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Show 6 SPORTS Wednesday, March 16, 2011 TODAY'S SKI REPORT Alta 26° / 9 a.m. 32° / 3 p.m. INSIDE: Fill out your picks for March Madness » 8 www.dailyutahchronicle.corn conditions & weather from utahskiweathercom New snow over a firm base Brighton UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS 26° / 9 a.m. 32° / 3 p.m. Canyons 31° / 9 a.m. 38° / 3 p.m. 31 0 /9 a.m. Deer Valley 380/ 3 p.m. Snowbird 26° / 9 a.m. 32° / 3 p.m. Solitude 27" a.m. 33° / 3 p.m. FOOTBALL THURSDAY: Baseball Utah vs. BYU 6 p.m. Spring Mobile Ball Park UTES IN BRIEF SKIING Utes earn All-American Honors at Nationals In the first year of his second stint with the program, skiing coach Kevin Sweeney led the Utes to a second-place finish at the 58th annual NCAA Skiing National Championships in Stowe, Vermont. Utah finished just behind Colorado University, which captured its i8th National Championship in program history. "I am pleased with (Saturday's) performance on the alpine hill and extremely satisfied with the overall second-place NCAA finish," Sweeney said. "We demonstrated some great team skiing and put down the results when and where we needed to give the title run a shot. Consistency in every discipline has been our trademark this year, and it proved to serve us well here at the championships. It was a super team effort all around." In the final day of competition, Utah added four more All-American honors to bring the team's total from the three-day event to 14. Seniors Tii-Maria Romar and Eva Huckova, as well as sophomore Anna Kocken all earned All-American recognition in the women's slalom, and junior Torjus Krogdahl did the same in the men's slalom. It was Huckova's sixth All-American honor of her career. Bryan Chouinard NATHAN SWEET/The Daily Utah Chronicle Luke Matthews dishes out a stiff arm during practice Tuesday. Matthews, who spent the past two seasons at wide receiver, is one of four players splitting reps at running back during spring ball. Utes move to the backfield Jake Hibbard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR In college football, position changes are just about as common as water breaks. Last season's starting stud linebacker Chad Manis came to the U as a quarterback, and former safety Brian Blechen was moved to linebacker this spring to help ease the loss of Manis, who is graduating. However, the most dramatic position switches for the Utes this year are happening in the offensive backfield, as head coach Kyle Whittingham and new offensive coordinator Norm Chow move away from the spread offense of past years to a more grind-it-out, multi-back system. The coaching staff decided to move sophomore Luke Matthews, who saw action in 2009 and 2010 at wide receiver, to running back, a position that will return no one from last year. The Utes' first- and second-leading rushers from 2010 in Eddie Wide and Matt Asiata were both seniors, but it was the loss of sophomore and heir-apparent Sausan Shakerin that put the future of the position into question—Shakerin was medically disqualified from continuing his football career after sustaining his second concussion of the year playing against Notre Dame in the regular season. The Utes head into spring ball splitting reps evenly between Matthews and three other backs: See FOOTBALL Page 8 Despite losses, Utah stays consistent Kelsey Price STAFF WRITER Although the Red Rocks have dropped two straight meets, Utah remains consistent in other indicators of performance. As a team, Utah has yet to count a fall this season and six of the 12 gymnasts have not fallen. The team has hit 229 of 240 routines to lead the nation with a 95 percent success rate. More impressive are the freshmen, who have completed all but one routine without a fall, going 115 of 116. Junior All-American Stephanie McAllister leads six Utes that are 4o of 4o, followed by five freshmen. Mary Beth Lofgren, Nansy Damianova, Lia del Priore, Victoria Shanley and Hailee Hansen are also without a single fall this season. However, despite their strong completion rate, the Utes have struggled in national rankings and team averages. Utah peaked this season with a No. 3 ranking GYMNASTICS NOTEBOOK on Feb. 14—the last week before Regional Qualifying Scores were tabulated—but have since dropped to No. 7 in Monday's rankings. McAllister's routine start-value in dispute McAllister competed for nine meets with her floor exercise judged at a and no one—judges, opposing coaches or fans—said anything or raised questions. However, at Saturday's loss against Oregon State, McAllister's start value was lowered to a 9.8, giving her an automatic 0.20 deduction before she even performed her routine. McAllister took a small step in the routine that also was an additional .020 deduction, giving her just a 9.600 on the event, her lowest score of the season that also cost her the allaround at the meet. When the score was inquired after- ward by co-head coaches Greg and Megan Marsden, they learned McAllister was missing a step during her combina- tion of a leap off of one foot into a split that was followed by another leap. Although Utah wishes the missing requirement had been caught sooner, Megan Marsden is glad the Utes had a chance to fix McAllister's routine before the postseason, when such a deduction would be much more costly than a regular-season loss. "It's not going to be hard to fix at all," said Megan Marsden. "But it is the mistake of we coaches not understanding the rule perfectly. We can't interact with judges, so it's up to us in meets to have judges catch stuff like that, and nobody's told us anything on leaps until this." As a result of the deductions McAllister received Saturday, she fell from No. 5 to No. 7 in the national all-around rankings. See RED ROCKS Page 8 NATHAN SWEET/The Daily Utah Chronicle Junior Stephanie McAllister's start was missing a step during her combination, which dropped her to No. 7 nationally. 1- THE GREAT DEBATE -1 Which is this year's Cinderella team? St. John's driven by deep roster, strong schedule W hen you think of the stereotypical Cinderella school, Gonzaga jumps right to the top of the list. The Zags, playing out of the West Coast Conference, are one of the most consistent mid-major teams in the country, and are even beginning to fall from the Cinderella role because of their prolonged success at a high level under head coach Mark Few. If you are looking for a Cinderella run like Butler's from a year ago in this season's brackets, look no further than Gonzaga's first-round opponent—St. John's. The Red Storm has been the underdog story since head coach Steve Lavin took over at the helm in the offseason. Lavin, fresh off a stint as an ESPN analyst, made his return to the sideline for St. John's seven years after being fired from the same position at UCLA. If there were any questions about Lavin returning to the bench, he has silenced his critics quickly, taking a team full of someone BRYAN CHOUINARD Sports Editor else's recruits and turning them into legitimate contenders late in the Big East regular season. This is a team that has played with a chip on its shoulder all season. These players, io of whom are seniors, were left for dead after the firing of former head coach Norm Roberts. Over the course of the first three years of these seniors' careers, the team was a combined eight games under See CHOUINARD Page 7 Underachieving Michigan still has potential Normally, Cinderella bids are reserved for teams that come from small conferences looking to venture into uncharted territory. This year, a team that is usually a powerhouse gets to play the role of the underdog and will excel in the position: Michigan State, which is the No. io seed in the Southeast region. Yes, there was a strong argument for MSU to not even make the tournament this season. At 19-14, the Spartans plummeted from their lofty, championshipcaliber expectations at the beginning of the season. MSU underachieved, but it still has the ingredients to fulfill that potential. First off, the team has an amazing head coach. Tom Izzo is the best active NCAA tournament coach other than Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. He has led the Spartans to five Final Four appearances in the last 12 seasons—an unprecedented mark. Izzo is one of Vote on who won this week » www.dailyutahchronicle.com JAKE (41 1 1 , 1E7 BULLINGER Staff W riter the great masterminds in the game today, and obviously knows how to prepare a team for the Big Dance. His players might be in an unfamiliar role this season, but Izzo doesn't have to work too hard to prepare them. Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers and Draymond Green led the Spartans to the Final Four just a season ago. This team has the talent and the leadership to go far in the tournament once again. They might See BULLINGER Page 7 |
