The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, April 2, 1993 Page: 12 of 16
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12 FRIDAY. APRIL 2. 1993 THE RICE THRESHER
SPORTS
Rice golf hopes for improvement going into Conference Championships
by Grant Flowers
The Rice golf team competed in a
tournament at the University of Cali-
fornia-Santa Barbara last week and
placed 16th in a field of 24. The squad
played 36 holes on the first day, but
the Owls did not have a chance to
improve their finish as the second day
of the match was rained out, thereby
making the first day's results the final
order of placing.
"The course was great," said team
captain Jeff Makohon. "There were
six holes that paralleled the ocean,
and that was a lot of fun to play be-
cause you had to get your drive real
straight"
There are three tournaments re-
maining in the golf season. The team
leaves Saturday for Los Angeles. After
that, the team faces the University of
Houston and then the Southwest Con-
ference championships. Winning the
latter tournament could mean an
inviation to the national
championships for the
als every year for the past three years,
the golf team has fallen on hard times.
Last year's squad graduated one se-
nior, and therefore expectations for
an improvement this season were
high.
"The season has been kind of dis-
appointing," said senior Chris
Brauner. "I feel like we're standing
still, and everyone else is running past
us. After going to the nationals in the
past, and with the expectations we
had, I'd have to say that it has been a
pretty poor year.
"It's not that we're worse golfers,"
he added, "It's just that we haven't
improved like we thought we would
and our competition has. Golf is a very
individual sport We each do our own
thing, and because of that we cant
feed off the other guys like baseball
and football players can. To get better
I think we have to come together as a
unit, and especially become mentally
sharper."
There have been some bright spots
for the Owls this year. At a tourna-
ment in Austin, they set a new school
record for lowest round score.
There are 14 members on the team,
but only five play in the tournaments.
In order to determine which five at-
tend, a qualifying match is played and
the top five get to travel. In such a
system, over the course of a year,
many different players may attend one
or more tournaments. TTiis season,
several players have attended almost
all of the matches, including Makohon,
Patrik Johansson.
"I can't pinpoint what the problem
is," said Makohon. "Like most sports,
golf comes and goes. But our main
problem is that we don't have much
consistency. I was named a pre-sea-
son All-American, but during the year
I've probably finished out of the top 20
in meets more times than I did in my
previous three years.
"If we play the way we are now at
the Southwest Conference tourna-
have any realistic chance we would
have to play above our heads."
Makohon, a senior, hails from
Saskatchewan, and he says he came
to Rice because there was no snow
and good academics.
"Also," said Makohon, "I thought I
would get a good chance to play. My
first year we got to the nationals in
what was supposed to be a rebuilding
year. And this year we might not get
there at all, unless we win the confer-
Brauner, and the team's lowest scorer, ment we could finish dead last To ence tournament"
Women's track building up to SWC meet
by Lynanne Foster
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Last Friday and Saturday the Rice
Women's Track team hosted the
Bayou Classic, the largest women's
outdoor track meet in the South. The
Owls placed fourth among the 11 col-
leges and universities represented,
with several promising performances
this early in the season.
Defending national champion
Valerie Tulloch won the javelin throw
with a toss of 162' 2". Tulloch also took
second in the shot put with an effort of
45' 1.5".
The sophomore has already quali-
fied for the outdoor track national
championships this year, and several
other teammates are expected to join
her there.
Freshman basketball player
Tammy McCallum made her colle-
giate debut in the shot with an admi-
rable 39* 8".
Head Coach Victor Lopez predicts
that the 4x100 meter relay team of
Nicole Wright, Shelly Northover,
Vonda Newhouse, and Desiree Woods
will qualify for nationals soon after a
third place finish last Saturday. Their
time was 45.83, almost a two second
improvement over last week's 47.69.
Lopez noted that in these early
meets, several of the sprinters were
running in two or three races for the
'I'm happy with what I
see. Eveiything's going
fine.'
-Coach Victor Lopez
practice. "We're still training through
competition," he said.
In addition to the strong perfor-
mance by the relay team, Yvette
Haynes turned in a 14.01 in the 100
meter hurdles.
"It was her best coming out of
indoor season," Lopez noted. "She
looked very good. Everybody is look-
ing good and getting into competitive
form"
Haynes and Claudia Haywood
placed fourth and sixth respectively in
the long jump, with jumps of 19'4.75"
and 19'1 respectively.
"There were some good signs from
Haywood and Haynes," commented
Lopez.
Several of the runners who had
gonetothe Indoor NationalMeet com-
peted in races that were atypical for
them for training purposes.
"It gave them a chance to practice
technique," explained Lopez.
This weekend the Owls compete
atTexas Relays in Austin,which Lopez
plans to use as another training oppor-
tunity in preparation for the confer-
ence championships next month.
"I'm happy with what I see," he
added. "Everything's going fine."
Over the Easter break the women
will travel to El Paso for the University
of Texas at El Paso Relays when they
begin to be more competitive as the
conference meet approaches.
"We're looking forward to next
week at UTEP, and expecting close to
the best there," Lopez said.
Baseball loses three straight on the road against Texas Tech
by Jason Katz
Hoping to rebound from a difficult
series at Arizona State University and
to shake its road troubles, the Rice
baseball team found instead a Texas
Tech University squad that added to
its woes.
The Owls had not defeated the
Red Raiders in their last nine meet-
ings at Dan Law Field in Lubbock, and
this year would prove no different as
Texas Tech swept the Owls in a three-
game series.
A home victory against non-con-
ference rival Sam Houston State Uni-
versity provided little solace as Rice
fell to 19th in the nation and, more
importantly, fourth in the Southwest
Conference.
On March 26, the Owls headed to
Lubbock to take on the Red Raiders.
Rice held the top position in the con-
ference standings and looked to add
to their unblemished record.
Yet Texas Tech seemed un-
daunted, pounding the Owls and ace
pitcher Darrell Richardson (6-2, 1-1)
for 19 hits and 17 runs. George Kilford
and Brody Gregg combined for 10
hits to lead the Texas Tech offensive
attack, while the Raider pitching staff
gave up only four hits and one walk en
route to a convincing 17-2 victory.
Despite acombined nine strikeouts
for Rice pitchers, the Owls suffered
their largest defeat of the season and
their first conference loss.
"Sure we're upset with losing,"
admitted freshman infielder Dana
Davis. "We knew going in that we
really needed to win at least one game.
But we've been working hard and we
know that we will bounce back."
The Owls hoped to rebound dur-
ing the doubleheader on March 27.
Though they did not crumble as they
did in the first game, defensive mis-
takes and attention lapses allowed the
Red Raiders to sweep the Owls.
In the second game of the series,
the Owls by two runs late in the game.
However, a Rice error and a key RBI
single by Mike Kinney capped aTexas
Tech comeback as they beat Rice 5-4.
In the final series game, the Owls
again battled hard but fell victim to a
late Red Raider rally, as Rice dropped
its third game to Texas Tech 8-5. Of-
fensively, the Owls were led by catcher
John Rodgers, whose two homeruns
and four RBIskeptRiceclosethrough-
out the game.
Rodgers went four for four on the
evening, accounting for half of Rice's
hits, but he would be the lone high-
light for the struggling Owls.
Mike Wilson was thelosingpitcher
for Rice as they fell to 3-3 in the confer-
ence and dropped from the top spot to
fourth place.
The Owls then returned home on
March 30 to challenge the Bearkats of
Sam Houston State. David Brooks'
RBI single in the seventh inning broke
a 3-3 tie and led the Owls to their 23rd
straight victory at home by a score of
5-3. It was the first start on the mound
for returning pitcher Jim Miller (1-0),
and it proved to be a successful one.
Davis led an eleven-hit attack with two
hits of his own and three RBIs. With
their victory, the Owls boosted their
season record to 26-7, and put an end
to their longest losing streak of the
season.
On April 2-3, Rice will travel to
Waco in order to face Baylor Univer-
sity in yet another three-game confer-
ence series. The Owls hope to put an
end to their on the road losing streak
this weekend and start their difficult
climb back up the conference stand-
ings.
"We're going up to Waco with only
one thing in our mind-winning three
games against Baylor," said Davis.
There's a lot of baseball still left in the
season and it is just a matter of us
taking care of business. One thing is
for sure: we'll make it an interesting
conference race."
mmmmm
A Rice player clucks to avoid an outside pitch narrowly missing his head
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Kim, Leezie & Carson, Chad. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, April 2, 1993, newspaper, April 2, 1993; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245839/m1/12/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.