Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
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Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
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Monday, April 8,2002
Oregon Daily Emerald
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“It is going to be an uphill struggle. ...I’m still impressed with the girls’attitude and their desire to compete. ”
— Brent Rincon, Oregon head coach
Oregon softball drops three to Cal, Stanford
■ Despite a strong effort, Duck errors cost the team
three games and dropped its Pac-10 record to 0-6
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon softball team is still in search of its first Pa
cific-10 Conference win after losing three straight games
this weekend.
The Ducks (18-15 overall, 0-6 Pac-10) began the week
end with a 4-3 loss on Friday to No. 3 Stanford (31-5, 2-2),
then lost 3-2 Saturday and 7-0 Sunday to No. 6 California
(37-12,4-2).
Sunday’s game pitted the Oregon of
fense against California’s senior hurler
Jocelyn Forest (17-7), who was a first
team All-Pac-10 and second team All
American last season with an ERA of
0.82. The Bears’ ace blanked Oregon
and allowed only three hits and one
walk while striking out six.
Forest “kept us off-balance all day,”
Oregon head coach Brent Rincon said. “They have great
pitching and play just awesome defense, and you can’t
give teams like that breaks.”
The biggest Oregon threat came halfway through the
first inning when, after shortstop Lynsey Haij reached on a
single up the middle, Andrea Vidlund was hit by a pitch.
Second would be as far as any Duck runner advanced, as
clean-up-hitter Jenn Poore lined out to third baseman Can
dace Harper, and Lakeesha Eversley flied out to Harper for
the third out.
In the circle for Oregon, freshman Lindsay Kontra
pitched six innings, allowing five hits and three runs along
with five walks. California touched up Anissa Meashin
tubby for four more runs in the seventh, one of which was
unearned, until Connie McMurren came for the final two
outs to close the door on the Bear offensive onslaught.
“I’m disappointed today just with how we executed
in all three phases — pitching, defense and offensively,”
Rincon said.
The loss dipped Kontra’s record to 5-7, but Rincon said
Turn to Softball, page 16
SOFTBALL
Adam Amato Emerald
Lynsey Haij (16) pleads her case to the umpire after applying a tag Sunday against Cal. Oregon has not won a Pac-10 game in more than a year.
Javelin champ Stiegeler injured in win Etter leads Oregon
■ I he defending NCAA champion scratched during
Saturday’s events and will have an MRI on his knee today
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
It looked like John Stiegeler’s first-place javelin throw
would be one of the few bright spots for the Oregon men’s
track and field team this weekend.
Instead, Stiegeler, the NCAA champion in the javelin last
season and the current national leader, scratched from the
Texas Relays with a knee injury Saturday. An Oregon athletic
official said Stiegeler will undergo an MRI
today to determine the severity of the injury.
Before scratching on his fourth throw Sat
urday, Stiegeler won the javelin toss at the
Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin,
Texas, with a heave of 242 feet, 11 inches.
The throw beat Scott Russell of Kansas by
almost four feet, but was four feet short of
Stiegeler’s national best of 247 feet.
That 247-foot throw was good enough to land Stiegeler an
automatic berth in the NCAA Championships May 29-June
1. Unless his injury is season-ending, Stiegeler will defend
his NCAA title at the meet in Baton Rouge, La.
Oregon sophomore Adam Jenkins was the only other Duck
to compete in the javelin toss at the Texas Relays, and he fin
ished 12th with a throw of 194-1. That throw fell short of his
season best of 207-3.
In other Oregon action, Jason Boness finished second in the
high jump with a leap of 6-11 3/4. That jump didn't improve
his season-best and Pacific-10 Conference championship
qualifying jump of 7 1/2.
The only Oregon athlete to improve or match his season
best on Saturday was Trevor Woods in the pole vault. Despite
windy, cold conditions, Woods matched his season best and
. Turn taMen’strack, page 1,6V
in impressive outing
■ Mary Etter stars at the Texas Relays for the Oregon
women, who took home five first-place finishes
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
There’s just something about Texas that makes the Oregon
women that much better.
After ending the Clyde Littlefield Texas
Relays on Saturday in Austin, Texas, the
Ducks had accumulated five first-place fin
ishes, with two more athletes taking sec
ond place in their respective events.
Mary Etter even made history.
The junior became the first woman in
the history of the Texas Relays to win both
sections of the same event, monopolizing
the discus throw.
Reigning NCAA champion John Stiegeler won the javelin competition at
the Texas Relays on Saturday with a throw of 247 feet, 11 inches, but he
suffered a knee injury in the process. He will have an MRI today.
uiouuo IX Willi a UilUW Ul 1/0 IfcJtJl O mentis, Gug
ing out Nebraska’s Becky Breisch by less than three centime
ters. She followed that win with another in the “B” section of
the event, this time earning a mark of 172-7, and taking the
event by almost four feet.
It really was a fun day, but it was a long one,” Etter
said. Alter a while I got tired, and that ended up being a
good thing, because it relaxed me somewhat. I was pulling
really well through the discus and had a great sense of bal
ance going. It was one of those days when everything
seemed to click.”
Making her day even better, Etter took second in the shot
put, losing to Louisiana Tech’s Mariela Guante by less than
one inch. Her mark of 49-9 1/4 did not fulfill her goal, but it
. Turn to Woraen-’s track, page 12-.*. - .*