*BEACON SPORTS Weather puts seasons on hold The snowstorm that Eric residents awoke to on Sunday morning put a damper on the women's softball team's plans for the week ahead. The Lady Lions were to travel south to take on the Thiel Lady Tomcats on April 4 but the foot and a half of snow resulted in dangerous travel con ditions and forced the ladies to stay at home. The game was a non-conference match-up to help the team prepare for the conference games ahead. Now that the final few non-conference games are cancelled, the ladies get ready to face off against the Pitt Greensburg Lady Panthers for the conference season opener on April 7. Pitt-Greensburg already has two conference games under its belt. The Lady Panthers lost twice to Frostburg State University, making them 0-2 in the conference and 3-15 overall. This weekend provides the first home game of the season, which will be at the Behrend softball field on April 9 at 1 p.m. The game will be a double header and is sure to provide entertainment as the blue and white fight for their first home field victory of the season. A solid win at home can provide a much needed motivational boost for the players and hope fully help lead them to more victories in the future. Saturday brings a very exciting and much anticipated alumni game, which brings hack alum players to challenge the current squad. The game is at 11 a.m. at the softball field and is a great opportunity for the players to relax a little and have fun playing old friends and teammates. Sunday finishes off the busy weekend with an at home double header against La Roche's softball squad. The game is at 3 p.m. and is the last time the Lady Lions will play at home for over a week. Rain and thunder storms arc predicted for the rest of the week but are expected to finish by the weekend. With sunnier weather and some free time on your hands, make your way out to the field and support the women's softball team. 549.99 phones are a s i s ianie whae supplies last arid may not be available at all locations. Unlimited text messaging and unlimited nights and weekends avadable on plans $36 and nigher only. Unlimited night and weekend minutes available on calls made from the Cellular One from DCS networks Airtime In !lined In one minute increments and from SEND to END. Night and weekend airtime is from 9:OOpm-6:OOam Monday-Friday end 9:oopm Fnclav-6 00am Monday. Not all features, service options or offers are tradable on all devices, on all rate plans or available for Purchase or use in all areas. Data service may not be available In all areas and is billable per NB. Customs is responsible for all applicable fees, prorated access charges, taxes, roaming, long distance or other charges that accrue to their account. Cellular One approved phone is required for all rate plans. See sales representative for mom details. 02006 Cellular One EVO Conhonb Consumer Informebon kv Code By Maureen Archer staff writer The baseball and softball fields have been tarped since early last week and this weekends arrival of spring snow has delayed the seasons once again. With hopes of sunshine in this weekend's forecast, the baseball team mightwill finally play a game at home. Winter weather weighs down women's track team By Stephen Wingerter staff writer Last Saturday, the women's track team competed at the Western Pennsylvania Championships at Carnegie Mellon and came out with strong standings. Coached by Dave Cooper, one record was broken and many more are on their way. Freshman Erica Smith broke the school record in the 400 IM hurdles and took sev enth place with a time of 69.67. Smith also participated in the 4 x 100 relay along with junior Nikki Mineweaser and freshmen Becky Gonzalez and Leisl Soergel. This group finished in seventh place as well. Soergel was tabbed to replace senior Marlena McNutt who has been suffering from a back injury. The 4 x 400 relay of senior Claire Manelick, Mineweaser, Soergel and Smith Men's track team overcomes adversity By Justin Bootes staff writer The Western Pennsylvania Championships proved to be a cold and not so great place for a track meet on Saturday. The men's track team placed ninth out of 17 Division I, II and 111 schools. Robert Morris took home the first place trophy with Pitt coming in second. The day started out cool with temperatures getting cooler throughout the day at CMU while snow fell in Erie. This wet cold climate always makes compet ing more of a challenge. Behrend qualified two ECAC qualifiers this past week. Senior Isiah Meek qualified in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 15:09, second to only Pitt D -1 athlete Mike Wray. Junior Shane Rock sealed his spot at the ECAC meet in the triple jump for the third season. A jump of 43' 6" brought Behrend home with a second place spot. Pitt's Kory Gross took first. Rock's leap into the sand was almost a full foot over an ECAC qualifying jump. Five Behrend athletes are close to qualifying for ECACs. Sophomore Dan Mitchell threw his javelin 163' placing eighth in the invitational. Senior Nick McGrady threw just ten feet below Mitchell placing tenth overall with 153'. The cold rain created slop py throwing surfaces. "The mud made it very hard, if not impossible to plant, thus taking away a lot of power from my HOUSING AND FOOD SERVICES ATHLETE OF THE WEEK James Myers Men's Tennis Freshman Cranberry/Seneca Valley Housing and Food Service Athlete of the Week is selected by the Sports Information Staff finished sixth with a time of 4:16.55, a six second improvement from last week and the second fastest time in Behrend history. Gonzalez has been working hard to improve her times and the efforts have been paying off with her personal record on the 100 high hurdle dropping to 16.48. Junior Staci Banaszek jumped to a sixth place finish in the high jump, but was scratched from her best event, the triple jump. She still faces lingering pain from her knee injury at Clarion last week. Banaszek was one of the best all around jumpers at the meet, but must now focus on full recovery from her injury. "My knee and shins are definitely putting a damper on my ability to jump well," said Banaszek. "I should be good to jump this weekend, but I am definitely not at the 100 percent that I need and wish to be at." Last week's AMCC Athlete of the Week was back at work this weekend, going undefeated in two home matches. Myers and his doubles partner, fresh man Trevor Dor ever Alfred on Friday and 8-3 following day. Myers also held singles match es. The • . i *he weekend, losing t , ence foe Frostbu e I a the con ference s ►. s. The :e consecutive • off against Pi Saturday and The Behrend Beacon I 10 Friday, April 8, 2005 The Lady Lions have been working hard to drop times in preparation for ECAC's. As a team, they have been battling against two issues: the practice facility and weather. "Being that we do not have a good prac tice facility to train on, a lot of our team is getting shin splints and other injuries," said Banaszek. "Also, along with that, we have many athletes that are close to qualifying for ECAC's and Nationals and having a home facility to practice on would give us that extra practice to get there." This weekend the track team heads to Mt. Union, where hopefully weather will treats them better. The lions have already had much success despite the practice facility and the weather, but times will continue to drop with as much talent as the team pos sesses. throw," said McGrady. Fellow senior Mike Barlett put out a 1:59 half mile taking sixth place overall. The relay teams are also looking good early in the season with the 4xloo and 4x400 proving to be sharp. Throughout the spring it hasn't been uncommon to see a group of athletes running around in the parking lot. Didn't our mothers tell us not to play in traffic? There is no track on Behrend's campus but there is a hard working track team. "Penn State Altoona got a multimillion dollar facility and they do not even have a track team," said senior Tim Schultheis. Behrend has a track team, but what about a track? Where does the team practice? How does the team practice? "Its extremely frustrating not having a track on campus," said freshman Brett Pollack. "When we go to a meet to compete our competitors have an advan tage over us because they have been practicing on a track. When you practice on a track your shins have to get used to running on that surface, so by the team running on concrete, it doesn't help us one bit when racing on a completely different surface." "Yes I do think it will help us compete, especially being an intermediate hurdler," said freshman Kevin Shugars. "Without a track I have no way to set up all the hurdles I need and so meets are the only place I have to practice." 1111\143, Mit . ,,.. 'Eric for three 'eekend, facing \ Frostburg on Inday.
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