Oregon daily emerald., April 13, 2001, Image 7

Friday
Best Bet
MLB: Philadelphia at Atlanta
4:30 p.m., TBS
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Ducks get bigger
with spring class
■ The Ducks sign three big men to help plug the
holes of those that have left
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ernie Kent announced his spring signees Thursday,
and it was as if he went through the drive-thru of a fast
food joint, ordered just what he wanted and made sure to
Super-Size his meal.
Because the obvious theme for the 2001 recruiting
class is height, and lots of it.
The Oregon men’s basketball team
added three big bodies to its family in
6-foot-ll Ian Crosswhite, 6-10 Brian
Helquist and 6-8 Robert Johnson. Those
three join 6-11 Matt Short, who signed
his letter of intent with the Ducks last
fall.
“Our concerns were losing three big
men in Julius Hicks, Bryan Bracey and Flo Hartenstein,”
coach Kent said as he spoke to a group of reporters at the
Casanova Center. “We knew we were going to have to re
plenish those positions with some size.”
Crosswhite is a 225-pound forward from Killarney
Heights High in Castlecrag, Australia, who joins Short as
the two incoming freshmen. Helquist and Johnson, how
ever, are entering the Oregon program after two years in
junior college ball and will be ex
pected to make an immediate impact.
“The two young high school guys
will have the opportunity to grow,
and if they come quicker, that’d be
great,” Kent said. “If they don’t, that
would be OK also, because we feel
like we have enough in the two JC
players along with what’s coming
back in our program next year.”
Kent was eager to talk about the re
cruit he traveled Down Under for.
The Australian Crosswhite is currently a member of his
country’s Junior National Team and was a part of the
Western Australian U-20 team that competed in the na
tional championship in February.
KENT
“He is one of the top 5 big man prospects in all of Aus
tralia,” said Kent, who actually played against Cross
white’s father, Perry, at McArthur Court in a foreign ex
hibition game in 1975. “He is a skilled big man, skilled
enough to play on the perimeter offensively.”
Helquist is coming into Eugene from Florida Commu
nity College-Jacksonville, where he averaged 14.7 points
and 8.8 rebounds per game. The 6-10, 260-pound center,
who will be a junior, began his career at Louisiana State
before transferring to FCC-J.
“He has a great mentality for the game,” Kent said. “A
big, wide body. He is a low post, back-to-the-basket scor
er that loves to bang and plays physical.”
While Helquist will help man the low post, Johnson
will provide some of the versatility that the Ducks lost
with Bracey’s graduation. In fact, Kent describes Johnson
as a mix between Bracey and former Duck A.D. Smith,
who graduated following the 1999-2000 season.
“He has the ability to pass it and is a ferocious re
bounder, loves to go get the basketball,” Kent said. “He
has that Dennis Rodman mentality.”
Johnson, a 220-pound forward from Sebastopal, Calif.,
was named to the all-state and all-Bay Valley Conference
first teams last season after leading Santa Rosa Junior
College to a school-record 29 wins thanks to his 12 points
and 14 rebounds per game.
Now, with these additions, Oregon will have seven big
men, including 7-2 soon-to-be senior Chris Christof
fersen, who will be attending Pete Newell’s renowned big
man camp this summer.
“Time will tell how successful this recruiting class is,”
Kent said. “They’ll fit in really well in terms of the
growth and development of getting us to where we need
to be.”
Home run
m
Senior Triawn Custer is putting up some
impressive offensive
numbers—just ask the record keepers
Emerald
Slugger Triawn Custer broke Oregon’s career home runs record last weekend.
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Imagine if Mark
McGwire never
played Major
League Baseball.
The world would
be void of a spectac
ular 70-home-run
season in 1998.
Now imagine if
Triawn Custer had
never set foot onto
Howe Field, the
home of the Oregon softball team, for her
first collegiate game in that same year.
The Eugene community would be void
of an amazing four-year career that has
produced a school-record 34 homers ...
and counting.
Custer, who pronounces her first name
TREE-awn, never expected to play Divi
sion-! softball.
Fate, however, had different plans.
“I hadn’t realized [my potential],”
Custer said. “No one ever talked to me
about playing in college. We hadn’t ex
plored that option in high school.
“I was playing fall ball when [Oregon
head coach Rick Gamez] approached me.
I hadn’t talked to anyone else or sent out
any letters or anything. I just happened to
be at the right place at the right time.”
That fall day during Custer’s junior year
of high school kept two of the biggest parts
of her life together: softball and family.
Living just 60 miles north of Eugene,
Custer’s parents in Salem are able to catch
the Ducks’ home games and cheer on their
favorite player.
“I knew I couldn’t go out of state because
my family is too important,” Custer said.
“My parents enjoy watching me play, and
that keeps me motivated. ”
At age eight, after two years of T-ball,
Custer began her softball career. Fourteen
years later, she’s in the record books as
ON TAP
Who: Oregon
vs. San Jose State &
Oregon State
When:2&4 p.m.
Friday (SJS), 12
&2p.m. Satur
day (OSU)
Where: Howe Field
Turn to Custer, page 8
Track teams to duel with Huskies
■The Ducks are excited to face off with their
oldest rival on their home turf
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon women’s track rivalry with Washington,
which will continue Saturday on Hayward Field at the
Washington Dual Meet, is more than just a Northwest
scrimmage. Even the word “rivalry” doesn’t do it justice.
It’s history.
Every year since 1977, the Ducks and Huskies have faced
off in a bitter, and often very close, dual meet. For many of
the athletes involved, the meet marks the only time they
will compete directly against another team all year.
“It’s our oldest rivalry,” Oregon
head coach Tom Heinonen said.
Literally. That Oregon-Washington
dual meet in 1977 was the first in Ore
gon women’s track history, and it also
marked the first co-ed meet.
The Ducks on this year’s track team
may remember only the recent history
of the meet, which has been good and bad. Last year, Ore
gon edged Washington 80-74 at Hayward Field. In 1999,
the Ducks took on both the Huskies and the Cornhuskers of
Nebraska and finished third. In 1998, Washington crushed
Oregon in Seattle, 85.5-68.5.
If this year’s meet were scored purely on best times from
this season, the Ducks would win by four points. But of
course the meet isn’t about season records before Saturday.
It’s about scoring personal records on Saturday.
“What we need to understand is that everybody has to
Turn to Women's, page 9 .
■ Expect a tight race between Oregon and
Washington in the 117th annual dual meet Saturday
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
The last vestige of the olden days of Oregon track and field is
upon us.
It’s the lone hold-over from the time when Hayward Field
was yellow, college football was played in the middle of the
oval and all the meets were against one team.
This Saturday, the Ducks host the 117th installment of the
annual Oregon-Washington Dual Meet.
“This is an excellent opportunity to get to the basic level of
competition: being a racer and competitor,” Oregon head
coach Martin Smith said. “It’s a one-on-one,
team-oriented competition, very different
from the larger meets and invitationals.”
Oregon leads the overall series 85-32, but
the Huskies have won the past three meets,
including a close 85-78 win last season at
Hayward Field.
“We don’t just want to get the win, we
want to crush them,” said junior Ross Krempley, who won a
photo-finish 800-meter run at last year’s dual. “They beat us
last year, but we’re fired up this year. I like these dual meets,
especially at home. The crowd gets excited. Everyone on the
team gets involved. They’re great.”
Hayward Field fans should expect an exciting meet in every
event. In a prospective dual meet taking the top times from
each team in each event, Washington narrowly wins 82-81,
propelled by the top time in the 4x400-meter relay.
“We’ve placed people to maximize point output,” Smith
.Turn to Men’s, page 9