Friday
Best Bet
NBA Eastern Conference Finals:
Philadelphia at Milwaukee
6 p.m., NBC
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
OS
Jon House Emerald
Weber State’s Charles Clinger overcame abnormally warm temperatures to win the high jump.
Jon House Emerald
Stanford’s Sally Glynn prepared for Saturday’s 1,500-meter final by running the fastest preliminary time.
(JO men hold on, other USC women show up
■ The Ducks still top the NCAA
standings as Tennessee and TCU
continue a sprint invasion
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
In a meet expected to go to the team with
the most sprinting prowess, the early
leader has capitalized on points from other
parts of the track — and a little home-field
advantage.
The Oregon men’s track and field team
continued its Cinderella run atop the stand
ings Thursday at the 2001 NCAA Track and
Field Championships at Hayward Field. The
Ducks remained the national leader for the
second day in a row.
Santiago Lorenzo’s unexpected win in the
decathlon in the final
event, coupled with Billy
Pappas’ eighth-place fin
ish and 16 points from
Wednesday, pushed the
Oregon total to 27 points,
11 ahead of its nearest
competitor.
“We’ve had a wonderful
first two days,” Oregon head coach Martin
Smith said. “When you take a step back and
look at it, we have two national champions
Turn to Men, page 8A
MEN'S TRACK
AND Flllfl
■ South Carolina makes a move in
the sprinting preliminaries Thursday,
but UCLA keeps accumulating points
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Most people have been thinking about the
women’s team race at the NCAA Track and
Field Championships as a two-team battle
between UCLA and Southern California.
But it was another USC that made the
biggest impact at Hayward Field Thursday.
The Gamecocks of South Carolina — the
USC of the East Coast — put on a dazzling
sprinting display in preliminary heats for the
400-meter dash and the 400 relay to prove
that they, too, deserve to be mentioned as
contenders for the 2001 women’s team title.
“I’m glad we’re the un
derdogs,” South Carolina
sprinter Miki Barber said.
“You never know what can
happen at these meets.”
“We’re keeping South
Carolina in mind as well as
USC,” UCLA sprinter
Sheena Johnson said.
Barber and her sister, Me’lisa, led the
charge for the Gamecocks, along with Deme
tria Washington. Olympian Miki finished
Turn to Women, page 8A
Another coach leaves the women’s basketball team
Assistant
coach Kirsten
McKnight is
hired by Pac-10
rival California
as the women’s
basketball
coaching
search
continues
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
As Athletic Director Bill Moos
lingers on deciding who will be
the next head coach of the Oregon
women’s basketball team, assis
tant coach Kirsten McKnight an
nounced Thursday that she has
accepted a position at California.
“It’s been a difficult decision to
make because I’ve absolutely
loved my experiences at Oregon,”
said McKnight, who lettered for
fqpr ypprs as a Ducks guard (1994
98). “It won’t be easy to leave this
community, the players and
everybody who makes Oregon
women’s basketball a premier pro
gram on the West Coast.”
After three years as an Oregon as
sistant, the 25-year-old McKnight
will be the top assistant and the
main recruiting coordinator for the
Bears. She will assist second-year
Cal coach Caren Horstmeyer.
"I’m obviously excited about this
opportunity to further my career,”
McKnight said. “It’s a goal of mine
to be a head coach at the Division I
level. To move closer to this goal
early in my career is exciting.”
McKnight’s future at Oregon was
in question after Jody Runge re
signed as head coach on April 30.
Assistants Dan Muscatell and Fred
L.itzenberger have both expressed
interest in remaining at Oregon.
Litzenberger interviewed for
the vacant head coaching posi
tion and Muscatell submitted a
general application for one of the
three openings.
Moos has said that the new
head coach — whom he hopes to
announce sometime in the next
week — will decide who the assis
tants will be.
Of the 38 applications le re
ceived, Moos interviewed five
candidates for the position: former
Oregon standout and Canadian
Olympic coach Bev Smith,
Xavier’s Melanie Balcomb, South
west Missouri State’s Cheryl Bur
nett, Utah’s Elaine Elliott and
Litzenberger.