Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, May 6,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA Playoffs:
Sacramento at Dallas, Game 1
6 p.m., ESPN2
11—II
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Terrence Whitehead (24) is among a group of running backs that has the potential to start next season.
Football survives
without answers
Starting-spot questions go
unanswered as Oregon escapes
the spring relatively unscathed
Football
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
The Oregon football team had a num
ber of questions coming into spring foot
ball workouts one month ago.
Who would be named starter, if at
all, at quarterback? Which one of the
four running backs would emerge as
the go-to guy? And what about the de
fense? Would the team’s secondary be
able to overcome the horrors that
plagued it all of last season?
For the most part, those questions
remained unfulfilled. And for the
others, head coach Mike Bellotti was
n’t going to divulge the real answers
just yet.
“I like the competition,” Bellotti
said of the spring’s main focus, the
quarterback situation. “I like what
it’s done for Kellen (Clemens) and
Jason (Fife). I think it will continue
throughout the summer, and then
into fall camp. And I don’t expect us
to name a starting quarterback un
til probably midway through fall
camp or maybe mid-week of Missis
sippi State.”
Clemens played the best between
the two at the spring game on Satur
day, but neither he nor Fife would say
who really has the true edge.
As for the running situation, a red
shirt freshman from Philadelphia mud
dled it all up.
At the start of spring, Ryan Shaw
and Terrence Whitehead were expect
ed to lead the way to the starting spot.
Yet Chris Vincent suggested, with his
play, that he has the talent to start
against the Bulldogs.
Unlike every other position, the
running back spot will not see addi
tional players come fall. The four at
spring camp — which also includes
Kenny Washington, who injured his
shoulder — will do all of the running
come August.
Defensively, the Ducks made
strides, but still showed they are sus
ceptible to the long pass play. The sec
ondary is still relatively young, but
Keith Lewis and Steven Moore should
be able to harness the group’s ability,
somewhat.
“(Secondary coach John) Neal came
in with a scheme and he made us learn
his system,” Lewis said. “I think it re
ally helped us. He brought in a couple
of schemes from (Alabama-Birming
ham) and he inputed it into our de
fense. It makes the receivers, as well as
the coordinators, think.”
How well the secondary survives will
probably weigh on the shoulders of the
team’s defensive line. It is an talented
group, although junior Igor Olshansky
and sophomore Haloti Ngata have
played prominently for just one sea
son.
Olshansky did not practice during
the spring, and Bellotti has said he may
move to defensive end from the defen
sive tackle position.
“I believe we’ll be the strength of the
team,” Quinn Dorsey said of the defen
sive front four. “When we come out
Turn to Football page 16
Wushu U.
The Oregon Club Wushu team has competed
successfully at several recent tournaments, and also
performs at events like UO’s and OSlfc China Nights
Jon Roetman
Sports Freelancer
Wushu.
It’s a simple yet funny-sounding word that when spoken re
sembles the sound of fast-moving air.
This simple word, however, has many meanings. It refers to a
form of self-defense, a sport, an art and a cultural heritage of China,
and when performed, wushu moves can sound like fast-moving air.
For the Oregon Club Wushu team, the word has translated
into success and achievement. Focusing on wushu as a sport
and a performance art, members of the club have brought
home numerous medals and awards from two major tourna
ments this year.
The sport of wushu is “a performance based on the forms of
kung fu,” sophomore club coordinator Keith Hillen said. The
competitive atmosphere is like that of gymnastics, where ath
letes exhibit skills in front of judges, who then issue a score.
Tournaments are divided into three skill levels. Each skill lev
el allows athletes to compete in the “open hand,” “long
weapon” or “short weapon” divisions.
Hillen referred to wushu as “Kung fu-ized rhythmic gymnas
tics.”
The club has participated in two major tournaments this
year, the most recent being the California-Berkelev Chinese
Turn to Wushu, page 16
Adam Amato Emerald
Phillip Dang won the men's all-around trophy, three golds and a silver
at last year's national club wushu tournament. Although Dang looks
like he's going to put up a fight, wushu is really a performance art.
‘El G’ won’t run
Pre Classic mile,
but Webb might
The world record-holder bows out of the Bowerman
Mile, but the field is still loaded with pro talent
Men’s track and field notes
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
“El G” is “El Gone” from the Bowerman Mile at this
year’s Prefontaine Classic, but that doesn’t mean it won’t
be an exciting race all the same.
Hicham El Guerrouj, who owns the world record in the
mile and ran the fastest mile on American soil at the 2001
Pre Classic, returned last year but won’t return this season.
But the 2001 mile was also highlighted by prep sensation
Alan Webb, who broke the high school record in the event.
Now, a pair of high schoolers will try to use the same favor
able Hayward Field conditions to take a run at Webb’s
record or at least break the four-minute barrier.
One of the high schoolers is Mike McGrath, who finished
second in Saturday’s Bill McChesney Jr. Twilight Mile at
the Oregon Twilight. McGrath, from Portland, will square
off with the nation’s top prep miler, Texas native Steve
Magness.
The two will race among a field of top post-collegiate tal
ent. The field is led by the Kenyan duo of Bernard Lagat and
Cornelius Chirchir, who both have a history at the Pre.
Chirchir and Lagat finished second and third, respectively,
Turn to Track, page 17