Page 10
The Behrend Beacon
Calendar
of Events
Behrend
Athletic
Events
Friday
Women’s Swimming
@ Grove City/Mt. Unio
6 p.m
Saturday
Indoor Track and Field
@ Fredonia
12 p.m.
Men’s and Women’s
Swimming
@ Edinboro
1 p.m.
Women’s Basketball
@ La Roche
6 p.m.
Men’s Basketball
@ La Roche
8 p.m.
Monday
JV Basketball
@ Pitt-Titusville
2 p.m
Wednesday
Women’s Basketball
@ Pitt-Gfeejns.burg
6.p.m.
Men’s Basketball
@ Pitt-Greensburg
8 p.m.
Intramurals
Schedule
Friday
3-Point Shootout
Friday, Jan. 25
Intramural Ping Pong
Men’s and Women’s
Singles; Men’s,
Women’s, and Coed
Doubles
100 Mile Club
Friday, Feb. 1
Arena Football: Men’s
and Women’s
Pick-up Volleyball
@ Erie Hall
Tuesday and Thursday
8-10 p.m.
Pick-up Basketball
@ the Junker Center
Monday - Friday
12 p.m.
Kickball and Wifflebal
equipment available
anytime in Erie Hall for
use during any open
gym times
All entries must be at
the intramural office
by 4 p.m.
on the scheduled date
Move over Madison, there's a new boss cornin’
Senior Erin Phillips now just 37 points from the record books
by Mike Bello
sports editor
With less than 40 points to go he foie
she breaks Michele Madison's all -time
points record. Behrend senior linn
Phillips has found her groove on the
court. Is it any wonder the women's team
may have finally found its?
Erin Phillips Watch
Mlcksls Madlssn’s Record:
1409
FObMStofiO:37
lick Ocnckft Record: 1466
fiIMS til 60:94
mninc Feints ra fiame: 16.6
Next Games: Saturday @ La Roche,
6 p.m.; Wednesday @ Pitt-
Greensburg, 6 p.m.; ]an. 26 @ Perin
State Altoona, 1 p.m.
Phillips, the integral part of an offense
that lacks big-game size, put together
another solid week that saw the Lions
demolish AMCC opponent Frosthurg,
suffer a heartbreaking loss to
Washington & Jefferson, and defeat
Fredonia on its home court. With a slew
of conference games on tap for the Lady
Lions, most on the road, the team picked
just the right time to put together a hot
streak.
“We are on a run now." said senior
Track and field assembles first-class coaching staff
by Mike Bello
sports editor
Head track and field coach Dave
Cooper hasn't even been here a year,
and already the team is looking as
strong as it's ever been. That's
because Cooper, who three months
ago led the cross country teams to first
and second place finishes in the
AMCC, has put together an
■impressive supporting cast of coaches
and trainers.
Cooper not only h;is several
experienced, event-specific coaches
to ease the burden, but has recruited
a total of 54 athletes (39 men. 15
women), up from 46 last year when
Rich Hoffman was at the helm. A
number of the athletes include
members of the women's cross
country team that finished first irt the
AMCC on Oct. 27 and the men's
squad that finished second on the
same day.
Three of the six coaches Cooper has
assembled are members of
McDowell’s track and field staff,
including Joe Sanford, the head
coach. Sanford, who specializes in the
Wins keep on coming for men’s hoops
by Zoe Rose
staff writer
The Penn State Behrend Lions'
winning streak continued as they
dominated their home court
Wednesday night with an 83-56 win
over the Fredonia Stafe Blue Devils.
The win improved Benrend’s record
to 10-5. '
Aggressive inside play by the
Blue Devils forced the Lions to take
perimeter shots. That was not a
problem, however. The Lions’ first
shot was a 3-pointer by Casey
Ponsoll. Steve Merrill and Tom
Lulich each followed with a 3-
PHOTO BY JEFF HANKEY / BEHREND BEACON
Sophomore James Curren, right, passes the ball to teammate Dave
Hairston underneath the hoop Saturday against Frostburg. The Lions
improved to 9-5 with a 66-57 win against the Bobcats.
Friday, January 18, 2002
('hristine ( hurnoek.
After nmniiut off two
straight dominating
v. ms against conference
opponents, one would
think non conference
games would be a
distraction. The players,
however, see the games
as ;m opportunity to
grow.
"Any leant you play
against helps the team to
get better.'' said senior
Katie Weigold. “The
more games, the more
experience to learn.
Teams that aren't in the
conference may be
similar to opponents in
our conference. Playing
against them will only
help prepare us for
conference games.”
“We improve as a
team with every game,”
said senior Kate
Costanzo. "When we
execute our stuff and
play together, few teams
can stop us. The non
conference games will
only help us in
preparation for
AMCCs."
pole vault for Behrend, led the
McDowell girl's team to the PIAA
track atul field team titlejin 2001 and
is recognized as one of the premier
pole vault coaches in the country. His
vaulters. not surprisingly, hold the
state record in both the boys and girls
divisions.
Also assisting Cooper from
McDowell are Max Alwens, shot put
and discus coach, and Bill Hoffman
(htinllc s). Alwens will enter his 14 lh
season at McDowell this spring,
w here he has led six players to states,
including one discus state champion.
Hollman. the sprint coach at
Mel )owell as well, was a state hurdle
champion in high school and lettered
all four years at Indiana University of
Pennsylvania in both sprints and
hurdles. Cooper knows Hoffman and
Sanford from his days as the Union
City track and Held coach.
Cooper's other three coaches
include Katie I leynoski (jumps). Greg
Cooper (400 and 800 meter relays),
and Garrett Arndt. Arndt and Greg
Cooper, son of Dave, just finished
their careers at Behrend last spring.
Arndt was a state finalist in the 3200
pointer. The consistent shooting
from both teams made the score
tight as the Lions drew away with a
41-36 halftime lead.
Five minutes into the second half
the Lions bolted out to a 50-39 lead,
not the biggest of the stanza though.
The Blue and White kept the Blue
Devils on a shooting drought and
they gathered a few more points to
build a 61-42 cushion with 10:20 to
The Lions increased their margin
to 24 points at 70-46 at the 7:11
mark. With the ample lead, the
crowd was able to see some reserves
come off the bench, including
mrs
PHOTO BY MIKE BELLO / BEHREND BEACON
Behrend’s Carly Cochran goes up for two
against Frostburg’s Holly Myers Saturday at the
Junker Center. Behrend scored an easy 80-50
win to increase its conference record to 3-1.
relay in high school while
Cooper was part of the
team that won the state
title in the 4 x 800 relay in
1996. Heynoski, a former
all-American at
McDowell in the high
jump and an assistant
jump coach there, was a
Mid-America conference
champ at Ohio University
in the 4 x J 00 relay that set
a new school record.
It takes a lot of training
to prepare for the track and
field season, especially
now considering this is the
second year Behrend has
an indoor track and field
season followed by the
outdoor. Although the
athletes train during the
off-season on their own,
Cooper and the rest of the
staff did not have a lot of
time to prepare the athletes
for the season opener on
Saturday at Fredonia.
The team members have
been training on their own
freshmen Rylan Marx and Josh
Richards, and from sophomores T.J.
Niland and Mike Schodt. The
biggest lead of the night came at
2:03 to go with a 29 point margin
making the score 81-52.
The Penn State Behrend Lions
used the sharp, 3-point shooting of
Casey Ponsoll and Steve Merrill -
an impressive 75 percent in the first
half - to gain a 66-57 win over
Frostburg State on Saturday. This
important win handed the Bobcats
their first AMCC loss and boosted
the Lions to a 9-5 overall mark on
the season, including a 3-1
conference mark.
Frostburg shot 4-of-20 from the
field while the Blue and White
thrived, shooting 10-of-20 in the
first half. Although Behrend was
shooting at a scorching clip, Ponsoll
capped Behrend’s fast start by
draining a 3-pointer at 2:26 into the
game after the Bobcats sunk a three
to give the Lions an 18-3 lead.
Behrend dominated Frostburg (2-1,
6-7) at the end of the half by closing
with a 10-4 run to take a 28-12 lead.
The Bobcats never disappeared in
the second half, as they came out hot
and closed within four of the lead.
The battle continued as Ponsoll sunk
his fourth 3-pointer to boost the Blue
and White to a 56-48 lead with 1:49
remaining. Frostburg scored the
next six points to close to 56-54 with
just a fingernail-biting 44 seconds
left. The Lions sealed the win with
perfect 10-of-10 free throw shooting
Behrend, with only three AMCC
doubleheaders left at the Junker Center,
is trying to get the bleachers as packed
as possible for those games.
"We are looking to 'Pack the House'
at the remaining basketball games and
all students, faculty, and staff get into
the basketball games free with their Penn
State Behrend I.D.'s," said Stacey
Pondo, assistant to director of athletics.
Against Fredonia, the Lions went in
to the second half with a 33-25 lead, but
Fredonia did not give up and closed the
gap to 52-51 with 5:11 remaining.
Behrend took over from there, scoring
18 of the game’s next 23 points to win
70-56.
Phillips dominated on the court again,
going 7-of-8 from the floor and the foul
line for 21 points. Phillips also added a
team-high seven rebounds. Chamock
added 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting, and
Erica Mozdy contributed 11 points. The
Lions shot 47.2 percent from the floor
compared to Fredonia’s 42.1 percent.
More importantly, Behrend made 85
percent of its free throw attempts (17-
20) while Fredonia (8-6) sank seven of
its 10 foul shots.
On Monday at the Junker Center, the
Lions hosted W & J, a 75-70 overtime
winner against Behrend in late
November. Once again, the teams
provided a season’s worth of excitement
in one night, as the Presidents used a
PHOTO BY MIKE BELLO / BEHREND BEACON
Sophomore Heather Efaw practices the
hurdles inside the Junker Center this
week to prepare for the upcoming indoor
track and field match against Fredonia on
Saturday.
in the final seconds of the game
Ponsoll led the Lions with 22
points, including his fine 4-of-6
shooting from 3-point range. He
also had five boards in 31 minutes
of action. Merrill followed with 16
points, five rebounds, four assists,
and five blocks. Tom Lulich
chipped in with nine points, three
rebounds, and one block. The Blue
and White were 19-of-35 from the
field (54.3 percent) compared to the
Bobcats’ 21-of-54 (38.9 percent).
Curren leads Behrend with 12.3
points per game and 6.9 rebounds
per game followed closely by
Ponsoll with 11.9 ppg. Merrill
checks in with 10.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, and
a team-best in both assists and steals
with 65 and 16, respectively.
Behrend has run together a five
game winning streak, which
coincidentally is the same time the
Lions have started to gel as a team.
“Over the past four games we’ve
ail come together and started to play
more as a team,” said sophomore
Dave Hairston. “Defensively, we’ve
been communicating much better
and out rebounding teams. On
offense, we’re all taking great shots
and shooting a very high
percentage.”
Behrend will travel to face La
Roche (1-2,4-8) on Saturday in the
first of three road games. The Lions
play at Pitt-Greensburg (2-2,5-9) on
Wednesday followed by Altoona (0-
3, 0-11) on Jan. 26.
Mike Bello, Sports Editor
behrco!ls @ aol.com
jumper and two free throws by Libby
Gasior in the closing seconds to down
Behrend 63-59.
The Lions, down by two at the half
and as much as nine during the second
half, rallied to tie the game 59-all on
Phillips’ two free throws with 26 seconds
remaining. W & J (6-6) then ran the
clock down before Gasior hit for two
with two seconds remaining. Gasior
immediately intercepted a cross-court
pass and after being fouled by Costanzo,
sank both free throws to seal the win.
Phillips moved to within 57 points of
Michele Madison’s career point record
(1,409) with a 23-point night. The
McDowell High School grad was a
target of the Presidents the whole night,
getting sent to the line 16 times and
sinking 13 of those shots. Costanzo had
a game-high 11 rebounds and
contributed 11 points, while Weigold
added seven points.
The Lions shot only 31.6 percent from
the floor compared to W & J’s 38.2
percent, but Behrend was a much
disciplined team, sending the Presidents
to the line nine times. They made seven
of those shots but Behrend was able to
sink 19-of-26 foul shots to keep the
game close.
Despite all the excitement Phillips’
PHILLIPS
continued on page 12
from early November until Jan. 7 (first
day of spring classes) when we had
our first practice,” said Cooper. “Now
they are training together by event
groups five to six days per week. This
includes running, lifting, plyometrics,
drills and stair or hill workouts.”
Cooper plans on taking only eight
women and 21 men to Fredonia,
which is typical for an indoor meet.
Indoor meets are not stressed as much
as the outdoor ones, which begin on
March 23, but the indoor meets give
the players a chance to prepare for
outdoors.
“The indoor season is a build-up to
the outdoor season,” said Cooper.
“Much of our indoor training is actu
ally done outdoors so we don’t have
much problem acclimating.
COOPER
continued on page 12
Housing
and
Food Service
Athlete
of the Week
pennState
JHpErie
T’mi
Vianofmi
Tom Vignolini, a first
year diver, broke his own
team records in the 1
meter 6 dive competition
and the 1 meter 11 dive
competition by 40 points.
In the 6 dives his score
was 176.15 and in the 11
dives 296.35. Vignolini is
the only diver for the swim
team and has a chance to
qualify for ECACs at the
end of the ykar.