Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Fridayjune 7,2002
Oregon Daily Emerald
Best Bet
NBA Finals: New Jersey
at Los Angeles
6:00 p.m., NBC
Youngsters
beginning
pro careers
too early
I can’t believe kids these days.
A recent Sports Illustrated arti
cle featured 18-year-old Brandon
Hancock, who finished high school in
December to enroll early at USC. Han
cock weighs 242 pounds, has a body
fat percentage of about 5, and runs the
40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds. His
bench press is the fourth best on the
USC football team and he is treated
like a deity around his alma mater,
Clovis West High.
He is a football machine when most
high school seniors think only about
the next movie to watch and when
they have to go
* work at thp lnral
burger joint.
As a 22-year-old
student, one of the
many to live their
sporting dreams
vicariously
through others, I
am stunned by the
number of Drofes
sional athletes
younger than I am.
Eighteen-year
old Ty Tryon, and
Kobe Bryant and
Rafael Furcal —
who are both 22
Cabot
Around the
Dasher
(although there has been controversy
surrounding Furcal’s actual age) —
make the average college student look
like a failure.
Whatever happened to being well
rounded?
When I was growing up alongside
thousands of other New England-area
children, we all played baseball, foot
ball, hockey, basketball and soccer —
making sure to play whiffleball, skip
rocks and climb trees. How many
trees has Bryant climbed in his life?
We threw snowballs. We jumped off
cliffs. We got dirty. I would be
shocked to hear that Tryon, an Orlan
do native who became a pro golfer at
17, has ever really gotten dirty.
Tryon, who was bom June 2,1984,
has yet to miss a cut on the PGA Tour,
has acted in commercials with golf
legend Arnold Palmer, received con
gratulatory messages from President
Bush and has his own official Web
site at www.tytryon.com.
What did you do by the time you
were 18? (That question is posed to
everyone except the one 18-year-old
student who will graduate from the
University next week).
Kids are too specialized. Tryon’s fa
ther had his son swinging a club when
he was six months old. Hancock’s
teammates at USC have dubbed him
“Super Swole,” because his overly in
flated arms and the hours spent in the
gym can’t allow him much time for
other pursuits.
As much as I like to see new talent
come into professional leagues, my
heart will always lie with the old vet
erans. I’ll listen to and appreciate sto
ries about Tryon, Furcal, Bryant, Tiger
Woods, Darius Miles and now Han
cock. But my favorites are guys like
Carlos Baerga, who has been in pro
Turn to Cabot, page12A
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Jonathan House Emerald
Junior Carrie Zografos (35) set the school record in the steeplechase this year. The Portland native failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships—as did every Oregon runner
— but the season was still considered a success by Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen.
Ducks ‘confident’ for next season
■The Oregon women’s track
team improved in 2002, but look
to next season as a breakout year
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
After an eighth-place finish in the 2001 Pa
cific-10 Conference Championships, and 60th
at the NCAA Championships, the Oregon
women’s track and field team entered the
2002 season with a sense of anticipation.
After all, the Ducks couldn’t finish much
worse than No. 60 in the NCAAs, their worst
showing since the competition began in
1982. And yeah, entering 2002, they had two
low showings at the Pac-10 Championship,
finishing eighth in 2001 and ninth a year be
fore that.
Not to mention, Oregon would be receiv
ing a group of highly talented athletes,
the likes which included transfers Becky
Holliday and Mary Murphy, as well as
freshmen Katie McKeever, Roslyn Lundeen
and Elisa Crumley.
In its 2002 showing, Oregon finished sixth
at Pac-lOs and 27th at the NCAA version.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“We got 62 of 67 points by underclassmen
in the Pac-10 meet,” head coach Tom
Heinonen said, alluding to the team’s bright
future. “By any measurement, we’re better
than we’ve been.”
It was a season of newcomers for the Ducks.
Of the nine points scored by the team at the
NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La.,
eight came from Holliday and Lundeen. In
cumbent star Mary Etter topped off the team’s
week in the Bayou with a single point in the
discus throw.
Holliday, a transfer from Clackamas Com
munity College, came in and immediately
made her presence known in the pole vault.
She is now the school’s record holder at a
height of 14 feet, 11/4 inches.
However, she wasn’t too pleased with her
Courtesy Washington State Media Services
Jenny Kenyon is one of two graduating seniors and will
be missed in the heptathlon.
season and said she would give herself a
grade of a “C.”
“I just wasn’t happy with my performance
this year,” she said.
Holliday, the recipient of the 2002 Lynne
Wingbigler Award as the most outstanding
Oregon women’s track athlete, will be the
leader of the team’s pole vault contingent next
season, a group that includes two-time All
American Niki Reed as well as up-and-comer
Kirsten Riley. It is a group that should send
three to the Pac-lOs and could possibly do the
same at the NCAA version.
“I was confident I would get there this year,
but I know next year, without a doubt, I’ll be
there,” Riley said.
Crumley and Lundeen, two of the squad’s
more prominent freshmen entering the sea
son, didn’t disappoint, and coupled with vet
erans Sarah Malone and Chary 1 Weingarten,
helped put Oregon’s javelin unit on the map
once again. It is a group that will return all
four members.
“The freshmen throwers hit the ground
running,” Heinonen said. “They were great
from the very beginning.”
Only Lundeen scored points from the
javelin group in the NCAA Championships,
but is looking for much more next season. But
that doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy with her
2002 performance.
“I’ve moved up from last year, and I’m happy
because of my consistency,” she said. “The (el
bow) injury just took away from me a little bit.”
Overall, Oregon excelled in the team’s field
events. Etter took home the team’s high point
athlete award, while sophomore high jumper
Rachael Kriz was the team’s most inspira
tional athlete.
Both are expected to return, although Etter
has said she may redshirt next season, and
compete again in 2004 — the same year as the
Olympics in Athens, Greece.
“I haven’t really talked about it with my
coach yet, but I’m on the five-year plan,” Etter
said. “If I were to go next year, it would be four
years in a row. They’re going to want me com
peting in the Olympic year.”
In what has traditionally been the strong
point of the program, the Oregon running
squad has fallen on hard times. Only one ath
lete — Eri Macdonald — earned an NCAA
provisional mark, although she just missed
going to the championships.
However, Heinonen praised the specific ef
forts of junior Janette Davis — a participant in
the 200 and 400 — as well as Alicia Snyder
Carlson, one of the squad’s 800 runners, and a
Turn to Track, page12A