Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemeraId.com
Tuesday, March 4,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCAA men's basketball:
Florida at Georgia
6p.mv ESPN
Wrestlers
take fifth
in Pac-10
tourney
Shane Webster leads the way
with a second-place finish, while
Oregon has five other wrestlers
finish 3-5 in their weight class
Wrestling
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
The Oregon wrestlers wrapped up the
Pacific-10 Conference tournament Mon
day with six wrestlers placing in the top
six in their respective weight class.
Shane Webster led the Ducks with a
second-place finish at 174. Webster lost
a 3-1 decision to Arizona State’s Curtis
Owen. Owen took a 10-4 decision from
Webster when the Ducks and Sun Devils
met in a January dual meet.
Webster earned a second-straight trip
to the NCAA Championships with his
second-place finish. He won two major
decisions on Sunday on his way to the ti
tle match. The sophomore improved on a
third-place conference finish during his
freshman season.
As a team, the Ducks finished fifth in
the conference with 68 points. Arizona
State won the team title with 134 points
and six individual champions.
Senior Casey Hunt won his first match
over Oregon State’s Mike Unger at 141. The
5-3 decision marked the third time in three
matchups that Hunt beat Unger this season.
In the match to decide third and fourth
place, Hunt faced Cal State-Fullerton’s
Juan Mora. Hunt was seeded No. 3 in the
tournament, while Mora was the No. 4
seed. The high-scoring match followed
the seeding order, giving Hunt the third
place victory with a 13-10 decision.
Hunt earned a trip to the national tour
nament with his finish and improved over
his fourth-place Pae-10 finish last season.
Redshirt sophomore Luke Larwin, at
165, faced Cal Davis’ Michael Font for the
right to wresde for third place. Larwin won a
decision, 5-3, setting up a fourth match this
season against Oregon State’s Matt Ellis.
Ellis knocked Larwin out of the cham
pionship bracket Sunday with a 3-2 deci
sion, and took the third-place match with
a 3-1 decision. Larwin received fourth
place with the loss, earning a trip to the
NCAA Championships.
At 125, sophomore Martin Mitchell
battled another Beaver, Michael Delaney,
to a 5-3 decision in Delaney’s favor.
Mitchell then faced Stanford’s Nathan Pe
terson in the match to decide fifth and
sixth place. Mitchell pinned his opponent
at the 1:03 mark for fifth place and his
ninth pin of the season.
Facing Cal Poly’s Nate Ybarra, redshirt
junior Jason Harless lost a 8-3 decision in
his first match Monday, sending him to
the battle for fifth place at 133.
Against Cardinal wresder Brad Metzler,
Harless won a close battle by tiebreaker
after the two wrestlers finished the regu
lation tied at one. Harless earned fifth
place for the second consecutive year.
Junior Branson Phillips also started
Monday with a loss. Boise State’s Ben Cher
rington won a 9-3 decision over Phillips to
bounce him to fifth place match.
Phillips then faced No. 1-seeded Matt
Gentry of Stanford. Phillips ran up the
match with an 11-4 decision over Gentry.
Turn to Wrestling, page 12
Cradle ’till the grave
The lacrosse men were not
threatened by the promotion
of women’s lacrosse to varsity—
the guys love the sport too much
Jon Roetman
Sports Freelancer
The Feb. 3 announcement that women’s
lacrosse would become a varsity sport at Ore
gon in 2004 could easily have led to bitter
ness from the men’s club lacrosse team.
Instead, the Ducks saw the move as a plus
for lacrosse in general at Oregon and hope that
one day it leads to a men’s varsity program.
“I think it’s great,” said student coordina
tor Jim O’Neill of the addition of women’s
lacrosse to the varsity roster. “I just hope it
paves the way for a future varsity program
for the men.”
Men’s lacrosse would bring an entirely
different game to the table. Contact is al
lowed and sticks feature a pocket to help
cradle the ball during contact. With contact,
players patrolling different zones and on
the-fly substitutions, men’s lacrosse is simi
lar, in ways, to ice hockey.
The Oregon men play in the Pacific North
west Collegiate Lacrosse League, which is a
member of the United States Intercollegiate
Lacrosse Association. With more than 170
teams, varsity and club, the USILA provides
a high level of competition.
“(The USILA) is really well organized,” jun
ior attack Jon Opet said. “Kids can play and
still focus on academics.”
With lacrosse being a mysterious sport to
many on the West Coast, Opet said college
coaches from the East Coast — where
lacrosse is a monster sport — choose not to
recruit out west. He said the USILA gives
those players a chance to show their skills.
“(The USILA) is great athletes and great
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Goalkeeper Nate Cordova (right) tries to stop Jon Opefs behind-the-head shot at the turf field Monday.
lacrosse players,” Opet said. “It’s taken
pretty seriously.”
The Ducks are off to a 5-2 start this season,
including a win over No. 19 Gal Poly on Fri
day. Oregon’s 3-1 conference record is good
for third place, a game behind Simon Fraser
and Pacific Lutheran.
“(Simon Fraser) has been kicking ass in
our league for about six years,” Opet said.
“They are the standard of lacrosse in the
Northwest.”
Opet, who had two assists against Gal
Poly, is considered a team leader.
“Jonny’s a real good player,” O’Neill said.
“A lot of the time he’s our go-to guy. He has
a really good idea of how the game works.”
Along with Opet, who is tied for third on
the team in scoring, the Ducks feature
Turn to Lacrosse, page 12
Danielle Hickey Emerald
Will Conroy and the Huskies need to sweep this weekend to assure a
spot in the Pac-10 Tournament, but a split could get them in.
WSU deals Washington
blow to Pac-10 chances
Marcus Moore comes back from
injury to bury the Huskies and
complicate the Pac-10 picture
before the conference tourney
Men’s Pac-10 notes
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Talk about drama. The bottom of the
Pacific-10 Conference standings is a
group of high schoolers.
They just keep stabbing each other in
the back.
That’s what happened this weekend,
as Washington State destroyed Washing
ton in a key game for the Huskies.
Cougar star Marcus Moore, supposedly
out for the season after ankle surgery
Jan. 24, came back and scored a game
high 23 points in Washington State’s 98
76 win in Pullman.
Washington State’s coaches learned
Moore was available to play on Friday
night. Moore was listed as “injured” in
the game’s program, and his return
caught everyone in the arena, especial
ly the Huskies, by surprise.
“Give (Moore) credit,” Washington
head coach Lorenzo Romar told the
Seattle Times after the game. “It shows
what kind of player he is, to sit out and
have a dynamic game like he had.”
The win leaves the Cougars to won
der what could have been for this sea
son. If Washington State wins both
games against UCLA and USG this
weekend, the Cougars will fall one
game short of the Pac-10 Tournament,
which takes the top eight teams from
the conference.
Meanwhile, the loss sends the Huskies
reeling as they head into the Los Ange
les weekend. And whoa nellie, the sce
narios are complicated. We’ll put it in
terms of cleaning the floor. If Washing
ton sweeps this weekend, the Huskies
are in the tournament. Get swept, and
they’re out. Split, and there are eight dif
ferent scenarios, all conditional on
Washington State’s performance and
even the result of the Stanford-Califor
nia game (don’t ask). Four of those sce
narios put Washington in the tourna
ment while four put UCLA in.
The same mantra applies to UCLA.
Sweep and get in, get swept and stay
home, or split and enter into a world of
mind-boggling scenarios.
All of this, of course, makes for an ex
citing final weekend in the normally-dull
Pac-10 basement.
Biggest game
They call the football version of the
Stanford-Cal rivalry “The Big Game.”
But Saturday’s basketball version is,
well, bigger.
When the No. 17 Cardinal and No.
22 Golden Bears clash in Palo Alto’s
Maples Pavilion on Saturday, the winner
Turn to Men's, page 10