Arnesen looking to avenge 2004 penalty
For 20 seconds, senior Alpha Tau Omega rider Hans Arnesen knew what it felt like to be a Little 500 champion.
For 20 seconds, senior Alpha Tau Omega rider Hans Arnesen knew what it felt like to be a Little 500 champion.
Jamie Chen crouched near the fence at Bill Armstrong Stadium, her feet firmly planted in the cinder that covers the bicycle track as she surveyed the women riding around it.
Prior to this year, senior Jaimie Hewitt had only been an observer of the Little 500 race. This fall, she decided to get out of the stands and onto the track.
The Mexico Under-17 Men's National Team that beat IU 2-1 in April 2005 went on to win the FIFA World Youth Championships in September. Mexico beat Brazil in the championship game 3-0. But just as Mexico will have a new generation of U-17 players when the team plays IU tonight in Bloomington, the Hoosiers sport new faces this spring after losing six starters from last season's squad. "It's like one of the Notre Dame players said the other day when we played them," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "This is a new generation out here; I don't know anyone."
When Kevin Alston was in Peru last September with the United States Under-17 Men's National Team for the FIFA U-17 World Youth Soccer Championship, an elementary-aged boy approached him in the lobby of the team's hotel and gave him a good luck cross. The IU freshman said he hopes the good luck charm brings the Hoosiers a win tonight in their contest with the Mexico U-17 Men's National Team. "I just really hope we beat Mexico," Alston said. "Part of it is a pride thing that they are coming into the U.S. and just gotta represent IU, represent the country and hopefully we can have a good game and win."
The IU baseball team -- coming off a split in last weekend's series against Purdue -- will play its first mid-week home game today when the Indiana State Sycamores come to Bloomington to complete the two-game season series between the two teams. The Hoosiers (12-20) won the first two games of the Purdue series, but lost the final two games. IU will try to put a 25-8 loss in the final game behind it and build momentum for this weekend's Ohio State series. "It was just one of those crazy things," IU coach Tracy Smith said of Sunday's loss. "Regardless of the outcome, these guys will hit the locker room and forget about it."
IU coach Terry Hoeppner asked for execution in Saturday's spring game. What he got was eight touchdowns and more than 700 yards of total offense. The Cream squad fought back from a ten-point deficit going into the fourth quarter to claim the 31-27 victory. "I wanted execution on both sides of the ball," Hoeppner said. "It wasn't necessarily horrible plays by the defense. I think it was just some really great throws and catches from the (first string) and the (second string)."
Dozens of crunched Dixie cups, once full of cold water, lay strewn in front of the bleachers at Robert Haugh Track & Field Complex Saturday afternoon following the fourth annual Little 50 men's and women's running races, the kick-off events to Little 500 week. The high of 83 degrees and ever-present sun demanded that the four runners on each of the 22 women's teams and 25 men's teams that competed stay hydrated. University Athletic Club's men's and women's teams, both named Cream, must have done so effectively, as they scored the top spots in their respective 13-mile races. Both teams led the pack for nearly the entire 50 laps.
Paced by senior Shannon Johnson's 3-over-par 147 -- one off tournament winner Cathryn Bristow of Oregon -- the IU women's golf team finished fifth in the 16-team field at the 2006 Illini Spring Invitational this weekend. The Hoosiers, with a two-day score of 620 in the 36-hole event, were one shot shy of Illinois and only 10 strokes from tournament winner, University of Oregon. Johnson shot a 75 Friday and followed it with a stellar round of 72 Saturday. Her performance Saturday marked the third time in her last five outings where she has fired even par or better.
The third and final round of the Kepler Intercollegiate began with the Hoosiers, led by freshman Seth Brandon, four strokes ahead of Northwestern in a two-team race for first place. But after 18 holes and a playoff, the Wildcats escaped with the championship and medalist honors. Saturday's second round ended with IU and Northwestern, with totals of 578 and 582 respectively, having significant separation from the rest of the field.
The IU men's track and field team split off this past weekend to place members in three prestigious meets across the country. While the majority of the squad headed south to Knoxville, Tenn., for the Sea Ray Relays, distance runners traveled to California for the Mt. Sac Relays and the Pomona Pitzer Invitational. The Sea Ray Relays saw four Hoosiers meet regional qualifying standards, while senior Stephen Haas turned in a record-setting performance in the 10,000-meter run at the Mt. Sac competition.
At the conclusion of IU's last home competition against Minnesota, Ohio State and Oregon State Saturday, the women's rowing team learned that intensity can have its disadvantages. According to coach Steve Peterson, the varsity crew's work ethic can make for a big drawback. "They get on the line and become very excited," he said. "I believe they could've won today, but their aggressiveness amounts to problems when they forget to really think."
MIAMI -- Luol Deng got a nice gift for his 21st birthday. He's headed to the playoffs. Deng scored 17 of his 26 points in the first half to spearhead the Bulls' rally from an early 15-point deficit, and Chicago got 18 points apiece from Andres Nocioni and Ben Gordon to beat the Miami Heat 117-93 Sunday and clinch an Eastern Conference postseason berth. "This was his present," Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich said.
PITTSBURGH -- If a team wants to get its offense going, PNC Park is the place to go. Todd Walker hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Aramis Ramirez added a two-run shot and the Chicago Cubs finished another successful series in Pittsburgh by defeating the Pirates 7-3 Sunday.
Playing outdoors for the first time at home all season, the IU women's tennis team split matches against Big Ten opponents Minnesota and Iowa this weekend. The No. 35 Hoosiers swept the Golden Gophers 7-0 Saturday, but could not overcome the No. 37 Hawkeyes in a tight 4-3 match Sunday. In a four-hour match against Iowa that began indoors because of weather and ended outdoors, IU failed to win the doubles point for the fifth time in 22 matches.
For the second consecutive weekend, the Hoosiers lost all their games on the road, falling in two to No. 17 Northwestern and one to Illinois. The final game against Illinois was called because of rain after two innings. With the winless weekend, IU falls to an even record of 20-20-1 for the season with a 3-8 record in Big Ten action.
The beginning of the weekend had the No. 64 IU men's tennis team hiding for cover from destructive tornadoes in Iowa City, Iowa. By the end of the weekend, the Hoosiers pulled to .500 in Big Ten play with wins over Iowa and No. 38 Minnesota. For the first time in more than 21 years, IU defeated the Gophers, 5-2, at the Baseline Tennis Center. The last time the Hoosiers won in Minneapolis was April 6, 1985. It also was the first win over Minnesota since a 4-3 victory Feb. 21, 1997, in Bloomington.
It's hard to glean a lot of insight from the Hoosier football team in one spring game (especially when it's two-hand touch on the quarterbacks and coach Terry Hoeppner called a few penalties himself), but Saturday's Cream and Crimson spring football game gave attending fans one thing to think about after they left Memorial Stadium -- this team can create a lot of offense through the air.
After dropping its first two conference series, the IU baseball team split a four-game set at home against in-state rival Purdue this weekend, winning the first two games of the series before losing the final two. The Hoosiers (12-20, 4-8 Big Ten) won the opening game of the series behind three scoreless innings of relief by sophomore pitcher Doug Fleenor and a potent middle of the order.
IU formally announced the hiring of two assistant men's basketball coaches Thursday, quelling some of the flames that lingered from the hiring of new coach Kelvin Sampson. Ray McCallum follows Sampson from Oklahoma while Jeff Meyer comes to IU after spending two seasons as an assistant at Missouri. Each man brings a resume that can ease some of the doubt raised over Sampson's hire. They are both Indiana natives, they have both taken in-state teams to the NCAA Tournament and they both bring favorable graduation rates to IU.