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Show -- -- - - - ---- Jl~ 'BIRD SPORTS ..:· ::~c: THE UNIVEllsm JOURNAi; • S0U11IERN UTAH UNIVERSITY • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1997 ·i . ' . . . -~·. .• -;;.,: .~.' : . .-<;;'':'~. :: --. }:':~ - :. . . . . . . ' . " Men's cross country finishes second at BYU 24:55 behind Weber State's Matt Harmer (24:46) and Damon C hamberlain (24:51) who ran unattached. , JOURNAL SPORTS EDITOR Although the 'Birds did finish only second as compared their first place finish at UNLV, the win at BYU was over two teams ranked in the top-25. The SU men's cross country team ran its best meets of the season as upsetting "It just elevevated us," said Head Coach Eric Houle. "It was not only an 8th-ranked Weber State Saturday morning for a second-place finish at the BYU fall awesome weekend for our team, but an awesome weekend for SUU." Awesome in classic. the fact that the Harriers are now Behind the strength of Chris ranked for the first time in SU Merkley' s fifth-place finish and Jody history as they received enough Benson close behind at sixth, the votes to be ranked as high as 32nd m en 's team finished with a total team at the Division-I level. That score of 52, just two points behind ranking could also be a big push as host BYU who took first place in both the 'Birds head into the Mid Con the men's and women's races. championships, where they should Weber State, who was favo red to win be the favorite in the men 's the men's meet due to their national division . "We arc going into the ranking, saw both the 'Birds and the conference nationally ranked. Cougars finish with more runners in That's a major boost for us," Houle the top-10 finishers, relinquishing said. Webe r's national status by earning just In Saturday's win, the men a third place finish. knocked off the top team in the Big Phil Woolston an d Ted Hansen were Sky, almos t beat the best team another big reason the 'Birds had such from the WAC and set a a high finish, as they finished 12th and precedence for years to come that 13th to give the ' Birds fo ur runners in SUU is ready to compete with the big boys. the top-1 3 . Before the meet, Houle had said that in orde r for the 'Birds to win i--..,..,.;...;. Mark Wright also had a strong the meet, those four wo uld have to be meet for the 'Birds, turning in a time of 24:41, good enough for at the front of the pack to give SUU a score tha t would be competitive. 24th and a big help in boosting the tea m that second-place fi nish. T hose four were the nucleus throughout the race, as they were at ·:;!"Mark really picked up the pace for the fro nt of the pack the who le time. .· ~ us. He really worked hard to sta y ' § close with the other guys, Houle "It's excning to see that we can compete with BYU and Weber State," ~commented. Merkley said . ;:; .:= The women's team also turned in Merkley contributed his strong :5"' another successful meet, but was fimsh to the fact that he was mentally ~ outgunned by the number two ' 15 team in the nation in BYU. The in the race this time. " I went out and relaxed. I knew it was a big meet." - Lady Cougars fi nished in eight of T hat mental concentration also paid Cody Benson (36) and Chris Merkley (35) stayed near the front of the pack throughout the top nine spots as the senior Saturday's m eet at BYU. Merkley finished at 24:55, good enough for fifth-place. off for the res t of the team, when at team finished first, and the BYU fres hman team finished second. SU one point, both Benson and Merkley ran equal with front runners Elvis T erry of Idaho State and Brandon Wilding of finished sixth in the team standings, and Houle felt that even though it wasn't a a strong finish for the team, the women ran really well. BYU. Those two eventually broke away from the pack to take tremendous leads, including a 24:26. 7 tim e fo r Terry who finished 11 seconds ahead of Wilding to "They are still young, but very talented," Houle said. " We feel like in tim e we are going to win. " Wendy Allen was the top finisher for the women with a time of take the individual ti ti e. Merkley finished one second ahead of Benson for the 'Birds, turning in a time of 18:46 and a 28th-place finish . By CHAD LAMB to 11 'Birds bashed by Idaho State By BEN GUNDERSON JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER Saturday's late night stand-off in Pocatello was turned into a shamble fo r SU as the team was tom apart by eight detrimental, Bengal-induced turnovers in a 46-31 loss to the Idaho State Bengals. With both teams tied at the end of the third quarter, the question still remained as to who would come out on top. That was answered in upsetting fashion as Idaho State added 27 fourth quarter points to their score, creating a 15-point lead over the 'Birds by game's end. All the way up until the fourth quarter, both teams had been playing exceptional football, both producing fairly strong offensive drives and demonstrating rather stout defensive strategy. With both teams stalemated after the first three quarters, what happened next would be as ambiguous as ever to the 5,126 fans in attendance at Holt Arena. Despite the eight offensive turnovers, the 'Birds put on an unstoppable rushing game, which totaled 348 net yards and topped the Bengals total offense by 2 10 yards. Unfortunately, SU was only able to produce 31 points fo r the night, while ISU was able to grab 46 points. SU fullback Brook Madsen led the 'Bird rushing with 150 yards, while Matt Cannon added 122 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown run which had tied the game late in the thi rd quarter. Running back Anthony Jefferies generated 24 yards of rushing and earned two touchdown runs for SU. The ISU offense displayed nothing spectacular as they were able to secure only 18 of their final 46 points. 15 of the remaining 28 points came from the record-setting foot of Bengal kicker James Farrel who was five-for-five on field goals, setting a school record. Both teams played reasonably forceful on defense, but the Bengals proved to have the upperhand as they were able to take advantage of the four interceptions and the four fumbles which would inevitably play a great role in the 'Birds' defeat. The 'Birds were further reduced when the .Bengal coach called a time-out with only one second left in the game in order for Farrel to make his recordbreaking fifth kick. Disgruntled by this action, SU head coach Ray Gregory left the field, along with his team, in a hurry, not bothering to shake hands with the victors. The 'Birds next engagement this season is with the Southwest Texas University Bobcats Saturday in San Marcos, Texas. SU will be showing up with a 4-3 record ... and an attitude. foe Dupaix attempts to run against the Bengals. Dupaix threw fo ur in terceptions against !SU. |