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Show ---------------------~••••a•~O•A••--------------------- SPORTS THETHUNDERBIRD•SO\JTIIERNlITAHUNIVERSITY · MONDAY,MARCH8, 1993 • PAGE IO Ladies pound GCU Gymnasts travel to USU for meet tonight BY JAY HINTON Thunderoird Sporu Editor After suffering through a 6.21 season a year ago, secondyear SUU Women's Basketball Coach Larry Shunliff and his charges fini hed the season 12-15 after its 67-56 win over the Grand Canyon Univcr ity Antelopes Thursday night in Phoenix, AZ. The Lady 1l1Underbirds finished the eason by winning four of their last five road games. UU finished an even 6-0 in the Centrum and 6.9 on th road. ln their first meeting of rbe season in the Centrum, Alvey netted 21 points and to lead the Lady 'Birds to an 84-68 win. In front of a very small crowd at Antelope Gymnasium, SUU~ Angie Alvey and Ubby Price fi ished up their careers as Lady Thunderbirds. Price scored a game-high l6 points and pulled down I 2 ooards, while Alvey scored six points, both three-pointer and grabbed seven rebounds. The Lady Thunderbirds and the Lady Antelopes were tied at 32-32 at the half. SUU shot only 40 percent from the field and GCU hit 42 percent SUU made 15-37 field goal attempts and GCU hit 11 -26. The difference was that the Antelopes hit 8-12 fro(!l the line, while SUU had only two tti ps and made one. In the second half the Lady 'Birds outscored Grand Canyon 5.24 to take tlle I I-point 67-56 win. The Thunderbird defense limited the Antelopes to just 7J 7 shooting for 18 percent. Offensively for the Thunderbirds, they hit 14-35 shots and finished the game at 40 percent shooting from the floor. Becky Schofield, who played all 40 minutes, was second in scoring behind Price with 15 points. She also had nine rebounds. Amanie Niemann scored in double-figures with 12 points, while Sue Shurtliff had nine and Cherri Shurtliff added eight points. BY DOUG BERGEVIN Thunderbird Sports Writer The Lady Thunderbird gymnastic squad is home after a two-meet road trip to California, but won't be here long as they travel to Logan tonight to take on Utah State, Boise State and Denver U. in a meet slated for 7 p.m. At their first stop Thursday at UC Santa Barbara, The Thunderbirds met Santa Barbara and San Jose. The 'Birds scored a 188.85, falling to Santa Barbara's l89.10 and topping San Jose's 184.20. Friday, in a four-way meet at Cal State Fullerton, the 'Birds came in third with a l87.4 against Cal State Fullerton, UCIA, and Southern lllinois. UCIA scored a 193.55, Cal State Fullerton scored a 190.3, and Soud1ern Illinois trailed behind with a 184.1. At Cal State Fullenon the top al\. arounder for Southern Utah was Julie Aguirre with a 37.30. The 'Birds scored a season best team score on vault with a 46.95 and posted a season low on bars with a 45.80. On beam they scored 46. 75 and on floor th.ey picked up a 47.90. The top scorer for SU on vault was Jodi McKay who tied her personal best and set her season best with a 9.55. Aguirre scored a 9.45 and Mika ]ii! Eagles Goldstein set her season best with a 9.40. Aguirre took the high score on bars with a 9.55 and Jill Eagles and McKay followed up with a 9.25 and 9.20. On beam, Ki'm Francis and Cris Becker tied for top • honors with a 9.55. Susie Specht scored a 9.40 and Eagles came in third with a 9.35. The T-Birds scored highest on floor due to some high scores by the SU senior . Franci rook the top score with a 9. 70. Becker tied her personal best and tied McKay with a 9.60. Aguirre scored a 9.55. At UC Sanra Barbara the top all-arounders for SU were Aguirre with a 37.75 and Eagles 37.25. 1lle team score for the vault was 46.65, for bars a 47.05, on beam the 'Birds scored a 46.90, and on floor they tied their personal best with a 48.30. On vault, Goldstein and freshman Anne Marshall tied for first with a 9.40. The score was a personal best for Marshall. Aguirre scored a 9.38 and Francis scored a season high 9.25. On bars, Becker cook the high with a 9.60 and Usa Gomez and Aguirre scored a 9.55 and 9.40. On beam, Francis tied her season best with a 9.60 and took the hjghest score. Eagles and Aguirre tied widl 9.40s and Becker and Specht tied with 9.25s. On the floor, McKay scored a personal best with a 9.80 and tied Francis' career high for the highest floor score. Eagles and Francis each picked up a 9.65 and Specht, Aguirre, and freshman Stacy Fullmer picked up 9.60s. This is a personal best for Fullmer. Skipper Tom O'Gorman knows baseball from two countries SUU baseball coach Tom O'Gorman had a unique coaching experience this past summer, guiding a Canadian junior national team in St. Alben, Alberta. O'Gorman, who is in his first year as head coach of the 'Birds, was at the National Baseball Coaches Convention Last year when he was approached about the opportunity to go to Canada for the summer to coach in the junior national program. Baseball Canada has been working to improve baseball in the country and was interested in bringing in coaches from the United States to help with the effort O'Gorman said he thought it looked like a good opportunity, so he applied for a po ition and was accepted. As it worked out, he became head coach of the St. Albert Tigers, a junior team O'Gorman coached into the Canadian We tern Champienship. St Albert is a member of a five-team league (or Zone as they are called in Canada), which competed in the Alberta Province League. The junior program consistli of players 17-19 years of age who are developed for advancement into the Canadian National Team system. Each Canadian province has a team which competes on the national level and num rous Zone teams which feed into the provinadal team, which in turn feeds players to the national team. Although, for the most part, Canadian players are a little bit behind their counterparts in the States, O'Gonnan said he saw a lot of talented players during his stay. In fact, he recruited two who are currently playing at Southern Utah shortstop Doug Fystro and pitcher Doyle Lefabvre although they weren't players in his league. "There are some good baseball players up there," O'Gorman said. "But they are generally about one to two years behind the players here [in the United States!. By comparison, their baseball is to ours like our hockey is to theirs: good, but a little bit behind, skills-wise. Otherwise, baseball wasn't any different up there than it is here; baseball is baseball." O'Gorman's team experienced a successful season, finishing 21 -21 in zone play before finishing second in the zone playoffs. The top two teams advanced from zone to provincial play, where O'Gorman's charges rose to the SUU Skip/JeT Tom O'Gorman occasion, winning five straight games and avenging a zone championship loss to Sherwood Park in the provincial championship game to earn the right to advance to tr.e Western Regional Championship. At the western regional tournament, St. Albert compiled a 3-2 record, losing the Western Championship to Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, by a final score of 8-5. The experience as a whole was a positive one, O'Gorman said. He and his four-year-old son, Paul, were provided an apartment as well as meals for the duration of their stay. In fact, he said he would like to do it again, but can't because "I'll have to concenrrate on recruiting (for the SUU squad] this summer. We'll continue to recruit up there though, I made some good friends and some good contacts while I was there." O'Gorman, a native of Reno, NV, came to SUU last year and spent his first year with the Thunderbirds as an assistant to then-head coach Steve Rollo before taking over the top job last summer. After graduating from Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, O'Gorman played college baseball at NAU but saw his career as a player cut short by a knee injury during his junior season. From NAU, he transferred to Sierra Nevada College where he received his undergraduate degree. His first coaching job was as an assi tant at South lake Tahoe High Schoo~ in South lake Tahoe, NV. From there he moved on co a two-year stint as head coach at Incline High School (Incline, NV), where hi!t team advanced to the state 2A playoffs both years, compiling an overall record of 23-14, including a 144 season in 1991. O'Gorman and his wife Sandy are the parents of two children, Paul (4) and John (2). |