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Show !MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2001 PAGE 15 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS ·c ross country seeks another T Mid-Continent Conference .championship Baily hould be m re than enough to keep the team BY DAVID DEMILLE omp'etitive in the conference. "I think we ha e a g d hot," Moat ·aid, "even tl1ough we're young, the potential i there to be very good. It' ju t going to be up to those fourth and fifth guy: to tep it up. lfth y can do that we'U be just fine : With Valaparaiso, Oral Roberts, and others returning tr ng teams the Thunderbird ason is no longer the certainty that it once was, but with so many promising young runn rs, the future look bright. Houle see it that bright future might not be too far away. "We've dominated the last few years in the confe ren e ," Houl said, "but good thing have to change sometim . With only ne ren1mer from last year and the imp'rovement the competition bas made, it isn't realistic to predict another champion ·hip. Right now we want to be in the top four. As young as we are, and working as hard as we can) think that would be a nice accompli hment. Then again, we could win everything. You just can 't tell with all of these ft hm n; especially talented freshmen like this. " The imilarities of this team to the one of everal years ago that became tbre -time champions, has Houl excited about the future . "All of these guys are very promising," Houle said, "lt seem Hke"it' ju ·ta matte.r of time. The opportunity to watch th guy grow mak m excited. Just the idea of this team oming along making tride and improving-I can t wait for it." ory Jeffers, JD iel n, hawn Veman and Jame Wood are new runn rs looking to make a plash, and bould combine with Thomp on and BaHy to give the team one of its trongest incoming classes pe Thunderbird cross-country squad has taken h m a total of 12 conference champion hjp , including the last three for the men and the last two for the women. Both the men and women' team hav finished no lower than cond in th last 12 years. Heroes from th men 's squad year ago have been replaced b hopefuls for the coming season and there i a careful optimi mas the team prepare to d fend tho e titl . Tb women will be one of veral favorite to win the conference title once again, with returners Robyn Adams, Kelly nodgress and Jandee Hood teaming with a strong freshman class. ewcomers Meagan Schmutz and Alicia Bezan n hould both play a major role in tbe team's defense , as should holdo ers from a year ago Kira Thompson, Ana Cro by and Natalie Quilter. "The new girls are really trong, Quilter said, aThey could really help our team. We hould be right ar und th top again ." Anoth r run at the championship has coach Eric How excited for the season to tart. uOakland was second last year, and they've kept everyon . UM.KC hould be good and Oral Rober has some foreign runners coming in that could h lp, but I till · think we have a strong bot to win. We' re defmitely one of the favorires. » The men' team h only one remaining runner from the championship team of a year ago in Cody Moat. However, the potential hown thus far by newcomers like Seth Thomp on, Majeed Abdua and Jared ev r. "We'll be a good team ," said Thompson, a JC tran fer from Las Vegas, "but we need th young guys to really get it up and seU tho e lower spots. It won't be easy to replac l t year' team , ut we'll run bard and do what we can." An added luxury for th team is the location of the conference championship th' on: Cedar City. Having the meet at home hould not only give the teams another advantage, but it will also give the rest of the university a chance to ee th 12time champ in action. "It will b great to have th crowd there, " Hood aid, "We're excited that the peopl here can come see us." Southern Utah University harriers warm up for another season of cross country. SUU will host the Mid-Continent Conference championships this year at Cedar Ridge Golf Course: ... SOCCER 'Birds celebrate first-ever win Th inauguration of the newest UU athletic squad was a uccess on Friday as the Thunderbirds women's soccer team blanked M a tate 1-0 and tart d th new eason the way it wanted , however lo t to Utah t. 7-0 on aturday. Freshman forward Lindsey Boyer had the honor of coring the .first-ever goal for th team, hooting one i.n at 2:15 of th first half ov r Mesa after recetving a dever p from junior Megan Anderson. Anderson herself bad nearly ored minutes earlier when her hot hit the goal p t. Lyndsey obrero and Megan flowers were in g al for th 'Birds and combined for seven ves in ke ping Mesa from putting any ore on th boarp. ~Thi was just a tr mendous moment for us, " S head coach Brian tock aid. "The kids worked hard and they deserved it. We cam out and got it don ." Attendance at the first-ever UU women's soccer game was impre ·ivc, as c.he bill overlooking Thunderbird occer Field was nearly filled to capacity. "The crowd was great." tock aid. "We were very pleased with all the upport that we had. We were happy to give the crowd omething to cheer about." Mesa tate out-shot UU 14-9. but was unable to get many good 1 ks against a tough Thunderbird defense led by Katie Colohan and Claris a James. ith obrero and Flowers between the pipe there was not much of a chance for Mesa State to score. Michel Davi , Amber John on, arah illitoe, and Irene Dixon all had hots on goal for the Lady Thunderbirds, and Angela Profancik played " tellar defense " according to tock . After the hard work at practice and the anticipation of th n we ·t port on campus making its debut the Lady Thunderbird were· glad to finally get going. The win was exciting, but there w n't much time to celebrate: There was more work to be done. On an1Iday UU headed to Logan to play Utah t . in · a t0ugh matchup. Th Lady Thunderbird lo t 7-0 , with five different players coring for the Lady Aggie , with Michell Eversman and Amber Tracy coring two goals apiece. The Lady Thunderbirds made ome good pla. , including 11 av in goal, but were overmatched by a more experienced opponent. Overall it wa a successful weekend for the new team, and the exhibition game hould aide the team as the games begin co count. SUU will open its regular eason Aug. 31 at NAU before coming home on ept. 3 co play William p nn. ~ § g § < ~ i5 Goal... ....... Southern Utah University's women 's soccer team celebrates a goal in a 1-0 win over Mesa State University on Friday. Lindsey Boyer scored the only goal for the 'Birds in the effort. |