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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1973)
Injury-plagued Gymnasts meet Huskies By JAMES RUSSELL Of the Emerald “Whenever you have three of your top four all-around men either injured or not competing at all you’ve got to be worried, even pessimistic,” Oregon Coach Bill Ballester said Thursday. “But we’re not; we still have a good chance to win.” Although tired, injured and mentally if not physically ready, the Flying Duck gymnasts are scheduled to meet the University of Washington tonight at 8 p.m. in Mac Court. Ballester relates that, “Tom Phillips, our freshman all-around performer behind Roskam, will not be competing in the meet because of a bad sinus condition which developed into a blood clot and he just underwent surgery. Obviously, he is in so condition to compete, and he’s more im portant to us than the meet. “Because of our injuries,” Ballester says, “this has to be one of the key meets for us, in almost every way, and un doubtedly the winner will be the team who hits its routines and performs to its ultimate capabilities. It has to be an In teresting meet. Washington has never been beaten by any team in the Northwest and this was the year we were supposed to do it.” Senior co-captain Greg Maxwell says “the problem and effect of injuries is a difficult question to assess, it might (Hay heavily and then it may not also. If we put it all together and have a good meet we definitely can still win over the Washington squad.” Talking about the Washington team, Ballester says that “they’ve really got a good team that should be very highly competitive.’ The Huskies have defending Pac-8 champion Norm Ewald in the rings and back him up with Swedish import Bjorn Hermansson to go against Kevin Cor nelius. Vaulting promises to be interesting as Greg Maxwell, Oregon’s senior co captain, takes on Rich Gay lor, the third place finisher in the NCAA championships last year. “The parallel bars might be one of the determining events in the meet,” says Ballester. “Neither of us are that strong in the event, and it could make a difference in the score if one or the other does ex ceptionally well.” Maxwell and Warren Weiseth, the other senior and co-captain, go against Bill Carpenter, who scored for the Huskies in the Pac-8 meet last year. The Huskies are 6-2 on the year after losing by .75 of a point Friday night against top-ranked Southern Illinois in Seattle, 158.25-157.50. Their other loss came earlier in the season against San Fernando Valley State, a small-college powerhouse. Like \ the Ducks, they have beaten San Jose State. The Washington State meet saw the Ducks come up with what Ba lies ter thought was their best performance all year against a fired-up team of Cougars. The Ducks got by with a 152.40-149.10 victory. “Washington State was ready,” says Ballester, “They came out and did a good job against us. We had our best per formance all year, but the judging was a little conservative, so it didn’t show in the score.” “The University of British Columbia,” says Ballester, (who the Ducks meet on Saturday night) “also has a fair squad that is highlighted by a kid named Maki and an all-around balanced team. “But looking more importantly at Washington I still think we’re healthy enough to beat them and despite the pressure we’ve still got a very good chance to win even if they never have been beaten by a Northwest team.” Relating back to last year’s squad, Maxwell remembers that “the team we have now is a lot more inexperienced, although they may be more talented, and being young has helped us. We weren’t expected to perform as well as we have, initially, so when we do hit on a really good routine we surprise those around us and sometimes we even surprise ourselves.” Realistically Bailester says, “we’ve been setback a bit and we don’t have Phillips, Lehmann and McDowell to compete, but this still shouldn’t stop us. We are a very capable team and if we can put it all together for just one set of good routines then we will beat Washington and we can perform well.” “To say the least,” Bailester projects, “it’s going to be one outstanding type of gymnastic meet.” All things considered, the clash between Oregon’s Flying Duck gymnasts and Washington’s Huskies is scheduled to begin at 8:00 in Mac Court with an explosion of high competition and collegiate talent soon to follow. Season's bests: ALL-AROUND: Steve Roskam, 51.35; Tom Phillips. 48.95; John Lehmann, 47.30; Sob Rikli, 24.35 (does not Include all events); Mike Blumenstein, 23.50 (does not Include all events). FREE EXERCISE: Bob Rlkll, 9.25; Don Lester, 8.95; John Lehmann, 8.95; Steve Roskam, 8.95; Jim Lester, 8.55; Tom Phillips, 8.35; Randy Lary, 7.80; Mike Blumenstein 8.75; Mike Luzny, 7.40; Bryan Lea, 7.50 POMMEL HORSE: Joe Percival. 9.20, Jim Lester, 9.00; Mike Luzny, 8.45; Tom Phillips, 8.15; Steve Roskam, 7.25; John Lehmann, 5.70. RINGS: Kevin Cornelius, 9.25; Steve Roskam, 8.45; Bryan Lea, 8.55; Tom Phillips, 8.30; John Lehmann, 7.45. VAULTING: Greg Maxwell, 9.20; Bob Rikli, 9.05; Mike Blumenstein, 8.95; Steve Roskam, 8.90; Randy Lary, 8.90; Tom Phillips, 8.80; John Lehmann. 8.40. PARALLEL BARS: Tom Phillips, 9.00; Steve Roskam, 9.00; John Lehmann, 8.90; Steve Swaydrak, 8.45; Mike Blumenstein, 8.50; Bob Rikli, 8.35. HIGH BAR: Warren Weiseth, 9.20, Greg Maxwell, 9.20; Steve Roskam. 9.10; Tom Phillips, 8.55; Trey McDowell, 7.75; Randy Lary, 7.40; John Lehmann, 7.50. Photo by Steve Twedt WES HINES ON TOP OF THINGS AGAINST PSU Wes Hines defends against single-leg takedown attempt by Portland State’s Kelly Bledsoe. Hines went on to score an npset 5-3 decision, helping Oregon on to its 24-1# victory. Ducks upset PSU matmen Freshman Larry Ermini turned out for wrestling this year almost as an after-thought. He came to Oregon on a football scholarship, and decided to wrestle. But you’ll never catch Coach Ron Finley complaining. It was Ermini’s upset pin in the heavyweight match over Portland State’s A1 Tuttle Thursday night that ga ve Oregon a surprise 24-19 win over the Vikings. The last time the Ducks met Portland State, early in January, Oregon lost 30-10, and Ermini lost to Tuttle 8-2. The upset last night in Mac Court handed Finley his first winning season in three tries as Oregon’s boss. And he did it wrestling considerably weaker than he would like. Finley sent six freshmen and three sophomores to the mat last night to capture the upset with many of Oregon’s usual starters flattened with injuries. Settling the stage for Ermini's heroics were upsets by sophomores Wes Hines and Duane Stutzman as Oregon overcame a 19-12 deficit. Stutzman, usually wrestling at 158 pounds, was moved up to 177 pounds — up two weights over his normal — and managed a 4-2 victory over Marty Roberts. A late takedown with but nine seconds left in the match gave Stutzman the win. In the following match Hines, wrestling at 190, was facing Bledsoe, who beat Hines in their match at Portland last month. Hines broke a 2-2 knot going into the final period with an escape, and followed it with a takedown grabbing a 5-2 advantage. Bledsoe escaped, then the two battled on their feet scoreless for the final 1:32 of the match. Earlier in the match Dean Dixon picked up another surprising pin at 150. He pinned PSU’s Bob Hulin with only 31 seconds remaining. The score at the time was tied 6-6 between the two wrestlers. Senior Dave Luke collared a 12-2 victory at 134 pounds in his final appearance at Mac Court. The Ducks are now 11-8 with one dual match remaining Saturday at Oregon State. Next week the Dicks travel to Corvallis for the Pacific-8 wre? -ling championships. -Women’s sports— Racette earns trip to bowling nationals Three University students won first or second {daces in last weekend’s Association of College Unions International (ACUI) regional tournament in their respective sport and as a result earned trips to national competition. Senior Carol Racette will represent the University and ACUI Region 14 in the national women’s collegiate bowling championships in Las Vegas April 7. She won first place at the tourney in Pullman. Another senior, Terry Edwards, placed second in men’s bowling at the regional tournament and will go to Syracuse, New York also in April. Ed Ng defeated teammate Jim Tong in the finals in table tennis to win his trip to Peoria, 111. Twenty-six students from the University went to the three day toumment in Pullman and competed in bridge, chess and other games as well as bowling and table tennis. Racette finished first of some 70 women with a nine-game score of 1635. She is the first Oregon woman bowler to ever win the national competition spot. In addition Racette and teammate Chris Erickson placed second in doubles competition. Senior Dee Ward was fifth in all around women’s competition with 1530 for nine games. Ward and Racette both placed in the top ten in Singles competition. The Oregon women’s team finished third behind teams from Oregon State and Boise State. Edwards will bowl on the ABC tournament lanes when he completes in the men’s collegiate bowling championships in Syracuse. He had a nine-game tournament score of 1792, only a few pins behind the first place winner who bowled 1805. Olson wins all-around as gymnasts top PSU Once again freshman Ann Olson topped all-around com petition as the Oregon women gymnasts defeated Portland State 81.70 to 74.50 in the final dual meet of the year Wednesday. Saturday Oregon hosts the Pac-8 gymnastics cham pionships. The five-way meet with Oregon, Oregon State, University of Washington, Washington State and UCLA com peting, begins at 1 p.m. in Gerlinger Hall. Admission is free to Oregon students with ID cards. Olson won the vaulting, uneven parallel bars, balance beam and all-around events in Wednesday’s meet. She was second in floor exercise. Teammate Linda Stuber, also a freshman, earned second place all-around honors. Top three places for each event: Vaulting: 1. Ann Olson, UO 7.55. 2. Ann Gerber, PSU, 7.50. 3. Elise Crittendon, PSU, 7.10. Uneven parallel bars; 1. Ann Olson, UO, 7.75. 2. Elise Crittenden, PSU, 6.25. 3. Ann Iff, PSU, 5.80. Balance Beam: 1. Ann Olson, UO, 7.05.2. Linda Isaacs, UO, 5.95. 3. Patty McCarthy, UO, 5.75. Floor Exercise: 1. Gayle H., PSU, 8.0. 2. Ann Olson, UO, 7.80. 3. Patty McCarthy, UO, 7.66. All around: 1. Ann Olson, UO, 30.15.2. Linda Stuber, UO, 25.06. FIIm» Crittenden, PSU, 23.75. 7
