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Show Take Note: The USU Softball team takes on UVSC in a doubleheader Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Orem. 9 Monday, April 16,2007 797-1761 There's no place like home USU track and field team records 19 first place finishes in home BY SETH R. HAWKINS Down s Line [Sports Notes__._ Aggie tennis meetdefeats Portland in road match Sporls Editor Competing on familiar turf gave the USU track and field team a definite advantage as the Aggies posted 19 first-place finishes and several regional qualifying times Saturday at the Mark Faldmo Invitational. "The thing you want to do at a home meet is perform well and make sure that you're doing things well in front of a home crowd," USU track and field Head Coach Gregg Gensel said. "We knew going in that this wasn't going to be a very deep meet, and we just got the chance to be better. They did a good job. They were fired up and ready to go." Top scores were earned on both the running and field side. Amber Peterson, a senior who competes in the open 200-meters, the 4x100meters, the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, placed first in three of her events. In the 100-meter hurdles she posted a time of 14.08, significantly lower than her personal best of 13.94. Peterson said she did not have a good race in the 100-meters on Saturday but is hoping to qualify for the regional meet. The qualifying time for the 100-meters is 13.92, just a hundredth of a second faster than Peterson's best time. Peterson also took first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.88. In the 400-meter hurdles, Petersons main event, she improved her NCAA Regional Qualifying mark - as she had already qualified at the Stanford meet - and personal best with a time of 58.62, a time that launched her into second place in the USU record books. "I had a huge (personal record) today," Peterson said. "It's like the best feeling in the world. It's like cloud nine. I can't believe it really happened. It's a great feeling." Peterson said before she finishes her career at USU, she has plenty she wants to get done. "I really want to run a 57-00 this year in the 400-meter hurdles and basically just qualify for Nationals BY ATHLETIC M E D I A RELATIONS Courtney Anderson recorded a straight sets win at number one singles (6-3, 6-3) and teamed up with Brianna Harris for an 8-6 win in doubles competition to lead USU to a 4-3 win against Portland on Saturday at the Appleton Tennis Center in Boise, Idaho. USU improves to 8-9 on the spring season with the win. USU also got straight sets win by Erin Monson at number two singles (7-6, 6-2) and Harris at number four singles (6-4, 6-3), and won the doubles point as Bridgette Strickland and Dee-Dee Nelson recorded an 8-5 win in the third doubles match. USU will return to action on Thur., April 19 when it travels to Ogden to face Weber State University at 2 p.m. USU defeated the Wildcats earlier this year in Logan, 5-2. Trevor Hielsonktn@cc.uui.tdu FRESHMAN POLE VAULTER KlRSTEN FLESKER gains momentum and prepares to dismount over the bar during one of her attempts Saturday at the Mark Faldmo Invitational. Flesher tied for fourth in the pole vault but teammate Kattiryn Duhadway took first and qualified for regionals, again and be more up on the regional list than I was last year. Because last year I made it fourth and it was a close race. It will be a really tough race to get to (Nationals) again but 57.00 is my goal, and be conference champion." Jennifer Tvvitchell, a senior who was named All-American in cross country earlier this season, earned her second qualifying time this year in as many events. Having solidified a trip to the regional meet in the 1,500- meters, her main event, she snagged a regional qualifying time in the 800meters as well. Her time of 2:10.35, with the conversion factor, qualifies for the regional meet. Twitchell said the 800-meter is not her main event but she was tired of running the 1,500-meter so many times in a row, so she tried the 800meters. "It feels pretty good," Twitchell said of her qualifying time. "It's not my main event, (so) it's kind of something USU softball team makes clean sweep of the Lady Techsters BY SETH R. HAWKINS Sports Editor The first-ever trip to Logan by Louisiana Techs softball team was less than welcoming as the Lady Techsters fell victim to a three-game sweep by USU, Friday and Saturday at the LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field. With the wins, the Aggies claimed their first-ever sweep in the Western Athletic Conference and the first three-game conference sweep since 2004 against Cal State Fullerton. The victories also improved USU's record to 14-23 overall and 4-5 in conference play and moved the Aggies from last in the conference to third place. "It's huge," USU softball Head Coach Candi Letts said of the sweep. "This is the first sweep ever in the took a 2-0 lead after the first inning. WAC. I think it's got to start someThe Aggies responded as senior where and this group has decided third baseman Lauren Guzman sinthat they can compete. It doesn't gled to right field, bringing in junior mean that they're the best team, but catcher Heather Haak for the first the fact is we're out there trying to points on the board. Louisiana Tech make ourselves better each day, each then scored another run in the top of week so we can be prepared to play the fifth to extend their lead to 3-1. in the WAC conference tournament. But the fifth inning belonged And how far we go in there, I don't to the USU as four Aggies scored know, but the fact is we're trying to runs to take the Aggies on top 5-3. get better. Junior third baseman Amy Schaible, "I think we are getting better senior centerfielder Ashley Bellum, swinging the bats this weekend first baseman Jamie Fife and junior - \2>6~] hits in three games is huge, it'sshortstop Tara Evans all scored runs over 10 a game. We'll take it." in the fifth. The first game in the series was The Lady Techsters fought back the tightest match as the Aggies with three runs in the top of the edged Louisiana Tech 7-6 after sixth to again claim the lead at 6two extra innings of play on Friday. 5. Letts made a pitching changeup Following the typical trend, USU fell at this point, relieving sophomore behind early as the Lady Techsters pitcher Lindsey Benson by bringing in freshman Stacey Ellingsworth. The change made a difference as Louisiana Tech had only two hits and no runs the rest of the game. In the sixth, Fife's fielder's choice to second brought in freshman second baseman Nicole Rupp to tie up the game. The seventh inning was silent, which brought on extra innings. Following a scoreless eighth inning, the Aggies finished off the game in the ninth as Evans drilled a double down the left-field line. She was brought in by a single by Haak to claim the 7-6 victory for the Aggies. The Aggies finished the game with 16 hits, which was the most hits for USU in a year. Benson said the Aggies were prepared to face the Lady Techsters and had confidence they could win at home. "We were on such a high from the Nevada game so we just wanted to Tyler LQrsonAmtorson@cc.usu.edu JUNIOR SHORTSTOP TARA EVANS dodges Louisiana Tech's catcher on her way to home plate Friday, during the first of three games against the Lady Techsters. The Aggies swept Louisiana Tech to improve to fourth place in the WAC, • CLEAN SWEEP seepage 12 unexpected. It's a big personal record. Based on my 1,500-meter times, I should be able to run this kind of an 800-meters, but I just never have so it's kind of always been one of those things I should be able to do, so it's nice I was able to do it." Even though Twitchell was absent from the 1,500-meters, USU still placed on top as junior distance run• PERSONAL BESTS see page 7 7 Ag gymnasts place last in regional meet BY BLAIR FAIRMAN Staff Writer Following a successful gymnastics season, the USU gymnastics team qualified to compete in the NCAA North Central Regional Championship yet again. The girls went up against some tough competition but were still able to keep their composure after placing last out of six teams. "We stayed on the equipment, but at this level staying on is not enough," Head Coach Ray Corn said. "It is t\ie little things that you don't get done that end up hurting you." Out of the 30 years Corn has been at USU, the gymnastics team has competed at region 26 times. The regional championship, which took place Saturday at-the Magness Arena in Denver, took^ the top two teams'and-the-top-two all-around competitors from each region to compete for the title. Two-time defending national champions, the Georgia Gym Dogs, walked away in first place, scoring an impressive 197-275. Georgia, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, left with their 19th regional victory. Coming in second place with a huge drop to 195.825 was No. 14 Denver followed by No. 11 Penn State (195.625),'No. 23 BYU (193.300), No. 25 Minnesota (192.9) and lastly, the Aggies, with a score of 192.525. Senior Meagan Lewis led the team with an overall score of 38.600 with freshman Heather Heinrich close behind at 38.4-50. USU did well on the vault (48.475), the bars (48.075) and the floor (48.250), but they could • GYMNASTS seepage 10 Hoffman named athletic media relations director BY ATHLETIC M E D I A RELATIONS Doug Hoffman has been named the athletics media relations director at USU, it was announced on Friday by athletics director Randy Spetman. Hoffman will replace ..Mike Strauss, who served -i in the position for 10 and a half years before accepting a position in the athletic media relations department at the University of Kansas earlier this month. Hoffman has spent the last eight years as the associate director of media relations at USU, serving primarily as the school's media contact for basketball and volleyball. He has also been heavily involved in the publicity efforts of the football program, while helping oversee the department's student assistants and website, among other duties. "I am very excited to promote Doug to the director's position," Spetman said. "He has done an incredible job with the men's basketball program and we think he is the professional we need to build on the energy that Mike Strauss has left us with." Hoffman came to USU in December of 1998 after spending one year as an assistant at Indiana State University. Prior to that Hoffman was a graduate assistant in Wyoming's media relations office from 1994-97. He has been the main media contact for the Aggie basketball team, which has reached postseason play eight straight years. He has been responsible for successful AllAmerica campaigns for Tony Brown (2002) and Jaycee Carroll (2007), who both received honorable mention accolades. Standings WAC Women's Softball TEAM Hawaii Fresno Stale Utah State Nevada New Mexico State San Jose State Louisiana Tech NEXT GAME WAC Wl 11-1 8-1 4-5 5-7 4-8 4-8 3-9 OVERALL WL 40-8 35-14 14-23 20-26 22-23 19-21 20-27 . TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2 p.m./4 p.m. Utah State at Utah Valley State College |