The Wichitan - Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls Texas

MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY | September, 14, 2005

SPORTS

Missteps against Texas A&M Commerce cost Indians 27-25
Iggy Cruz | Sports Editor

Series of misfortune haunted the Indians to their final drive of the game as Kristian Foster’s 35-yard field goal attempt for the lead, and possible win, went wide left.
The missed field goal with 3:18 remaining allowed Texas A&M-Commerce (1-2) to run out the clock and escape with a 27-25 victory Saturday night at A&M-Commerce Memorial Stadium.
It marks the fourth consecutive year MSU has dropped the second game of the football season.
“That’s real frustrating. I just didn’t have them prepared,” Head coach Bill Maskill said.
The Indians (1-1) suffered a rough first half in which they racked up 102 penalty yards, 131 for the game, to go along with a blocked field goal and an interception as Commerce built a 20-6 lead at the half.
“We had more penalties, they didn’t have as many. Even with that, we still had a chance to win,” Maskill said.
MSU charged 67 yards on the opening drive from their 17, only to have a 33-yard field goal attempt by Foster blocked and recovered by the Lion’s Terrence Smith at the Commerce 20. The Lions took advantage and scored the only points of the first quarter off a 19-yard sideline strike from Kyle Westerberg to Johnny Rogers.
Foster would make up for the blocked attempt by booting in field goals of 38 and 34 yards in the second quarter to give the Indians their only points of the first half. Both teams combined to amass 531 yards of offense in just the first two quarters alone.
Just as the game seemed out of reach for the Indians, big-time special team plays from Montario Villery and Jason Watts spearheaded a second-half rally. With 12:15 in the third quarter, Villery stepped up and blocked a Kyle Cook punt and Myron Cooper pounced on the ball for a touchdown. Foster’s extra point attempt failed but MSU trimmed Commerce’s lead 20-12.
But as momentum started shifting in favor of the Indians, Commerce’s Roger Daley ripped off a 67-yard touchdown run to give the Lions a 27-12 lead with 5:44 in the third. Ross Harrison would answer on the following drive for MSU with a 2-yard touchdown run.
Harrison, who had 141 yards rushing on 14 carries in the Indians 49-0 season opening victory over Southwestern Oklahoma, carried 16 times for 68 yards.
After running three plays for negative yardage in the ensuing drive, Commerce was forced to punt the ball away.
The punt was greeted by pair of leaping hands.
Watts was there to block the second punt of the game for the Indians, which set up a 15-yard sprint by Rahsaan Bell into the end zone to narrow the score 27-25. A two point conversion attempt by Bell failed.
The Indians received another golden opportunity to put away the Lions when Lance Gardner forced a Commerce fumble at the 46 with 6:30 left in the game.
Ulysses Odoms got loose for a 14 yard run followed by a Harrison 11 yard gain to place the Indians in great field goal range at the Commerce 18. Unfortunately, Foster’s kick with 3:18 remaining went wide left and the Lions ran the clock out.
Bell threw for 134 yards and one interception on 13 of 23 passing and carried for 51 yards and one touchdown. Daniel Polk came in and passed for 11 yards, but ended up leading all Indian rushers with 79 yards on 9 carries.
Keith Flanagan had four catches for 31 yards and Andre Kelsick snatched three passes for 34 to lead the receiving corps.
Defensively, Chip Burt led all tacklers with 8 takedowns, while Jerome Jefferson and Dezmond Sherrer added 7 a piece.
The Indians will host Southeastern Oklahoma this Saturday in a LSC crossover game. Students are encouraged to attend the game for Family Day. Kickoff is set at 7 p.m.

Lady Indians lose heart-breaker in double OT
Iggy Cruz | Sports Editor

A scoring opportunity in double overtime backfired on the Lady Indians as Harding University capitalized in the final 13 seconds to come up with a 2-1 victory Friday afternoon.
The loss drops MSU to 0-2-1 on the season, while the Lady Bison improve to1-3-1.
MSU had the ball on a re-start with 40 seconds left in double overtime when the Lady Indians kicked the ball into a wall set up by the Lady Bison. Harding countered by setting up a two-on-one with Kendyl Washburn and Sarah Washburn, who scored the game winning goal.
“I think we really controlled the game,” MSU coach Jeff Trimble said. “Obviously you can’t say we dominated it when we didn’t win the game. It wasn’t a fluke, but it was an unfortunate break.”
Freshman Megan Bibilone scored the lone goal for MSU in the first half on a cross that had been deflected by the goalie.
The Lady Indians will be home today when they resume action against Texas A&M-Commerce at 7 p.m.

MSU Trio to Participate in Select Side Tryouts
Iggy Cruz | Sports Editor

Three MSU Warrior rugby players will participate in the Texas Rugby Union’s annual Collegiate Select Side Tryouts this weekend in Austin.
Jeremy Stewart, a sophomore from Greenville, TX, Robert Sweeney, senior Political Science major, and Sean Samiego will partake in a series of agility and endurance drills in order to represent Texas on the 32-man roster.
Sweeney said the tryouts draw a large number of rugby club players across the state and will be broken into two sessions. He said Saturday will involve ball handling and fitness drills, while Sunday will consist of scrimmages.
After the selections, the select side team will have a joint practice in College Station the following week before participating in the Cow Town Tournament in Ft. Worth Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
In order to participate, players must be full-time students and be CIPP registered. Sweeney said CIPP is a number identifying players registered with the USA and Texas Rugby Union.
The Rugby team is entering its fourth year as a club and open their season Sept. 23 on the road against No. 18 Texas A&M.
The Warriors are currently looking for more players and can contact Sweeney at 940-867-5254 or e-mail at warriorrgby@hotmail.com.

Cross Country team places Fifth
Iggy Cruz | Sports Editor

The MSU women’s cross country posted 110 points to finish fifth in the East Central Invitational Saturday in Ada, Okla. It marked the second meet of their inaugural season
The women participated in the six-team Tiger Chase, a 5K run.
Anna Crockett finished ninth with a time of 20:27 to pace the Lady Indians. Tiffany Stewart and Natalie Noblitt, a former MSU soccer player, placed 12th and 28th respectively with times of 20:47 and 22:31.
Rounding out the Lady Indians were Maria Cano (22:38), Mindy Burns (22:52), Mindy Briones (24:13), Laura Whittle (24:40).
Next up for the team is the Margo Harbison Invitational Sept. 24 at Commerce, TX.

Behind the Glory
Nichol Phillip | For the Wichitan

Have you ever taken the time to think of how hard it is to carry both a full course load and your team to a conference championship?
Here at Midwestern State University there are approximately 221 student athletes. An Athletic Department official said that the average student fails to understand all that goes into being both a good student and a champion athlete.
Football Head Coach Bill Maskill said that during the football season, the guys are expected to practice 20 hours a week, including three hours game time, a meeting, weights and field training. The athletes are also expected to practice a few extra hours a week on their own time.
According to Maskill, the athletic department has very strict policies on class attendance, and athletes found not attending classes can be subjected to suspension if it becomes frequent.
Maskill added that approximately half of the team is on scholarship, so the misconception that all athletes are here on a “free ride” is somewhat false. He further said the sacrifices these guys make in order to play are not seen: “They give up a lot of their freedom which other students normally have.” The players are on a 10 p.m. curfew at time, during football season.
Basketball, has its own requirements. According to Head Coach Jeff Ray, these athletes are expected to practice between two hours and fifteen minutes to four hours a day during the basketball season. This depends on whether or not there is a game.
According to Ray, his guys work really hard in order to stay on top of their game both on and off the court. He gave the example of senior forward men’s basketball player Justin James, who was named Academic Player of the Year in the Lone Star Conference with a 4.0 grade point average. Adrian Fincher, senior women’s basketball forward, was named an honorable mention All-South Division player and earned Commissioner’s Honor Roll academic accolades with a 3.5 GPA.
Ray went on to say he believes people think “It’s all fun” and don’t see when the basketball players have to come back during Christmas break, when no one is here.
Carl Nichols is the academic coordinator, whose job is to keep student athletes eligible. According to Nichols, athletes who have a difficult time in the classroom are provided counseling sessions and extra help in order for them to succeed.
Nichols also said student athletes are expected to maintain minimum grade point averages depending on how many credits they have earned. For example, athletes with 24 hours of course work needs a 1.8 GPA in order to stay eligible, while an athlete with more than 72 hours needs a minimum GPA of 2.0.
Nichols indicated that the average cumulative GPA for the fall semester 2004 by sport are: football, 2.13; men’s soccer, 2.32; women’s soccer, 2.69, softball, 2.54; women’s and men’s tennis, 2.94; men’s basketball, 2.30; women’s basketball, 3.0, and volleyball, 3.15.
According to Nichols, there are “elements of the university community that believes that athletes are not as sharp as they should be. The athletes here match up quite well with the student body at large.”
Nichols pointed out that MSU had the highest GPA for athletes in the Lone Star Conference as well as the highest graduation rate of athletes in the LSC.
Mike Snow, director of Institutional Research provides the athlete GPAs for the past three years as compared to the average GPA of all other students; Fall 2004 average total GPA athletes, 2.45; all others, 2.86; fall 2003 average total GPA athletes, 2.42; all others, 2.82; fall 2002 average total GPA athletes, 2.36; and fall 2002 all others, 2.80.
These figures indicate that for the past three years student athletes’ academic performance has been steadily increasing. The difference of GPAs was 0.44 in 2002, 0.42 in 2003 and 0.41 in 2004.
The 2004 graduation rate for athletes was 48.78 percent while the graduation rate of all other groups was 29.93 percent.
A survey of athletes from the men’s basketball team and the football team that found 70 percent are not in an on-campus organization because they do not have the time. When asked how many hours are dedicated to their sport in the off season, 50 percent said three to four hours a day while the other 50 percent said every chance they get.
On the question of how many hours of work are put into studying per week during the semester 60 percent said four to six hours, 30 percent said one to three hours and 10 percent said seven to 10 hours.
Ninety percent of athletes interviewed attributed their love for the game, and/or the scholarship it provided, as their reason for being student athletes.
On the question of whether or not they thought athletes had to work harder than the average student to maintain good grades, 90 percent said yes.
Senior kinesiology major La Keith Grant said, “We have practice and games that take up our time. When we are on road games, we sometimes have to miss class and what we miss in class we have to make up on our own. We hardly get any free time like regular students.”
This point was reiterated by senior Eddie Bell, kinesiology major, who said, “It demands a lot of hard work physically and mentally.”
Junior criminal justice major Jason Washington shares a different view on this topic, saying, “Each person is entitled to do the same amount of work. They are students here that have jobs. Our jobs are to be athletes.”
When questioned as to how well they thought they performed during the spring semester, 60 percent of the athletes interviewed said satisfactory, 20 percent said good, while 20 percent said excellent.
The post-college plans of some of these athletes include real estate, coaching, law enforcement, professional sports, and business ownership.

No. 6 Indians pick up wins over weekend
Iggy Cruz | Sports Editor

Behind the strong leg of Jimmy Krueger, MSU knocked Missouri Southern 2-1 Sunday afternoon to remain a perfect 4-0.
Krueger scored his team leading seventh and eighth goals of the season off Scott Leonard’s assist in the 27th minute and a tap-in of Keegan Hudson’s free kick in the 40th minute.
Sean Gill also had three saves as MSU outshot Missouri Southern 24-10.
The Indians will host Eastern New Mexico at 7:30 p.m. Friday before squaring of against LSC rival West Texas A&M Sunday at 1 p.m.
“We came out intense and focused,” MSU head coach Doug Elder said. “We created a lot of chances, and I’m happy to go on the road and get two wins this weekend.”
The Indians came out victorious Friday in another 2-1 victory over Northeastern State.
Krueger put the Indians on the board first with 12:33 to take a 1-0 lead at the half.
11 minutes in to the second half, Hudson made it 2-0 with a 20 yard strike. Hudson was also named the conference offense player of that week.
Jared Cleland finally put NSU on the board with 77:12, but it was not enough as MSU cruised the rest of the way.