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(04/04/00 9:00am)
Is Schnur the answer for Swimming? There are times to slash and burn, but this just isn't one of them. The Penn Athletic Department is a few days away from announcing a new swimming coach for its men's and women's teams. Interim coach Mike Schnur is a candidate for the job and deserves the permanent nod. Schnur has infused Penn with a spark of enthusiasm and has successfully preached a winning attitude. Under Schnur's tutelage, the men's team compiled an overall record of 7-5, 4-5 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League. This was a profound improvement considering that the Quakers were 2-7 in the EISL in 1997-98 and 1998-99, the two final years of Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert's 17-year tenure as coach. The women's team was similarly improved under Schnur, ending its notorious 42-meet, seven-year losing streak in Ivy League dual meets in his very first meet as acting coach. Things are looking up for this traditional Ivy doormat. Schnur did a fine job this past year and has been hard at work recruiting new athletes since the season ended in February. Still, I can understand why some would think it makes sense to go elsewhere for a new head coach. Almost all of Schnur's experience in collegiate swimming came under the guidance of Lawlor-Gilbert. He swam for her at Penn in the mid-1980s and was her assistant coach for seven years in the '90s. He cut his teeth under her, and, by all accounts, you might call Schnur her apprentice. And I can understand why that fact might rub some the wrong way. Lawlor-Gilbert left an unenviable legacy at Penn. Although she was a rising star when she took the job at Penn -- she was the first woman in history to head up a men's Division I program -- she found mostly frustration in her later years at Penn. Over her 17 seasons, the Penn men went 65-118, while the women flirted with .500, going 115-124. The women's team never won an Ivy contest in her final six seasons, and the men were similarly uninspired in the EISL. These performances indicate that there was a systemic problem with the Lawlor-Gilbert regime -- one that Schnur had at least a hand in. This is no reason to deny the job to the interim coach, however. In his one season sans mentor, he got the job done. His athletes were pleased. Their times were down. All seemed right at Sheerr Pool. There was no sign of the athlete-coach conflicts that prompted members of both the men's and women's teams to petition the Athletic Department to demand the resignation of Lawlor-Gilbert in both 1994 and 1995. He pushed his team up the Ancient Eight ladder, and when he was called for comment last night, he was unavailable for most of the time because he was busy calling recruits who have recently received their acceptance letters. He's been committed, and he deserves to be hired. That said, I can see why it sometimes makes sense to purge a program of any vestige of a past, unsuccessful regime. A week ago, the New York Rangers gave their leadership the boot, firing floundering head coach John Muckler and front-office impresario Neil Smith. The rationale behind the ousters made perfect sense. After a third straight season outside the playoffs, the Rangers had had enough. They decided to clean house -- and with good reason. With an astronomical payroll, they had reason for ire. And when it comes right down to it, even if the Rangers start from square one with new leaders, it doesn't really matter -- they are, after all, the Rangers, a revered organization. For a team like Penn swimming, however, starting from scratch is infinitely more harrowing. Schnur has made progress. Let him make more.
(03/22/00 10:00am)
Still, there was no way that Rendell was going to miss the Penn men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament first round game against Illinois this past Friday. The notorious Penn fanatic wasn't just there to lend support to the Red and Blue either -- he was there to say goodbye. "I'm also here to see what might be Matt and Michael's last game in college," Rendell said at his seat during halftime at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "I hope it isn't, but I definitely want to be here if it is." The departure of the Quakers' senior backcourt was reason enough for Rendell to make the trip to Dixie last weekend, and it should also give Penn fans a reason to pause and reflect on what this means for Fran Dunphy's program. Michael Jordan and Matt Langel have been the foundation of the Quakers team almost since the duo first put on their Penn uniforms. Jordan was Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1996-97, playing in 26 games and starting 19 of them. Langel was somewhat slower out of the gate -- but just barely. He started 11 contests, earning Ivy Rookie of the Week honors twice and averaging 24 minutes. Their careers began with promise, and now, after 107 games together in the lineup, these roommates and close friends are going to have to clean out their Palestra lockers. What does this mean for Penn? Well, although it sounds trite, it means different things for different people. You can't just jettison an outrageously athletic point guard with 1,604 career points and a 6'5" off-guard with the range of an ICBM and hope to hop right back into action. For coach Dunphy, it looks as if Jordan and Langel's exit translates into a good bit of sorrow and, perhaps, lasting friendships. "Part of the peril of this profession is that you borrow these guys for four years, and then they're gone," Dunphy said. "They might say that they're happy to leave the nest as it were, because they don't have to put up with me on a daily basis. That's just what happens in our jobs. They've been great kids to coach. Every day's the same with them; they'd just give you everything they had?. We will become much better friends now that they depart from our program." On the basketball end of things, Jordan and Langel were the unquestionable go-to guys for the Quakers. When the clock wound down, the game was on the line and the team was in the huddle, every fan in the Palestra knew for whom the play was getting diagrammed. Earlier this season, when Penn was floundering with a 3-6 record, the Quakers took on Lafayette. The game went down to the wire, and Jordan sunk a 17-footer with .6 seconds left on the Palestra clock to lift the Red and Blue to victory. As he celebrated on the court, the Penn fans who had made it back from Christmas break early felt a singular satisfaction -- the game had been in the hands of their go-to guy, and he came through. Last February 9, when the Quakers buckled and fell to Princeton, 50-49, it was Langel who took the last shot, a short-range jumper on a feed from Jordan. The attempt hit too much rim to fall, but, nonetheless, there was a sense that one of the guys in whose hands you wanted the ball got a chance. And although this fact made the taste in fans' mouths no less bitter that night, there was still mild solace in Langel's good look. So the Quakers will be without an obvious shooter in the clutch next season. Perhaps Geoff Owens and Ugonna Onyekwe will emerge as aces-in-the-hole of a somewhat different variety in the post next season. Or maybe David Klatsky will emerge as a standby from the perimeter. The possibilities are manifold, and that's the point. Without Langel and Jordan, it's not at all clear how Penn will adjust. This season alone, the duo accounted for 812 points, which was 42 percent of Penn's total offense. That sort of production is dauntingly difficult to replace. In addition, as has been their trademark, Jordan and Langel did the extra things that you often don't expect from a pair of guards. Both averaged over four rebounds per game in 1999-2000. Apart from Klatsky, Penn retains none of the backcourt players that garnered significant playing time this season. That leaves the Quakers with basically two options. The first of which is that Penn should expect to be more of a big-man oriented squad in 2000-01. Owens towers above any other Ivy center except for Princeton's Chris Young, and Rookie of the Year Onyekwe is fast approaching stardom with his un-Ivy feats of airborne fancy. The other option is that new talent emerges at guard. Klatsky is a virtual shoo-in at point, but not much else is certain. Fellow freshmen Duane King and Harold Bailey may make their potential actual early in the year. New recruits might make a splash. Pretty much anything can happen -- anything except replacing Jordan and Langel with ease, that is. Two like those don't come around often.
(03/21/00 10:00am)
Penn had its chances against the Illini, but struggles on offense led to its downfall. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- With 7:57 left in the first half of its NCAA Tournament game against Illinois Friday afternoon, it looked as if the Penn men's basketball team had been caught in an Illini ambush. The Quakers trailed, 27-12. Penn guard Michael Jordan had just checked back into the game, but the co-captain had three fouls on him, all of which were whistled in a 39-second flurry in the ninth minute. The Red and Blue were hoping that they had hit rock bottom and that their Big 10 foe wouldn't be able to turn it into a blowout before the break. From then until halftime, the Quakers fought back with a vengeance. Fueled by deft offense-defense substitutions by Penn coach Fran Dunphy that allowed Jordan to steer clear of a lethal fourth foul, the Quakers narrowed the gap in a hurry. Frank Brown scored five points; Geoff Owens and Ugonna Onyekwe had two apiece; and Jordan sank two clutch three-pointers during this stretch. When halftime arrived, Illinois led, 34-29, and Penn had more than a fighting chance. "I thought we were fortunate to be down by five," Dunphy said. "We talked about being down less than 10 with two minutes to go in the first half. We did that and then some." It looked as if Penn was in perfect shape to come out with the victory if the Illini floundered after halftime. Coach Lon Kruger's team wound up playing a very sloppy second session -- turning the ball over 11 times, compared to just three mishandles for the Quakers. But this did not translate into an upset. Illinois faltered, but Penn never capitalized. The second half was a story of missed opportunities. The Quakers defense played admirably, forcing a bevy of turnovers and shutting down Illinois from the outside -- nine of the Illini's 11 second-half field goals came from inside the key. "We were pleased with the number of turnovers we forced," Dunphy said. Despite these 11 Illini miscues, Penn was able to manage just 10 points off turnovers in the second stanza. The principal reason for its inability to forge ahead of the No. 4 seed was Penn's uninspiring shooting from the field. The Quakers shot just 34 percent from the floor, compared to 55 percent for Illinois. "We had a number of opportunities in the second half to close the gap, but we missed a couple of easy chances at that," Dunphy said. "Against a team like Illinois that will hurt you badly." The Quakers narrowed the lead to just one point, 38-37, following a Brown jumper with 16:58 left. Penn went scoreless for the next 2:27 as Illinois stretched the lead back out to seven with a Cory Bradford layup. For the remainder of the contest, the Quakers committed just one turnover. The Illini gave up the ball eight times in the same span, but Penn's final margin of defeat still wound up at 10. Perhaps the most confounding stretch for the Quakers began with 6:40 to go in the game. Penn was on a 4-0 run on the strength of an Onyekwe 15-footer and layup by the power forward after a Matt Langel steal. The score stood at 57-50. And that's where it stayed for three frustrating minutes. Even though Illinois turned over two possessions in this period, Penn was unable to notch a basket. Langel, Onyekwe and Oggie Kapetanovic each missed a shot. Onyekwe's hurt the most -- a blown transition bucket off of a Jordan steal. Despite strong defense, Penn would never get within seven for the rest of the game. The Quakers' lack of production in this span hurt them severely. By the time Penn scored on an Onyekwe dunk with 2:28 left, time was tight, and the outcome was almost in hand. Six unanswered Illini points later, the Big 10 runners-up were ahead, 56-52, with a minute remaining. The Quakers had been unable to erase the lead when they had the chance. The shots had not fallen, and their season was over because of it. Penn's performance from the field could have been somewhat less do-or-die if they had done better on the boards in the second session. Illinois outrebounded the Quakers in a big way in the final 20 minutes. The young Illini grabbed 22 total boards, six off the offensive glass and 16 on defense. Those numbers doubled Penn's total of 11 boards, only four of which came on defense. Penn's poor rebounding performance was due largely to the absence of Owens from the Quakers lineup. The second team All-Ivy selection played just three minutes in the second half because of foul trouble, getting called for his fifth foul with 7:36 left. Owens, who was averaging 7.4 boards per game, had just four against the athletic Illini. Owens' early departure added to Penn's list of "what-ifs" in this game of missed opportunities.
(03/08/00 10:00am)
One of the more rousing ovations at yesterday's Penn rout of Princeton in men's basketball had nothing to do with an alley-oop or a blocked shot. Instead, during a second-half timeout, nearly all Penn supporters in the sellout crowd of 8,722 put their hands together for the extraordinary accomplishments of the Penn women's squash team. Coach Demer Holleran's squad, the first-ever Ivy League and national champions in the history of women's squash at Penn, marched onto the court, where they received the Howe Cup from Athletic Director Steve Bilsky. The Quakers secured the national championship trophy on February 20, by beating Princeton, 5-4, in the Howe Cup finals so, naturally, most of those wearing orange in the crowd remained seated. The Red and Blue put just a dab more of icing on their history-making campaign this past weekend at the Individual Championships at Yale. Although Penn was by no means dominant at the competition, senior co-captain Katie Patrick and freshman Runa Reta both made it to the quarterfinals, while junior Lauren Patrizio captured the consolation bracket championship. Patrick, the tournament's No. 6 seed, made it to the quarters with relative ease. She beat Lindsey Bishop of Dartmouth in the first round and Harvard's Colby Hall in the round of 32. She won each by scores of 9-5, 9-1 and 9-1. Patrick then went on to beat Bowdoin's Dana Betts in straight games to reach the quarters. There she bowed out of competition with a loss to Princeton junior and defending national champ Julia Beaver in four tightly contested games. Beaver went on to take the title on Sunday. Reta was stellar in her first try at the individual crown. She dropped merely seven points in six games in the first two rounds. Particularly impressive was her 3-0 drubbing of Princeton's Liz Kelley to gain safe passage into the quarterfinals. Once there, Reta suffered a nip-and-tuck 3-2 loss to Yale's Laura Keating, who was the runner-up this past weekend. Patrizio, who has been hobbled by knee injuries all season, won her first match in New Haven, 9-3, 9-2, 9-3, over Abigail Drachman-Jones of Dartmouth, before dropping a four-gamer to Harvard's Carlin Wing in the round of 32. Her tournament was far from over, however. She won her next two matches, 3-1 and 3-0, to reach the consolation semifinals. There she bested Sarah West of Dartmouth in straight games. In the consolation finals, Patrizio recovered from a two-games-to-none deficit to score 9-6, 9-1 and 9-5 wins in a stirring comeback that added a little extra luster to an already sparkling season.
(03/07/00 10:00am)
Having already clinched the Ivy League championship, M. Hoops hopes to cap a perfect league slate tonight. When the men's basketball teams from Penn and Princeton meet for the 202nd time tonight at 8 p.m., the fact that the Quakers have already clinched their second straight Ivy League title and trip to the NCAA Tournament goes right out the Palestra's ancient, paint-covered windows. The Quakers (20-7, 13-0 Ivy League) know that the Tigers (19-9, 11-2) will come with everything they can muster and that a Red and Blue win will bring something that Penn's senior trio of Michael Jordan, Matt Langel and Frank Brown have never experienced -- an undefeated season in the Ancient Eight. "It's nice to have won the championship," Langel said. "But being undefeated in the Ivy League has been a goal of ours from the beginning of the year." The Penn Class of 2000 has history on its side. Tonight marks the eighth time since the inauguration of official Ivy play in 1956-57 that Penn and Princeton have met in the final game of the regular season when one of the teams has already clinched the title. The league champion has emerged victorious from each of the seven previous meetings. That fact is somewhat misleading, however. On March 3, 1998, the last time this scenario came about, the roles were reversed and coach Bill Carmody's Tigers sported a near-perfect 26-1 record and a staggering No. 8 national ranking. Penn was 17-11, 10-3 in the Ivies and, on the surface, an obvious underdog. Forty minutes of basketball later, the score was knotted at 66. It took Princeton an overtime period to finally put the Quakers away, 78-72. What was supposed to be a coronation turned into a mutiny, further reinforcing the fact that the drama of this 97-year-old rivalry transcends wins, losses and league championships. "You can never call a Penn-Princeton game meaningless," Penn center Geoff Owens said. "You can almost throw out any incentive, any NCAA Tournaments, the Ivy League championship? and it's still going to be seriously intense." Penn currently boasts a 15-game winning streak -- the second longest in the nation -- and has won 20 consecutive Ivy games, dating back to a calamitous 50-49 collapse at the hands of the Tigers on February 9, 1999, at the Palestra. There have been a few shaky moments along the way in this Ivy campaign, the most notable of which was Penn's narrowest of wins at Harvard, 62-61, on February 26. Still, the Quakers, who have pretty much been healthy throughout, have tripped but never fallen. The Tigers, on the other hand, were decimated by injuries earlier in the season. With their second-leading scorer, freshman swingman Spencer Gloger, and sole senior, Mason Rocca, out of the lineup, the Orange and Black fell to lowly Yale, 44-42, before facing Penn for the first time. A 55-46 Quakers victory gave Princeton its second Ivy defeat and virtually sealed their bridesmaid status. Since that loss at Jadwin Gymnasium on February 15, the Tigers have disposed of their Ancient Eight competition in very convincing fashion. Princeton has beaten each of its six subsequent Ivy foes by double digits. The Tigers average margin of victory in this span is 21.5 points, compared to just a 14.7 average margin for the Quakers. Even if this is all too little, too late for Princeton, the Tigers' recent exemplary play makes tonight's Penn senior night all the more intriguing. Although fifth-year senior Brown was part of a 1995-96 squad that managed to beat the Tigers at home, Jordan and Langel have yet to notch a Palestra victory over Princeton. Tonight's game gains added significance because of this string of bad luck. "We would like to go out on a positive note," Jordan said. "I'm gonna miss playing college basketball. I'm gonna miss playing with these guys. Obviously, this is going to be a special night." The past decade of this rivalry has not been kind to the home team, however, as the visiting Ivy power has won 11 of the last 19. Still, this crop of Quakers has a better chance than most to break the mini-slump at home. Jordan sits comfortably in third place on the all-time Penn list with 1,571 points and is second in career assists with 463. Meanwhile, Langel has compiled 1,169 career points and has a very good chance to move into 19th position tonight, as he needs just 11 points to move past Paul Romanczuk. In addition, with just four three-pointers, he can tie Garett Kreitz at second place with 199 treys. Brown, who is ending his five-year Penn roller-coaster ride in style, is also coming off a 16-point barrage in the Quakers' victory over Yale this past Saturday. Barring an NIT bid for the Tigers, tonight will mark Rocca's final contest in a Princeton uniform. The rough-and-tumble big man was able to play 33 minutes against Penn in February, scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, but has played a grand total of 28 minutes since then. Youth will complement the outgoing experience of both of these teams tonight as well. Particularly interesting will be the showdown between Gloger (12.1 ppg) and Penn's Ugonna Onyekwe (11.2 ppg), two of the league's premier rookies.
(03/02/00 10:00am)
The big Quakers had no trouble dispensing with the little Quakers yesterday afternoon at the Levy Tennis Pavilion. The Penn men's tennis team, which, of course, goes by the name of the Quakers, dispensed with Haverford and Swarthmore -- two colleges founded by the Society of Friends -- in dominating fashion, by 7-0 scores against each foe. The Red and Blue won 11-of-12 singles sets and bettered their season record to the .500 mark at 4-4. Given that both the Fords and the Garnet Tide are Division III programs, Penn coach Gordie Ernst made sure to impress upon his team the importance of not playing down to its competition. "I told them coming in that they needed to focus on every point, and I think they did a pretty good job of having concentration," Ernst said. Penn had yet another reason for distraction yesterday. In little more than a week, the Quakers will board a plane for the white sandy beaches of Hawaii and an action-packed week of competition with teams from the 50th state. "I've been looking forward to Hawaii ever since I left last year," Penn captain Eric Sobotka said. Sobotka, nicknamed "Chewie" by Ernst on account of his last name's resemblance to that of Star Wars' lovable and furry Chewbacca, may have had yukelelees and pineapples on his mind, but he was dedicated to the task at hand yesterday. Penn No. 1 Sobotka blanked his Haverford opponent, 6-0, 6-0, and then went on to best Swarthmore junior Peter Schilla in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. "He's the captain and he led this team today," Ernst said. "He's like the little toe of this team." The Red and Blue decimated Haverford in the first match of the afternoon. Penn junior Rob Pringle was masterful at the No. 2 spot, shutting out Matt Bernhard, 6-0, 6-0. The Quakers did not lose a set to the Fords in singles competition, and George Bulman at the No. 6 position was the only Haverford player to even win two games in a set. Each of the three Penn doubles teams also beat the Fords in style. None of the three lost more than two games in the eight-game set. The Quakers were similarly impressive in the nightcap against the Garnet Tide. The singles matches were a little tighter, owing in part to Penn's fatigue. Penn's Tyler Anderson lost the only singles set of the afternoon for the Quakers, but the Red and Blue emerged unscathed. The final doubles match of the day was closer than all the others. The Penn team of sophomore Brian Barki and Anderson trailed Swarthmore's Schilla and Jon Temin 5-2 after seven games. The Quakers duo battled back from there and wound up winning, 9-7. It had been something of a battle, but Penn emerged as the clearly superior squad. "Earlier this season we played Colgate, a team that is probably on par with the two we faced today, but we lost a doubles match," Sobotka said. "Frankly, to do that in our place today would have been a little embarrassing."
(03/01/00 10:00am)
Recruits and a transfer fill out the roster Rebuilding is the wrong word. It's more like a few small repairs. The Penn men's lacrosse team lost its fair share of talent to graduation last year. The Quakers had to say goodbye to a total of nine letterwinners and six starters last June, but coach Marc Van Arsdale's squad is not suffering from any diminished expectations as Saturday's season opener with Notre Dame approaches. "Last year at this point, we were a little more settled as to what we were going to do," Van Arsdale said. "This year, I think we're a team that can get much better as the year goes on." If the Quakers are to improve on their 6-8 overall record (2-4 Ivy League) from last season, they will need to rely on the services of a slew of newcomers who will need to produce results from Saturday's regular season start onward. For the past four seasons, the Penn defense has had a reliable and gifted leader in goalie Matt Schroeder. The 1999 second team All-Ivy selection finished his career with 755 saves and started in an astounding 50 of 53 games he played over four years. Schroeder's absence in between the pipes is no reason for panic, however. Sophomore keeper John Carroll and freshman Ryan Kelly have split time in net in the Quakers' two victorious preseason scrimmages against Towson and Hobart. "I think it's awful wishful thinking that we can replace Matt," Van Arsdale said. "But I think we'll be in good shape with the both of them." Kelly, a Deer Park, N.Y., native, captained his high school team his junior and senior years and was named team MVP last season. Kelly is unquestionably talented, but he is not yet ready to monopolize playing time for Penn. "We have a different system here in terms of techniques of stopping the ball," Kelly said. "Right now, John and I are the same. I'm probably a little bit better at communicating with the rest of the defense, but he's better at stopping the ball." As Penn assistant coach and goalie specialist Tom McClelland continues to work with Kelly on his mechanics in the crease, he may develop into an everyday starter. But for now, it look as if it will be a freshman-sophomore platoon at goal. The Quakers hit the jackpot when it comes to welcoming new talent at the midfielder positions. The crown jewel of the incoming class is Alex Kopicki, who was one of the finest high school talents coming out of the Baltimore-area lacrosse hotbed last season. Kopicki, who stands 6'2" and weighs 185 pounds, was first-team All-Metro for St. Paul's, one of the most highly regarded high school programs in the country. "We got Alex Kopicki. As a freshman, he's ready to play a lot of minutes right away," Van Arsdale said. Another Baltimore product, Jake Martin, should provide added depth in the middle of the field for Penn. Junior Adam Solow comes by way of Hanover, N.H. The middie, who is originally from nearby Wynnewood, Pa., transferred to Penn after two standout seasons at Dartmouth. He led the Big Green in both goals and total points as a freshman. Solow joins his brother, sophomore Scott Solow, on the Red and Blue. "I think I came to Penn for three reasons. One, my brother's here and I like playing with him," Solow said. "Two, I'm from Philadelphia, and I got a little homesick. Three, I really like playing for coach Van Arsdale." Adam's father, Steve Solow, was a lacrosse captain for Penn in his senior year, 1973. The elder Solow is naturally pleased with his son's transfer. "My dad really wanted me to go to Penn," Adam said. "He's glad I'm here, and I'm glad. I had a miserable time on and off the field [at Dartmouth]."
(02/29/00 10:00am)
Two Big 5 teams are currently riding the crests of 13-game winning streaks. But only one of those teams is garnering the lion's share of national attention. The No. 7 Temple Owls (22-4) have been on a remarkable roll of late. John Chaney's squad has not dropped a contest since St. Bonaventure shocked Temple, 57-56, on January 15. In the course of this 13-game-long run of luck, the Owls have beaten Penn, 44-40, and most notably, then-No.1 Cincinnati, 77-69. The nation is abuzz with word of Temple's near invincibility with Pepe Sanchez in the lineup. Meanwhile, since falling to the Owls on January 20, Fran Dunphy's Quakers have put together a 13-game run of their own. The fanfare directed at Penn has been considerably more subdued, however. With the possible exception of the two votes that Penn just received in the AP poll released yesterday, the Quakers (18-7), who sit comfortably atop the Ivy League at 11-0, seem to have justifiably slipped below the national media radar. Still, the Quakers, who will likely get at least a No. 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament if they win two of their three remaining Ivy League games, have the ability to make waves in the postseason. On the other hand, that possibility will get infinitely more remote if the Quakers continue to turn over the ball as much as they have this season. This past weekend, the Red and Blue lacked cohesion on offense, and their offensive miscues almost cost them dearly at Dartmouth and Harvard. Penn needs to be more careful with the basketball, or else the Quakers don't have a shot at going anywhere in the tournament. All the weapons are there. The execution just needs to improve. This past Saturday, the Quakers took the court against a Dartmouth squad that was just 8-15 heading into the game. In the early going at Leede Arena, the Quakers were sluggish and gave the lowly Big Green reason for optimism. After Dartmouth's Shaun Gee sent the opening tip out of bounds, Penn inbounded the ball and brought it up the court. Matt Langel then took a pass at the top of the key. He looked left; then he looked right; then he passed the ball right -- right out of bounds with no other Quaker in sight. On the next Penn trip down the floor, Michael Jordan's errant pass intended for center Geoff Owens gave Dartmouth possession on a second-straight turnover. The Penn mishaps invigorated the Dartmouth crowd and, more importantly, spurred the Big Green on to a vigorous 12-7 start. "I think we were a little careless with the basketball early," Dunphy said after the Dartmouth game. In the first half, Penn gave up nine turnovers to a Dartmouth squad not known for its defensive prowess. On the night, Penn yielded 14 turnovers to Dartmouth's eight. It took 44 combined points from the Jordan-Langel backcourt to secure the 69-55 victory. The Quakers are currently averaging 12.9 give-aways per game, the 13th-worst clip in Division I. This problem played an even bigger role the next night against Harvard. Penn had a carbon copy of its first half against Dartmouth, except that the turnover barrage came after halftime at Lavietes Pavilion. The Quakers had nine miscues in the second half, compared to only two for Harvard. Those Penn turnovers were most damaging down the stretch. Penn looked golden with a 10-point lead with 6:06 left to play, but three Penn turnovers and three minutes later, the lead was down to a scant three points. Owens, whose ill-advised and seemingly rushed pass was intercepted by Harvard's Elliott Prasse-Freeman to begin the turnover run, was not pleased. "I think we were just a little bit passive on offense. We can't really ever do that," he said. Owens is right. No matter how many stellar individual performances the Quakers get out of their roster -- his 17-rebound night at Harvard included -- they need to be more careful with the basketball if they want this to be a finish to remember.
(02/22/00 10:00am)
The fifth-year Columbia coach has spent the last half-decade looking up at Fran Dunphy's squad near the top of the standings. And before that, the '76 Princeton graduate fought tooth-and-nail against the Quakers both as a player and later as an assistant to Pete Carril at Old Nassau for four seasons. Still, after the Quakers wiped the Palestra floor with his Lions in Saturday's 81-58 win, Hill was crystal clear on his opinion of Penn's chances in the Ivy League title race. "You need three refs on your side," Hill said when asked what it would take for an Ivy team to defeat Penn. "I don't know if anybody can. They have it inside and outside; they shoot; and they look for each other. Penn-Princeton is a good matchup, but I don't think anybody is going to beat them twice." Hill is dead on. The Quakers, if they have a subpar night, may very well drop their second showdown with the Tigers at the Palestra on March 7. But as this past weekend resoundingly demonstrated, this Penn squad just has too many weapons to relinquish its two-game league advantage. That's not to say a disaster may not loom on the horizon. Rather, it's saying that a Penn loss to any of the other Ivy teams would be about as shocking as Wile E. Coyote catching Road Runner. The Quakers, who now stand 9-0 in the Ivies for the first time since 1994-95 and the days of a 48-game Ivy winning streak, are bigger, faster and stronger than any other squad in the league, so even when their marksmen are shooting blanks, the Red and Blue have the ability to do what it takes to win. This past Friday's 73-63 victory over Cornell was a perfect indicator of the Quakers' ability to find a way to prevail -- even if they don't look like the prettiest team around. Against a measly contingent of Ithaca gorge-lovers that has managed just one Ivy win all season, the Red and Blue's outside shooters were positively putrid. The Quakers couldn't hit the water from the beach on Saturday night, as they were 21.1 percent from beyond the arc on 4-of-19 shooting. It wasn't as if Penn was having its way down low, either. The frontcourt combination of center Geoff Owens and forward Ugonna Onyekwe did combine for 14 first-half points, but the undersized Big Red were playing solid defense in the halfcourt. "They did a pretty good job of fronting us, and we got a little stagnant without the ball," Owens said after the game. So if they weren't shooting well and if they weren't playing well on the post, what was it that helped the Quakers win besides the lackluster play of the Big Red? Since the bread and butter of the Penn offense was having problems against Cornell, it was the success of the Quakers' transition game that paved the way for the Penn win. "That was probably one of our best games in transition in a long while," Dunphy said. "It's something we try to work on, but something we don't usually wind up having." When you think of Penn, you don't immediately think of rebound-and-run basketball, and it wasn't as if the Quakers turned into one of Paul Westhead's run-and-gun Loyola Marymount squads in a matter of minutes. Instead, what Penn's improved transition play indicates is just how versatile this squad is. When the shots are falling, the Penn halfcourt offense looks as it should, but what's special about this version of the Red and Blue is that their personnel can add a different look when it needs to. Just to give you an idea of the uniqueness of these Quakers, in the first half against Cornell, Penn had a total of 12 field goals, and four of those were slam dunks. That means that fully 33 percent of the Penn offense came from above the rim in the first session -- a feat virtually unheard of in the world of Ivy League basketball. Three of those dunks came from Onyekwe, who obviously brings an added sizzle to the Penn five. The Quakers' athleticism and strength also helped the solid rebounding that was integral to the transition game that they sported against the Big Red. Penn outboarded Cornell, 22-14, in the first 20 minutes. Vital to the Penn offense against Cornell was the play of Michael Jordan, who in addition to scoring a team-high 21 points, tied his career high with nine assists. The Penn co-captain's floor game was masterful on Friday, but it was no more impressive than the job that Matt Langel, Penn's other co-captain, did the following night against Columbia. Langel had nine points but, more importantly, notched a career-high eight assists that helped to ignite a transition game that was once again potent against the Lions. The Penn senior did a fine job of finding the open man on Saturday, but his clutch passing was in somewhat less demand than Jordan's was on the previous night on account of Penn's awe-inspiring shooting throughout most of the game. Whereas the Quakers shot 21 percent from three-point land against Cornell, they were stirring from downtown against the Lions, shooting 53.3 percent. Even more impressive was Penn's shooting from the field in general in the second stanza. The Red and Blue went 17-for-26 after the break for a 65-percent clip, and they were as hot as 74 percent at one point. Friday and Saturday were a bit like night and day for Penn. Against Cornell, shots wouldn't fall from the outside, and against Columbia, it seemed like every Quaker was Jimmy Chitwood in Hoosiers. When the Quakers are hitting, they're invincible, and when they're missing, they're still too tough for the rest of the Ivy League.
(02/18/00 10:00am)
And perhaps no two stories could be more dissimilar. First, there was the end of the Penn Students Against Sweatshop protest against the University's use of sweatshop labor that ended Monday. And next there was the story that held top billing on both the front and back pages, the tale of the Penn men's basketball team's 55-46 defeat of Princeton on Tuesday. On one hand, there is the so-called sweatshop story, a situation that attracted national exposure. It was an example of Penn undergrads reaching out to the world beyond our Ivy walls. On the other hand, there was the basketball game. For many, Tuesday's painted faces and vulgar chants were examples of the ebullience of Ivy League life, examples of how sheltered Penn students are. There was, however, one point in time in Penn history where these two worlds colorfully collided -- the College Hall Sit-In of 1978. In the late '70s, the University's finances were not as rosy as they are today. So on Thursday, February 23, 1978, Penn admitted to a slew of forthcoming budget cuts, the most visible of which came from the office of then-Athletic Director Andy Geiger. Even though the Penn men's hockey team still had four games left on its schedule, Geiger shockingly admitted that the University was terminating its 12-year-old varsity hockey program effective the next year. The reaction was immediate and furious. Then-DP Sports Editor Dan Rosenbaum gave hockey coach Bob Finke the unhappy news in his office that day, and the Penn head man was livid. "The idea that you [the DP] would know before I would is what upsets me. It's gotta be someone in College Hall. That's what I want to find out. You people at the DP stand up for truth and honesty, right? All right, I want to know who did this," Finke said. "I've got 10 freshmen kids who would have gone to a lot of different places. Now they're asking, 'What the hell is going on here.'" Those connected with the hockey program were understandably enraged, but even more objective voices howled at the University's surprise decision. DP Managing Editor Steven Marquez lambasted Penn for its desire to keep important decisions "as clandestine as possible for as long a period as possible." The indignation over the demise of a team that had managed just four winning seasons in its 12 seasons continued to build throughout the following week. Although the budget cuts had also nixed the women's hockey club, the men's and women's gymnastics teams, the badminton team, the golf team and a host of other University programs, the ire of students on campus seemed to focus on the departure of men's hockey. The anger reached its fevered pitch on the following Thursday when a one-hour Undergraduate Assembly-sponsored rally turned into an all-night sit-in, as 800 angry students stormed College Hall. It would be 87 hours -- nearly a full four days -- before the students would leave. The sit-in of '78, even if it did come at the end of the "Me Decade," made the recently concluded PSAS protest look like a den meeting, and, more importantly, provides today's Penn students with a glimpse of a bygone era where protesters didn't need to look overseas to find an issue to rally around. Ironically enough, when the students spent their first night in College Hall, then-Penn President Martin Meyerson was vacationing in Barbados. But his absence didn't prevent the protesters from getting creative. The sit-in participants carried signs that read innocuous messages such as "Stick with Hockey," but they did go so far as to adorn a golden retriever with a sign that told the world that "I could run U. of P. Better." The University eventually got the joke. The sit-in ended at 3:35 the next Monday morning when 15 students and three administrators signed their names to a document detailing 31 agreements reached in grueling negotiations between students, administrators and Trustees. The compromise, which President Meyerson announced with tears in his eyes, granted the reinstatement of gymnastics, badminton and golf, but left the hockey team out in the cold. Many of Finke's puckmen wound up transferring to other schools, and still others toughed it out without Canada's national pastime for the sake of an Ivy League education. Hockey has never returned, and puck-crazed Penn students still need to settle for a club team. The protesters didn't get everything they wanted, but the '78 sit-in still makes me wonder. The Penn of 1978 is far different from the Penn of today. With soaring admissions numbers and an equally flourishing endowment, it's difficult for us to envision what it would have been like to see a 12-year-old varsity sport with a sparkling new arena sent right down the tubes. In addition, it's hard for us to understand the pure scale of the hockey-induced sit-in. Granted, the administration's initial moves toward an alcohol policy last spring prompted a mob to gather on College Green, but that was about it. There was no sit-in. There was no tearful capitulation by President Rodin. And, yes, the PSAS protest attracted national attention, but its initial 13 participants pale in comparison to the 800 starters in '78. In the final analysis, there's one lesson that I take away from examining the bygone Carter-era protest -- be thankful for Penn sports teams. I would love it if we had a hockey team, but that was taken away from our student body. I implore each Penn fan to take advantage of the opportunities that we have: the chance to watch a basketball game in the glorious confines of the Palestra, the chance to attend Penn Relays and the chance to watch the Penn football team in Franklin Field. With dwindling attendance at football games, it seems as if most of this campus disagrees with this opinion. That's too bad. As the 1978 sit-in demonstrates, being a spectator is not a right -- it's a privilege.
(02/16/00 10:00am)
When you take your first step into Fork, a stylish yet unpretentious American bistro in Old City, your eyes get busy in a hurry. Once you make it past the luxurious velvet curtains that stand guard at the late 19th century building, you immediately notice the welcoming lounge area to your left, the exposed duct work above the room, the crowded bar that sits dead-center and the kitchen visible off in the distance. It takes a few seconds for you to process it all -- but that's all it takes. It won't be very long before you feel comfortable in Fork and, by the time your meal is finished, your stomach might just want to call the place home. It's laid-back enough for a first date and more than tasteful enough for an anniversary supper. Executive chef and co-owner Anne-Marie Lasher crafts a new menu every day that reflects the best seasonal ingredients in the the marketplace. And each one offers American food that imaginatively incorporates a multi-ethnic flavor. Before you even start on Lasher's sumptuous offerings, however, you might want to take a long look at Fork's wine list. On a recent visit, there were 24 bottles listed, the vast majority of which could also be purchased by the glass. The list was heavy on French, Italian and Californian wines, with the average bottle costing about $35. There is also a globe-trotting sampling of lagers, ales and aperitifs. Partner and wine director Roberto Sella has won countless accolades for his selections, which, as he told Wine Spectator, are meant "not for special occasions but for drinking with meals." The first-course dinner menu at Fork is an admirable piece of work. With nearly every appetizer going for less than $8, it presents a heady selection of distinctive dishes. The bruschetta with black olive chevre, roasted zucchini, peppers and pecorino romano, which is a steal at $6.50 and served with baby greens, is an absolute delight. Its sharp flavor and fresh vegetables made for a dish finer than any I've had in an Italian eatery. Fork's organic salad greens with white balsamic vinaigrette were marvelously fresh and a must-buy at $4.50. The real treat at any stellar bistro such as Fork is, of course, the main course. And the sampling that we encountered did not disappoint. The sauteed salmon with red wine sauce, which was served over a bed of french lentil pilaf and sauteed savoy cabbage, was a very reasonable $16.50 and a joy to eat. The salmon was just perfectly past tender, and the dish looked wonderful. Another delicious, surprisingly homestyle main course was the pan-seared "free-range" organic chicken with honey mustard sauce, served atop heaping servings of mashed sweet potatoes and snow peas. It was $14.50 and could have been something Mom might have made -- that is, of course, if Mom were a world-class chef. By the time your courteously professional server presents you with your dessert or any one of Fork's myriad after-dinner drink options, your hunger will have long since passed. You may be done eating, but you don't ever want to leave.
(02/16/00 10:00am)
The piles of snow in Franklin Field may finally be melting away as winter nears its last legs, but the Penn men's track team still has a few weeks in which it needs to stay indoors. With just two weeks to go before the Heptagonal Championships, the Quakers traveled to the campus of Boston University Saturday to compete in the St. Valentine's Invitational and recorded a slew of impressive individual performances. Penn freshman Sam Burley was the highlight of the meet for the Quakers. The Cheyenne, Wyo., native, who took the top spot in the 500-meters with a time of 1:04.02, was the only Penn athlete to garner a first-place finish on the afternoon. Burley's victorious time, which qualified him for the IC4A Championships in early March, was good enough to place him fourth on the all-time Penn list for the 500. He surpassed Jeff McCurdy's 1:04.2 mark from 1984, and with three more years left in Red and Blue, Burley probably has a fighting chance to eclipse Robin Martin's 1997 standard of 1:02.18. Penn pole vaulter Josh Coleman, a junior, placed second in the vault on Saturday with a clearance of 15'9". Coleman's was the latest in a string of impressive performances by the Quakers in the vault. Penn has qualified four athletes for IC4As in the event and is looking to secure a fifth. Senior John Church, who has already qualified for IC4As, barely missed a new personal record at BU. "Personally for me, I'm a little disappointed. I actually vaulted my PR, but I was within a hair of a new PR, 16'6". That would have tied me for the best in the league," Church said. Church also feels that junior Luke Stokes is on the cusp of great things. "Stokes is on the biggest pole we have here, and he had a monstrous jump at 15'6"," Church said. "He should be the fifth IC4A qualifier." The Quakers sprinters ran a number of memorable races on Saturday as well. Sophomore Mike Aguilar came away from Beantown with eighth-place finishes in both the 200 (22.15) and 400 (49.50). Senior Shawn Fernandes also reminded all in attendance why he was last year's Heps indoor champion by finishing 11th in the 55 dash with a solid time of 6.56. The Penn distance squad also proffered a number of promising finishes. Senior Sean MacMillan was eighth in the mile with a time of 4:13.63, and sophomore Matt Gioffre qualified for IC4As with a ninth-place finish in the 3000 (8:24.47). In addition, sophomore Matt Caporaletti broke his PR in the 1000 by two seconds with a time of 2:33.76, which was good for 12th place.
(02/11/00 10:00am)
And after the Quakers' calamitous collapse last February at the Palestra, I'm not even sure the laws of physics have much reign either. It seems as if this showdown creates a crucible in which balls bounce funny, players have special nights and a team can lose a game that it was leading 29-3. The uniqueness of this rivalry aside, however, all signs seem to point to the Quakers having the logical edge at this point in the season. Penn is coming off of a weekend where it made each of its Ivy League opponents look like high school teams. If the Quakers continue their winning ways this weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth, their position gets even more enviable. Meanwhile, Princeton's roster is decimated by injuries, and the Tigers lost a heartbreaker to Yale last Saturday night, 44-42. The smart money on Tuesday has to go with the Red and Blue, but the Palestra faithful shouldn't start celebrating just yet -- betting on a Penn-Princeton game is a pastime only a bookie could love. Princeton's Bill Carmody has been acting more like a triage nurse than a basketball coach of late. In the Tigers' defeat at the hands of the Elis on Saturday, Princeton sported a starting lineup that lacked two perennial starters. In reality, Princeton had just five healthy varsity players, with a sixth -- junior Nate Walton -- playing with a broken hand. It's gotten so bad that Carmody was forced to bring up four players from junior varsity. One of those players sprained his thumb as soon as he was called up to the big club. "I will say that I have never seen a team that I've been with as a player or coach have this many guys get hurt," Carmody said. "But what can you do? You can't use that as an excuse to stop working hard or trying." Considering how extensive his team's casualties have been, Carmody's attitude is laudable. It all began with Mason Rocca's ankle injury in late December. The senior forward reaggravated a problem that had been ailing him since high school and had surgery to remove bone chips on December 29. Rocca, who had been averaging 13 points per game in the seven contests he played in for the Tigers this season, got his cast off this past Monday, but Princeton officials report that doctors have not yet given him clearance to practice. He will be out for at least the next five games -- Tuesday's Penn contest included --and possibly the rest of the season. Rocca's departure is especially painful for the Tigers this time of year, since he was so integral to what Princeton fans like to call last February's "Miracle at the Palestra." He scored eight points during an 11-2 Princeton run that cut into Penn's seemingly insurmountable lead just after halftime. Rocca wound up with 13 on the night, and his offense will be sorely missed this year at Jadwin Gym. On February 1, the Tigers lost yet another 13-points-per-game performer when freshman standout Spencer Gloger went down in practice with a second-degree sprained ankle. He returned to light practice this week, but his status for the weekend and Tuesday is still uncertain. Gloger has been razor-sharp from the outside throughout his first season in Old Nassau. Before his injury, he was shooting a stellar 47.4 percent from three-point territory. Without the first-year star in the lineup, Princeton shot a revolting 12.5 percent from behind the arc against Yale. The Tigers were outrebounded by the Elis as well, 34-29. This is somewhat understandable considering that their frontcourt is depleted with Rocca sidelined, sophomore forward Eugene Baah out with a thigh contusion that is very slow to heal and Walton still playing with a broken shooting hand. With such a lengthy list of casualties, it's clear why Carmody, who used just four different starting lineups in his first 79 games after taking over for Pete Carril and is loathe to go to the bench, has had to play musical chairs throughout most of this season. With Rocca out indefinitely, and with the host of other health situations that are at the very least questionable, you can expect such tinkering to continue. You can also expect virtual unknowns like sophomore Ray Robins and Mike Bechtold to log extensive minutes like they did against Yale, with 36 apiece. "We have guys, like Ray Robins and Mike Bechtold, who didn't play much last year or before this, but we thought they were pretty good players when we recruited them," Carmody said. "We basically told them to go out and prove that we were right about them in the first place." History is also up against the Tigers as well. In each of the past seven seasons, the team that comes away with the Ivy League championship has gone undefeated against every other team in the league except for Penn and Princeton. And since either the Quakers or the Tigers have won the crown in each of those seasons, that means that recent history teaches that you can't lose to any of the other six, lowly Ancient Eight programs. All of that said, Princeton still has every chance in the world to come away with the "W" on Tuesday night. By the same token, however, given the fact that they fell to the Elis, Princeton may very well wind up dropping one or both of its contests this weekend. The perfect scenario for the Tigers, on the other hand, would go something like this: Gloger returns to the lineup for a few minutes this weekend in wins against the Crimson and Big Green and then explodes against the Quakers from the outside. Walton grabs a slew of rebounds and plays clutch defense against Penn, even scoring a few after perfecting his shot off his weak, non-injured left hand. Robins, who began the year with just one minute off the bench in a loss to Syracuse, has a career night similar to the 27-point extravaganza he had against Division III Catholic University, and the Tigers buck the odds and beat Penn. That's about the best that Princeton can hope for. It's not probable. But anything's possible when these two storied teams get together for their Tuesday-night gatherings.
(02/09/00 10:00am)
Penn's Bandele Adeniyi-Bada and Rick Springman lost by the closest of margins at the NWCA All-Star Classic. Penn wrestling tri-captains Bandele Adeniyi-Bada and Rick Springman took part in the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Wrestling Classic on Monday night in East Lansing, Mich., where they competed in front of a crowd of roughly 5,000 hardcore, knowledgeable grappling fanatics and a contingent of some of the finest athletes from the nation's best programs. But heavyweight Adeniyi-Bada and 174-pounder Springman were not content to just take in the scenery. No. 6 Adeniyi-Bada fought back against undefeated No. 1 Brock Lesnar of Minnesota to tie his match, 4-4, with just three seconds left in the bout. Lesnar's 2:22 of riding time was good enough for a riding point to be assessed after the buzzer that gave the victory to the Gophers' scale-tipper. No. 2 Springman suffered a similarly heartbreaking fate at Michigan State's Jenison Wrestling Arena. He took his match with No. 3 Josh Koscheck of Edinboro to overtime, but suffered a takedown with 53 seconds left in OT to lose 3-1. Although he came up just short in this night of matches between two of the country's top wrestlers in each weight class, Adeniyi-Bada marvelled at the intense atmosphere in East Lansing. "One of the first things I noticed was how we were all treated almost like professional athletes," he said. "I remember that I was stretching at one point, and I looked up and saw people just following every move I made. They were all real hardcore wrestling fans." Lesnar, Adeniyi-Bada's imposing 6' 5" 270-pound opponent, is considered the dominant heavyweight in the land. With his imposing frame, he has mowed through competitors and, according to Penn's heavyweight, Lesnar is not the friendliest of foes. "Last year at Nationals, after we had all made it, and we were all All-Americans, all the heavyweights just were sitting around and talking to each other," Adeniyi-Bada said of a tournament where he was seventh and Lesnar was second. "Brock was the only guy not to talk." Lesnar was bestial out of the gate. He took down Adeniyi-Bada to make it 2-0 in 13 seconds. Adeniyi-Bada rebounded, reversing Lesnar less than 30 seconds later to knot the score at two. Lesnar then used every bit of his girth to ride Adeniyi-Bada for the entirety of the second period, putting him up, 3-2. An escape at the start of the third made it 4-2 Lesnar. "I could tell that he started to get tired," Adeniyi-Bada said. "I got in on him three times before the takedown." The takedown came with just three seconds left on the clock and brought the grappling-savvy crowd to a fevered pitch. After "shucking" Lesnar's arm, Adeniyi-Bada went after his legs and got him off his feet. The clock ran out with the score tied at four. Lesnar's riding advantage secured the 5-4 win. Springman's bout against Koscheck, the only one that went into overtime the whole night, was scoreless through the first period. An escape by the Edinboro wrestler in the second and a Springman escape in the third made for a 1-1 match going into OT. The extra session was a stalemate until Koscheck notched a takedown with less than a minute to go. "Intensity in overtime will win the match," a triumphant Koscheck told the media after his win. Intensity was the word of the night.
(02/03/00 10:00am)
Phil, my friend, you're not telling us anything we don't already know. Take a quick look around this campus, and there's no ignoring obvious signs of winter. Locust Walk is flanked by mounds of icy debris; trees are bare; and every head in sight is covered with a hat. The season is nowhere more evident than at Franklin Field. Each of its 52,593 seats are blanketed with snow, and even though its storied track and playing surface are now mostly powder-free, the plows have created a number of towering piles of the frozen stuff. It's the type of setting you might expect to see at a Buffalo Bills playoff game -- not at a women's lacrosse practice. Still, at 3:15 p.m. yesterday, the chilly members of the Penn women's lacrosse team dutifully took to the turf for their second day of outdoor practice. The stiff winds swirling about might have deterred your average postal employee, but the Quakers remained undaunted. "We play most of our season in the cold, so we've got to get used to it," Penn senior goalkeeper Melissa Rantz said. The women's lacrosse team will get its season underway March 4 at the William and Mary Tournament, and their male counterparts will get their 2000 campaign started even sooner in a February 19 scrimmage against Towson. The cold is tough on both squads, but the weather might be most bothersome for Penn's track athletes. Although Penn's track and field program is steeped in history and attracts countless elite athletes each year, the Quakers are the only Ivy League team without an indoor track facility. For the Red and Blue's jumpers, vaulters and throwers, the so-called Bubble, located just north of Rhodes Field next to the Schuylkill Expressway serves their indoor purposes just fine. For the Quakers runners, however, the warmest they'll ever get on a February workout is when they pass over a sultry SEPTA vent. The Penn Athletic Department would love to build an indoor track, but neither the funds nor the property necessary for such a massive undertaking are in place. So until the host of the Penn Relays -- the nation's most popular and revered track meet -- builds an indoor 200-meter facility, the Quakers will be forced to brave the frost. With the sort of weather that we've been having of late, Penn sprinters basically have no chance to practice in earnest, and middle- and long-distance runners suffer from a host of other problems that have them thinking of greener pastures. "Coming from the Southeast, I've never had to train in this kind of weather," said 800 runner Rudy Barthelemy, a native of Columbia, S.C. "Your lungs get dried really quickly, and I always feel like the pace is slower than it is. Plus, training on the roads is tough because all the bridges are frozen over, and there's ice everywhere." At least the Penn tracksters get to stay on dry land, however. The members of the Penn crew teams start their spring season in mid-March, so their warm, dry days on the ergometers are numbered. Many men and women rowers are certainly sick of indoor training by now. The 'erg', an enhanced and smarter version of your run-of-the mill rowing machine, is a notoriously difficult task master. Still, February dawns on the Schuylkill are infinitely more imposing than any hunk of junk. The heavyweight men are scheduled to put their shells into the water on the morning of February 7. Since the frozen Schuylkill is currently better-suited for a double axle than a coxswain right now, it's likely that this date might be pushed back, but the climate will be anything but hospitable no matter when they get in the water. The sort of commitment demonstrated by the Red and Blue rowers and runners is laudable, especially considering just how few of those want-to-keep-in-shape Penn students that jogged everywhere in September are still working out on a regular basis. You see, there's a profound difference between athletes around here and your average matriculant. For most Penn students, the frigid temperatures and icy footing might inconvenience them on their walks to and from class or the library. But they always have a comfortable lecture hall or cozy bed waiting at the other end. For those Penn athletes that can't help but spend hours in the arctic air, winter is not just a temporary inconvenience. It's an enemy. And according to Phil, it'll be an enemy for six more long weeks.
(01/27/00 10:00am)
Princeton put its undefeated record on the line, and the Tigers cruised to victory. When a coach has the painful experience of watching his team get blown out of the water by an opponent, he usually just wants it to be over. He usually just wants to stop the bleeding. Craig Thorpe-Clark might be the exception to that rule. The coach of the Penn men's squash team (2-6, 1-3 Ivy League) had to witness his squad get bested by national power Princeton, 8-1, last night at the Ringe Squash Courts. Undaunted, the first-year skipper was pleased to see how his team continued to persevere as the darkness deepened outside on 33rd Street. In short, he was pleased to see how long it took for the Tigers (5-0, 3-0) to finish off his Quakers. "We got started at about 5:00, and now it's almost 7:00, and we still have one match going," Thorpe-Clark said as he turned down to look at his watch. "When I look at the play this evening, I'm definitely pleased with the way the game scores look. They've done what I asked them to do." Penn No. 8 Ritesh Tilani was the only Quaker to record a victory. The junior from the United Arab Emirates logged a 3-1 win over Princeton senior Brian Spaly. He looked to cruise from the gun against Spaly, sprinting out to a two-game-to-nothing lead, 15-12 and 15-8. Spaly battled back to win a tight third game 15-13, but Tilani sunk back into the driver's seat to bury him, 15-8, for the Quakers' sole match victory. "Usually, my problem is that I'm not able to stay focused on the match," Tilani said. "I was able to focus right in tonight. The third game was really tough, but I had my game together today." Not only was Tilani the only Quaker to beat his Princeton opponent, he was also one of just two Penn athletes to even win a game. Penn freshman Sam Miller was the only other team member to avoid a shutout. He fell to Princeton No. 6 Randolph McEvoy, 3-1. As it turns out, however, yesterday's loss was closer than last year's Penn-Princeton showdown. The Quakers didn't even manage to win a single match in a 9-0 shutout at Princeton exactly one year ago today. The Tigers are a powerhouse squad. The racqueted gentlemen from Old Nassau finished fourth in the nation last year with an 11-5 overall record, all of their losses coming to the top three teams in the country. Even though the Tigers lost two All-Americans to the graduating class of 1999, they are still touted to finish at or above where they ended up last season. The No. 1 and No. 2 players for Princeton not only have similar ability -- they also have the same heredity. Senior No. 1 Peter Yik and his brother, freshman No. 2 David Yik, pace the Tigers. Both hail from North Vancouver, B.C., and were national superstars in Canada before making the move to New Jersey. Luckily for the Quakers, the elder Yik elected to sit out last evening's contest on account of Princeton's hectic schedule of late. Nevertheless, his brother moved up to the first position and beat Penn co-captain Peter Withstandley in straight games, 15-3, 15-10 and 15-9. "I'm getting a chance to play a level of guys that I've never played before," Withstandley said. "What they have that I don't have yet is a level of consistency. I can hit good shots, but they can hit it every time." Withstandley did not start the season playing the No. 1 spot for the Quakers. Junior James White began in the Quakers' top spot but never returned to the lineup after Christmas. According to Thorpe-Clark, White will not return to the Penn depth chart at all this season. He has left school this semester for personal reasons. With the absence of White at the top spot, Withstandley will need to take on players of the highest caliber in the world of squash, and as his coach argues, it's very difficult for the players on Penn's team to challenge those sort of athletes. "The top two or three for a team like Princeton are extremely well-bred players," Thorpe-Clark said. "They very often have represented their country at the highest level of international competitions. They come from well-developed training programs, and Pete [Withstandley] just hasn't been exposed to that. "He's still adjusting to regularly playing those guys." Senior co-captain Andrew Hopkins fought hard at the No. 5 position, losing to Princeton's Harrison Gabel, 17-14, 15-11 and 15-11. Most of those in attendance were struck by the effort put forth by the Quakers from top to bottom. Still, it was obvious to most that comparing these two programs right now is somewhat like comparing apples and oranges. Thorpe-Clark feels that Demer Holleran's Penn women are much more akin to the men from Old Nassau than his own athletes are. "It's their depth that beats us," Thorpe-Clark said. "All the way down they have people with a lot of international experience. If you look at Demer's team, her top four or five players come from the best in other countries." News and Notes Penn freshman Elan Levy has decided to leave the team.
(01/18/00 10:00am)
In its first action in nearly six weeks, the Penn men's squash team was overmatched on account of being undermanned. Denison (4-0) routed the Quakers (1-3, 1-2 Ivy League) 9-0 last Thursday at the Ringe Squash Courts. The talented Big Red squad got back into the swing of things for the first time since a November 21 besting of Dartmouth with a dominating performance over the home Red and Blue. Penn was not even able to push any of the matches to the full five games. Denison's performance was remarkable, but it was nonetheless somewhat understandable. The Quakers were without six of their 10 varsity players. Their No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 7 and No. 8 players were all still away from Philadelphia when the Big Red came to town. "It's pretty rough since we're missing six guys," junior co-captain Peter Withstandley said. "I think that the guys that are here are putting in a solid effort, though." These absences are naturally disheartening for first-year coach Craig Thorpe-Clark, but he seems to be taking them in stride. "I knew that most of them weren't going to make it back," Thorpe-Clark said. "One thing you have to say about this group is that they're resilient. "I am very pleased with the way that they have kept at the level of commitment that they have been at for the whole season." The Big Red, from Granville, Ohio, finished ninth in the country in 1998-99 and have added additional depth this season to make them downright dangerous. Their freshman class boasts Abhijit Kukreja, originally from Bombay, India, who already sports a host of national-level experience for his native country. Kukreja defeated Penn's Sam Miller in convincing 3-0 fashion on Thursday. "I think we're a little deeper this year," Denison coach Jonathan Bridge said. "We played them [the Quakers] first semester last year and they beat us 5-4. I think it definitely would have been tighter if they had their whole group here today." There is no way that the Quakers could have easily overcome the absence of such heavyweights as junior Jamie White and sophomores Roberto Kriete and Mukund Khaitan. The three played No.1, No. 3 and No.4, respectively, in Penn's 5-4 defeat of Brown on December 4. Despite these glaring absences, there were a smattering of bright spots for the Quakers. Withstandley was pleased with his 3-0 loss at the hands of Arif Paul, Denison's eminently capable No. 1. "The games were all pretty tight, so I'm very pleased," Withstandley said. "He was third at the National Championship last year, and he ran me around a lot." Another bright light for Penn was the play of junior Will Ruthrauff who played in his first match after spending the fall semester at a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) program in the Pacific Northwest. Ruthrauff fell to Denison's Ahsen Ahmed 3-1, but Thorpe-Clark feels that his play looks to be in good shape so soon after his return. "I thought Will Ruthrauff played really well for his first match back," Thorpe-Clark said. On the whole, Penn's head man seems quite content with the effort that the Quakers who did return before the end of break demonstrated. The Quakers will not have much time to stew over their defeat against the Big Red. They need to regroup in a hurry, as they will see action tomorrow at Navy. They will take on the Midshipmen at 6 p.m. in Annapolis, Md.
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After an off year in Old Nassau, the Tigers named Dartmouth offensive coordinator Roger Hughes their coach. PRINCETON, N.J. -- Steve Tosches made the holiday season hectic for athletic officials at Princeton. After 13 years at the helm of Tigers football, Tosches resigned the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and set an aggressive holiday-season search process into motion. That process culminated last Thursday in the naming of Roger Hughes, formerly the offensive coordinator at Dartmouth, as the 21st coach in the program's history. Princeton Athletic Director Gary Walters, who made the announcement before reporters in the press box at Princeton Stadium, seemed relieved to bring the selection process to a close and spoke glowingly of Hughes. "In the eyes of the alumni, the deans, the faculty and the administrators, coach Hughes has outstanding credentials and qualities and impressive academic achievement that reflects his commitment to education and serves as an example for our student-athletes," Walters said. Hughes had been the Big Green's offensive coordinator since 1992, helping Dartmouth to win Ivy championships in 1992 and 1996. He coached players who set 14 of the school's 15 single-game passing and total yardage records. He has never, however, been a head coach at any level. "It's just a little bit overwhelming since I've never been a head coach before," Hughes said. "I think that I've studied the game enough and am ready." Hughes, 40, has an infectious excitement about taking the reins at Old Nassau. Even though his appointment comes at an odd time of the year, Princeton players appear pleased with the decision to go with the soft-spoken native of Crawford, Neb. "He seems like a very social guy. He wants to be there for us as players as well as people," said Michael Higgins, next year's Princeton captain. "That's a quality you want to have." Although Hughes fits right into the Ivy League atmosphere, he claims that "quite frankly, I never dreamed that I'd be an Ivy League assistant." Hughes' background fits very well with the unique blend of academics and athletics that any Ancient Eight team desires to strike. He has a varied and illustrious career on the playing field and sidelines, as well as a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Nebraska. A football coach with a doctorate is an oddity, but surprisingly enough, Hughes got part of his inspiration for the advanced degree from another overqualified head man. "I got the Ph.D. because I'm a driven person and because I want to be the best. At one time in my life I was interested in medicine, and exercise physiology goes together with that," Hughes said. "The other influence was [former Cornhusker football coach] Tom Osborne. He has his doctorate and, certainly with the faculty at Nebraska, that gave him instant credibility." On the football side of things, Hughes got started with a stellar playing career at tight end for Doane College in Crete, Neb., where he also played golf before graduating in 1982. From Doane, Hughes went on to Nebraska as a graduate assistant, earning his doctorate and leading the Cornhuskers to the 1984 Sugar Bowl and 1985 Fiesta Bowl. After a subsequent stint at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Hughes spent three years as offensive coordinator at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. He then left the West for the permafrost of New Hampshire and John Lyons' staff at Dartmouth. Hughes feels indebted to his boss in Hanover. "He taught me how to relate to people and how to put things together," Hughes said. "He told me not to turn into a jerk head coach. [He said,] 'I'm going to be at the Ivy League meetings with you, and I want to have fun.'" Watch for Hughes to continue much of the offensive work that he spearheaded at Dartmouth. Under Hughes, the Big Green saw both fantastic success in the Jay Fiedler glory years and as recently as 1996, as well as terrible frustration last season, when Dartmouth was dead last in the Ivies in total offense with an average of 267.90 total yards per game. "I want to try to continue some of the things we did at Dartmouth because I think they're hard to defend," Hughes said. "First of all, I believe in a lot of formations and motion. I also believe in creating mismatches and leverage problems." Hughes is not yet decided on how he will go about filling the Princeton coaching staff. He will first interview all of the remaining assistants and then make decisions from there. He is, as yet, unsure whether he will serve as his own offensive coordinator. Though the makeup of his staff is still in question, Hughes is certain that he's intrigued about being in close proximity to Philadelphia and a rivalry that may play out at with the Quakers. "I think both of us compete for similar kids and have similar recruiting areas," Hughes said. "Al Bagnoli's done a great job at Penn. I'm looking forward to that rivalry, because Dartmouth doesn't have a close rival other than Harvard." The folks at Old Nassau hope that Hughes' enthusiasm will translate into an improvement over the Tigers' unimpressive 3-7 1999 campaign.
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If the 1999-2000 Red and Blue grapplers were just your average Ivy League team, their winter break would read like a page out of the script of Rudy. With a fourth-place finish at the ultra-prestigious Midlands Tournament held at Northwestern, and with two 'matter-of-inches' dual meet losses to Big Ten mainstays No. 24 Purdue and No. 9 Michigan, the average Ancient Eight squad would feel just like Rudy Ruttinger did when the crowd chants his name at the end of that hokeyist of sports tear-jerkers. They'd feel just like that scrawny defender who made it in the world of football giants and Touchdown Jesus. But these Penn wrestlers are not your average group of Ivy League athletes. They are no longer the underdogs -- they belong with the big boys, and they know it. Those two contests against Michigan and Purdue were just losses like any other. As a result, the currently No. 8 Quakers (1-2) are not content with just staying close to the best this country has to offer. Losses like those incurred at West Lafayette and at Ann Arbor leave a bad taste in their mouths. "There's no consolation for anyone on this team," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "We went out there to win both of those dual meets and didn't, and that fact stings." When Reina took the reins of this program 14 years ago, an 18-17 loss to the Michigan Wolverines wouldn't have stung. It would have made the Quakers mad with glee, as Reina managed just a 6-14 record in 1986-87, his first year as head man. Since then, however, he has built a team that has strived for excellence at every turn. Penn finished 11th overall at last year's NCAA Championships and ended its campaign ranked No. 12 in the nation. That marks the highest the Quakers have ever finished. Amazingly enough, Penn has moved up in the national rankings every year under Reina and have always finished higher than they were touted in the preseason. Add to this a fourth-straight EIWA title and the fifth Ivy League crown in the last six years, and one can begin to see just how far this program has come. "From a bigger perspective, the fact that we're genuinely and deeply disappointed with these two losses is, in a sense, a reflection of how much this program has progressed," Reina said. Reina's wrestlers might know this even better than he does. "I've been around this program for close to eight years now" said senior tri-captain Brett Matter, whose brother Clint graduated from Wharton in 1997. "I remember that my brother called me up once to tell me that they got shut out by North Carolina, and now we're so upset after we lose to two Big Ten teams. It's indicative of how our program is. I had the opportunity to go to some of those Big Ten schools, but I wanted to come here and build tradition." The next step on the Quakers tradition-building tour is this weekend's NWCA National Dual Meet Championships, which will be held at Penn State this coming Saturday and Sunday. Penn has made a habit of starting their own traditions at National Duals. Four years ago, Penn became the first Ivy League or EIWA team to earn a spot in the esteemed competition. The year 2000 marks the third time in the past four years that Penn has made an appearance. In 1998, the Quakers were solid, but not awe-inspiring, beating San Francisco State 28-10, while losing to Iowa 30-3 and to West Virginia 20-19. Their performance that year was not enough to secure an automatic bid back to the event last season. Penn hopes to earn its place among the elite this weekend in Happy Valley. Coming off of the Midlands, Penn's three captains -- Matter (157), Springman (174) and Bandele Adeniyi-Bada (Heavyweight) -- appear poised to contend for this years NCAA championship. Matter, who is currently ranked No. 2 in the country, second only to Iowa's T.J. Williams, got a chance to face off against the Hawkeye sophomore and defending national champ at the Midlands. Their bout was a barnburner, ending up at 5-3 in favor of Williams. Matter showed to the wrestling world that he is "the person in the country with the strongest chance of beating Williams." "Midlands reinforced to me the fact that I can win a national title. I think I believe it now more than ever," Matter said. The clock is ticking on Matter's career, and the Penn senior knows full well that he has just two months to prepare for the NCAAs on March 16-18. This will be the Delran, N.J., native's last opportunity to join the fraternity of past national champions, one that his father, two-time NCAA-winner Andrew Matter illustriously belongs. Unlike Matter, Springman is just a junior, and after this season he still has one more shot at the crown. Still, after his gutsy demonstration at the Midlands, it looks as if now might be the time for Springman as well. Springman had all guns drawn at the Midlands, and he scored victories over no less than three of last year's All-Americans. "I felt he was a challenger for the title last year," Reina said. "He's matured technically and as a person over the course of the year, and I think he's where he needs to be." In his last Midlands in a Penn uniform, Adeniyi-Bada came up just short to Iowa's Wes Hand in the final round. He led the match convincingly in the waning moments but decided not to sit back on his heels. His aggressiveness played a role in Hand turning him over for a dramatic and title-clinching pin. He lost the match, yet in the process, he showed that he has the fortitude to stay motivated and active in a pressure-packed situation before a hostile crowd. "I always wrestle better when I feel that I've got something to prove," Adeniyi-Bada said. With three strong national championship contenders at the helm, and with a strong supporting crew behind them, the Penn wrestling team may not have to worry about moral victories for a very long time.
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Penn 84
Portland State 74
Like a prize thoroughbred, the Penn men's basketball team pulled away in the stretch to beat Portland State 84-74 in the opener of the Golden Bear Classic on December 28. The Quakers (2-4) advanced to the tournament's title game against California due in large part to the stellar play of senior co-captain Michael Jordan. The Penn point guard was unbelievable from the field -- he shot 9-for-10 and was 5-for-6 from three-point range. Jordan certainly did not give Quakers all of their offense, however. Freshman forward Ugonna Onyekwe added 18 points, and senior guard Matt Langel had 13. Center Geoff Owens and power forward Oggie Kapetanovic rounded out the list of Quakers in double-digits with 10 apiece. Derek Nesland's 21 points led the Vikings (6-4), who were riding the wave of a three-game road winning streak before meeting Penn after having knocked off Cal Poly, Pacific and Air Force. The Quakers went into halftime with a four-point lead, and Portland State hung tough until Penn hit its stride down the stretch. After the Vikings' Hasan Artharee made a pair of free throws to cut the Penn lead to four, Onyekwe hit a jumper and dunked off a feed from Jordan during a 9-3 flurry that put Penn up 79-69 with 1:46 remaining. Portland State would get no closer.
