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Show SPORTS FRIDAY 1/14 PAGh 13 ru Daily Utah Chronicle Upperclass U women rout CSU 68-50 PLAYER OF THE GAME Tye Smith Asst. Sports Editor The three upperclassmen on the U women's basketball team showed their class Thursday night in the Utes' conference opener against Colorado State. The Utes (12-4, 1-0 MWC) routed the Rams (9-5, 0-1) 6850 in an impressive display of shooting and defense. Juniors Kim Smith and Shona Thorburn joined senior Lana Sitterud as the three Ute standouts out in Thursday night's contest. Not only did they help shut down CSU's two best players, but they did all the little things, too—including lighting up the Huntsman Center with a 43.3 shooting percentage. Though the three are the only upperclassmen on the Utes' roster, they lifted the Utes to victory in the tonesetting conference game. Smith, the two-time conference player of the year, earned her sixth double-double of the Shona Thorburn The Junior point guard led the Utes to victory with 18 points and eight assists. Thorburn scored nine points during a critical 16-4 run early in the second hall that left the Utes up by 23. season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. It was her 17th career double-double. Thorburn, the MWC's leader in assists, led the team in scoring with 18 points and also dished out eight assists. Sitterud nabbed a careerhigh seven steals to go along with her 12 points. She scored the last six points of the first half on two three-pointers to cap off a 15-4 run that put the Utes well ahead for the remainder of the game. U head coach Elaine Elliott said she recently noticed an elevation in the quality of the play and leadership of her three upperclassmen in the Utah's Shona Thorburn blocks Colorado State's Vanessa Espinoza, preventing her from reaching the basket in Utah's Thursday night win at the SEEU WOMEN PAGE 16 Huntsman Center. Red Rocks head to Logan for intrastate clash Asad Kudiya Sports Reporter Utah's Krlsten Riffanacht scores a 9.875 during her floor exercise last Friday Night in the Huntsman center. Utah State is not defending national champion UCLA— that's obvious. But the U gymnastics team won't have as much motivation as it did in the last meet, as it heads up north to Logan to compete against Utah State. "We have to create the same type of energy in this meet," junior gymnast Kristen Riffanacht said. Also playing against them is the fact that the Utes1 won't have the same crowd they did in the first meet and it won't be the season opener. "There obviously won't be 10,000 people there," Riffanacht said. Freshman Ashley Postell, who was tied for the allaround victory in the first meet, says she "likes competing in front of a lot of people," but will now compete for the first time on the road in her collegiate career. "Most of the pressure is off me now that the first meet is over," Postell said. Postell and senior Annabeth Eberle are tied for the best allaround in the country. Last season, the Utes pummeled the Aggies and scored the second-highest score in school history of 198.050. The Red Rocks have competed against the Aggies 82 times and have only lost three times. This season, the Utes1 are a much deeper team and that depth will come into play, since sophomore gymnast Rachel Tidd is out for the meet due to a back injury. The decision as to who will fill in on the vault and bars has not been made. "Whoever is ready will fill in," Riffanacht said. Riffanacht competed on the vault and bars last week, but only in exhibition. She was nervous and had some missteps on her dismounts. "I think exhibition helps self-confidence and that was my only problem," Riffanacht said. "I haven't really compet- ed in these events." On the floor, however, Riffanacht recovered and scored a 9.875 to set the tone for the event. She also scored a 9.800 on •• the beam. Riffanacht may fill in for Tidd on the vault or beam, but the team has several options. Sophomore Nicolle Ford, who is sixth in the nation on the all-around, did not live up to her own standards on the vault and beam last week. If she competes as she usually has in the past, it will help make up for the loss of Tidd. This will be the Aggies' first meet of the season and they have many unknowns heading into the meet, especially since they haven't officially competed yet this season. Senior captains Rachel Ropelato and Katie Rutheford V ,:: HOMt Ashley Postell dismounts the balance beam during last week's Utah win over UCLA at the Huntsman Center. lead the Aggies; however, Jessica Parcnti, one of their best gymnasts, is just a sophomore. Freshmen Megan Tschida and Katie Omann will also be looked at to fill in holes. In its annual intra-squad competition, the primary gymnasts for Utah State scored a 194.100, which does not figure to be enough to defeat the Utes. akudiya@ chronicle.utah.edu Mets enlist one slugger to land another SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— Mets executives met with Carlos Delgado on Thursday, hoping the tactic that helped land Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez would lure the freeagent first baseman to New York. Already in Puerto Rico with Beltran, general manager Omar Minaya and three others met with the 32year-old slugger hi a San Juan hotel, Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said. "It was just kind of a meet-andgreet thing," Delgado's agent, David Sloane, said. "It was all non-contractual, just a chance for those guys to get to meet each other. The meeting was over in about 20, 30 minutes." In his first visit to his native Puerto Rico since signing a seven-year, $119 SKIING UTAH AT ANCHORAGE INVITATIONAL Jan. 13-14,2005 all day @ Jackson, Wyo. million contract with the Mets on Tuesday, Beltran said the presence of two Latinos in New York's front office — Minaya, who is Dominican, and his special assistant Tony Bernazard, a Puerto Rican — gave the Mets a family appeal that made him lean toward the team. And Minaya's visit to Puerto Rico along with several Mets officials sealed the deal for the 27-year old slugger. "I know Omar since I was 18. I know Tony," Beltran said. "They came to Puerto Rico to meet with me, which other teams did not do ... That showed me they really wanted me." Minaya and Bernazard met with Delgado along with Jeff Wilpon, the Mets' chief operating office and son of owner Fred Wilpon, and Jim Duquette, senior vice president of baseball operations. Delgado is also being pursued by the Marlins, and he and Sloane plan to meet Saturday in Florida with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and general manager Larry Beinfest. "I would characterize this as a more significant meeting because Mr. Loria will be there and I will be there," Sloane said. "We're working to set up a similar meeting as soon as possible with the Mets, but nothing has been set up, yet." The Mets are hoping that their recent signings of Beltran and Dominican star Martinez will help sway Delgado, who has hit at least 30 homers in each of the past eight seasons for GYMNASTICS UTAH AT (1-0) UTAH STATE (0-0) Jan. 14,2005 6:45 p.m. @ Logan, Utah MEN'S HOOPS UTAH AT WYOMING (13-3) (8-6) Jan. 15,2005 4 p.m. @ Laramie, Wyo. the Toronto Blue Jays . Minaya said knowing the importance of family and personal contact in Latin culture gave him the idea of visiting Puerto Rico to recruit Beltran- He used the same technique to lure Martinez into a $53 million, fouryear deal. "Maybe the intuition of me understanding the culture led me to our strategy of, 'Let's go a step further, let's go there'," Minaya said. Family was one of the key words in Thursday's press conference, in which Beltran spoke only in Spanish, joked, posed for pictures and hugged friends Jose Rosado, a former Kansas City Royals pitcher, and senior golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez. Beltran tried to recruit Delgado when they talked recently. "I told him I'm interested in him joining the Mets family," Beltran said. Hailing from Manati, a small coastal town on Puerto Rico's north coast, Beltran said he never fathomed becoming one of baseball's most coveted stars and the 10th player with a contract worth Sioo million or more. "When I left Manati I left with the desire of working hard and helping my family, giving back to my father and my mother," he said. "Now I told my father he can retire." His wife and high school sweetheart, Jessica, said the couple does not feel any pressure being a new center of attention in the Big Apple. The Associated Press SWIMMING/DIVING UTAH AT (9-4) NEX MEXICO (11-4) Jan. 15,2005 7 p.m. @ Albuquerque, N.M MEN'S HOOPS UTAH AT (13-3) COLORADO ST. (8-6) Jan. 17,2005 6 p.m. @ Fort Collins, Colo. |
