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Sports Editor: Adam Jude adamjude@dailyemerald.com Wednesday, May 29,2002 Plot O IS wl Owl NBA playoffs: Boston at New Jersey 6p.m., NBC Oregon track teams begin quest for NCAA title WOMEN: Pole vaulter Becky Holliday leads a contingent of Ducks to the NCAA Championships in Louisiana By Hank Hager Oregon Daily Emerald Track and field is an enigma in the col legiate sporting world. For one, there are no major polls that help determine where schools will com pete. Oregon isn’t No. 1, nor is it No. 25. Then you have the 500 or so athletes who will converge on Baton Rouge, La., beginning today. They won’t be caught up in what the computers say. Instead, they will let their actions speak for themselves. The Oregon women, sending five ath letes to the Bayou, are in prime position to finish in the top 20 at the meet. “I’m really happy with the five athletes we’re bringing to nationals, and they’re all capable of doing well and scoring,” head coach Tom Heinonen said. “We have the chance for a great meet, but it’s going to take three, four or five of them to put serious points on the board. It’ll be our best chance in years to finish better than in the 50s or 60s.” Becky Holliday will lead off Oregon’s attempt to finish better than 60th, the spot the team placed in 2001. The first year Duck, ranked third in the nation in the pole vault, will begin her quest for an NCAA Championship at 4:20 p.m. PST today. Javelin throwers Sarah Malone, Elisa Crumley, and Roslyn Lundeen will further Turn to Women, page 12 MEN: Seven Oregon athletes will head to Baton Rouge to try to preserve the Ducks’ trend of defying the odds By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Predictability is fickle in men’s track and field. The Oregon men should have finished deep in the middle of the Pacific-10 Con ference pack at the conference champi onships two weeks ago. The Ducks should have finished well below ninth at last year’s NCAA Championships. But instead, Oregon took second at the Pac-lOs and broke the top 10 at the national meet in 2001. So this year, the Ducks are hoping to defy predictability once more at the 2002 ver sion of the NCAA Championships, starting today in Baton Rouge, La. “It doesn’t take a lot of points,” Oregon hurdler Micah Harris said. “Last year we were ranked ninth in the country? We could definitely be top five. The opportuni ty is there. We just need to capitalize.” Harris is one of seven Ducks who will com pete in this year’s national meet. He is joined by runners Simon Kimata and Jason Hart mann, vaulter Trevor Woods, hammer throw er Adam Kriz, decathlete Billy Pappas and javelin thrower Nick Bakke. Of the group, only Kriz and Kimata are in action today. Harris’ words about points ring true. The top eight positions in each event score points toward the team score, in descending order. If three or four of the seven Oregon athletes Turn to Men, page 12 Family Matters ■Oregon athletes Adam and Rachael Kriz share their sibling bond on and off the track By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald At the Pacific-10 Conference Championships two weeks ago, the high jumper and the hammer thrower exchanged loud cries across the mostly silent infield of the Mooberry Track in Pullman, Wash. “People were like, ‘What are you yelling at?’” the hammer thrower said. Then the hammer thrower finished the pesky business of winning his event and went over to the high jump bar, where he watched his sister notch a personal best in her own specialty. “Then I go over to cheer for her, and they’re like, ‘Oh, they’re family.’” Family. Adam and Rachael Kriz, the Oregon junior hammer thrower and the Oregon sophomore high jumper, respec tively, though those definitions hardly begin to label them. Adam throws discus and shot put, Rachael dabbles in javelin. Growing up in Toledo, Ore., both were multi-sport athletes with a multitude of hopes for college and beyond. But Adam is a hammer specialist, and today he will throw at the NCAA Cham pionships in Baton Rouge, La. The event caps a remarkable 2002 campaign for both Adam and Rachael, the first family —numbers-wise—of Oregon track. * ★ ★ Adam and Rachael arrived at Oregon in entirely different ways. Rachael, ad dicted to track since the seventh grade, knew early that she was Eugene-bound. “My coach was always saying, ‘Well, the Ducks are known for track,’” Rachael said. “From then on I kind of kept my eye on U of O. Then when I hit high school I was like, ‘I need to go to U of O. ’” Rachael attended Oregon’s track camp after the first three years of high school, sessions that only heightened her love for Hayward Field. When the recruiting letter finally came, Rachael didn’t think, she just signed on with head coach Tom Heinonen. But Adam’s trip to Hayward was much rockier than his sister’s. He was presented with a choice: face possible rejection as a walk-on at Oregon, or take a near-sure scholarship at Southern Oregon. Turn to Kriz, page 12 Courtesy Washington State Media Services After winning the Pac-10 hammer throw, Adam Kriz will compete today in the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La. His sister, Rachael, a high jumper for the Ducks, will be rooting for him from home. OUS audit shows minor problem with Oregon athletic budget ■Coaching staff for Duck wrestling have volunteered to pay back $732 in missing travel funds By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon wrestling coach Chuck Kear ney and two of his assistants will reim burse $732 to the Athletic Department after an Oregon University System au dit revealed discrepancies in the team’s 2000-01 travel budget. Overall, however, University offi cials said they are pleased with the findings of the report issued by the OUS Internal Audit Division, which investigated the travel budgets of Ore gon’s 17 athletic programs. ' T‘We were delighted to learn there were no major difficulties,” University Vice President Dan Williams said. Oregon Athletic Director Bill Moos requested the audit on Oct. 10 after dis covering that former softball coach Rick Gamez had misused more than $5,700 of the team’s 1999-2000 travel budget. Gamez resigned Oct. 1. No discrepancies have been reported regarding the 2001-02 Athletic Depart ment travel expenses. As part of the audit, OUS officials in terviewed coaches as well as current and former student athletes. The review also included teams’ travel vouchers and expense reimbursements on per diem meals. “I am gratified by the results of the re view because it shows we have been do ing a really good job of tracking expens es,” Moos said in a released statement. “In a very detailed review of thousands of expense reports for 17 different ath letic programs, the reviewers found only minor discrepancies in one pro gram. ... The coaches stepped forward and voluntarily paid $732 to balance the books.” The audit revealed inaccurate docu mentation of daily meal money by the wrestling coaches. Several wrestlers told auditors that the coaches had asked them to sign blank per diem sheets, the same problem found with the softball program’s travel proce dures in an audit last year. The wrestling coaches, including assistants Richard Stewart and Jeremy Ensrud, denied they asked the student-athletes to sign blank per diem sheets.. Even so, the coaches will balance the budget. “Our reimbursement is meant to be taken as a sign of good faith by all members of our coaching staff,” Kear ney said in a statement. “We have and will continue to work on ways that we can improve and streamline our proce dures, not only in travel but in all areas of our program.” Williams said miscommunication between the wrestling coaches and players may have led to the disputed budget. “Even with the best of intentions, there is room for mistakes,” Williams said. “That’s not saying it’s OK, but it’s understandable. ” The OUS report recommended that the Athletic Department improve docu mentation of travel expenses. E-mail sports editor Adam Jude at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
