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Show Take Note: Softball heads to Utah Valley to take on UVSC, Tuesday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. 5 Monday, April 2,2007 797-1761 sports@statesman.usu.edu Personal bests set in weekend split for track BY DAVID BAKER Staff Writer In a weekend that saw the USU track team spread out, there were a myriad of regional qualifying times and personal bests turned in. USU had athletes at the BYU Cougar Invitational in Provo and the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. "I'm just happy with the progression of the team," Head Coach Gregg Gensel said. "For the most part, everybody improved on what they were doing, which is what our goal is." At Stanford, USU faced some big schools, including Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan and Florida State. But on the first day of the two-day meet, Amy Egan and Amber Peterson won their respective events. Egan won the 800-meters with a personal best time of 2:09-20. The time qualifies Egan for the NCAA Regional Championships at the end of May in Eugene, Ore., and moves her into second place in the USU record books. Peterson won the 400-meter hurdles with a regional qualifying mark of 59.74-. She also tied her personal best in the event. But Egan and Peterson weren't the only ones to have a good weekend. Gensel said they had four people run regional qualifying times, a couple of top 10 performances all-time at USU and a bunch of personal bests. "One of the beauties of track and field is everybody can find success at some level," he said. "If a runner runs better than they did the week before, they've had success." And that's exactly what happened at Stanford and BYU. Dasheek Akwenye placed sixth in the 400-meters at Stanford. Akwenye's time of 47-69 leads the Western Athletic Conference, Gensel said. Scott Bell placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a regional qualify time of 52.40. Tony Jones, a freshman, ran a 14:26.24 in the 5,000-meters, which was good for sixth place at Stanford and sixth place in the USU record books. Also, on Saturday, Vance Twitchell ran a regional qualifying time of 8:54.16 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and the USU men's and women's 4x400 relay teams turned in season bests. The men's relay team, which includes Akwenye, Bell, Brent Knighton and Nicholas Karren, set a new conference best with their time of 3:13.97. It was also good enough to net them fifth place at the Stanford meet. The women's relay team ran a 3:52.74. Kevin Liu and Chase Taylor also threw well. Liu took fourth place in the shot put, and Taylor placed second in the javelin throw. Splitting the team up didn't • G O I N G THE DISTANCE see page 6 • - • Ags edged out by tight competition USU gymnastics claims third place in the WA C Championship meet BY SETH R. HAWKINS Sports Editor Going into the Western Athletic Conference gymnastics tournament in Cedar City on Saturday, Coach Ray Corn said he hoped his team would be focused enough to not take second place. His hope came true, but not in the way he wanted it to. The USU gymnastics squad finished the WAC Championship in third place with a season-high score of 195.125. The victor of the meet was Sacramento State, who finished with a score of 195.275. They were followed closely by Southern Utah University, who scored 195.255. Going into the championship meet, USU was ranked No. 1 in the WAC and No. 29 in the nation with a Regional Qualifying Score of 194.505. The Aggies were ranked just slightly ahead of Southern Utah University, with an RQS of 194.240, and San Jose State (193.560). Though USU led by a small margin, they were on track to claim the title. Even during the meet the •FinalResults Aggies seemed to be competing at the level required to SACRAMENTO ST. 195.275 win the meet. Senior Jessica SUU 195.255 Parenti-Otte led the team by placing first in the vault USU 195.125 Mii^^HH^^MHH 9.900. She also placed first on the parallel bars (9.875) and was the champion of the allaround, finishing with a score of 39.350. Parenti-Otte was named WAC Gymnast of the Year for her performance during the meet and for her consistency throughout the year. She also finished second in the allaround in the championship meet last year and has won the all-around two other times this season. The first event of the night for the Aggies was the balance beam, where the Aggies finished with a season-high team score of 48.850. The Aggies were led on the beam by sophomore Nicki Felley, who posted a career-high score of 9.825. She was joined in top scoring for the Aggies by Parenti-Otte (9-800) and Meagan Lewis (9-775). Though USU delivered the best beam performance of the year, it was not enough to compete with the 49.325 score delivered by Sacramento State. The Hornets claimedfiveof the top six scores on the beam, led by Melissa Genovese. Trevor Nielson/ctn@cc.usu.edu SENIOR AIL-AROUNOER JESSICA PARENTI-OTTE props herself up on two hands while competing in the floor exercise at a home meet against SUU earlier this season. Parenti-Otte took first place in the all-around and two events at the WAC Championship meet, Saturday, March 31, and was named WAC Gymnast of the Year for her leadership and performance this season. • GYMNASTICS see page 6 !Sports Notes _J USU softball drops WAC opener games BY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS Western Athletic Conference action started a bit rough for USU softball, as the Aggies lost twice to defending regular-season champion Fresno State, 8-0 in five innings and 72, Saturday afternoon at a sundrenched Fresno State Bulldog Diamond. It was USU's fifth straight loss as the Aggies are now 9-20 overall and 0-3 in WAC play, as USU lost to Fresno State, 8-0 in five innings Friday night. Fresno State, who is among others receiving votes in both major polls, won its fourth in a row and eighth of its last nine in improving to 29-12 overall and 5-1 in WAC play. This weekend was USU's first trip to Fresno since 1991, and the Aggies are now 1-7 in their last eight meetings with the Bulldogs and 11-18 all-time against their foes from Fresno. Late run gives Jazz victory over Rockets Game Over with a near-perfect score of Down £ Line HOUSTON (AP) - Mehmet Okur scored 20 points and Carlos Boozer added 13 as the Utah Jazz overcame a late deficit for an 86-83 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday. With the victory, in a game that will likely be a preview for the first round of the playoffs, the Jazz remain ahead of the Rockets in fourth place in the Western Conference standings. Houston led 77-70 before Utah scored five straight points to get within two with 3:10 remaining. The teams exchanged a pair of baskets before a three-point play by Matt Harpring gave Utah an 82-81 lead with 1:35 remaining. Boozer was fouled on a layup and made the free throw to extend the lead to 85-81 with 43 seconds left. Tracy McGrady pulled Houston within two on the next possession and the Rockets got the ball back after a miss by Boozer. But Rafer Alston badly missed a 3-point attempt with about 10 seconds left and Houston was forced to foul. Okur made only the first to give the Rockets a chance to tie, but McGrady missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. Yao Ming led the Rockets with 35 points and 16 rebounds, and also blocked four shots. McGrady added 20 points. Deron Williams added 12 points, 11 assists and five rebounds for Utah. Gordan Giricek and Harpring added nine points apiece. Men's tennis improves record with dual weekend victories BY G. CHRISTOPHER TERRY Senior Writer Tyler Larson/tmlQrson&tusu.edu JUNIOR DANTLEY YOUNG bends low as he prepares to return the ball in a match against New Mexico State earlier this season. Young won his singles and doubles match against Sonoma State on Friday, March 30. A 5-2 win over Sonoma State on Friday and a 4-3 win over host University of Nevada the next day allowed USU men's tennis to nudge its record to 6-5 overall on the season. "I was very proud of the team," Head Coach Christian Wright said. "Sonoma State is a good Division-II school. They fought very hard and I thought we did well controlling the tempo." Wright declined to pick out any individual performer for praise, saying, "Even in the matches we lost, I felt like we got great effort from everybody. Everybody "battled. The effort was incredible." Although USU s first doubles team lost to Sonoma, the next two teams of Hannes Schenk and Dantley Young, and Mike Banks and Nate Ballam defeated their counterparts 8-6 and 8-4 respectively. Then in the singles matches, Oscar Ericsson, Jonas Tyden, Young and Banks all tri- umphed to finish Sonoma off. Wright said Sonoma, despite their DII status, is no joke. "I talked to their coach, and he said it's hard for them to get matches because a lot of the programs around the country are getting dropped. He tries to schedule every one he can, and he said they have a hard time getting DI schools to play them," he said. Saturday brought a more difficult challenge for USU's netters in the Wolf Pack. "They have had some really big wins," Wright said of the Pack. "They beat Oregon and everybody in the PAC 10 in tennis, [which] is tough. Them being a conference opponent, we definitely wanted to do well. We've played three conference opponents and we've won all three, but they were all battles." TVden and Ericsson, USU's No. 1 doubles team, erased the memory of Standings WAC Women's Softball TEAM WAC OVERALL W-L W-L Hawaii Fresno State New Mexico State Louisiana Tech San Jose State Nevada 8-1 5-1 4-2 2-4 1-5 1-5 35-8 29-11 23-16 18-19 14-19 14-24 Utah State 0-3 10-19 * NEXT GAME • BACKHAND see page 7 TUESDAY. APRIL 3. 2 p.rn./4 p.m Utah State at Utah Valley State College |