Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, June 6,2002
Oregon Daily Emerald
Best Bet
NHL Finals: Carolina at Detroit
5 p.m., ESPN
Counting
down the
days until
Omaha
Take me out to the ballgame...
Er, wait a minute. I’m in Oregon.
Must’ve forgot.
Guess I’ll have to stick to the televi
sion to catch my daily highlights from
the diamond.
Oops, forgot again. I don’t have cable.
Well, in a few weeks I will, and you
can bet the televi
sion will be stuck
on ESPN and
ESPN2. And no, not
because I’ll be
watching highlights
of the NBA Finals,
golf, or even (gasp!)
the World Cup.
Nope. Instead,
the sound of metal
will fill my apart
ment. Metal from
the great state of Ne
braska.
Behind the Dish Nebraska?
Yeah, Nebraska.
Omaha to be more exact. Omaha on June
14, amid 25,0000 spectators at Rosen
blatt Stadium, while eight of the nation’s
best duke it out in baseball heaven.
It’s college baseball time, baby!
Well-known schools such as Florida
State, Miami, Stanford, and USC all
have good chances of playing for a shot
at an NCAA title. Two of those schools
—Florida State and Miami—I despise,
but who cares?
While the big boys are complaining
about contracts, saying that $5 million a
year isn’t enough, it’s refreshing to see
the future stars of the game all at once.
Roger Clemens once made it to Omaha.
So did Mark McGwire, Lance Berkman
and new phenom Mark Prior.
Take me out to the crowd...
There’s no tobacco, no alcohol, no
steroids. Nothing but baseball in its
purest, most simple form.
Better yet, the baseball groupies are
still in college, and save for a few ex
ceptions, aren’t middle-aged men spit
ting sunflower seeds into cups while
sitting in front of the television watch
ing eight hours of games because they
feel obligated to after shelling out $150
for the season.
Whew!
Buy me some peanuts and cracker
jacks...
The “established” players in the ma
jors are crying about contracts, the own
ers want to lock them out, and the sport
just can’t seem to right itself out.
But the NCAA, for all its shortcom
ings (you all haven’t forgotten the BCS,
have you?), has got something good go
ing with the College World Series.
It seems every season more and more
people show up to baseball heaven,
packing old Rosenblatt to the brim,
and showing the rest of the world that
baseball isn’t dead. These people ap
preciate the simplicity of the game at
the college level.
They know that players like Clem
son’s Khalil Greene (possibly a future
Eugene Emerald) will be leaving the
college ranks soon for the big lights of
Turn to Hager, page 16
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Men hope to restore track dominance
■ A second-place finish at the Pac-10
meet gives the Ducks hope for a
resurgence in the track and field program
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
This Oregon men’s track and field team
was a giant once. That giant went to sleep for
a while.
But the alarm clock is ringing now.
In the past two seasons, the Ducks have
proved their individual talent by placing
ninth at the NCAA Championships in 2001,
then proved their team togetherness by finish
ing second at this season’s Pacific-10 Confer
ence Championships.
Put those two together, head coach Martin
Smith said, and you’ve got a recipe for track
and field dominance.
“I certainly think we have the excitement
about taking another step forward, not only at
the conference level,” Smith said. “With our
performance of two years ago at the nationals,
(we’re excited about) a high competitive level
at the national meet.”
The awakening began at that national meet
in 2001, where the Ducks got national cham
pionships from John Stiegeler in the javelin
and Santiago Lorenzo in the decathlon. Fu
eled by the 20 points from those two athletes,
Oregon shocked the field and finished in the
top 10.
This season, Stiegeler and Lorenzo both
went down with injuries, the former with a
torn anterior cruciate ligament in April and
the latter with a quadricep injury in the win
ter. Forced with the prospect of a postseason
without the team’s key athletes, the rest of the
Ducks banded together with a Pac-10 title as
their rallying cry.
“Basketball has done it, football has done
it,” senior runner Simon Kimata said of a Pac
10 championship back in April. “I’m not talk
ing about individual, I’m talking about the
team. It would make a lot of sense if we got it.”
The words of the athletes resounded
through the year. The athletes talked of build
ing toward Pac-lOs, not NCAAs. They spoke
of stepping up in Pullman, Wash., the site of
the conference meet. They spoke of compet
ing up to and beyond their potential.
Then, in mid-May, they went to Pullman
and did all those things. The Ducks fell 26
points short of the Pac-10 title, but their sec
ond-place finish was progress enough from
their fifth-place finish the season before. At
the meet, the Ducks won five individual Pac
10 titles, and only one came from an athlete
who was ranked first in his event heading in.
“I thought (the Pac-10 meet) was an ex
tremely rewarding and very satisfying per
formance by our young men,” Smith said. “I
was very proud of them and very happy for
them.”
Courtesy Washington State Media Services
Junior-to-be Jason Hartmann (163) is one of the many talented Oregon athletes retuning next season. Hartmann
finished second in the 10,000 at the Pac-10 Championships and fourth at the NCAA Championships.
The NCAAs turned out to be a different
story. Only Jason Hartmann, fourth in the
10,000-meter race, and Micah Harris, seventh
in the 110 hurdles, scored points in Baton
Rouge, La. The Ducks dropped 26 spots from
the previous year to finish 35th overall.
But Smith is hoping that next year will bring
success in the conference and national meets.
“Obviously we’re going to put John (Stiegel
er) back into the equation in the javelin and
Turn to Track, page 14
Women’s tennis coach announces resignation
■ After six years in Oregon, Ducks
head coach Jack Griffin says he wants
to be closer to his family in Seattle
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Despite leading the Oregon women’s ten
nis team to the second round of the NCAA
Tournament last month, Jack Griffin an
nounced his resignation, effective June 30, as
head coach.
A national search has begun for his suc
cessor.
Griffin said he wants to move closer to wife,
Amy Allmann, an assistant soccer coach at
Washington, and son, Nicholas, who will cel
ebrate his first birthday in September.
“This was a really difficult decision for
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I ) \ r
myself and my family,”
Griffin said in a state
ment released Wednes
day. “I was very fortu
nate to work for one of
the best athletic depart
ments in the country. I’ve
also been blessed to work
with some amazing play
ers, assistant coaches
and support staff, which
made my time here very
rewarding.”
In six years at Oregon, Griffin, 36, compiled
a 49-84 record and four NCAA Tournament
appearances. He led the Ducks to a 14-11
record this year, capped off by a second-round
berth in the NCAA Tournament and a season
ending No. 33 ranking. The Ducks upset No.
if' 1 i) * i ! i < i I r ■» t i i 14 i t * 1 i ; <> 1 >
18 UNLV in the first round before falling to
USC in the second round.
“The Oregon women’s tennis program is
now emerging as one of the stronger teams in
the nation,” Griffin said. “I will always take
pride in knowing I’ve played a role in helping
guide the program to this level.”
From 1995-96, Griffin was an ; .istant at
New Mexico, his alma mater. As a player from
1984-87, he became the first and only four
time All-Western Athletic Conference selec
tion. The La Jolla, Calif., native graduated
from New Mexico with a degree in sports ad
ministration.
Griffin was the seventh coach in the pro
gram’s 29 years.
E-mail sports editor Adam Jude at
adamjudeQdailyQmerald.cpnx ,
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