Buckeye Sports Shorts – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | General
June 4, 2002
Sports Shorts
The Ohio State first varsity 8 crossed the finish line 15hundredths of a second behind California to in the first varsity 8Grand Final to take fifth overall at the 2002 NCAA Championships inIndianapolis, Ind., over the weekend. The Buckeyes finished at sixminutes, 41.1 seconds, behind Washington (6:36.4), 2002 NCAA TeamChampions Brown (6:39.9) and Cal (6:41.0). Had the Buckeyesovercome California and taken third in the race, they would havefound themselves on the championship platform in third, insteadthey finished with 42 points overall and fifth, the second Top 5finish in program history. The track and field season ended overthe weekend at the NCAA championships in Baton Rouge, La. FiveBuckeyes competed in the meet. The top OSU finisher was KristaKeir, who placed third in the discus to earn All-America honors.Tami Smith placed eighth in the high jump, followed by Dan Taylor(10th, shot put), Katy Craig (11th/hammer throw), and Alexis McCall(19th, shot put). Junior men’s gymnast Raj Bhavsar (Houston,Texas/Cypress Academy) was named to the 2002 Verizon AcademicAll-District IV Men’s At-Large Second Team. Bhavsar, a biologymajor, carries a 3.34 grade point average and is a two-timeAcademic All-Big Ten selection. He is also a three-time OSU ScholarAthlete. This season the Houston native was the NCAA and Big TenAll-Around Champion helping, his squad win its second consecutiveBig Ten title and finish second at the NCAA championships. Heearned three All-America honors at the NCAA championships forall-around, vault and pommel horse giving him a total of seven forhis career. Baseball went 2-2 at the South Bend Regional toconclude its season with a 38-20-1 record. After opening regionalplay with an 8-6 loss to Notre Dame, the Buckeyes won twoelimination games, beating fourth-seeded Kent State 12-8 andtop-seeded South Alabama 6-4. Notre Dame, the second seed at theregional, beat Ohio State 9-6 in the regional championship toadvance to Super Regional action this week at Florida State, theNo. 1 national seed. Scott Lewis was named to the South BendAll-Regional Team. In getting the win over top-seeded SouthAlabama, he pitched his second nine-inning complete game in thepostseason with 10 strikeouts and no walks. The Big Ten Freshman ofthe Year gave up four runs on 10 hits, all of the runs coming onfive hits in the first two innings. Lewis retired the last sevenbatters of the game in order and 10 of the last 12. Also joiningLewis on the All-Regional Team, were outfielder Doug Deeds andshortstop Brett Garrard. Deeds was 7-for-17 (.413), scored fourtimes and had two doubles, while Garrard led the Buckeyes in SouthBend with a .429 batting average (6-for-14). He also knocked inthree runs, scored four times. Caity Matter, a sophomore guard whoredshirted last season, was chosen to represent Ohio State on the2002 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Foreign Tour Team. The team willplay five games in Holland and Belgium during the ten-day trip,which spans June 14-24. During the 2000-2001 season, Matter was astarter until an injury caused her to miss a stretch of 16 games.She averaged 6.4 points per game while shooting .442 from thefield, .367 from three-point range and .880 from the free-throwline. Matter is a Bluffton, Ohio, native and was named Ms. OhioBasketball 2000, which was the first time that honor was bestowedon a Division III player. Northwestern’s June Olkowski will coachthe Big Ten Foreign Tour Team. Olkowski is in her fourth year asthe Wildcat’s head coach and this will mark her first at the helmof the Foreign Tour. Eleven other student-athletes from each of theBig Ten schools will join Matter on the conference squad. The BigTen Conference named 120 Ohio State student-athletes to the 2002Spring Academic All-Big Ten team. Two track and field competitors,Sjaan Gerth (So., Biochemistry) and All-American and Big Ten discuschampion Krista Keir (Jr., Education/Sport and Leisure Studies),maintained a 4.00 grade point average. The Buckeye track and fieldteams led the way with 15 student-athletes earning conferencehonors including Big Ten champions Tami Smith (Jr., Social andBehavioral Sciences), high jump, and Katy Craig (Sr.,Business/Marketing), hammer throw. The rowing squad had 13student-athletes earning conference honors including conferenceco-athlete of the year Conny Kirsch (Sr., Psychology). Softball had12 honorees, including Big Ten Softball Player of the Year andSecond Team All-American Wendy Allen (So., Undeclared).
