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Show T£\~% Page 8 sti*11 4. J LOO Ap 1 1 i 1 pil o,: ~ .a ._ 1 •1 > i i '•> 1 i :, s-v !" ! MEN'S BASKETBALL Quayle and Wilkinson honored Touc/zBase / AStandings Western Conference BY USU ATHLETICS Utah State's Gary Wilkinson and Jared Quayle were both honored by CollegeHoops. net on Thursday as Wilkinson was named a second-team high-major All-American and Quayle was named to the honorable mention team. CollegeHoops.net is the web's largest independent college basketball site. The CollegeHoops.net All-American teams are voted on by staff writers and include players from the AtIantic-10, Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Western Athletic and West Coast Conferences. In all, 34 players received All-American honors. Joining Wilkinson and Quayle on the various All-American teams were three other players from the state of Utah and one from the WAC as Utah's Luke Nevill was named to the first-team, BYU's Lee Cummard was named to the second-team, and BYU's Jimmer Fredette and Nevada's Luke Babbitt were named to the honorable mention team. JARED QUAYLE, 21, sets up the offense at the WAC tournament in Reno. PATRICK ODEN photo 01 See ALL-AMERICAN, page 10 GARY WILKINSON, 55, drives for a I ay up during the WAC tourney. PATRICK ODEN photo Finding anew groove guy," McFadden said. "It's a young line, but it's an experienced line, so that's good." That experience has and will continue to come in handy as the linemen learn what McFadden at first called a "foreign language" from their new cpaches. Along with implementing the new spread attack on offense, the line has a new position coach Alex Gerke - a man, head coach Gary Andersen joked, could be a little rough around the edges. ,-£ Junior tackle Spencer Johnson said, "(Gerke) makes sure he doesn't let any of us slip up, whether its football, school or helping GB 1-Lakers 2-Nuggets 3-Spurs 4-Rockets 5-Portland 6-Hornets 7-Utah 8-Dallas 62 53 50 50 50 48 47 47 _ 9.5 12 12 12 14 15 15 16 26 28 28 28 30 31 31 BY USU ATHLETICS USU FRESHMAN BACKUP QB A D A M E A S T M A N lines up the offensive line during the Aggies first official scrimmage of the season. The offensive line returns 10 players that saw playing time last season and are enjoying their transition to the spread offense. CAMERON PETERSON photo out in the community. He's always stressing how all the little things are going to add up to sports editor something big." True to form, Gerke said the offensive line The 2009 version of the USU offensive line has been really working for the first time since enters the season with new coaches, schemes, his arrival. teammates and a new work ethic, but that Some traditions have carried on, however, hasn't stopped them from becoming what they and one of those continues to combine the Oand their coaches consider the closest group line's passion for food with their enjoyment of on the football team. being together. "We hang out a lot together on and off "Coach Gerke, for Spring Break, took all the the field," said USU senior guard Brennan 0-linemen out to a buffet and we did business McFadden. "We're a tight-knit group always there," McFadden said. joking with each other... our lockers are all ;f'7, Though the group has found no new hot next to each other and we're basically like a /', * -.'Spots since this tradition was revealed last v little family wilhin a family." v ; ^ ^fViW; year, they have not put any restaurants out of McFadden, the lone senior on the line, is business either- though Johnson did express the leader of a group that is returning 10 play- interest in a new Hawaiian BBQhe'd heard ers that saw playing time last season. about. "We had two seniors leave and I'm the only Getting back to the gridiron, Andersen has senior on the 0-line this year, and these guys * noticed the work ethic his linemen have picked always give me a bad time about being the old W L USU track to hit the road this weekend SPRING FOOTBALL SERIES: PART 1 OF 8 ByTIMOLSEN Team "Everyone's working hard, everyone's running and everyone's flying around," Johnson said. "It's tough learning a new offense, but the effort is there ... if you have a lot of effort, it's going to show up on the field." The offensive line is looking to build on a season in which they helped the offense average 137.8 yards per game on the ground and tie for the third-best red zone efficiency in the country. This season the Aggies will look to keep that percentage up, but get into the red zone more. A former offensive lineman, Andersen knows that the hard work his front group is putting in will pay off. "Good football teams work hard, a lot of teams in this country work hard, but we like to deem ourselves as the hardest working team in the country. How you can prove that factually, I never know that, but I do know this, these kids work extremely hard," he said. "Hard work can get you in a position to win football games, it can get you in a position to do things right, but it doesn't win football games... players have to make plays py to win football ggames." "Overall I see hard work, 1 see toughness that is progressing. I see the ability to finish, which is progressing, and I see them paying more attention to detail and less mistakes," McFadden, Johnson and the rest of the he said. "We're progressing, but we're by no offensive line are hoping the work they're putmeans where we need to be at, but that would ting in now, allows them to do just that in the hold true for the whole football team." v> { i -». £11 Compared to their preparation for last ^ ' ^ ** ' "I think everyone should be excited, were season, the linemen have noticed a difference going to come out and showcase," Johnson in their intensity and work ethic as well. Both said. "Come out and watch the scrimmages McFadden and Johnson spoke about how preand you're going to get a taste of what's going pared their group is becoming and how that to happen in the fall." will help t h e m in the fall. Y\ ,;"•?. * :'• • • " *••""• ~l.olsen@aggiemail.com Utah State's men's and women's track and field teams will split up and head to two different meets Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 9-11. USU will have athletes at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational Thursday, Friday and Saturday hosted by UCLA. The rest of the Aggies will head to the Javier's Wildcat Invitational hosted by Weber State on Saturday at WSU's Stewart Stadium. "This is a meet where there will be a lot of good competition," said veteran USU head coach Gregg Gensel about the UCLA meet, "We are looking forward to another outdoor meet and another opportunity to improve before the WAC Championships at home this year." At the Rafer Johnson/ Jackie Kersee Invitational the Aggies will compete against 21 teams with athletes from Azusa Pacific, Cal Poly SLO, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Cal State San Marcos, California, Mississippi Valley, Pepperdine, Point Loma, Rice, Seattle Pacific, Southern Illinois, Stanford, Texas A&M, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, USC, Utah Valley State, Washington State and host UCLA Thursdays action will begin at 10:45 p.m. (MT) with the decathlon and action will conclude at 7:30 p.m with the women's hammer. The first events on Friday start at 10 a.m. with the men's 110m hurdles prelims and action on Friday is scheduled to end with the 10,000m at 11:25 p.m. Action will resume Saturday at 12:15 p.m. with the men's high jump and will end at 3:55 p.m. with the men's 1600m relay. In Ogden, USU will face athletes from Utah, BYU, Utah Valley, Idaho State and host Weber State. Action will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. with the men's hammer throw and long jump. The final event of the day, women's 4x400 relay will begin at 5:55 p.m. In the Aggies' last action at the Pepsi Invitational hosted by Oregon, junior Steve Strickland set a new Utah State school record in the 3,000 steeplechase clocking it at 8:49.53, which is also a regional qualifying tinie. Utah State women had a total of 20 top-five finishes; while the men had 15 at the meet in Oregon. Following the weekend in Los Angeles and Ogden, the Aggies will host their first meet of the outdoor season, the Mark Faldmo Invitational at the Ralph Maughan Track Stadium on Saturday, April 18. |