Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1990)
> i SPORTS From the other side... by Staci Beard Fines and musings On Sunday, April 22, the Portland Trail Blazers de molished the Los Angeles Lakers 130-88. Before you start popping open the cham pagne, ft would be wise to remember that the Lakers rested three healthy starters: Magic Johnson, James Wor thy and Mychal Thompson. As a result of Coach Pat Riley’s choice to sit them out, NBA Commissioner David Stern fined the Lakers $25,000. The fine was levied because Stern felt that the fans had been cheated be cause the stars of the team were off the floor. I think that is the only justifiable reason for the fine. You can’t have the commis sioner looking over every coach’s shoulder and fining them for not playing players. If you wanted to be equal and fair, every team that did not play a healthy player on the bench would have to be fined. Where would coach ing strategy go? A couple things do bother me though, the way Riley characterized the game as “insignificant.” I know it wasn’t for the Pacific Divi sion championship, but it wasn’t a charity game either. Also, what are the Los An geles fans doing blaming us for the fine? It is not like we are a favorite of Stems. Re member the NBA was threat ening us with a lawsuit be cause of the Sports Action game. Personal Notes For four years I played softball at Milwaukie High. It was a lot of fun but the one thing I didn’t get to do was play at the state tournament. The first time I came dose was my sophomore year. I played on JV but was brought up to some varsity games. That team was ex pected to make the. trip to state, but due to fighting and injuries the team never made My senior year was the next closest time. That time we were; inexperienced and fell a few games short of the playoffs. Now those team mem bers I played with my junior and senior years are now seniors and are ranked . number one in the state. Last year they went all the way to fourth in the AAA State Softball Championships. I guess I just want to know why they were all born too late. * THE CLACKAMAS PRINT May 2,1990 Page 8 Thinclads compile excellent numbers at U of O By Dan A. Fulton Staff Writer The Clackamas Cougar track team had a sensational outing at the U Of O Open and the U of O Invitational, coming away with some impressive numbers against some excellent competition in a non-scoring meet last Saturday. This meet was mostly four- year schools with the exception of the Cougars who were the only community college in the running events. There were some athletes from other community colleges there but only in the field events. In the Open, Jean-Maree Lil lard placed second in the discus with a toss of 135’6". Nylen fol lowed Lillard with a two spot of her own in the javelin throwing it 141’10". In the high jump, David Bate leaped his way to the bronze capturing third jumping 6’8 3/4" over the bar. Mike Hieb had an- other impressive performance finishing third in the javelin with a toss of 204’8". Kyle Riggs improved his per sonal* record in the 110 meter hurdles and finished third cruis ing in at 15.4. McCrum, Beardall, and Moore had some outstanding perform ances but all finished sixth against the tough four-year school com petition. In the 1500m, McCrum had a time of 3:55.5 which is a 6 second improvement on his last time, which is a season best and a community college record. Beardall ran the 5,000m in 14:51.8, which is the Northwest best, and his personal record by more than 10 seconds. Moore, who ran the 3,000 steeple chase in 933.2, came out with a personal best time and now leads in the northwest title. “These three had very signifi cant performances against some of the best competition in the state,” commented Mike Hodges. In the Invitational, Clacka mas had some great numbers from their top aces. Gabe Crane came out with the only Gold medal in the400m. Crane outran the four- year schools in a time of 52.1 which was a personal record and a school record. Crane also finished sixth in the 110 meter hurdles racing in 14.5, which is a school record that broke his own from 1988. Nav Larson fell short and had to settle for second in the 200m crossing the finish line in 21.4 seconds which was a personal record. Lillard came back from the Open and tossed the shot put in the Invitational finishing second heaving the ball 44’2". In the relay competition, the men, with the team of Fish, Crane, Gibson and Larson, finished third in both the 400and the 1600meter relay. The Cougars only took 42 seconds to finish the 400 meter relay, and 3:19.6 in the 1600 meter relay which is now a season best for the squad. “It was a real honor to have been chosen to come here and to have great performances from everyone was icing on the cake,” commented Hodges. The Cougars will hold the Clackamas Invitational this Sat urday at 11 a.m. which will involve 10-12 community colleges from Oregon and Washington. This is a non-scoring meet. Next week the State Champi onships begin followed by the Northwest Championship two weeks later. “This meet will be a chance to get some super performances from our team and not put any pressure on them at the samé time,” com mented Hodges. Competitiveness makes Northcutt strong player • by Staci Beard Sports Editor One of the things that sopho more shortstop Kristi Northcutt hates the most when playing soft- ball is... having a ball get past her. “I will do anything to get an out; I will sacrifice my body to get an out. In the infield you get those hard shots which I will dive for to get that ball,” explained Northcutt In addition to her defensive skills, Northcutt is near the top in most offensive categories. Her batting average in the first 20 games is a strong .368, placing her as the second highest on the team while her 12 RBIs ties for the team lead. Speed is another asset that Northcutt possesses being a per fect 8-8 on the base paths in stolen bases “Northcutt leads the team in RBIs and in runs scored. She is hitting for a good average and, with the speed, can turn a single Winning became such a habit last year...lt was a n awesome feeling holding that trophy into a double by stealing second. She hits well with runners on base and is a really good defensive player. Northcutt makes it look easy,” explained Coach'Paul Fiskum. Northcutt has been on team softball since her seventh grade year. But she learned baseball first with the help of six older bro the rs. Kristi Northcutt heads toward first on another one of her hits. Northcutt Is second on the team with a .368 batting average. Photo by TtaZtawy Love of the game has kept her with it. “I love the game. I played baseball when I was younger and went to baseball camps. It is a fun game that I enjoy. It also helps to relieve the stress,” stated Northcutt. Attitude has been one of the areas that Northcutt has worked to improve. . “fam keeping my head in the game this year when last year I would get down. I Xvant to help keep myself up and the team up through the whole game,” ex plained Northcutt. Fiskum has also noticed a difference. “She is helping herself to stay up most of the time and doesn’t get down after a mistake. She is also handling criticism much bet ter,” explained Fiskum. Although a little disappointed with how the season has gone so far, Northcutt still feels they have a chance repeating as champions. “We are a better defensive team than we have shown. I don’t know why we are playing the way we are there is not excuse. But we will get back to NWAACC tour nament,” explained Northcutt. Winning the NWAACC tour nament again is a feeling Northcutt would like to repeat. “Winning became such a habit last year. It was a surprise that we won but we had the talent and ability. It was an awesome feeling holding that trophy,” enthused Northcutt.