THURSDAY
Novembers, 1998
Best Bet
College football
Georgia Tech at Clemson
4:30 p.m., ESPN
»
u If guys look at me doing my best then they’re going to try to do the same.
Carlos Navarro
Men’s tennis team captain
Navarro leads, inspires tennis team
The senior has helped make
the Ducks one of the top 100
teams in the nation
By Mirjam Swanson
tor the Emerald
When opposing coaches watch their
players compete against Carlos Navarro,
many of them have the same reaction after
the match.
They stop him. They shake his hand.
And they talk to him.
“He’s a very refreshing person,” Oregon
head tennis coach Chris Russell says.
“You sense immediately how genuine he
TUNIS
is. Not only his team
mates and his own
coaches, but opposing
coaches have always
respected him due to
how fairly he plays.”
Navarro, a senior
from Bolivia, has
played in the second
or third spots in Oregon’s line-up for the
majority of his collegiate career. But it’s
impossible to accurately rate him in those
terms because he’s brought so many other
important, intangible qualities to the team
as the Duck’s second-year captain.
“Carlos has been the soul of our team
and the evolution of this program since
we’ve been here,” says Russell, who ar
rived at Oregon three years ago, the same
time as Navarro. “He may not be the guy
who always won the MVP award, but he’s
definitely the guy who had the strongest
impact on the other guys on the team, on a
day-in and day-out basis."
Navarro, a member of Bolivia's Davis
Cup team for the past four years, first came
to Oregon as a 17-year-old Bolivian na
tional champion. Since his arrival to Eu
gene, the Ducks have taken huge steps to
ward success.
Before his freshman season in 1995,
Oregon was nowhere close to being one of
the top 100-ranked teams in the nation.
After that first year, the Ducks were
among the top 150, and before the end of
his sophomore season, they had cracked
the top 100. Last season the Ducks ended
the year ranked 61st and they reached the
Nick MetHey/Emerald
Senior Carlos Navarro complied a 9-19 record as Oregon's No. 3 singles player lest season.
regionals of the NCAA tournament for the
first time in Oregon history.
This season could be the best yet, be
cause Oregon returns several improved
players, including junior Guillermo
Carter, who will probably occupy Ore
gon’s No. 1 position. The Duclcs have also
strengthened their roster with the addi
tion of two promising freshman from Eu
rope, in Bertrand Devillers and Thomas
Schneiter.
Still, Russell contends that it will be
Navarro who continues to propel Oregon
to greater heights.
“Carlos is the guy who is going to raise
the level of those around him,” Russell
says.
Navarro enjoys having played such an
integral role in the team’s development.
“I like to be a leader,” Navarro says. "I
enjoy being captain. I guess that’s just the
Turn to NAVARRO, Page 12
Crosscountry
aiming fora
national title
Back in high school, I was a sports
writer, too.
It was very frustrating because
none of my school’s teams ever
won. Just once, I would have liked to write
about a team that went all the way.
Now, I may have my chance.
The Oregon men’s cross country team
has had a phenomenal season, and it seems
as if winning the national ti
tle would be the only fitting ——
ending to such a great team. {Itn'ninn
What has made this Upmwn
team s season so great r
According to head coach
Bill Dellinger, 90 percent of
a team’s success in cross
country is a result of prepa
ration. And make no mis
Scott
Pesznecker
take, tnis team goes to great
lengths to prepare itself.
During the season, many
of the first-stringers run ap
proximately 10 miles each
day. The team works out together in a vari
ety of workouts, including timed runs on
Hayward Field and hill practice at the Lau
relwood golf course.
The Ducks know that preparation is not
limited to physical work. Each year before
the start of the season, Dellinger takes his
team up to O’Dell Lake for a weekend of
hard, arduous labor. While the trip has ob
vious physical benefits, the real point of
O’Dell Lake is to bring the team together.
After all of the training and bonding the
Ducks have gone through, it is no wonder
that they were able to come within two
points of beating No. 1 Stanford — now No.
2 after narrowly avoiding defeat — at the
Pacific-10 Conference Championships at
Alton Baker Park two weeks ago.
But don’t forget about the other 10 per
cent, that one other factor that Dellinger
says determines a team's success — luck.
Dellinger said luck was important be
cause it could help out in a close race. For
example, if the other team’s runner was in
the lead but then fell and broke his ankle,
then the Ducks would finish better.
However, to limit the fortune of the
Ducks to an instance such as that would be
Turn to PEZNECKER, Page 12
Exhibition wiJI display men’s talent
Oregon matches up
against the Australian
team the Frankston Blues
tonight at Mac Court
By Rob Moseley
Oregon Daily Emerald
They’ve been playing in earnest
for three weeks, shooting over their
teammates, posting up on their
roommates and out-rebounding
their compatriots.
Now it’s time to get it on for real.
The Oregon men’s basketball team
plays the first of its two scheduled
exhibition games tonight at
McArthur Court at 7:05 p.m. The
Ducks will take on the Frankston
Blues, an Australian touring club
that may not meet the standards of
Pacific-10 Conference opponents but
will be a welcome sight for Oregon.
“We’re so used to beating each oth
er up in practice,” senior guard Terik
Brown said. “It’s going to be good for
us to beat up on someone else. ”
Brown is one of two members,
along with center Mike Carson, of
Oregon’s senior class and was the
Ducks’ leading scorer last season
with 12.8 points per game.
Joining the two
seniors in the
Ducks’ projected
starting lineup for
tonight’s game are
junior lorwaras
A.D. Smith and
Alex Scales and ju
nior point guard Darius Wright.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent
said Tuesday that the lineup may
change before tonight’s tipoff.
“I really don’t have a clear set of
starters,” said Kent, who led the
Ducks to a 13-14 record last season,
his first in Eugene. “I’m more or less
RBI’S
BMKEIMU
going to put some guys together, put
them on the floor and see how they
play and look in different lineups
and maybe come back with a differ
ent starting lineup after that for Cop
pin State.”
The Ducks’ regular season sched
ule begins Sunday at McArthur
Court at 3:05 p.m. against the Eagles.
Wright and Scales are two of Ore
gon’s six new faces, along with fel
low transfers Skouson Harker and
David Jackson and freshmen Fred
erick Jones and Chris Christoffersen.
Wright will compete for minutes
at point guard with returnees Mike
McShane and Yasir Rosemond,
who may also play shooting guard,
Kent said.
“Mike and Yasir have been in our
program for a year and understand
the system better, and Darius is such
a poised and polished true point
i
Turn to BASKETBALL, Page 12
Nick Mediey/HmeruU
Guard Yasir Rosamond charges past a Husky defender in Oregon's 81-71 loss to
Washington last season.