Buckeye Sports Shorts – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | General
May 7, 2002
Athletes of the Week
Defender Regina Oliver led the women’s lacrosse team to a win over Ohio. She was outstanding in the game with five ground balls, six caused turnovers and two draw controls. Offensively, Oliver contributed a goal and an assist in the win.
Billy Mills of the track team placed first in the high jump at the Jesse Owens Track Classic. His jump of 2.13 meters (6-11 3/4) set a record for the event and was a personal best.
Sports Shorts
Women’s Lacrosse (11-4 overall, 4-2 American LacrosseConference) closed out the regular season with a 12-6 win at Ohio.The victory set a record for most wins in a season for theseven-year program. Tracey Bounds had a game-high four goals forthe Buckeyes while defensively Regina Oliver was outstanding withfive ground balls, six caused turnovers and two draw controls.Offensively, Oliver contributed a goal and an assist in the win.Women’s lacrosse received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championshipon Sunday and will play Notre Dame (12-4) at 4 p.m., Thursday, May9 at Moose Krause Stadium. This will be OSU’s first-ever appearancein the NCAA Championship. Women’s Lacrosse moved to 12th in thefinal Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Pollthat was released Monday. This is the highest ranking, in the poll,in the history of the program. Congratulations to the men’s golfteam for its selection to the NCAA West Regional May 16-18 inAlbuquerque, N.M. The Buckeyes are the No. 12 seed in the West. Atotal of 81 teams, 27 in the East, West and Central regionals, willvie for 30 spots (10 from each region) at the NCAA ChampionshipsMay 29-June 1 in Columbus. Ohio State has served as NCAA tournamenthost a record 10 times. Since 1974, Jim Brown, Ohio State headcoach, has directed 18 teams into the NCAA championships. The OhioState rowing team, ranked No. 5 nationally, earned its first BigTen championship Saturday in East Lansing, Mich. The Buckeyesearned 138 points to outlast No. 3 Michigan (124). For theirefforts in the competition, Conny Kirsch (Sr., Potsdam,Germany/Helmholtz), Karla Fiserova (So., Jindrichuv Hradec, CzechRepub./Vk Vajgar) and Tatiana Grigorieva (Jr., Moscow,Russia/Olympic Reserve) were named to the All-Big Ten First Team.Franziska Schubert (Fr., Dresden, Germany/Vitzthum) and MaxiMeissner (Jr., Schoenow, Germany/Sportschule Postdam) were named tothe All-Big Ten Second Team. The team will now travel to Oak Ridge,Tenn., for the NCAA Central Regionals May 18-19. The men’s tennisteam leaves for Lexington, Ky., Thursday to begin play in the 2002NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship. The Buckeyes open with VanderbiltSaturday with the winner facing either Kentucky or Murray StateSunday. This is Ohio State’s third trip to the NCAA teamtournament. All three have come with head coach Ty Tucker at thehelm. A pair of Ohio State singles players also will take part inthe 2002 NCAA Singles Tournament, to be held May 22-27 at TexasA&M University in College Station, Texas. Phil Metz (Jr.,Mentor, Ohio/mentor) and sophomore Jeremy Wurtzman (Rochester,N.Y./Brickhouse Academy (Fla.) were selected to play in the64-player event. The women’s tennis team will travel to Knoxville,Tenn., to face Alabama in the first round of the NCAA championship.The winner of that match will face either the host Tennessee LadyVols or Marshall at 4 p.m. Saturday. This marks the Buckeyes’fourth consecutive, and fifth overall, appearance in thetournament. Senior Monica Rincon earned a berth in the 64-playerNCAA Singles Championship. Rincon, who is ranked 58th in thenation, will be making her first appearance in the singles tourney.The No. 19 softball team travels to Ann Arbor, Mich., and AlumniField this weekend to participate in the 2002 Big Ten Tournament asthe No. 2 seed. The Buckeyes (51-10, 16-4 Big Ten) finished secondto Michigan in the regular season race and now will look to earnthe conference’s automatic NCAA berth by winning the tournamenttitle. Ohio State plays the winner of No. 3 Iowa and No. 6 Illinoisat 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Anna Smith and Katie Chain, members of thesoftball team, rewrote several program records with theirperformances at Penn State over the weekend. In the first game withthe Nittany Lions, a 1-0 loss, Smith tied two marks, career hitsand single season stolen bases. After a single in the first inning,Smith stole third for her 37th swipe of the year to tie the recordshe established in 2000. Smith also singled in the sixth for the232nd hit of her career to tie Candace Kollen (1995-98) for theall-time OSU total. In the Buckeyes’ 4-1 win on Sunday, Smith went2-for-3 to break the career hits record and added two stolen basesto raise the new standard. Chain, also in the second game, recordedseven strikeouts in the circle to bring her season total to 189 andbreak the mark of 184 she set last year as the most in a singleseason. Chain, OSU’s all-time strikeout leader, is two away fromreaching 500 in her career. Brandon Steen (Sr., Hendersonville,Tenn./Hendersonville) got saves in all three of Ohio State’s winslast week to up his season total to seven. The total is his seasonhigh and the seventh most ever in a season by a Buckeye. AgainstYoungstown State he picked up his fifth save of the year in oneinning of action. On Friday, at Michigan, Steen entered in theeighth inning with the Buckeyes clinging to a two-run lead. Heallowed just one hit in 1 2/3 innings to pick up his sixth save ofthe year. On Sunday, he pitched the final two innings of the gameto pick up his seventh save of the season. He did not allow a runon two Michigan hits. Ohio State baseball plays host to Miami(Ohio) Wednesday night at 6:35 p.m. at Bill Davis Stadium, beforetraveling to Lansing, Mich. this weekend for a four-game Big Tenseries with Michigan State at Oldsmobile Park. The men’s lacrosseseason ended Saturday with a loss at Notre Dame, 7-3. The No.20-ranked Buckeyes, who finished the year 9-5, were led in the gameby Anthony Gilardi, who scored two goals. The track and field teamshad outstanding performances at the Jesse Owens Track Classic. Thesquads were led by first-place finishes by Billy Mills (So.,Copley, Ohio/Copley) in the high jump, Nosa Ehimwenman (So.,Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood Flossmoor) in the triple jump, Tami Smith(Jr., Galloway, Ohio/Westland) in the high jump and Dan Taylor(So., Middlefield, Ohio/Berkshire) in the shot put. Alexis McCall(So., Elyria, Ohio/Elyria) placed second in the shot put with athrow of 16.12 (52-10.75) to qualify automatically to the NCAAchampionships and set the Ohio State outdoor record. RosalindGodwin (Fr., Prospect, Ky./Louisville Ballard) had an outstandingday, as she set personal bests in both the long jump and the triplejump. Her jump of 12.45 (40-10.25) exceeded her previous high by1’2?, while her jump of 5.85 (19-02.50) in the triple jump was afoot longer than her previous mark. The day also saw the stadiumofficially dedicated to Jesse Owens, the Ohio State and U.S. tracklegend. In the opening ceremonies of the meet, Ohio State PresidentWilliam E. Kirwan, OSU Athletics Director Andy Geiger and MarleneRankin, Owens’ daughter, cut the ceremonial red ribbon to dedicatethe stadium.
Ohio State Athletics Events for The Week
Wednesday, May 8
Baseball vs. Miami (Ohio), 6:35 p.m.
Bill Davis Stadium
Thursday, May 9
Women’s Golf at NCAA Regionals, All Day
East Lansing, Mich.
Softball vs. Iowa or Illinois
at Big Ten Championships, 2:30 p.m.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Friday, May 10
Baseball at Michigan State, 7 p.m.
Oldsmobile Park, East Lansing, Mich.
Women’s Golf at NCAA Regionals, All Day
East Lansing, Mich.
Softball at Big Ten Championships
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Women’s Tennis vs. Alabama (NCAA Regionals), 2 p.m.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Saturday, May 11
Baseball at Michigan State (DH), 4 p.m.
East Lansing, Mich.
Women’s Golf at NCAA Regionals, All Day
East Lansing, Mich.
Softball at Big Ten Championship
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Men’s Tennis vs. Vanderbilt (NCAA 1st round), TBA
Lexington, Ky.
Women’s Tennis at NCAA regionals, 4 p.m.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Track and Field at Billy Hayes Invitational, All Day
Bloomington, Ind.
Sunday, May 12
Baseball at Michigan State, 1 p.m.
East Lansing, Mich.
Men’s Tennis at NCAA Regionals, TBA
Lexington, Ky.
