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Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 11
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Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 11

Publication:
Herald and Reviewi
Location:
Decatur, Illinois
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Page:
11
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Herald A RcvlcwJ Decatur, Illinois, Monday, February 29,1988 KvTlDClDO US fr1 RfloDDflCsDiro Chuck Carlson "They play in a league with some NAIA teams and the competition is awfully good," said Ramsey. "We know they'll be tough." Millikin fans may remember Whitewater's last visit to Griswold, a two-point NCAA regional tournament victory in 1983. That was Millikin's last year of post-season play. This weekend's survivor plays a super-regional game for a shot at the Division III final four, which will be held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. North Park, which lost twice to Millikin and finished third in the CCIW, won the national title last year.

Wesleyan (22-4) opens with Monmouth (14-9, No. 4) at 6:30. Games for third place and the regional championship are set for the same times Saturday night Tickets will go on sale at Griswold Center during regular office hours, beginning Wednesday. Seats will cost $4 for each session or $6 for the entire tournament. Millikin is aching for another shot at Wesleyan, but faces a huge hurdle Friday.

Whitewater boasts two all-district players, 6-3 point guard Duane Vance and 6-8 frontliner Robert Barnes. Both are averaging 20-plus points per game. posed a problem. "It's great news," said Ramsey. "Obviously, we're glad to be playing at home, but it also gives more people from the schools in throws a ffi Division EI regional llllflll fwatllillf 6:30 p.m; Illinois Wesleyan (22-4) vs Monmouth (14-9) 8:30 MUlikm (21-5) vs.

Wisconsin-Whitewater (21- 5) volved a chance to see the games." Millikin (21-5, No. 3 seed) will face tough Wisconsin-Whitewater (21-5, No. 2) in the 8:30 p.m. game Friday night party for At one point when he seemed at a loss for words, Koester quipped, "I'd rather coach than give speeches. This isn't easy, you know." "The hardest part of coaching a group like this is losing the seniors.

I'm a strong believer in senior leadership and this group has provided it" In talking about one of the seniors Lauri Holman Koester said, "She's my leader. When we on Americans By STEVE CAMERON Herald Review Sports Editor" The ol' homecourt advantage didn't help Millikin Saturday night Sunday, it did. Coach Joe Ramsey and his troops got just the right news to salve their wounds from an 84-70 loss to Illinois Wesleyan. Millikin not only earned its ex- Eected invitation to the NCAA ivision in national tournament, it will host this weekend's region-, al. Griswold Center's 4,000 seating capacity turned the trick.

Wesleyan won top seeding in the regional, but its fieldhouse holds about half as many as Griswold, and tickets would have T-Town Girls team has done this before By REX SPRES Herald Review Sports Writer TEUTOPOLIS There was the unmistakable feeling the 1,400 people in this normally serene Central Illinois town had done this before. The car caravan, the shrieking sirens, the speeches all had a familiar ring to them. For good reason. The hard-working folks in this basketball-crazy community had welcomed home state high school champions in 1986 twice. That's when Teutopolis pulled off the rare feat of winning Class A boys' and girls' state titles the same season.

Sunday, the Teutopolis girls repeated the scene. They beat Elgin St. Edward 54-35 Saturday in the Assembly Hall to complete an unbeaten (32-0) season. In case any of the more than 300 fans who filed into J.H. Griffin Gymnasium had forgotten overnight, the scoreboards were lit up with the title game score.

It was deja vu a lot of the same faces, a lot of the same words. Only the lineup was different some of it anyway. Kim Bloemer, Cindy Thoele, Donna Niebrugge, Lauri Holman and Angie Ruholl seniors now had been around when the T-Town girls won two years ago. Principal Jim Webb was there to act as master of ceremonies. Athletic Director Lawrence Carie, whose daughter, Doris, was the star of the 1986 team, was there to offer congratulations.

So was boys Coach Ken Crawford. Of course, there was the familiar figure of Coach Dennis Koest-er. "This team had talent, yes, but AP LaserPhoto A Jamaican bobsled team member emerges after the four-man sled crashed. Commentary Just wait until '92 Next thing you know, we're going to be invaded by Mexico. Gad, is this embarrassing.

If the Winter Olympics are a definitive guide to gauge worldwide prestige, the United States currently ranks somewhere between Mozambique and Belgium. You, of course, have heard the joke making the rounds. What's the difference be- tween the Titanic and the U.S. Olympic The Olympic team sank faster. Haw, haw.

But seriously folks, the U.S. hasn't suffered such in- (hginity since, well, the 1934 Winter Olympics. But even that one wasn't as disastrous as this. Six medals in Calgary. The worst showing since 1936.

Fewer medals than Aus-, tria, West Germany and Switzerland. And just as many as those juggernauts from the Netherlands and Finland. WHAT MAKES America's pathetic performance all the more galling is the fact that the U.S. Olympic Committee has pumped about a kajillion dollars recently into making the U.S. competitive.

This is competitive? In two different men's alpine events, not only didn't U.S. skiers win any medals, they never finished the race. Americans fared little better in such events as cross country skiing, women's alpine skiing and ski jumping. til the biathlon, American Josh Thompson was a legiti mate pre-Olympic choice to win a medal. How did he respond to the pressure? With a stirring 16th place showing.

And, of course, there is America's favorite whipping boy the hockey team. Every four years, we take it out of the closet and build it up with false expectations for three months prior to the Olympics. We compare it to the 1980 Lake Placid gold medal squad, nod our heads and agree, yes indeed, this could be the year we can beat the Russkies. Then we squawk when 21-year-old college kids from Minnesota can't beat 29-year-old pros from Moscow. Fortunately, the U.S.

did no worse this year than it did in 1984. Seventh place. But a solid seventh place. AMERICA, LAND of the free and the home of MTV, cheeseburgers and liquid toilet bowl cleaners, was reduced to cheering for nice showings. Bonny Warner was sixth in the luge.

We applauded her finish. The U.S. four-man bobsled was fourth. So sorry, but nice try. Our ice dancing team was sixth.

But, gosh, weren't they a handsome couple? Nope, second rate efforts and almosts aren't supposed to cut it here, remember? Desperate times, therefore, call for desperate fQ3SUT6S By 1992 in Albertville, France, the U.S. will need to have formulated a new strat-: egy for the Winter Olympics. And it's obvious there's only one course of action to take. One way for the U.S. to rise above mediocrity and compete with the Sweden of the world.

Cheat Chuck Carlson is a Herald Review sports writer. T-Town team members come home atop a fire truck after winning champs Photo by Jan Abbott the Class A girls state title. get down to the end of a tough game, I want the ball in her hands. "Her goal is to become a coach and come back and take my job. She'll probably get it too." While the players and fans stood eating pieces of a huge cake, provided by the IGA Store, one fan said to Koester, "Coach, this has been fun.

Let's do it again next year." Don't bet that it won't happen. meters, finishing in 7 minutes, 14.13 seconds. She set the old world mark of 7:20.36 in 1987. Andrea Ehrig of East Germany won the silver, her third medal, in 7:17.12, and another East German, Gabi Zange, won her second bronze. NORDIC COMBINED Hip-polyt Kempf of Switzerland won the Noridc combined a 70-meter jump and 15-kilometer cross-country with Klaus Sulzenbacher of Austria second and Allar Levandi giving the Soviet Union a bronze.

BOBSLED The four-man bobsled was won by a Swiss, Ekkehard Fasser, who edged defending champion Wolfgang Hoppe of East Germany. Rushlaw, the rough-hewn, reclusive 36-yeaf-old veteran from Saranac Lake, N.Y., had the bronze won with the fastest run in the final heat Then, Ianis Kipours of the Soviet Union came down the run, the last starter. Kipours beat Rushlaw by .02 seconds not even a blink and added the bronze to his gold in the two-man. "It's a real disappointment to lose a medal by two-hundredths of a second," Rushlaw said. B7 Itlinnic ve Indiana Date: Tonight Site: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.

Tipoff 8:30 p.m. Season records: Illinois 18-9 overall, 8-6 Big Ten; Indiana 16-8, 8-6 Series standing: Indiana leads, 63-55 TV: ESPN nationally Radio: mini network, including WSOY (1340 AM) At a glance: Lou Henson gets second crack at his 500th career victory. Indiana won first meeting 75-74 at Champaign Feb. 7. Freshman Jay Edwards scored 27 points in that game, including two clinching free throws in final half-minute.

Soph Larry Smith could get his first start at point guard for Illinois. IfflUDGLrD a staQ By STEVE CAMERON Herald Review Sports Editor BLOOMINGTON, Ind. When anyone last heard from Larry Smith, he was considering a transfer. Now suddenly, he may be a starter. Illinois' sophomore guard generally has played far below expectations and bis ability level in a season and a half at Champaign.

The gifted kid from Alton considered leaving at mid-semester each of his first two years. "He's got the talent," said Coach Lou Henson after a practice last week. "But so far, he hasn't been able to handle the things we expect of him." Yet just a few days after that analysis, Henson may wind up starting Smith at point guard tonight at Indiana. There's plenty at stake, too. The teams are tied for fourth in the Big Ten and Henson is taking his second shot at career victory No.

500. Kendall Gill and Steve Bardo have taken turns at the point this year, with decidedly uneven results. Bardo is the steadier of that pair, but lacks the explosiveness to penetrate against man-to-man defenses. Enter Smith. The 6-3 soph finally was thrust into an important situation last Thursday at Purdue.

He was outstanding. "He played better than any other point guard we had out there," said Henson. Indeed, in just 15 minutes of laying time, Smith notched a bas-et and seven big assists as Illi-! nois' offense got untracked in the second half. Afterward, Henson indicated Smith well might start at Indiana. "He just did an outstanding' job," said the coach.

Indiana certainly will attack in a man-to-man. Coach Bobby Knight stuck with his favorite defense all the way in a 75-74 victory at Champaign Feb. 7. I "I can add some things to our, offense," said Smith, "by creating' some things, either getting a shot, or ltg openings for my team- These teams split last year. Illinois gave Indiana a last-second; loss before its stirring run to the NCAA championship.

wotiED 3 medlaDs College basketball B3 the thing that made this club great was its mental toughness," Koest-er told the crowd. "They could go out and play 32 minutes of intense basketball, not once in a while but every time out," he said. Time runs out CALGARY, Alberta (AP) Time ran out on America. Its worst Winter Olympics in 52 years were over, and its athletes had come up short time after time. The clocked ticked out on Brent Rushlaw as he failed by .02 seconds to win America's first bobsled medal in 32 years.

It stopped ticking on Yvonne van Gennip more than six seconds short of her own world speed skating record for 5,000 meters, and she had three gold medals. Not since 1936, when America won only four Olympic medals, had there been such a U.S. calamity. The United States went home with six medals. The Soviets, meanwhile, set a Winter Games' record with their 29 medals, 11 gold.

The closing ceremonies were all that was left of a Games that finished on time after 16 days, despite temperatures that fluctuated from 5 below to 70, wirds that blew up to 98 mph on Mount Allan and no snow. While the opening ceremonies concentrated on the history of the area, the closing party was an extravaganza of fireworks and ice capades. About 250 skaters used the u.s Heaves world's largest temporary ice rink to show off before 60,000 people packing McMahon Stadium, where, on Feb. 13, the Games opened. Among the skaters were past Olympians Dorothy Hamill of the United States and the flamboyant, creative Toller Cranston of Canada.

Olympics of the future also were represented, with children from Albertville, France, host of the 1992 Winter Games, and a group from Seoul, site of the Summer Games, skating. HOCKEY Finland won the hockey silver medal, handing the Soviets their first loss of the Games, 2-1, when ErkM Lehitonen broke a tie with just 1:40 to play. The Soviets clinched the gold medal Friday night, and this time it was just for fun, the Soviets said. SPEED SKATING Van Gennip added the 5,000 gold to the ones she won at 1,500 and 3,000 Young transplant patient.

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