Golfers struggle on day one ■A rough 11th hole costs the Ducks strokes and leaves them with plenty of work to do in the final two rounds By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald The good news? Well, let’s start with the bad news first. The Oregon men’s golf team stubbed its toe on the first day of the NCAA West Regional Thursday, shooting a 14-over-par 302 to finish tied for 21st. Remember, of the 27 teams com peting on the Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis this week, only those that finish in the top 10 get to advance to the coveted NCAA Championships. The Ducks’ top finishers were sophomore John Ellis and junior Brandon Hamden, although their identical 3-over 75s have them tied for 74th overall among individuals. So, once again, the good news? That would be that while most Ore gon students were probably still sleeping this morning, the Ducks were teeing off at 8:15 a.m. and hav ing the opportunity to put Thursday’s subpar round behind them. The other good news for Oregon is that one round does not make a tournament, although Oregon head coach Steve Nosier knows that his team has some serious ground to make up today and Saturday. “We’ve cer tainly got our work cut out for us,” Nosier said. “We’ve got to get after it tomorrow. We need to step up, play like we’re capable of and shoot a good score.” There was no doubt amongst the team members what part of Thurs day’s round affected them the most: the 11th hole. All five Ducks shot a combined 6 over par on that one hole with the wind accounting for most of the problems. “We’re not going to play 11 that poorly again, so we’ve got to remem ber that we’re still in this thing,” Harnden said. “We need to put two good rounds together and that’s what you need to get to nationals.” While the Ducks are 11 places out of the qualifying 10th place, they have reason to believe they can come back, since they are only nine strokes behind lOth-place Pepperdine. Arizona State (283) holds an ear ly one-stroke lead over Stanford, with Wake Forest, Arizona, UCLA and San Diego State all within striking distance. Host Oregon State also shot a solid round of golf and sits in a tie for seventh place with Washington at 290. Other Duck finishers included Al bany natives Aaron Byers and Chris Carnahan, who both are tied for 92nd after shooting 76, as well as senior Matt Genovese (tied for 106th, 77). Harnden provided the spark for the Ducks with his back-to-back birdies on holes 13 and 14, and he ex pects his team to show much im provement today. “I made a lot of putts today, and I’m pretty happy with that,” Harnden said. “But that’s about all I had going today. I know every one of us can eas ily drop a few strokes tomorrow.” Duck soccer scores three more ■The Ducks continue to bolster their team with three more top high school recruits By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald College coaches are always looking to entice top high school talent from out of state to come join their programs. Oregon soccer head coach Bill Steffen continued that trend Thursday by announcing the signing of two new recruits from California and one from Hawaii. Defender Kristen Kanopka and goalkeeper Domenique Lainez are the Californians, while forward Nicole Garbin will be making the trip to Eugene all the way from Maui. The three new additions join the five already signed this off-season to form a solid 2001 recruiting class for the Ducks, who went 4-15-1 last sea son and just 1-7-1 in the Pacific-10 Conference. Garbin appears to be quite a catch for Oregon. She was twice selected as the Player of the Year in Hawaii, and she was awarded that same honor in the Maui League for four years. “We’re tremendously excited about her potential,” Steffen said. “We lose some players from the central midfield position, and Nicole is an extremely capable player in that role. The timing is great for her to step in. She can really help us in a lot of areas. “She’s very competitive, and she likes to win.” Kanopka could also have the chance to have an im mediate impact on the Ducks after participating for Fram, a premier soccer club in Northern California. The Redondo Beach, Calif., native seems to fit one of the in gredients that Steffen was searching for. “She’s an exciting defender with good athleticism,” Steffen said. “Kristen has a good defending mentality. She has experience at competing at the highest levels of soccer.” The Ducks’ final recruit, Lainez, will add depth to Oregon’s traditionally strong goalkeeping corps. The San Bruno, Calif., native also has experience at a high level as she was a member of the Cal North Olympic Development Program. The only question mark about Lainez is whether she can fully bounce back from a broken foot and a torn an terior cruciate ligament she suffered last year, but Stef fen doesn’t believe that’ll be a problem. “Domenique has a tremendous athletic build and im pressive quickness,” Steffen said. “She may be a player that slipped through the cracks, since she’s been injured this past year. She’s capable of playing at extremely high levels.” Oregon opens its 2001 season at home Aug. 31 against Gonzaga. Women continued from page 7 A straight last-place performance at this weekend’s Pac-10 meet in Berkeley, Calif. If the meet were scored right now, based solely on season bests, the Ducks would score 42 points overall, five more than last season’s 37-point per formance. “The points are hard to come by in this conference,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said. “There are some events where the depth is just astonishing.” The teams score 10 points for a first place, eight for a second-place finish, six for a third and the scor ing goes down in one point incre ments to eighth place. The Ducks have only one athlete who would win her event based on season records. But for Oregon, there’s light at the end of the Bay Bridge Tunnel. The Ducks are strong in several field events, and if athletes in those events can improve this weekend, Oregon could finish seventh or even sixth. The deepest units — and for the Ducks, the ones most likely to score multiple points — are the pole vaulters, javelin throwers, hammer throwers and discus throwers. Oregon junior Niki Reed leads the vaulters and will face stiff com petition in the event. “The Pac-10 has one of the tough est vaulting fields I’ll see all season,” Reed said. “But I like a challenge. If I just had to jump my opening height to win, it wouldn’t be tun. ” Reed, ranked fourth in the confer ence, leads a group of five vaulters into the competition. “The pole vault’s been a really good event for us this year,” Heinonen said. Another strong crew for Oregon is the javelin throwers. Led by fresh man standout Sarah Malone, the { l The pole vault's been a really good event for us this year. Tom Heinonen Oregon head coach ^ ^ unit includes sophomore Charyl Weingarten, senior Sara Dinsmore, senior Karis Howell and sophomore Jordan McDaniels. Malone is first in the conference and second in the nation, while Weingarten is fifth in the conference. Despite going head-to-head with some of the nation’s top javelin ath letes, Malone said she isn’t feeling the pressure. “I feel some pressure, but not too much,” Malone said. “I’ll see the sam§ sort of competition at the Pac 1 Os as the NCAAs.” Mary Etter, Oregon’s top discus thrower, is also looking to score big at the Pac-lOs. Etter is currently ranked second in the Pac-10 and seventh in the nation. If she can surpass UCLA’s Chaniqua Ross, she will gain an ex tra two points for the Ducks. Joining Etter in the discus are sen ior Maureen Morrison, ranked eighth in the conference, freshman Jamie Burk and McDaniels. Morri son could also compete in the ham mer throw, while McDaniels will pull triple duty in the hammer, dis cus and javelin. On the track, the Ducks are led by senior distance runner Hanna Smed stad and sophomore Eri McDonald. Smedstad, a transfer from Okla homa State who joined the Ducks this season, ranks fourth in the Pac 10 in the 10,000-meter race. Smed stad is also among the conference leaders in the 1,500. McDonald qualified for the 800, in which she ranks eighth, and also qualified for the 1,500 with Smedstad. All told, Heinonen hopes this year’s team can avoid repeating history. “We’re a young team,” Heinonen said. “But I think we can do better this year.” With a little improvement, a little luck and a lot of skill in the right places, the Ducks might be able to do just that. KATEE— GOLF CLUB at £t& 'pixtAt College Students -*20.00 822-3220 Hot off the Press and into your hands Oregon Daily Emerald Circulating 10,000 papers daily All Ways Travel • Great Service & Prices • Baltimore - S198.00* ' Orlando - SI98.00"' , San Jose, CR - $490.00* Tokyo - $599.00* 1 ':a\ riot included'. Yestrictu>n> ma\ a-pph. . 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