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Show The Newspaper Thursday March 5, 1981 Pane B3 Local x-c skiers shine in weekend races Vf 11k jV; Ji- t.. turn : rst Tsa- s "1 m Jim Miller and Dave Hanscom prepare for race. 1 i i t - w, 4-, if. 1,'? Hi Pr mtmu-- FT. f 1 V 8 s I i ' fc - i,. ,V:j it-' Hometown skiers showed their stuff at two Wasatch Citizen's Series races held in Park City last weekend by capturing several top places each day. Saturday, a loony nordic dual slalom was held at Parkwest, followed on Sunday by the Deer Valley Open track race. Steve Erickson. Hoytsville resident and Park City businessman, placed first overall both days. His partner, part-ner, Jim Miller, was fourth in the dual slalom and second in the track race, and Parkite Dave Hanscom was third Saturday and fourth Sunday in the Men's Expert class. The dual slalom was a downhill-uphill-downhiU race. Skiers started at the top of the course and skied down, then ran' back up, switched courses and made a second run. Erickson's winning time was 105.61 seconds, top among the 17 participants. Jimmie Katz, Peoa, used the tactic of taking off his skis at the bottom of the course, running back up in ski boots, then putting skis back on again for the second run. But the taking-off, put-ting-on maneuver took up valuable time, and Katz, who made strong downhill runs, finished tenth among eleven entrants in the open class. Rich Groth, Park City, skied the course aggressively, hitting the gates with his arms as he skied past them, and placed fifth. Other Parkites racing in"the open class included Steve Morgan, seventh, and Jeff Newsom, ninth. Top among women racers were Carol Morgan, first, and Dana Crandale, second, both of Park City. Sunday's track race attracted at-tracted 44 skiers to Deer Valley, where a challenging 5-kilometer course was laid out. The south end of the course featured a tough herringbone hill that climbed clim-bed up an alpine ski run, then a quick descent with a few tricky corners. The bottom bot-tom of the course was a long loop around Frog Valley that tested skier endurance. Most competitors agreed that Sunday's race was won by wax. Steve Erickson attributed at-tributed his victory to "great skis, Fischer SC's, and violet klister with violet hard wax mixed in." Rob Landis of Alta. who placed seventh had to stop and scrape his skis several times on the downhill stretch because of sticky wax, but, as he put it, ' I could climb great." Skiers praised the Deer Valley course as being both scenic in spite of winding through construction zones, and challenging. For many cross-country skiers, the race was the first time they had been on Deer Valley property this season, since the resort has taken a hardline hard-line against nordic skiers trespassing on the skis runs. But race officials had nothing but compliments for Deer Valley for their generosity and cooperation in setting up and conducting this race. hM-i.v .hi f- ,! iM j j 1 1 'v '-j r W Carol Morgan attacks the "pro bump." xwmkr irUr f. Two x-c races slated for Deer Valley Overall winner Steve Erickson skating into a corner. A biathlon Saturday, March 7 and a Dannon Series Race Tuesday, March 10 to be held at Deer Valley Resort are the Wasatch Citizen's Series races slated tor the upcoming week, , '', 'I The Utah National Guard is sponsoring the biathlon, a contest that combines skiing and marksmanship skills. Racers ski a five-kilometer course and shoot at targets. Normally, if the target is missed, the racer skis penalty laps, but in this citizen's biathlon, missed targets will be assessed penalty points. According to race coordinator R. J. Guiney, the National Guard will provide rifles, which are open-sight .22 calibre models. Tuesday's race is one of a series of races sponsored across the country by Dannon Dan-non Yogurt. Both citizen's and classified USSA racers participate, and members 0! the U.S. Ski Team and Junior Olympic Team are expected to race. The biathlon race ,: is scheduled to start at 10 a m,, .... ,,, .- .. with, pre-race registration between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. The Dannon race begins at 9 a.m,r and the entry deadline is noon on March 9. Other upcoming crosscountry cross-country races include the NCAA championships at Deer Valley Resort March 12 and 14, and the Utah Heart Association Ski for Life racetour at Wasatch State Park March 14. The Ski for Life is a pledge race to raise money for heart research in "Utah. Pledge cards are available at the White Pine Touring Center at the Park City golf course. Registration is $4, and prizes will be awarded to skiers collecting $25 or more in pledges. If 4 V j.,:. : - f0 Wt-'ifi-t John Clayton shooting the ljng downhill stretch. by Richard BariiumRecec After late start, injury, Duren looks to next year When he was a skinny, seven-year-old kid bopping around the hardwoods of Boys Club number two in Washington D,C he used to look up at the big kids and dream about flying the way they could fly. There was, for example, exam-ple, Austin Carr, Kermit Washington, Adrian Dantley, Dave Bing and occasionally even the man himself, Elgin Baylor. But for now, John Duren, the former Ail-American Ail-American from Georgetown University, is deferring his dreams. He's out on the streets in Murray, Utah, some 20 miles south of the Salt Palace, running his laps, trying to rehabilitate a knee that betrayed him in the early part of the season as he brushed past a Dallas Maverick Oct. 28 and tore his lateral meniscus. "I was pleased when the Jazz decided to have two doctors look at my knee and then go ahead with the operation," Duren says quietly after a Jazz loss to Chicago. He played less than 10 minutes. The team is bringing him back slowly, hoping that he will be one of the ingredients to a successful future. The rookie who is getting all the ins for the Utah Jazz presently is former Louisville University whirlwind Darrell Griffith. Griffith Grif-fith is the shooting guard for the Jazz, and with his 48-inch explosion, he is quick to put the ball in the air, sometimes shooting as many as 25 times a game. Griffith "The Golden Griff" as Jazz announcer Hot Rod Hundley likes to call him, is leading all NBA rookies in scoring. He's a former Pan-American Pan-American Games teammate of Duren, who says he is not in the least offended by Griffith's Grif-fith's instant success. "I see myself as a playmaker more than as a shooter out there," he says, now bending his elbow to his second piece of quiche. "I try to set up the offense and get the team going on defense." However, of late, 22-year-old Duren is having a difficult time getting himself back in gear, much less putting the lethargic Jazz offensive of-fensive and defensive schemes into operation. After coming off the injured list in late January, Duren has averaged but 2 fi points and two assists in 16 minutes of action. He is doing little better than the starting point guard, former Michigan University All-American All-American Ricky Green who, after also coming off the injured list with a sprained wrist, has done less than a remarkable job for Utah. Perhaps the ultimate insult was provided by Rickey Sobers, who led the Chicago Bulls to a victory over the Jazz in Chicago's last-hour last-hour battle for a Central Division playoff spot. "The way that Ricky and that other guy, I think his name is Drew, have been shooting, I could just leave them and help out on Griffith." Grif-fith." Sobers said after the game. John Duren fervently believes he can play NBA-style basketball, but to date, he has not been able to establish himself like in those golden years as a Georgetown Hoya on his way to career assist records under coach John Thompson. "Duren was like having another coach on-the on-the floor," Thompson says about the 6-foot, 4-inch 4-inch guard who attended Dunbar High School in Washington. Duren was the Hoya's record-holder record-holder in total games played during a four-year four-year period, and he was their second all-time leading scorer after starting 93 consecutive games. In all, it looked to the Utah Jazz that John Duren would be a perfect complement to their first-ever first round draft choice, Darrell Griffith. "When we made the choice, we decided it was best to go with a quality player at the guard spot rather than attempt to make do with a second-rate player at forward or center," cen-ter," Coach Tim Nissalke said at the time of the NBA draft. It wasn't that Duren thought he was going to blow everyone away in the NBA when he finally signed his contract late in the season after the pre season and tryout camps ended. His agent. Donald Dell, who also happens to be teammate Adrian Dantley's agent, told the Georgetown graduate to keep working as a waiter at the restaurant and not to worry. As it happens, Dell came up with a fine contract con-tract lor Duren, but holding out until the regular season started did little to establish Jonn 111 the How ol loin Nissalke's patient hammer and tongs offense. "It's going to be next year before we can really tell about John now," Nissalke explains. ex-plains. Tom Nissalke likes Duren. That, in and of itself says something. Nissalke, who is one of three coaches to ever win Coach of the Year honors in the NBA and the old American Basketball Association, has a knack for dropping drop-ping the guillotine on Jazzmen who do not quite make the grade. He even finally cut Ron Boone, who most admit was more of a player at the time than Duren. But Boone was old and on his way out at 34 after having set a record of playing in 1,041 consecutive games. The Iron Man. So for Duren, who thought it perfectly natural to get out there on the court and put the ball up in the face of those older players who would go on to NBA greatness, the chances chan-ces of success have not fallen as well as he might initially have hoped. "The first bad thing was that we didn't get to see him until after the season started, and then he got the leg injury and he was out," says Dave Fredman, who has worked as the press liaison for the Jazz the past seven years. "He's a smart kid and we like that but it's just too early to tell." Nissalke says he's looking to see what Duren can do next season. He'd like to see the 200-pound point guard lose 10 pounds or so he says, since a loss in weight might make him a bit quicker. Also, it wouldn't hurt if Duren would get involved in the hotshot Los Angeles summer leagues to help develop his talent. NBA scoring leader Adrian Dantley agrees with coach Nissalke. "When I first came into this league I thought you had to be heavy, but that's not where it's at," A D. said while going through his pre-game stretching ritual. "Most of the point guards in this league are 165-170 pounds. You can't expect to out-quick those people if you weigh 200 pounds," "I think he's going to be a good pro ball player," Dantley explained. "I'd heard that he was small but that he was a good playmaker. He's like a lot of young players-he players-he has to learn to really concentrate on the gume. I talked to him, and now he's studying films, checking out the players he'll be up against. You have to know the players; you have to know the point guards." But Duren doesn't like the idea of either playing in L.A. or dropping 10 pounds. "I'll play in the league in DC," he says, explaining ex-plaining that such lights as A.D. himself play in the league. And as far as dropping the weight goes. well. "Look," he says, "I see mysell as more of a position and muscle player than someone who is going to outquick you. My role is to be a playmaker, to take charge on the court." "I just don't think he's going to muscle that many people," Dantley says, now down to 210 pounds alter ballooning up to 245 as a freshman fresh-man at Notre Dame. "11 you want to become a star in this league, you have to go out there every night and take on those people. That takes its toll and you don't realize it. You have to get light to be comfortable. Look at those point guards. You don't seen any 200 pounders." poun-ders." Be it as it may, John "Bay-Bay" Duren. is a rookie with a future that is yet assured. Last summer, he remembers working as a waiter in a posh Washington restaurant, still a college kid really, somewhat dazzled at all the big names who would parade through the dining room. "We were playing in L.A. the other night and 1 look out there and there's Jack Nicholson on the front row. just a regular guy and all these stars. I remember last summer and you'd see all these people in the restaurant : Kennedy 's and all these people." And today Duren is driving back and forth to work in a Lincoln Mark IV-something he never though about back in the days of Boys Club number two, So Bay-Bay, who caught his knickname because he was once a baby in a family of nine children, is still finding his way in the jungle that is the NBA. "I know I can play NBA basketball," Duren reflected. "I'm just going to have to work hard and concentrate I just know that I can play in this league " i Come to the wearin' 1 o the green 1 Elk's Club I H Saturday, March 14th W p 8:00 to midnight Live music PlkAfNX H I and 1 H Great Irish f ViSfeili g time for all aJujliWi STEAK H I s I VI M I Best Salad Bar in Town Serving Prime Rib nightly 649-7100 OPEN 7 DAYS A WLLK FOR DINNER Monday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m. -10:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 5:30 p.m.-l 1 :00 p.m. Sunday. 5:00-10:00 p.m. NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH ' : ' ' ' ' 1 Weekdays , ',r'':'- 'H'h;-lHX)a.ni. 2:OOp.m;----y 4 i.c- i:- .ri,3l'J- ,J.. . MOUNTAIN QPFlSHERYQg RESTAURANT FRESH THIS WEEK Red Snapper, Oysters, Clams, Flounder, Haddock 6-11 p.m. Daily Reservations Suggested 649-4006, 368 Main Street Mastercharge and VISA accepted. SHOP HISTORIC MAIN STREET ca era a tJr- ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS GIFTS Open 10-H daily. Specialiinn in handmade tfil'is. AMkjiu-v iuilis and ornaments Directly across the street from the Cowboy Bar. |