OCR Text |
Show The Signpost - Friday, May 12, 1989 7 Weber's Cary qualfies for NCAA steeplechase By Ethan Yorgason Sports Editor Kris Cary qualified for the NCAA championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Monday at a meet in Provo. Several members of the Wildcat track and field teams competed at Brigham Young during a meet which was primarily between BYU and UCLA. The top performance of the whole meet, according to WSC women's track coach Jim Blaisdell, came from Weber State's Cary, however. The senior from Provo beat the qualifying mark by almost two seconds, recording a time of eight minutes, 57.08 seconds. Cary has been , close to the national qualifying mark several times this season. He missed the mark once by just four hundredths of a second. Facing the warm weather and the altitude (where it is supposedly harder to reach the qualifying mark), Cary did not seem to have a great chance to qualify. But, said WSC men's track coach Chick Hislop, Cary went out fast in the race and burned the rest of the field out in easily winning the race. BYU's Ted Meacham finished second at 9:07.07, just edging out the Wildcats' Dean Miller who had a time of 9:07.34. Meacham finished second in last year's NCAA championships but has not qualified for the meet this year. Miller has also not qualified although he has been close several times. Other Wildcat athletes who performed Improved condition for WSC decathlete Murphy Weber State decathlete Mike Murphy is making progress after being in critical condition due to a pole-vaulting accident two weeks ago. Weber State track coach Chick Hislop said Murphy has been moved from critical to satisfactory condition at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. On Tuesday, said Hislop, Murphy spoke for the first time since his injury. Murphy fell off the padded pit onto his neck and head while warming up for the pole vault at the Cougar Invitational two weeks ago. He lost consciousness immediately and fell into a coma. He then contracted pneumonia and was listed in critical condition. Hislop said that Murphy has since made rapid progress and has recovered from the pneumonia, enabling doctors to upgrade his condition to satisfactory. The freshman from Gillette, Wyoming . still alternates between being in and out of the coma, however, and still is in the intensive care unit of the medical center. Hislop said, though, that doctors thought he might be able to be moved out of intensive care in the next day or two. The coach said Murphy's progress has been somewhat ahead of the schedule the doctors set for him. "Everything is just going positive," he said. Hislop said Murphy no longer seems to be in a life-threatening situation. Now, concerning his recovery, it's "just how far and how fast he comes along," he said. well, according to Hislop, were Matt Godfrey and Mike Coe in the 1 ,500 meters. Godfrey finished third in 3:55.51 while Coe took fifth in 3:56.93. Both times were seasonal bests. John Wagstaff also had a good race, taking second in the 1 10-meter high hurdles in 14.41 Weber State's women's track team did not have many exceptional performances, said Blaisdell, due in part to the warm weather and the fact that the athletes had competed just two days earlier at Wildcat Stadium. There were a few good marks, however. In the 800 meters Kelly Davis took third with a2: 13. 16 and Dana Willie set a seasonal best with a 2: 13.98 to capture sixth place. -: Blaisdell noted that his long jumpers, Nicole Alder and Tina McCombs, both came up with good marks after setting personal records on Saturday. Alder took third at 18 feet 5 14 inches while McCombs jumped 18-1 34 for fourth place. Weber's 4xl00-meter relay team gave the Wildcats one of their two first places with a time of 48.43. Triple jumper Carol Day provided the other first place with a mark of 36-0 14. NBA expanding too quickly Everyone has heard the old saying, "if it's not broke, don't fix it," . . . everyone, that is, except the National Basketball Association. Over the past few years the popularity of the NBA has soared to unbelievable heights (yearly attendance has nearly tripled since 1979). So what does the NBA do withthen-new-found gold mine? They attempt to spread themselves too thin by the use of rapid expansion. Over the past two seasons the NBA will have added four new teams, enlarging a toiai oi z teams. This and are beaten badly each night. Who wants to pay money to see one of these teams play? By pure virtue of the fact that the league cannot add more games to the schedule the season currently extends itself from November through April with three more months devoted towards pre-season and playoffs each existing team must drop games to accommodate the new arrivals. By squeezing these new teams into the regular season the fan will lose the opportunity to see such franchises as the Celtics, Pistons and Lakers so they may see the Heat, Magic and Hornets. With the NBA Sidelines wildfire expansion brings about some serious problems. For starters, the expansion teams are not immediately eligible for the lottery draft. This draft is held for the teams not making the playoffs and consists of these teams placing their names in a so-called hat and having them drawn out in the order they will pick in the upcoming college draft. The expansion teams, because they don't participate in this lottery, are required to build their teams upon some of the weaker NBA players along withmiddle-of-the-round picks from the college draft. This situation creates sub-par teams which the fans don't like to watch play. Because of the mediocrity of these new teams the games arc boring and uninteresting. An especially poor situation occurs as they play oilier learns on the road By Sean Firth Staff Reporter allowing any city with a few wealthy businessmen to buy a team, the league will soon become weaker. Top players coming out of college will be spread so thin among expansion teams that these teams will not become contenders in the league for at least five years. This causes the quality of the league to basically freeze at its current slate while possibly ruining the careers of blue-chip athletes who are confined to a team that will be in the "building stage" for the better part of his career. As time goes on expansion will indeed be necessary. But as for now, the league needs to get its feet under itself and slow down the expansion. For we all know that more than one party has been ruined because too many guests were invited. Gridders to face alumni The annual varsityalumni spring football game will be held tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Wildcat Stadium. The game culminates five weeks of spring practice for the football team and will be the final formal event for the team before practice resumes next fall. The goal of the game for the varsity team is to get players used to game situations and to get new head coach Dave Arslanian's first victory under their belts. For the alumni the game provides a chance to show that they still should be playing the game of football and to renew old acquaintances. The alumni team will consist of such players as defensive backs Calvin Hampton, Ken Beazer, Dave Critchlow, and Rich Willis; defensive linemen Taani Tai, Mike Robinson and Shannon Nunnelley; linebacker Charlie S toll; running back Willie McDonald; receiver Wade Orton; and lineman Tony Downs. All these players were seniors on this season's Wildcat football team. Other notable alumni include: Joe Long, Vernell Quinn, Mike Neal, Chris Darrington, Ken Sanders, Kelly Widmeyer, Paul Valenzuela, George Fuller, Doug Kallas, Angus Maclnnes. Goodl4ookM ffNTRACY AVIARY r L-l IN LIBERTY PARK T Lwelve, tree-filled acres housing the largest bird collection in the West. Rare birds, colorful birds, even strange birds. All available for birds-eye viewing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. 589 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City. |