sports
/'-Commentary
The fans made it
the best meet ever
^---Mike Marino
All Gene Bartows aside, Mac Court fans are a pretty special
bunch. And no, I don't mean just for basketball.
Last Friday night, the Deranged Idiots showed their other sides.
They made the U.S.-Japan gymnastics meet one of the best sporting
events I’ve ever seen.
The place was still cheering the U.S. victory over the Japanese,
and Yank captain Kurt Thomas was taking in the scene. "This is without
a doubt the best crowd I’ve ever seen,” Thomas said of the 7,825 folks
who filled the Pit. But Kurt, you've been in the Olympics, so don't you
mean one of the best?
“That includes the Olympics,” he beamed. “They really kept our
spirit up.”
So if you were there, pat
yourselves on the back. If you
weren't you missed a great show.
From the meet’s outset, you knew
it was something special. Both
teams — men and women —
marched in, led by the undergrads
at the Eugene Gymnastics
Academy. These were the little
seven, eight, and nine-year-olds
waiting in the wings behind veter
ans Karen Kelsall (14), Leslie
Pfiefer (15), and Tracy Talavera
(11). It was a real treat to see
these little ones bring in the Olym
pic flag — it wasn’t the Olympics,
but close.
Kelch and BaI tester
“don't realize it yet."
The real fun, though, came when the action started. Mike Carter,
LSU grad and former Olympian, had a strong, powerful floor exercise
routine as the evening’s second competitor, but was awarded only a
8.9. You’d have thought Mel Ross was in town.
“Aw, C’mon, you remind me of a basketball ref,” one man stood
and yelled. The rest of the house expressed similar opinions. But to
prove their good manners as well as good taste, they went crazy when
Japan’s Junichi Shimuzu nailed a 9.55 on the floor, a set that included
some impossible, body-controlling flips.
But the evening’s best came later. Talavera, the little sprite from
California, pulled a "Nadia" on the mat, turning on the crowd with a
cutesy routine to the tune of “Games People Play."
“When they’re young, they can do stuff like that,” said her coach.
Dick Mulvihill. “It was especially good for Tracy because it was her first
big competition.
The crowd responded in style. As they did when Thomas, admit
tedly feeling the effects of extended jetlag, did nearly everything right for
a 9.8 on the high bar to end the meet and clinch it for the U.S. The final
score — 279.35 to 277.8 — was lost in the fact that the meet had
become a little niche in history.
“I can’t remember a U.S. team ever beating the Japanese,” smiled
happy coach Bill Ballester. "I’ve been in this now 20 years, and the
Japanese only started competing internationally in the ’50s, so I don't
know.
Jim Kelch didn’t care about the past — at least not too much. He’d
just finished his first international competition, and more importantly,
each of his scores counted for the team. “I’m glad I was a part of this,” he
said. "It feels really great to be through the first one. I was a little shaky
but I made it though. And the fans were great. They saw a great meet.”
In fact, they saw the greatest meet in U.S. gymnastics history. But
they, like myseif, probably don’t even realize it yet. “I haven’t even had
time to figure it out,” Ballester said in the locker room. “There are so
many ramifications of what happened. It’ll hit me sometime next week. ”
One thing’s for sure; the fans are interested. “I stuck my neck out
six years ago and said we could fill this place for gymnastics,” Ballester
said. “We finally did it.”
And April brings the NCAA gymnastics championships to Mac
Court. All of a sudden Friday’s attendance mark looks easy to break.
C : ii)
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1225 Alder
NXANS
Women travel to Corvallis
for gym meet with Beavers
Oregon’s women gymnasts will
be heading into their Wednesday
night meet with Oregon State in
Con/allis with no chance to win.
That's not pessimism, just
realism, according to coach Hen
rietta Heiny.
"We don’t have a chance to win.
The meet here (a four way with
OSU competing a couple weeks
ago) we hit was well as we could,”
said Heiny.
In that meet, the Beavers took
home first prize, outscoring the
second place Ducks by over 10
points.
Oregon State is led by all
arounders Linda Parker, a
20-year-old mother of two and
Donna Southwick. Another good
performer for the Beavers is Ann
Gianotti. However, OSU’s
strength is not necessarily in their
individuals, said Heiny, but in their
team depth.
OSU “is not weak anywhere.
They’ve got lots of people doing
well,” stated Heiny. The coach
pointed out the Beavers beat
Washington, the perennial power
of Northwest women’s gymnas
tics. That, said Heiny, is pretty
tough company to keep.
Oregon will be coming off a poor
Seattle tourney
starts as Yank
loses in opener
SEATTLE (AP) — Brigitte
Cuypers of South Africa defeated
Kathy Harter of Culver City, Calif.,
7-6, 7-6 in the opening match
Monday of a $100,000, week-long
women's professional tennis
tournament at Center Arena.
In another first-round match,
Michele Tyler of England downed
Regina Marsikova of Czecho
slovakia 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Top-seeded
Martina Navratilova, who Sunday
in Chicago won her third straight
tour tournament, is the favorite
here. The 21-year-old native of
Czechoslovakia, who now lives in
Dallas, will meet unseeded Kate
Latham of Palo Alto, Calif., in her
opening match Tuesday night.
Other seeds are No. 2 Evonne
Goolagong, who lost the Chicago
final to Navratilova Sunday, 6-7,
6-2; No. 3 Betty Stove, No. 4
Rosie Casals, No. 5 Wendy Turn
bull, No. 6 Kerry Reid, No. 7 Kathy
May and No. 8 Marise Kruger.
Top prize in the event is
$20,000.
The tournament is sponsored
by Virginia Slims.
though winning performance from
last weekend. The Ducks won a
three-way meet at Pacific Univer
sity in Forest Grove.
“I wasn't pleased with the per
formance.” Heiny said. “I think we
can pick it up. Many things were
against us-we had a bad night. It
was not a good meet in general.”
Though Oregon’s score was
about the same last weekend at
Pacific as earlier against the
Beavers, Heiny said the judges
scored the meet very high, incon
sistent with the performances.
Since the Oregon State quad
rangular meet, the Ducks have
been working very hard in prac
tice.
“From that time on, the kids
have been working on skills. If my
best people can do as well as they
do in practice,” said Heiny, “we
can get some good scores.”
Performing impressively lately
for the Ducks, according to Heiny,
have been Wendy Halberg,
Oregon’s number one all-around
performer and Sue Wilson, a
parallel bars and beam specialist.
Both have sorced well for the
Ducks. “Others have hit well here
and there,” said Heiny.
Though Heiny feels the team
score is pretty much settled, she
feels the Ducks can win one of the
four events.
“We have always been strong
on the bars,” Heiny stated. “If
there is anywhere we can beat
OSU, it’s in the bars. But only if we
are hitting exactly.
“Other than that, we ll have to
be lucky.”