fOrsiOekf., J,?IPRI:Jt-Nft f 4, r 775 SOph*,-May ' Dot Adoo. - :'': -. M . . 1... ,;:::,.ineu.p Although Wrestling Coach Charlie Speidel will definitely be relying on three of his six lettermen to bolster the Lion mat hopes this season, he may find his opening-match lineup liberally sprinkled with several sophomores. Speidel has lost, the services of aces Dick Lemyre, Jerry Maurey, Doug Frey, and Krebs who_ helped the Lions earn a third-place rating in the nationals last year. Returning lettermen are Captain Bob Homan and Hal Byers at 130 pounds; Shawley, 157; Joe Krufka, 177; and heavyweight Bill Oberly. Speidel's sixth letterman, Humphreys (157), is ineligble to wrestle until next semester. In the eight weight divisions, Speidel has five lettermen return ing: at four different weights. In the other four slots the sopho mores dominate the picture. At 123 pounds sophomores George Smith and Sid Nodland along with senior Bill Cramp are battling for the lightweight posi tion position. At 130 pounds are Byers and Homan both letter men and competent matmen. Sophomores John Pepe and Rowland Wilkinson, along with the Nittanies' veteran matman and boxer last season, Larry Fornicola, will be holding most of the atten tion at the 137-pound spot. Dave Adams, sophomore, for mer PIAA title holder from Belle fonte, and his senior teammate Walt Hough are contenders for the 147-pound position. At 157 pounds Shawley, a junior, faces senior Len McNeal and Bill Thom as for the 155-pound berth. 'At the 167-pound opening Bob Snyder is holding most of the at tention. Snyder, a senior from Bellmore, L. 1., and a transfer from Franklin and Marshall College, will face junior Ed Pasko. Sophomore Krufka and junior Oberly—both lettermen—are prob able "sures" in the 177-pound and heavyweight positions. Although Speidel has six soph omores vying for a position, five of them are distributed in the four loVvest weight classes, with Kruf ka the only soph Lion in the heav ier divisions. The Lions open their Centennial year season Saturday at Grace Hall against the Big Red of Cor nell. In preparation for their first match, the Lions will be compet ing in team elimination rounds with 16. of Speidel's top wrestlers grappling for team berths in the season opener. Five of the 16 contenders are former local high schdol wrest lers. Each of the .five will be vy ing in a different weight class. Former Little Lions Smith, 123 pounds, and Byers, 130 pounds, 'along with former Red Raiders Fornicola, - 137 pounds, and Adams, 147 pounds, and another Little Lion Shawley, 157 pounds, will be vying this week for opening-day positions. Defending Cham Gymnasts. .Pre,are fair 14:;55.00ner With two consecutive NCAA triurriphs under their belts and riding on the crest of a 15 dual meet winning streak, Gene Wettstone's newest version of Nittaily Lion gym nasts are only four weeks away from their 1955 opener- Last year on April s . the Lions climaxed a great season with a tremendous finish that saw them emerge from the Nationals with an unprecented team total of 137 points. They competed against a field of over 250 gymnasts, representing 23 teams at the Universtiy of Illinois' Huff gymnasium. In addition the Lions won the Eastern crown for the second straight year as a result of six victorious outings over the season, and completely dominated the Eastern meet at Temple University March 12-13. Gone from last year's much heralded aggregation are Jan Cronstedt, Co-captains A 1... and Frank Wick, 'Tony Procopio, Bob Lawrence, John Baffa and Dick Spiese. So -Wettstone has a re building job on his hands as he molds his 16th Penn State gym nast's team 48 Victories In that 16-year reign, the re spected and capable Lion mentor has \ enscribed a remarkable total of 48 seasonal dual meet wins against 21 losses and one tie in the Penn State record book. Captain. K a r 1 Schwenzfeier, Skeets- Haag, Bill Paxton, Skip Heim,. and Tony Cline, all veteran holdovers from last year's squad, will form the nucleus for this year's team, around whom Wett stone must form a unit that will Fornicola Captures Wrestling Crown Penn State's Larry Fornicola—who first wrestled for the Lions last fall and then moved into the boxing ring during the final win ter weeks—has reappeared in the college wrestling picture. Forni cola, wrestling unattached, won the 137-pound championship in the Wilkes College Wrestling tournament last week. Fornicola was one of seven Lion matmen who entered the tour nament unattached. Although Johnny Johnston, Bill Oberly, Bill Shawley, Joe Krufka, Jim Hazen, and Walt Hough entered the tour- Wilkes-Barre Champ ney, Fornicola was the only Lion matmen who copped a title. Krufka lost to Pitt's Joe Solo mon, 4-0, in the finals; Johnston finished third. Fornicola proceeded through five rounds, with two advance ments coming by route of byes. After drawing a bye in the first round, he pinned Ray Evart, East Strondsburg, in the second round lons ... face a seven dual-meet schedule composed of the East's gymnastic best. Four meets will be at Rec Hall. This Year's 'lron Man' Schwenzfeier, last year's "mighty might," is destined to be Wett stone's "iron man" performer when the season opens. He is the only veteran returning on the hor izontal bar, parallel bars, flying rings, and in free exercise. Haag, Paxton, and Heim return as the top men on the rope, mats, and side horse respectively. Cline, with two varsity performances oe hind hini on the horizontal bar, is expected to hold his own in that department. Before reaching their opener Jan. -29, the Lions will give an'' el.:ll'slton performance along with! the Swedish gymnasts when the rrlic c r cott.t - YAN. I . 33rt' CCiLIEGE.. I'TNNSrLVANt4 t , ooters Earn Section Honors Three Penn State soccer play ers were named to the first team on the All-Pennsylvania, Ne w Jersey and. Delaware Soccer team. The players are Paul Dierks, left forward, Dick Packer, center for ward, and Jack Pinezich, outside left. Galen Robbins, Penn State's right forward, was given honor= able mention. The first team is as follows: Donald Clark, Pittsburgh, goal ie Robert Seinions, Allegheny, right fullback. Paul Dierks, Penn State, left fullback Al Didrikson, Temple, right halfbacl_ Sergio Rey, West Chester, cen ter halfback Len Oliver, Temple, left half back Constantine Inglessis, Swarth more, outside right Jack Dunn, Temple, inside right Dick Packer, Penn State, cen ter forward. Larry Zartman, Ursinus, inside left Jack Pinezich, Penn State, out side left in 1:32. In the third round. Forni cola held a 4-0 lead over Har vard's Joe Moag, who pulled a shoulder and defaulted. Forth cola byed into the finals when Bill Cozy of Pitt defaulted. Fornicola said, "my toughest bout was the final one." Fornicola defeated Michigan's Max Pearson, 6-3, for the 137-pound title. latter make their appearance at Rec Hall on Jan. 15. Well over 5000 tickets already have been sold for that event. Then the Lions will get down to brass tacks with their sights set on another gymnastic winner for the Nittany vale. The 1955 gymnastic schedule follows: Jan. 15, Swedish exhibition, home Jan. 29, West Virginia, home Feb. 5, Illinois, home Feb. 12, Navy, away Feb. 19, Army, home Feb. 23, Pitt, away Feb. 26, Temple, home March 5, Syracuse, away March 12, Intercollegiates, An nal2olis March 25-26, NCAA, Los An geles, Calif. • Cronstedt to Accompany Swedes on U.S. Tour Rec Hall gymnastic fans will be presented with an added treat when the'Swedish visitors make their exhibition appearance at Rec Hall Jan. 15. Jan. Cronstedt, star performer on last year's Nittany Lion team, will take time out from his medical studies at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm to .accompany the Swedes on the first half of their AP Places Undefeated Wildcats Ist By the Associated Press Kentucky's -mighty Wildcats, still unbeaten after a month of competition, easily retained their No. 1 ranking among the nation's major college IPasketball teams yesterday in the weekly Asso ciated Press poll. The defending Southeastern Conference champions headed 89 of the 116 ballots cast by sports writers and sportscasters through out the nation• to pile up 1090 points, nearly 200 more than their nearest pursuer. Th e Wildcats trounced St. Louis by 17 points and overwhelmed Temple by 31 points last week' to run their un beaten string to seven games this season and 32 over a two-year span. Duquesne, winner of the Holi day Festival at Madison Square Garden, vaulted into second place with 869 points. The Dukes. who were in eight place last week, drew 14 first place votes by virtue 'of their . New Year's Eve triumph over LaSalle._ Only a loss to George - Washington in eight games mars Dukuesne's record. LaSalle (9-3) dropped one notch to fourth place behind North Car olina State's Wolfpack which fell from second to third because of a surprising defeat at the hands of twice-beaten Villanova. LaSalle polled 630 points to 679 for the Wolfpack who also saw their 12- game winning streak go up in smoke. San Francisco's Dons (3-1) re mained in fifth place with 515 points but two other schools—llli nois and Niaga-a—dropped out of the top ten. Their places were taken by UCLA and Missouri. Q-Back Aim of Bobby Hoffman, an early season sensation in Penn State basket ball, says a starting position on the football team still remains his No. 1 objective in 1955. "Sure, I like basketball," the little fellow says, "but what I want more than anything else next fall is to play football." Hoffman, who at 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, is the smallest man on the Lion five, shared the quarter back slot last fall with Don Bailey and Milt Plum but is far from sat isfied that his limited service en titled him to first team recogni tion. "I want to go in there and stay," the Farrell man-in-motion ex plains. "I want to be the guy they use when the pressure's on." While aware of Hoffman's foot ball ambitions, basketball coach John Egli is content to sit back and watch the spunky junior spark his first varsity .edition to new heights in scoring. "He's an amazing kid," Egli said. "He comes up with the ball at the most unexpected times, and invariably converts it into a score by passing off to a teammate, or driving in to score himself." It was largely Hoffman's ball stealing tactics that enabled the Lion five, in its annual duel with Colgate, three weeks ago, to roll up a record-breaking 110 points. The team's average for nine games is a robuSt 85.6 points—highest in Lion history. Hoffman, who also is accurate from outside, plays the front court with co-captain Ronnie Weiden hammer and the two represent what Egli believes to be the "per fect pair" for this job. "They know how to 'hound' the other fellow," Egli explains, "and American tour. He will accom pany them to Cleveland and then return to Stockholm. Last year the junior gymnast spearheaded the Lions to their second undefeated season, and then was the big factor in bring ing Eastern and National , team honors to the Nittany vale. The Finnish-born gymnast had one year of'pre-fined studies re maining at Penn State before he decided to enroll in the Swedish medical school following a visit to Europe this summer with Lion gym coach Gene Wettstone. He was Wettstone's top per former throughout all of the 1954 campaign, but it was in the Na tionals at the University of Illi nois that Cronstedt gained the widest acclaim. When the Lions' captured the national crown for the second straight year it was a real team victory, but the individual per formance of the outstanding gym nast could not go without recog nition. .In addition to capturing the coveted all-around title, he set tled for no less than first place in each of the three individual events in which he was entered. NCAA Probes Baseball 'Body' NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (W)—One potentially explosive report on the composition of "official" bi g league baseballs was refused to day, but a few other lively sub jects turned up to keep the win ter meetings of the National Col legiate A.A. and allied bodies from becoming abnormally peace ful. The executive committee of the American Assn. of College Base ball Coaches'decided to withhold publication of a year-long study of baseballs, pending fu r ther study. It was understood that this study, made in the University of Wisconsin laboratories, would have shown great differences among the various makes of "of ficial" baseballs. Slot Remains Hoffman they come up with the ball un usually often," "I've never known a more per fect pair for this particular job," he said. Hoffman's emergence as a bas ketball standout in the current campaign comes as no surprise to those who knew him as an all- State schoolboy selection at Far rell, but to others his spirited play has been nothing short of Sensa tional. • NITTANY C 11,4, NE) S -- equal to any occasion Our cleaning and pressing make a smooth pair that will meet your most discriminating taste! PAGE SEVEN
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers