LSC Roundup 3-26

Baseball News
Box Scores and Stats
Standings
ASU Basebcall Capsule, 3/26

UCO baseball coach Wendell Simmons to retire

EDMOND (March 25) – Longtime Central Oklahoma baseball coach Wendell Simmons has announced that he will retire after the 2010 season, ending a 34-year career as one of the state’s most successful coaches.

Simmons is in his 19th year with the Bronchos after spending 15 years in the high school ranks, including 14 at Edmond Memorial High School. He takes a 1,074-526-1 record into UCO’s four-game Lone Star Conference series at Southeastern Oklahoma this weekend.

“I’ve got nothing but great memories of my coaching career, especially here at UCO,” said Simmons, who played at UCO in the early 1970s. “I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of great players come through here and we had a lot of success. It’s been fun and I know I’ll miss it, but it’s time to move on.”

Simmons is 628-359-1 at UCO and has had 15 winning seasons, including the eight best seasons in school history. He’s guided the Bronchos to six LSC North Division championships, three overall LSC titles and sevenNCAA Division II playoff appearances, with the 1997 team finishing as national runner-up.

Simmons was named LSC Coach of the Year in 1994 and ’97, earned LSC North Coach of the Year accolades five times in seven years and has coached 134 All-LSC and All-LSC North Division players during his long tenure, with 14 players having earned All-America recognition.

Simmons came to UCO after a sensational high school career that saw him spend one year at Dover High School and 14 at Edmond Memorial in compiling a 446-167 record.

He guided Memorial to eight regional titles and eight state tournament berths, producing 13 All-Staters. Simmons was inducted into the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

Softball News
Box Scores and Stats
Standings
ASU Softball Capsule, 3/26

Track & Field News
Top Times

Track & Field: Three earn weekly honors

Four track and field student-athletes earned Lone Star Conference Athlete of the Week honors for their performances, league officials announced today.

• Click here for the complete release
  
  
• Click here for top times/marks
  

LSC Track & Field Athletes of the Week
MEN’S TRACK
No nominees.

MEN’S FIELD
C.J. Griggs, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Fr., Jumps-Sprints, Cedar Lane, Texas/Van Vleck
Griggs was the biggest winner for the Javelinas at the IBC Bank Cactus Cup in Kingsville. He won the long jump (22-11) and triple jump (48-0.75). He also ran a leg on the winning 4x100-meter relay team that clocked a 42.77. He provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II Nationals in the triple jump.

WOMEN’S TRACK
Rhonida Carter, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Sr., Hurdles, Houston, Texas/Nimitz
Carter picked up the team’s only win at the IBC Bank Cactus Cup in the 400-meter hurdles as she cruised to victory in 1:05.91. She grabbed silver medalist honors in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 16.78 that was slowed by major head winds all day long. She anchored the 4x400-meter relay team that took second place in a time of 4:07.95.

WOMEN’S FIELD
Chrystal Ruiz, Angelo State, Sr., Heptathlete, Lakehills, Texas/Bandera H.S.
Ruiz automically qualified in the heptathlon for the 2010 NCAA Division II National Championships as she won the event at the ASU Spring Break Multis last week. Ruiz set or tied five personal bests as she finished the two-day event with a career-high 5,210 points, the 12th best performance in ASU history. Ruiz set career bests in the high jump, shot put, 200-meter dash and 800-meter run and equalled her career top performance in the long jump. Her long jump (18-11.25) and 100-meter hurdles (14.29) were also provisional-qualifying marks. Already this season Ruiz has at least provisionally qualified in five events.

Tennis News

Tennis: UCO's Shviadok and CU's Moberg share weekly honors

Central Oklahoma's Julia Shviadok and Cameron's Amanda Moberg shared Lone Star Conference Tennis Players of the Week honors, the league office announced today.

Tennis Athletes of the Week
MEN’S
No nominees.

CO-WOMEN’S
Julia Shviadok, Central Oklahoma, So., No. 1 singles and doubles, Brest, Belarus, Brest HS
Shviadok led UCO to 9-0 shutouts over Colorado Christian and Metropolitan State last week in Denver, going a perfect 4-0 in single and doubles play. The sophomore standout didn’t lose a set at No. 1 singles, winning 6-2, 6-0 in the Colorado Christian rout, and teamed with Eli Abramovic for 8-2 and 8-3 doubles wins. Shviadok is 8-2 at No. 1 singles and 7-3 at No. 1 doubles for the Bronchos, who have won nine straight matches and are 9-1 on the year.

Amanda Moberg, Cameron, Fr., Women’s Tennis, Norkoping, Sweden
Cameron’s #1 singles and #1 doubles player is on her way to the top ranking in the region after sweeping all of her matches last week in Colorado. Moberg helped the Aggies win a 9-0 match over Metro State and a 9-0 match over Colorado Christian. Moberg failed to drop a game in any of her sets over the weekend.

• Click here for the complete release

Tennis Other Top Performers
None.

Tennis Notes (Submitted by LSC SID’s)
Cameron

Cameron’s nationally-ranked #20 men’s team was off last week after going 4-1 in their trip through Kansas a week before... last week the nationally-ranked #36 women’s team swept both of their matches in a Colorado roadtrip. CU first swept Metro State University 9-0, before sweeping Colorado Christian University in a very similar 9-0 match. CU’s matches against Mesa State and Colorado State-Pueblo were cancelled due to snow, and CU’s next scheduled match versus Oklahoma Christian was cancelled due to court vandalism.... The Aggie tennis teams next match up against Oklahoma Christian at home on Tuesday (March 30) at 2:00pm at the CU Tennis Complex.

Central Oklahoma
The No. 26-ranked Bronchos have won nine straight matches since a season-opening loss to Oklahoma State to get to 9-1 on the year . . . UCO went to Denver for four matches last week, blanking Colorado Christian and Metropolitan State 9-0 before having matches with Colorado State-Pueblo and Mesa State snowed out . . . Julia Shviadok is 8-2 at No. 1 singles to lead the Bronchos, while Eli Abramovic is 8-2 playing mostly at No. 2 . . . That duo has combined to go 7-3 at No. 1 doubles.

Tarleton State
The TexAnns had the week off and will return to action this Thursday with an LSC match against East Central in Stephenville. Tarleton then travels to Tahlequah, Okla. on Saturday to face Northeastern State.

Recruiting News
Sherman's Taylor Hunt one of five to sign with A&M-Commerce soccer

Football News

Texans hope to gain from pain

Offensive line injuries of 2009 could lead to added experience, depth in 2010

By BRAD KEITH

Sports Editor

brad.keith@empiretribune.com

Tarleton State's biggest headache on the gridiron in 2009 could lead to the Texans' greatest strength in 2010.

Repeated injuries on the offensive line forced coaches to shuffle around players on a weekly basis, but with four starters returning in 2010, a once young group surrounded by question marks is now long on both experience and versatility.

Scott Streich broke his hand early in the year and then returned only to break an ankle at the end of the regular season.

Jessie Green went down midway through the season with a knee injury.

Josh Martin had to have shoulder surgery, and Bubba Wagner was also injured.

Tight end Tanner Maher was injured twice, forcing the Texans to move an offensive lineman to that position.

"We never had the same five guys in the same positions two weeks in a row," Tarleton State offensive coordinator andoffensive line coach Scott Carey says. "We were playing a lot of chess, shuffling guys around."

Considering everything the Texans went through up front, their season averages of 31.2 points and 386.2 yards per game seem especially impressive.

And with the experience gained from the trials of 2009, Carey, who has coached Tarleton's offensive line for four years and served as coordinator for one, is excited about what that group has to offer in 2010.

By the end of the season, Josh Martin had played every position on the line.

"He kind of became our lean-to guy," Carey said. "Anytime we needed a quick fix somewhere we could lean on him and he would come through for us."

Martin returns, along with Wagner, Streich, Green, Adrian Campbell, Brandon Slay and Joshua Graves, all of whom have game-time experience under their belts. Mike Hernandez, who was a projected starter but missed last season due to injury, is another returning player who is expected to have a big impact this fall.

"We should have a lot of good leadership among that group," Carey says. "Those are guys who don't want to be in the limelight, they want to lead by their performance, and we're expecting that of them now."

The main thing Carey wants for the group now is to get time playing together as a unit.

"What's unique about the offensive line is it's the only position on the field where five guys work together as one," Carey said. "If one guy screws up, the whole unit looks bad."

Playing together is something the experienced offensive linemen are still waiting for, as some are still rehabbing injuries while their teammates are completing their first week of spring ball.

Even that, however, has its good side.

"The good thing about that is I don't have to worry whether Jessie Green or Bubba Wagner or any of those guys have what it takes to get physical out there," Carey said. "Right now I get to see what some of the younger guys have, and that gives us the chance to develop some depth on the line."

Some of the young players Carey is keeping a close eye on include Casey McKennna, a 6-4, 315-pound freshman from Vista Ridge High School in Cedar Park, and Nate Golden, a 6-2, 290-pound sophomore-to-be from Houston.

There are also a pair of converted defensive linemen who could come into the fold - Jerrell Jones, a 6-2, 280-pound sophomore-to-be from Everman, and Zac Munro, a 6-3, 265-pound junior-to-be from Crawford who transerred to Tarleton from McClennan Community College.

The experience and depth should come in handy because Carey has plans for the Tarleton offense to be even more physical this fall than the Texans were last season.

"I thought we were pretty physical last year, and we did a lot of things well," he said. "You never want to be satisfied, though. You can always be more physical."

And when trying to be more physical than ever before, a solid, experienced offensive line is a good place to start.

"I believe that's where you win most of your games, is by being physical up front at the point of attack," Carey said. "If we can stay healthy and develop our young guys the way we should, this could be our best offensive line since I've been here."

Record setters return

The West Texas A&M football coaching staff held a draft Thursday to divide the Buffs into two teams for Saturday's spring game - a Maroon squad and a White squad.

Playing the part of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was Buffs head coach Don Carthel - the peacemaker.

"(The draft) can get pretty nasty sometimes. I'm the commissioner, and I have to step in and say we are going to do it this way," Carthel said with a laugh. "I have to overrule some of the drafts or make them trade."