SPORTS JUMPS
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
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Baseball: Players shine on field
Women: Cats drop to fourth in division Continued from Page 8 better,” Lavender said. “We came out a lot more physical, a lot more aggressive.” The aggressiveness showed on both ends of the court. On Thursday, the Wildcats benefited from forcing turnovers, as the Greyhounds turned it over 26 times. ENMU also was held to just 29.5 percent shooting and had only one player reach double figures in points. On offense, ACU looked to feed the posts early and often. With Riles limited by foul trouble, Jamie Boles became the main beneficiary of the game plan and finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds. “They really didn’t have an answer for Jamie, didn’t have anybody that could guard her,” Lavender said. King was held to just seven points in the game, but her one 3-point hit gave her 176 for her career, breaking the ACU career
record of 175 previously held by Anita Vigil. The Wildcats weren’t able to enjoy the victory long though, as Saturday’s game provided a wake-up call and dropped their record to 15-7, 6-3. Their attempt to put the bad outing behind them began Tuesday in San Angelo against Angelo State, and the Wildcats will travel to play Texas Women’s on Thursday and Texas A&MKingsville on Saturday. Lavender said they know what they have to do to put Saturday’s loss behind them. “It goes back to sticking to our original game plan, and that’s playing great defense, and executing offensively, being patient and being disciplined,” Lavender said. “We didn’t have any of those things on Saturday.”
E-mail Gray at: weg02a@acu.edu
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way you want, but you can’t give up. You have to just keep fighting and working to improve.”
Wells are hitting over .450 with 13 and 10 RBI, respectively. Barker is hitting at a .391 clip. Friday’s win featured another solid pitching performance from Ben Brockman, who is now 2-0 on the season and has not given up an earned run in his 11 innings pitched in those two games. Brockman pitched six shutout innings Friday before giving way to Justin Whitlock, who pitched a perfect seventh. Bonneau said the Wildcats also succeeded in pitching from Coy Polk in Friday’s loss, but the offense didn’t add much. “Coy, in the first game, had a good game; we just had a tough third inning, gave up four runs,” Bonneau said. “We did OK, just couldn’t get on the board.” The Wildcats had no such problems Saturday. Their offensive explosion was highlighted by an 11-run fourth inning, an inning where Wells and Walsh drove in a pair of runs each. Bonneau said the win also saw other key players’ bats come alive, including outfielder Cody Cure and shortstop Brenan Herrera, who had two hits each. The Wildcats will look to keep their offense success going Friday and Saturday with home games against Cameron. They will play doubleheaders on both days, with Friday’s action beginning at 2 p.m., Saturday’s at noon. Bonneau said two objectives of the games will be to find a consistent fourth starter and improve defensively. “We’re just going to use every weekend to try and get better and try to keep throwing new guys out there to see what they’ve got,” Bonneau said.
E-mail Robarts at: kdr00c@acu.edu
E-mail Gray at: weg02a@acu.edu
BRIAN SCHMIDT/Chief Photographer
Junior guard Kierstan Barbee keeps her focus as she drives past Lady Buffs guard Suni Jo Petty and forward Celeste Stevenson during the 85-60 loss to West Texas A&M Saturday.
Track: 24 achieve new, better qualifying marks Continued from Page 8 placed fourth in the men’s competition with an indoor best and automatic qualifying vault of 16-10. The women’s distance medley relay greatly improved its qualifying time, winning the event in 11:53.83. Freshman Shauna-Kaye Thompson bettered her provisional time in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.85. Teammate Jessica Hunt also improved her time Saturday, running 25.01. Sophomore Brooklyn Hunt placed 35th in the unseeded division of the 400-meter dash, but her time of 56.67 was good enough to qualify her provi-
sionally for the national meet. Freshman Denise Morgan also improved her provisional time, placing seventh in the 800 meters with a time of 2:12.5. Angie Aguilar said she thinks this year’s women’s team looks as good as any she’s seen. “I think we’re pretty strong,” Aguilar said. “This is one of the first years I feel like we have a lot of depth. It looks like everybody’s ready.” Junior transfer Lucky Hadebe had a busy weekend, running the mile as the anchor leg in the distance medley relay Friday night, then winning the mile on Saturday with an automatic time of 4:05.56. Senior Ben Washington placed fifth in the champi-
onship division of the triple jump, posting a season-best and improved qualifying jump of 51-5. Freshman Vladyslav Gorbenko won the unseeded division of the triple jump with a 51-5 jump, which puts ACU triple jumpers in the top three positions in the nation. Sophomore Marvin BienAime shot to second on the national performance list with his qualifying time in the 200meter dash Saturday, finishing in 21.37. Wildcat Delt Cockrell also ran a good qualifying time of 21.79. Senior Marvin Essor was 12th in the 400-meter dash, but posted a fast provisional time of 47.87 to move to second on the Division II per-
formance list. Teammate Ricardo Johnson also improved his qualifying time with a 48.66 performance Saturday. The weekend’s new qualifiers bring the total number of automatic or provisional qualifiers to 32 — 17 men and 15 women. Murray called the Arkansas meet “one of the best Arkansas meets he’s seen” and said he attributes the weekend’s successes to hard work during practice. “They’ve all had great workouts,” he said. “They’ve been doing the work – it just paid off.” Cory Aguilar said he thinks the men’s team is in a great position at this point in the season.
“Coming out of the Arkansas meet with great performances, that gives us great confidence,” Aguilar said. On Saturday, Murray will take a handful of athletes to the Sooner Indoor Classic, where he said he hopes the rest of the Wildcat contenders will qualify for nationals. If they need another meet to do so, some athletes might compete in the Clemson Classic on Feb. 26. “Hopefully, everyone does well this weekend, and we don’t have to go [to Clemson],” Murray said. “Then we can train that weekend and get ready for nationals.” E-mail Holt at: smh00a@acu.edu
Sports: ACU looks to athletic equality
Men: Three games left
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ball team. “Since there’s not a collegiate women’s football program. You have a lot more males in athletics than females,” McCaleb said. Although volleyball provides an opportunity for women, it is a much smaller program than football. So far in the process, soccer seems to be the logical sport to
add, Mosley said. “It’s a bigger sport and would provide more opportunities for females who are interested in competing in athletics,” he said. “Soccer is a sport in our conference and in our area that schools are adding.” Both McCaleb and Mosley said many prospective students ask about women’s soccer at ACU. “Our indication is that the interest in women’s soccer and
golf is increasing,” McCaleb said. “More students each passing year are playing in high school.” Mosley said although a timeline has not been set for the implementation of a new women’s sport, a coach would most likely need at least a year to recruit before play begins. E-mail Schneider at: jrs02a@acu.edu
Division with three games left to play, including its last road game in Kingsville on Saturday against Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Wildcats will return home Feb. 24 and Feb. 26 with contests against Midwestern State and Texas A&M-Commerce. “I think we’ve learned a lot of lessons,” Thrift said. “Sometimes you work hard; it doesn’t always work out the