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Show Monday, March 1, 2010 Page 7 MondaySp0 Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Men 1st, women 2nd in WAC indoor track By TYREL SKINNER staff writer USU track and field had a monumental weekend at the WAC Indoor Championships held in Boise State's Jacksons Track Center. The Aggie women came in second place, while the Aggie men took the title of 2010 WAC Indoor Champions. The women's team finished the highest it has since 2005, when it joined the WAC. The second-place finish broke a three-year streak of placing fourth. The team fell to Louisiana Tech, who scored an overall of 175, while USU scored 102. The men's team finished with 154 points and second place was Boise State with 144.5 points. "We knew we were going to have tough competition, especially with Boise State and Idaho," legendary USU head coach Gregg Gensel said. "It took a lot of teamwork to THE MEN'S INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD TEAM stands with its first-place trophy shortly after pull out the finishes we had." it on Saturday. This is the second first-place finish in the past three years for the men.The women's Although the meet started on Thursday , ' team finished in third place. photo courtesy of KAYE GENSEL only one event was finished when the real action started on Friday. The women Aggies for his first place. McKenna finished in USU athletes, as the Aggies acquired anothhad great performances from their long disthe front of the pack in the 5,000m with er four titles. tance runners on Friday, led by senior Kim a time of 14:30.13, winning by almost 15 "The women's team went into today Quinn. Quinn won the women's 5,000m seconds. Also doing well in the 5,000m were (Saturday) in second place. It was a comsophomore Daniel Howell and junior Nick with a time of 17:32.23. Sophomore Ruth bined effort in today's events to keep them Bolinder, who finished third and fourth. In there," Gensel said. "Kim Quinn and Erin Hilton also scored points for the team in this event, with a sixth-place finish and a the field events, sophomore John Johnson Stratton in the distance events, and Spela time of 18:03.24. In the shot put, teammates finished with a tie for third in the pole vault Hus in the throwing events had great perShannon Prince and Spela Hus took fifth with a height of 4.93m. Junior Joe Canavan formances. But, the teamwork of the entire finished fifth in the weight throw, throwand third place, respectively. Hus threw for team was what was able to place us this high." a distance of 14.38m, and Prince threw for a ing for a distance of 17.49m. The men also distance of 14.05m. Another first-place finSenior Quinn finished first in the picked up a first place in the distance medish came in the distance medley, the team ley, with a time of 9:59.09. 3,000m, followed by teammates Erin finished with a time of 11:53.10. At the end of Friday's competition, the Stratton and Ruth Hilton, who took third The men's team started well on Friday, women's team was sitting in second place and fourth with times of 10:24.08 and with a third-place finish in the heptathawith 34 points, trailing Idaho by 10 points. 10:25.59. The Aggies also performed well The men's team finished off Friday in third lon by junior Philip Noble. It also had two in the mile, with a second-place finish by first-place finishes on Friday, by juniors place with 59 points, trailing Boise who had senior Erin Stratton, and a third-place Clint Silcock and Brian McKenna. Silcock 75.5 points. finish by sophomore Jessie Chugg. In the cleared a height of 2.15m in the high jump Saturday started off just as well for the field events, Carli Cambell took fourth in the high jump with a height of 1.67m, and Amber Thompson took sixth in the pole vault with a height of 3.7m. The Aggie men had exceptional results, with the distance team doing better than expected. "For the men's team, Steve Strickland won the mile and was able to pick up many points in other events," Gensel said. "But we had great performances out of other kids too. Brian McKenna, Daniel Howell and Nick Bolinder were also able to pick up many points in the long distance events." Sophomore Daniel Howell took second in the 3,000m race with a time of 8:23.398, losing by only .007 of a second to Boise. McKenna also placed in the 3,000m, finishing third. "Individual event winners like Mike Pyrtle and Clint Silcock and Joe Canavan were also a big factor in our all-around score," Gensel said. Junior Pyrtle finished first in the 60m dash, with a time of 6.80. In the field events, junior Canavan finished first in the shot put, with a distance of 17.64m. Sophomore Damion Szade finished fourth in the triple jump, with a distance of 14.16m. "I was proud of the kids and what they accomplished today. I told them that they were going to have to work hard, and they proved themselves, race after race," Gensel said. " I think a second-place finish for the women's, and the WAC Indoor Title for the men's says a lot about this group of athletes." Next on the agenda for some members of the Aggie track team will be the NCAA tournament. Final season rankings will be coming out this week to help determine which individuals are cut out for the national level. — t.g.s@aggiemail.usu.edu Vandal buzzer beater seals losing season for women By ADAM NETTINA staff writer JUNIOR GUARD ALICE CODDINGTON had a solid game with a team-high 14 points but couldn't keep the Aggies on top of the visiting Idaho Vandals on Saturday. CODY GOCHNOUR file photo Alice Coddington thought she had put the game away. With 2.1 seconds left against Idaho on Saturday, the USU junior guard sunk two clutch free throws to put the Aggies up 53-51, only to see Vandal guard Rachel Kloche come right back and nail a game-winning 3-point shot as time expired to give Idaho the 54-53 win. For the Vandals (9-18, 7-7), Kloche's late-game heroics completed an improbable comeback after a slow start, but for the Aggies (12-15, 4-10), the buzzer-beating 3-pointer encapsulated nearly two months of frustrating losses. "It's really frustrating, it's a really tough loss," said Coddington, who finished 5-8 from the field and led the Aggies with 14 points. "It's something we've just got to take on our chins and move past it." Moving forward from the loss will not be easy for coach Raegan Pebley's bunch, who ironically defeated the Vandals in Moscow, Idaho, earlier this season on a similar buzzer beater by USU guard Tahara Williams. Saturday's loss was made all the more difficult for the Aggies because of the way the Vandals started the afternoon. Shooting just 18.2 percent from the field during the first half, Idaho couldn't get anything going offensively to start the "She was on all night," Pebley said. game. Kloche, who led all scorers with "She's a very good player, and she has 28 points and finished the game 10-16 these types of performances against from the field, hit just two shots in the everyone in the league." first half, as the Aggies jumped out to a The second period saw nine lead 22-18 lead. changes between the two teams, as But turnovers and fouls prevented Idaho's fast style of play frustrated the USU from capitalizing on Idaho's early Aggies' offensive efforts. The Aggies miscues, and despite leading for the shot 40 percent from the floor in the entire half (including by as much as first half, but that percentage dropped eight points), to 34.5 percent in Pebley's bunch was the second. Despite knocking down unable to vanquish the Vandals. all its free-throw "Our first-half attempts in the effort, I'm just second period, really disappointed Utah State was with it," Pebley unable to stymie said. "We had an Idaho's attack, with - Alice Coddington Kloche and the opportunity, especially with a team Vandals matching junior guard that's shooting 18 the Aggies shot for percent in the first shot. half and 0-11 (from beyond the arc), to USU looked like it would pull the put the game away, and we squandered game out several times within the last that opportunity with turnovers and two minutes, but in each case Kloche giving them eight offensive rebounds." responded. With 30 seconds left in The Vandals came out with a venthe game, USU went up by three after geance in the second half, with Kloche a layup by Coddington, but Kloche leading the charge. The guard, who quickly took the subsequent inbounds came in averaging 16.3 points on the pass and ran down the court. After year, made a layup and knocked down missing a 3-point attempt she got her a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one after own rebound, sinking another three and just a few minutes into the half. Her I See BUZZER BEATER, page 9 hand stayed hot for the remainder of the game, including down the stretch. "It's something we've justgot to take on our chins and move past," Heinrich bright but gymnastics team continues to struggle By DAN FAWSON staff writer The Utah State women's gymnastics team finished third in a Friday tri-meet against Cal-State Fullerton and No. 3 UCLA. The losses not only dropped USU two games in the overall standings (1-12), but also one game in WAC standings, with the loss to conference-foe Cal-State Fullerton putting the Aggies 0-3 in conference play. The Aggies have been hit unusually hard by injuries this season, a problem which has often forced head coach Jeff Richards to put together some spur-of-the-moment lineups. Following the team's last meet, a Feb. 19 loss to BYU, Richards said one of his main goals was to keep the girls healthy heading down this season's home stretch. The strategy may have ultimately had an adverse affect on the team's performance. "We didn't perform as well as we did last weekend," Richards said. "We rested the girls a little bit this week and really thought we would come out and do well. It really just wasn't there tonight." UCLA won the meet with an overall score of 197.250, the highest mark of any Aggie opponent this season, and were followed by the Titans' score of 191.750. The Aggies tallied a 188.700. USU finished the meet with scores of 47.450 on both the bars and beam, posted a 46.200 on floor and finished with 47.600 on vault. After a positive showing against BYU, the Aggies fell back into struggling on the apparatus, which has plagued them all season. "Again it was floor that kind of tripped us up," said Richards, who isn't certain why there wasn't a carry over from the meet against the Cougars. As has been the case for most of the season, senior Heather Heinrich served as a bright spot for USU, despite the loss. Heinrich saw her streak of five-consecutive meets with a seasonbest all-around score come to an end Friday night, but still managed to finish third in the all-around with a score of 38.750. She was also the Aggies' top individual event finisher, placing fifth on vault with a season-best 9.825. Heinrich was followed in the all-around by sophomore teammate Haley Hogan, who finished fourth with a score of 36.550. Aggie freshman Amanda Watamaniuk finished fifth, posting a 36.450. UCLA's Tauny Frattone won the all-around I See TRI-MEET, page 8 |