last two weeks, and swing coach Hank Haney flew there during the weekend to work with him. That led to speculation Thursday he was close to playing again. The two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say he is likely to play first at Augusta National in April. Woods twice has gone nine weeks without competing before showing up at a major. The first time was in 2006, when he didn’t play after the Masters while coping with his father’s death, then missed the cut in a major for the first time in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Two years ago, he was out with knee surgery until winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on a shattered left knee. Woods has not played since Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory. Twelve days later, he crashed his SUV into a tree near his Florida home, setting off shocking revelations that he had been cheating on his wife. In his first public appearance Feb. 19 at the TPC Sawgrass, when he apologized for his behavior and confessed to having extramarital affairs, he said he would return to golf and that “I don’t rule out that it will be this year.”
NFL
Man convicted in cornerback club shooting
By Kayci Woodley Daily Staff Writer Thoughts of postseason play crawled into coach Bill Fennelly’s mind after Iowa State’s on-the-road victories over Colorado and Texas in mid-January. Preseason predictions put Iowa State finishing in the No. 7 spot in the conference, but Fennelly’s Cyclones chose to write a different story. Ranked 14th nationally, Iowa State enters the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City on Friday as the No. 2 seed after having finished 23-6 overall and 11-5 in Big 12 play. After a bye in the first round, the Cyclones will face Oklahoma State at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Auditorium on Friday. The first-round bye gives Iowa State a chance for their top point guard, Alison Lacey, to rest up as she recovers from pneumonia. “It’s fun to go down there not feeling a ton of pressure to have to do anything special, but just go down there and play the way you want to play and feel that, at the end of the day, if you played the way you should’ve — represented your school the way you should’ve — we’ll live with that result and hopefully be there a couple days and play and represent our school,” Fennelly said. A team coach Fennelly says he has coached harder than any other showed signs of greatness in both the Colorado and Texas road games during the regular season. “I do think that the Colorado and the Texas games, at least, gave us an idea that we could be in the middle and fight to get into that 500 range and post season play, and my staff jokes about it all the time [about] how consumed I am by the NCAA tournament,” Fennelly said. Losing five key seniors from last year’s lineup, the expectations of Iowa State were not the same for this year’s
Iowa State’s Denae Stuckey gets the ball from Colorado during the Cyclones game against Colorado on Saturday. Iowa State faces Oklahoma State on Friday night in the second round of the Big 12 Championship tournament in Kansas City. Photo: Manfred Brugger/Iowa State Daily
team as they were in the 2008-’09 season that ended with a trip to the Elite Eight. The Cyclones could have been satisfied with the season highlights they made during the season — beating Colorado and Texas on the road and upsetting Baylor on the Cyclones’ Pink Zone event. Instead, knowing the NCAA tournament’s first and second rounds would be held on the Cyclones’ turf motivated players and coaching staff to work harder; as Fennelly walked through Hilton Coliseum each day, he was reminded by the NCAA banners that surround the outer concourse of Hilton. “They’ve learned a lot of basketball in a short amount of time, and
the way they’ve handled it has been amazing to me,” Fennelly said following the Baylor game. “It’s been hard on them, but, hopefully, in the end, when this is all said and done, they’ll look back and say ‘yeah, it was hard, but man it was worth it.’” While Fennelly may not have wanted the players to realize he was thinking and reminded of the NCAA tournament each day, the thought was drifting through their minds too. The dates on the banners approach, and it’s hard not to know what March means in Fennelly’s basketball world. “I think, like coach Fennelly always says, good teams play in March; good teams want to play in March,” said junior guard Kelsey Bolte. “It’s
Track and Field
Lawsuit
Ex-players join antitrust suit vs. NCAA SAN FRANCISCO — Former college basketball players spanning many eras have joined a lawsuit filed by ex-UCLA star Ed O’Bannon against the NCAA for profiting from the use of their images without permission. In an amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, four players involved in the 1966 national championship game that pitted a Texas Western team with five black starters against an all-white Kentucky team joined in the suit. Those players include Harry Flournoy, who was team captain for Texas Western, which is now UTEP, which beat the 1966 Kentucky squad in a game now seen as a driving force in the integration of college sports. The game was also documented in the 2006 movie “Glory Road.” Texas Western teammate David Lattin and 1966 Kentucky players Thad Jaracz and Bob Tallent also joined the suit as plaintiffs. — The Associated Press
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Men’s Basketball
Gilstrap’s Cyclone career finished, Brackins in limbo
By Kristen Wyatt Associated Press Writer DENVER — The group of Denver Broncos players arrived at the Safari nightclub to celebrate New Year’s Eve and was whisked inside by bouncers. One of the dozens of people waiting in line to get in — an alleged Tre-Tre Crips gang member — took exception. “We street,” Willie Clark told wide receiver Brandon Marshall, according to court testimony. “We got money too.” That encounter between celebrated professional athletes and an alleged angry gang member ultimately led to the Jan. 1, 2007, shooting death of cornerback Darrent Williams, a jury decided Thursday, convicting Clark of first degree murder. “It was a chance meeting and it was a ridiculous altercation that led to this tragic result,” said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. Clark, 26, faces life in prison at his April 30 sentencing. It took prosecutors and police nearly two years to build their case against Clark, partly because those who witnessed the shooting were part of a gang drug ring that was under federal investigation, Morrissey said. A code of silence kept those witnesses from talking. Federal drug cases pending against the gang’s members helped crack the case. Several witnesses testified they saw or heard from Clark that he fired shots from an SUV truck into a stretch Hummer limousine carrying Williams and 16 others from the nightclub at 2 a.m. Williams died in teammate Javon Walker’s arms.
[about] how hard you want it and what you’re willing to do to keep winning.” Being a leader on the floor as a junior, Bolte realizes the finality of March and what comes with playing in the Big 12 tournament, leading up to the NCAA tournament. For the newcomers on the team, nerves may be a factor in Kansas City as the Cyclones enter with a No. 2 seed and high expectations. “The jitters that our freshmen will have — they’re going to have every tournament game,” Fennelly said. “I think, when you go through that for the first time, it’s exciting — the thrill
By Nate Sandell Daily Staff Writer
ISU senior Lisa Koll leads the pack during the 3,000-meter run at the Big 12 Championship track meet on Feb. 27. Koll ran a time of 8 minutes, 56.09 seconds, making her the third-fastest collegian ever in the event. Photo: Tim Reuter/Iowa State Daily
Koll heads to NCAA Championships By Kasey Sutherland Daily Staff Writer The final indoor track and field event for Iowa State will take place this weekend with only one of its team members competing. Senior distance runner Lisa Koll is the lone qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Koll has had some well-documented accomplishments in the indoor track season, especially in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. Koll earned an individual Big 12 title in both events earlier this season en route to breaking the Big 12 meet record in both events. Those times are still currently the fastest in Division I indoor track and field this season. Koll’s efforts earned her Big 12 postseason honors in women’s track, as Koll was selected as the top performer by the Big 12’s track and field coaches, becoming the first ISU woman to earn such an honor. Throughout the season, Koll was a two-time Big 12 women’s track Athlete of the Week and added another award to the shelf this week after being named the Midwest Region’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association. Koll’s efforts at the 2010 ISU Classic, one of Iowa State’s largest and most prestigious track events of the year, lifted her into a new level of performance. Her time of 15 minutes, 29.65 seconds in the 5,000 became the second fastest time by any collegiate athlete on any track in the event. So how does Lisa Koll face being the only Cyclone runner to qualify for the
NCAA Championships? It’s simply business as usual. “I’m really not changing up training much,” Koll said. “I’m just getting excited for this weekend.” A previous runner-up in the 5,000 at the NCAA Indoor Championships adds to the expectations for Koll along with the stellar field of competition that will line up beside her this weekend inside Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas. The 3,000 and 5,000 events will consist of 17 of the fastest Division I indoor track athletes. Koll’s time in the 3,000 is nearly eight seconds faster than second-ranked Sheila Reid, a junior from Villanova. Her record-setting time of 15:29.65 in the 5,000 is nearly 12 seconds faster than her nearest competition — Nicole Blood, a senior competing for the University of Oregon. Even though this event will signify the end of the indoor portion of the track and field season, Koll said she doesn’t see this as the end at all. “I’m going to try to run better than I have before and compete to where the field competes and just hopefully keep progressing and use it as a springboard for outdoors,” Koll said. The outdoor season is where Koll is at her full strength in the 10,000-meter run. Koll holds the women’s collegiate record and is also the only three-time Big 12 champion in the event. With the outdoor season looming, Koll still remains focused on the event at hand — the 2010 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships that begin Friday. “Obviously, I’m going to go out, and I’m going to try to win. Whatever that takes, I’m going to try to do it,” Koll said.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The questions and debate regarding Marquis Gilstrap and Craig Brackins’ futures with the Cyclones have surrounded the program all season. One of those questions was answered Wednesday night. Iowa State’s request to grant Gilstrap, a senior who was playing his first season of Division I basketball, another year of eligibility was denied by the NCAA. Coach Greg McDermott and his staff received the news on Tuesday and decided not announce the decision until after the Cyclones’ season-ending loss to Texas in the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday. McDermott said he decided to withhold the information to allow the senior to focus on the tournament.
“I wanted him just to play the game, and we’d talk about it afterwards,” McDermott said. With 28 seconds remaining in Wednesday’s game, Gilstrap walked off the court for the final time to a standing ovation from the Cyclone fans in attendance. In the aftermath of the loss, an emotional Gilstrap sat in the locker room with his head in his hands, taking several long moments before finally being able to talk with the media. “He understands that this was his only year he had, and he wishes he could get one more,” Brackins said. “But I know how much he wants to be here and how much he gave to this team. It’s just hard to go out like that.” When interviewed after the game, Gilstrap had still not been told of the NCAA’s decision. However, he still offered his
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Hockey
Iowa State leaves it all on the ice By David Merrill Daily Staff Writer The Cyclones ended the season in a place they haven’t been since 1997, securing the team’s seventh ACHA runnerup. Iowa State failed to get past the defending ACHA national champion Lindenwood Lions, falling 2-0. The Cyclones came from behind in their three victories leading up to the championship that senior forward Pete Majkozak described as the “Cardiac Kids”. Senior forward Brad Krueger scored the game-winning goal for the Cyclones in two of their victories on the way to the finals. “Being a senior, I know I had to step up and lead by example,” Krueger said. “I wasn’t just fortunate enough to be in some situations where I was able to step up and do that.” Sophomore forward Brian Rooney is one of the beneficiaries of the leadership qualities
of the graduating seniors this season. Rooney hopes he and the other upper-classmen can provide that same type of leadership for the younger players next season. “I think I speak for all the younger guys when I say those six or seven guys have been the leaders, the older brothers, and the fathers on this team from day one,” Rooney said. “They have shown great leadership abilities on and off the ice. I felt like I could go to them with any sort of situation throughout the season and they would be able to help me with it. What they have done for this team is more important than I think they will ever realize.” It wasn’t just the seniors that gave the team boosts along the way. The Cyclones also received two key tournament goals from first year players in freshman
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