FRIDAY
November 20,1998
TRIVIA QUESTION
How many NCAA appearances has the
Oregon men’s cross country team made
under coach Bill Dellinger?
m
NFL Week 12
Green Bay vs.
Minnesota
Detroit vs.
Tampa Bay
Philadelphia vs.
N.Y. Giants
Jacksonville vs.
Pittsburgh
Seattle vs.
Dallas
Indianapolis vs.
Buffalo
Chicago vs.
Atlanta
Arizona vs.
Washington
Carolina vs.
St. Louis
Oakland vs.
Denver
Kansas City vs.
San Diego
N. Y. Jets vs.
Tennessee
Baltimore vs.
Cincinnati
New Orleans vs.
San Francisco
Sagarin
Rankings
1. KansasSt 10-0
2. UCLA 9-0
3. Tennessee 9-0
4. Florida 9-1
5. Florida St 10-1
6. Arizona 10-1
7. Nebraska 8-3
8. Oregon 8-2
9. Texas A&M 10-1
10. Ohio SL 9-1
11. Arkansas 8-1
12. Wisconsin 9-1
13. USC 7-3
14. Texas 7-3
15. Missouri 7-3
16. Georgia 7-2
17. Penn St. 7-2
18. Air Force 9-1
19. N. Dame 8-1
20. Kentucky 7-3
21. Tulane 9-0
22. Michigan 8-2
23. Purdue 7-4
24. Syracuse 6-3
25. Tex. Tech. 7-3
Trivia answer
it has made 25
appearances.
* /
Best Bet
College Basketball
Michigan State
at Temple
4:30 p.m., ESPN
U He is an example of the type of guy I like to work with, and it has not been an
easy road for Matthew.
Bill Dellinger
Oregon head coach
Davis key ingredient for Ducks
Ajter li) surgeries to repair
an injured ankle, Davis has
returned this season to lead
the Ducks to the NCAAs
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
When Matthew Davis became a fresh
man at Mead High School in Spokane,
Wash., he was not the running type.
Rather than using his legs, Davis could
be found cruising around his high
school campus on a skateboard.
That soon changed.
Although he didn t
know it, Davis was
being watched by Pat
Tyson, Mead High
School's track and
cross-country coach,
who remembered
how successful
lvidiuiew s uruuier, iNduian, naa ueen at
the same school. Tyson recalled
Matthew’s early days, describing him as
“a crazy kid.”
Eventually, Tyson invited Davis to at
tend some running workouts. He was
very impressed by the freshman’s 4
minute, 50 second mile.
“He had an excitement about run
ning,” Tyson says. “During his sopho
more year, he started doing running
workouts, and he impressed the seniors
because he was able to keep up with
them.”
Davis only got better.
By the time he graduated from Mead,
Davis had led the track program to three
consecutive state championships.
Despite his success in high school,
Tyson says Davis did not have serious
plans to run in college. That was before
Davis attended the Oregon Track Camp,
where he met Oregon coach Bill
Dellinger for the first time.
From that moment, Davis made up
his mind to run for the Ducks.
“I knew him and the team before
hand, and that is why I wanted to come
down here,” Davis says. “I came to run
Turn to DAVIS, Page 10A
Senior Matthew Davis, Oregon's top finisher at the Pac-10 Championships,
leads the Ducks into the NCAA Championships in Lawrence, Kan., Monday.
Oregon ready
to attack
Oregon State
The Ducks are looking for
their fourth Pac-10 win
against the Beavers tonight
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
It would be the perfect end to a not-so-per
fect season. It would bring things full circle.
The Oregon volleyball team swept rival
Oregon State in its first Pacific-10 Confer
ence match of the season Sept. 18. The
Ducks travel to Corvallis tonight for their fi
nal conference match and are hoping to end
the same way they began — with a victory.
If Oregon (8-20 overall. 3-14 Pac-10) can
rind a way to win, it will
be its fourth Pac-10 win
of the season, something
the Ducks have not done
since Cathy Nelson be
came head coach.
“I would like to think
that serves as motiva
tion," Nelson said. “This
VILLEYBM
maicn is important, and it will generate mo
mentum going into next year. ”
For Oregon seniors like Alii White and
Madeline Ernst, who face their rivals for the
last time tonight, a four-win season would be
a sweet ending to three bittersweet seasons.
“The team gets so pumped up for Oregon
State,” White said. “It’s fun to end with your
rival, and to get that fourth win is something
everyone wants. It really serves as motiva
tion for us.”
White, who suffered a concussion last
week against California, has been practicing
this week and will be ready to play tonight.
Oregon State is in the midst of a three
game losing streak after falling to California
and No. 4 Stanford last week. With those
losses, the Beavers dropped to last place in
the Pac-10. But a victory against the Ducks
would even the two schools' records and
create a tie for ninth place, which, according
to Oregon State head coach Jeff Mozzochi, is
better than last place.
The Beavers are composed of five fresh
men, five sophomores and three juniors,
which has had an impact on the team’s suc
cess. After a season of struggle, however,
Mozzochi said that they have been able to
gain experience and that they have a shot at
defeating Oregon.
“We’ve matured since we last played Ore
gon,” Mozzochi said. “Inexperience was a big
Turn to DUCKS, Page 12A
Ducks set to hit the mats as wrestling season begins
Oregon hopes to improve
over last year as it readies for
the Southern Oregon Open
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Last season, the Oregon wrestling
team sent six wrestlers to the NCAA
Championships.
The bad news, if you can call it that,
was that only two returned with All
American honors.
The good news is that one of those
All-Americans returns this season,
along with a few other key characters
from last year’s team.
Chael Sonnen finished eighth at the
NCAA finals last season while posting
a 23-second pin in his first match of the
tournament. He said the Ducks have
the potential to go further this season.
Whether they can will be gauged
Saturday, when the Ducks travel to
Ashland to compete at the Southern
Oregon Open. The tournament will
not score teams on overall perfor
mance but will focus on the individ
WRESTLING
ual wrestlers.
“It is the first
main tournament of
the year, and there
are a lot of Pacific
10 Conference
schools that go,”
Sonnen said. “We
would like to go and do well anytime
we compete, obviously. At the same
time, this will let us know where we
are and where they are. ”
The Ducks would like to redeem
themselves for last season’s disap
pointing post-season. Heavyweight
Kevin Keeney said the team has the
potential to be a force at the Pac-10
Championships and post a top-10
NCAA finish.
“I think we can do that; we have a lot
of good wrestlers and great practices,
and we seem to be getting better every
day,” Keeney said. “It’s good that we’re
going into the competition part of the
season so we can measure ourselves
and see how good we really are. ”
First-year head coach Chuck Kear
ney said Sonnen, who ranks fourth in
the nation at 190 pounds, is one of four
core wrestlers from last season. The
other three wrestlers are 157-pound
Daryl Christian, 165-pound Sean Mor
gan and 184-pound Doug Lee.
“We’ve got four guys who are kind
of the core group, and obviously we
want to turn that number into a seven
or eight number,” Kearney said.
“We’ve got three freshmen starting for
us at 125,133 and 141 pounds. We’re
hoping that, as those guys progress,
they will step into the core group. ”
This is the first season with the
NCAA’s rule that wrestlers must weigh
into their weight class an hour before
the match. Under the old rule, a
wrestler could weigh in as much as a
week prior to his match and then spend
the rest of the week adding weight.
Because there is little or no recovery
time in an hour, many wrestlers have
been forced to change the way they
keep their weight off.
“We need to be able to keep our
weight down for weigh-ins and stay
healthy,” Keeney said. "An hour is not
enough time to recover. You need to
have your body down at your weight
class all year round. If you cut a lot of
weight, you're not going to be able to
compete as best as you can.”