Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

… And a clarification

However, a later check of UK’s meet notes, as well as the media guide listings of “top 10 marks” in each event, showed that Buncic threw 217-4.

And now …

You’ve got to love how the Kentucky men stepped up to take third place in the team standings. The top five in individual events, as well as the top three relays, automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, June 10-13, at Arkansas.

The 20th-ranked Wildcats have been snake-bitten with injuries for most of the outdoor season, particularly in the sprints.

But there was Rondel Sorrillo, who didn’t even compete outdoors until the Southeastern Conference meet because of injuries, taking third place in the 200 meters and anchoring the second-place 4-by-100-meter relay.

Rondel Sorrillo

“Better than SEC, but it still hurts,” said Sorrillo, who ran the 200 for Trinidad and Tobago at last summer’s Beijing Olympics — beating eventual gold-medal winner Usain Bolt in the first round. “It hurts, but I’m back.”

What hurts?

“My butt, my hamstrings, my calves,” he said. “Both legs.”

Jose Acevedo

There was Jose Acevedo, who also ran the 200 at Beijing, representing Venezuela.

He ran second on the 4-by-100 relay, then anchored the third-place 4-by-400 relay. That despite a foot injury that, Coach Don Weber said, would have kept a less-determined sprinter out of the meet.

When Justin Austin went down at the Penn Relays, the Cats had to plug holes on both relays.

Also missing was Mikel Thomas, a 2008 Olympian for Trinidad and Tobago in the 110-meter hurdles. He suffered a broken collarbone during practice, a week-and-a-half ago.

Kwasi Obeng

Stephan Smith

Saturday, Kwasi Obeng did the job on the relays, running the third leg on the quick relay and leading off the 4-by-4.

Stephan Smith, a half-miler, filled in on the second leg of the 4-by-4.

“Considering the way we’ve been for most of the outdoor season, especially in our sprint group — hurt and banged up as much as we have been — it’s a great day,” Weber said. “Especially for those guys.”

Now, being off next weekend, the Cats will try to “maintain” fitness and continue the healing process.

Erin Tucker

Don Weber

“We can get a little bit better,” Weber said, “so that’s encouraging.”

In the 4-by-100, UK led through three legs. Obeng’s handoff to Sorrillo didn’t go too well, though, allowing 100-meter champion Trindon Holliday of LSU to be first out of the final exchange zone.

“Trindon … had the baton first because (Sorrillo) had to wait on Kwasi to get the baton,” said Erin Tucker, UK’s sprints and hurdles coach. “Anytime, the four-by-one, when you have to wait a little bit, you lose that acceleration and then you’ve got to start back up from square one. … You want to get the baton going full speed.”

The good news is that the problem was due in part to Sorrillo accelerating, finally, through the zone. By his own admission, Sorrillo had been deficient in that area during practice. And now Obeng and Sorrillo have nearly two weeks to work on the final exchange.

Gordon McKenzie

Tucker said Gordon McKenzie “ran an awesome leadoff leg. … Jose built off it. … Kwasi just looked like a superstar because he’s out in front. And then we had the little thing with Rondel.”

As good as the sprint results were, UK came out best in the weights.

Rashaud Scott, who won the shot put on Friday, added the discus title Saturday. Having successfully defended his regional title, Scott will try to repeat as national champion at Arkansas.

And consider this: all six of his throws Saturday were better than second-place finisher Greg Pilling of Central Michigan.

Pilling threw 197-2, two feet ahead of UK’s Chase Madison.

Rashaud Scott

Madison, a senior who transferred in 2007 from Iowa State, can relate to UK’s sprinters.

At Iowa State, he broke a bone in his left foot. A titanium screw was inserted to fix the bone. It didn’t work.

Chase Madison

When he arrived at UK for his entrance physical, “they said, ‘well, you’re either going to have to have another surgery on that thing to fix it because they did it totally incorrect, or you’re never going to throw again,’” Madison said when interviewed before last winter’s SEC Indoor Championships.

He opted for surgery, which involved taking bone from his ankle and grafting the bone to his foot. Oh, and four screws and a plate.

He went from June 2006 until April 2008 without throwing a disc in competition.

Now, he throws in pain. Look at his foot and you can actually see the plate and a screw sticking out from the bone. Pain limits his practice time, but he’s a believer in quality workouts over quantity. When he does throw, he throws with purpose.

Saturday, he said his pain was controlled as well as could be expected: “I had quite a bit of Aleve in me.”

“It’s nice to be back to a national meet. I haven’t been since 2006, since I’ve been hurt,” he said. “It was a decent day, I guess. Could have expected a lot more, could have been a lot worse. So, regroup and get ready for two weeks.”

U of L: A crown of Thorne’s

Corey Thorne

Louisville’s highlight Saturday came from Corey Thorne, who outkicked Eastern Michigan’s Josh Karanja to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a stadium-record 8:36.98. Karanja finished in 8:37.20.

“It’s going to be just like that at nationals,” Thorne said. “Whether it goes fast or slow, it’s going to come down to who has the best kick. So coming out here, it’s kind of like a trial.”

Ron Mann

Head coach Ron Mann and distance coach Brice Allen prepared Thorne well.

“One of the things that Coach Allen and I have done over the last 10 days is doing a lot of speed work over the barriers, preparing for that last quarter,” Mann said. “Those barriers come up very quickly and you’ve got to be ready for it. He did a nice job of executing that.”

Tarah McKay

Jere' Summers

U of L also had two automatic qualifiers in women’s events.

Tarah McKay ran fourth at 1,500 meters. Jeré Summers, the surprise winner of Friday’s discus, took second in Saturday’s shot put.

McKay, a junior from St. Clements, Ontario, Canada, improved one spot from her regional finish of a year ago.

Summers, a junior from Oakland, Calif., is a two-time Most Outstanding Field Event Performer in the Big East.  She transferred to U of L after competing two indoor seasons and one outdoor season at Cal State Northridge.

WKU: Smellie is good

Gavin Smellie

Western Kentucky senior Gavin Smellie won the men’s 200 meters, tying the Cardinal Park record of 20.45 seconds. (Auburn freshman Marcus Rowland was runner-up, followed by Sorrillo. Earlier, Rowland false-started out of the 100 meters, an event in which he was ranked No. 2 in the region and No. 4 in the nation.) 

Smellie, a Canadian, also led off the Hilltoppers’ second-place 4-by-400 relay and anchored the eighth-place 4-by-100 relay. The first seven spots in the quick relay went to Southeastern Conference schools, led by LSU and Kentucky.

Western’s women placed third in the 4-by-100 relay.

EKU: I go, you go, we all go for Mugo

Stanley Mugo

Eastern Kentucky’s top finish of the day came from Stanley Mugo in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

 

A junior from Kenya and the Ohio Valley Conference’s Co-Male Track Athlete of the Year, Mugo placed 10th.

By placing among the top 12 in the region, he still has a chance of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships (bids to be announced Tuesday). His time Saturday was 9:00.89. However, he ran 8:52.07 in April at the Penn Relays.

Regions and records

The Mideast, one of four regionals, is comprised of 167 teams from 12 states (Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin).

Cardinal Park records were set in 22 of Saturday’s 28 events. Two others were tied, and another was negated because it was wind-aided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UK’s Scott was among five athletes setting regional records, and the only male.  

Phoebe Wright

Women’s meet records went to: 

* U.S. Olympic Trials champion Kara Patterson of Purdue, who won javelin for the fourth year in a row, this time at 192-1.

* Two-time defending NCAA champ Tiffany Ofili of Michigan, 12.96 in the 100-meter hurdles.

* Tennessee former walk-on and now top-ranked Phoebe Wright, 2:02.20 in the 800.

* Middle Tennessee State’s Sarah Nambawa, ranked second nationally, with a triple jump of 45-9.

Zach Parise

Now one week less than a year until the opening of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, Zach Parise and Angela Ruggiero are among those hopeful of representing Team USA in hockey.

Parise, 24, is a winger for the New Jersey Devils and a native of Minneapolis. He has represented his country in six international competitions, but never an Olympics. He’s played in three World Championships, two Junior Worlds and one U-18 Worlds, helping Team USA win U-18 and (2004) Junior titles.

Ruggiero, 29, has played in every Olympics since women’s hockey became a medal event. Named top defenseman in the world six times, she helped Team USA to Nagano gold in 1998, Salt Lake City silver in 2002 and Torino bronze in 2006. Her cumulative stats: three goals, seven assists, 32 penalty minutes and a staggering plus-minus of +24.

Angela Ruggiero

She’s also played in eight World Championships and leads Team USA in international games played.

Two different players aiming for two different U.S. hockey rosters on two differing stages.

Since NHL players came into the Olympics in 1998, six different teams have played in the three gold-medal games.

The women’s game, however, has been dominated by Team USA and Canada.

Parise, whose father Jean-Paul played 14 seasons in the NHL and was a key figure in helping Canada (yes, Canada) witn the 1972 Summit Series over the Soviet Union, is having a career year.

Parise in action

Going into Thursday night’s game against Tampa Bay, Parise was tied for second in the NHL with  34 goals and was fourth with 69 points. His goals, points, assists (35), power-play goals (11) and plus-minus (+22) all are career highs — with more than seven weeks to play in what is his fourth NHL season. Oh, and the Devils lead the Atlantic Division.

No surprise here: Parise learned the game from his dad, who settled in Minneapolis and became an American citizen after playing for the North Stars. Zach was practically raised Canadian, though, spending countless hours playing pond hockey. The Parise house was adorned with hockey pictures taken during his father’s career.

“I think Minnesota is the closes thing to the (hockey) passion of a Canadian city,” Parise said. “In the Minnesota high school tournament, they’re selling out the Xcel (Energy) Center, 20,000 people. They love the game there.” 

Ruggiero, on the other hand, began playing at 7 when her father enrolled her in a Pasadena, Calif., youth league. A boys’ league that lacked players.

“They needed to field some teams back in the day,” said Ruggiero, whose teammates included her brother and sister. “So my dad brought me to the rink. And the L.A. Kings brought in (Wayne) Gretzky the year after I started playing, so that really created an explosion in some of these non-traditional hockey states that I benefited from.”

Ruggiero on ice

A native of Harrison Township in Michigan; introduced to hockey in California; played prep-school hockey in Connecticut (Choate Rosemary Hall); college hockey in Massachusetts (Harvard); trained with Team USA in New York (Lake Placid, for the 2002 Games) and now doing so in Minnesota (Blaine Residency Program, for the ’10 Games), Ruggiero is a living melting pot of state pride. When asked where she’s from, Ruggerio answers “I’m from all over America.”

The U.S. men are in an Olympic pool with Canada, Switzerland and Norway. The women are grouped with Finland, Russia and China.

Both Parise and Ruggiero say Canada is the team to keep an eye on. How could they not with men’s stars such as Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley and Ryan Getzlaf? Or with women’s standouts Hayley Wickenheiser, Jayna Hefford, Caroline Oullette and the goalie tandem of Charline Labonte’ and Kim St. Pierre?

After that, perhaps Russia, but “I don’t think you can overlook any team that’s going to be there,” Parise said. Ruggiero says the women also will have to be alert to Sweden, which recently beat Canada in the Four Nations Tournament.

As for Team USA, Parise bit when asked: if you were general manager of the team, who would you pick for a starting six?

“I might get myself in trouble here. … (Ryan) Miller’s having a great season in Buffalo there, in the nets, but (the Islanders’ Rick) DiPietro’s always there, too. … I think you put (Chicago’s Patrick) Kane, (the Rangers’ Scott) Gomez, and I would put Dustin Brown (of Los Angeles) there, too. Then maybe (Montreal’s Mike) Komisarek and (Detroit’s Brian) Rafalski on point.”

Others mentioned during the conversation included Peter Mueller of Phoenix, Patrick O’Sullivan of Los Angeles, Drew Stafford of Buffalo and Chris Drury of the Rangers.

As for himself, “I think I’m more of a third-liner,” Parise said.

“I’ve always wanted to play in the Olympics. I’ve always wanted to represent my country. It made me think about it a little more-so (when) we went to Vancouver at the beginning of January. You can tell, already, the excitement that’s there. You can see the buildings going up and it’s really going to be a great place to have it. I just hope I’m there to play.”

With Wisconsin’s Mark Johnson taking over from Ben Smith as coach of the U.S. women, Ruggiero thinks several Badgers could join him in Vancouver. She’s particularly high on goalie Jessie Vetter, while also mentioning Hilary Knight, Erika Lawler and Meaghan Duggan. Minnesota freshman twins Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux could be in the mix.

For her part, Ruggiero said, “to be able to play in a fourth Olympics and, hopefully, win a gold medal, getting back to the top of that podium, means everything to me. It is the reason why I’m still playing.”

Provisional rosters were released Monday. Final 28-man rosters will be revealed Feb. 24. The 16-team event begins March 5 at Tokyo, Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and on March 6 at Mexico City. The second round will start March 14 at Miami and March 15 at San Diego. Semifinals, March 21-22, and finals, March 23, will be at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

As for the Legends connections, pitchers Wandy Rodriguez, Phil Barzilla and Fernando Nieve, as well as second baseman Stubby Clapp are on provisional rosters. Rodriguez, who was known as Eny Cabreja during his days as a Legend, is on the Dominican roster; Barzilla is on the Italian roster; Nieve, Venezuela; and Clapp, Lexington’s hitting coach last summer, Canada.

Infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr., son of the former Legends manager of the same name, is on Puerto Rico’s roster.

Full rosters and ticket information are available online at: http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp