editors - Indiana Daily Student

SPORTS
EDITORS
Connor O’Gara
I N D I A N A D A I L Y S T U D E N T | F R I D A Y , M A R C H 1 1 , 2 0 1 1
cjogara@indiana.edu
WRESTLING
Avi Zaleon
azaleon@indiana.edu
Grapplers to wrestle in NCAAs
BY MAX MCCOMBS
mccombsm@indiana.edu
Last season, junior Matt
Powless got his fi rst taste of
the NCAA wrestling tournament.
This year he returns to
the tournament familiar with
the atmosphere and with a more
ambitious goal.
“Last year I made it to nationals,
and that was my goal,” Powless
said. “Once I did, I don’t
want to say I didn’t care, but I was
defi nitely happy already with my
season. I went out there and wrestled,
but I don’t think I fully committed
myself the way I should
have to winning those matches.
I was already happy with myself.
Going there this year with it not
being a surprise but an expectation
has me a little more driven.”
IU will send four wrestlers
to Philadelphia for the NCAA
Championships on March 17-
19 . Joining Powless, who wrestles
in the 197-pound weight
class , are seniors Kurt Kinser at
149 pounds and Paul Young at
157 pounds and graduate student
Ricky Alcala at heavyweight .
“Every one of these guys
has been to nationals before,”
IU coach Duane Goldman said.
“They have an idea of what
they’re stepping into. They just
need to go in there and be confi
dent and not look ahead. It’s a
tough tournament.”
While each of the IU qualifi
ers has been to the tournament
before, last year Kinser and
Young each qualifi ed for different
weight classes, 157 pounds and
165 pounds , respectively. Alcala
wrestled for a different school,
California-Davis .
Kinser, Young and Powless
clinched their berths in the Big
Ten Tournament last weekend .
Alcala suffered a pair of upset
losses and ultimately placed seventh
, not high enough for an automatic
qualifi er spot . However,
when wildcards were announced
Wednesday , Alcala made the
fi eld .
“Ricky had a little bit of a
tough go,” Goldman said. “He
appears to be back on track. He
wrestled really well in his last
match. We were pretty sure that
he was going to get picked up (as
a wildcard).”
Released along with the wildcard
selections were the brackets
for the tournament revealing both
the seeds at each weight class and
fi rst-round matchups . Kinser will
wrestle Missouri’s Kyle Bradley
, who he has defeated this season,
in the opening round. Young
will face Pittsburgh’s Donnie
Tasser while Powless will meet
LJ Helbig of Wyoming . Alcala
will wrestle Spencer Myers of
Maryland .
“I’m pretty familiar with
all their opponents,” Goldman
said. “I think for the most part
we avoided some seeds. I think
they all have good fi rst-round
matchups, ones they all have
good shots of winning. They’re
feeling good.”
Practices leading up to nationals
will largely be geared toward
preparing for fi rst-round opponents,
as the wrestlers have control
over little else, a lesson Powless
has learned both from IU’s
All-American coaches and his
own experience last year.
“You always want to say
you’re taking it one match at a
time, but in the back of their head,
everyone is thinking, ‘If I win
this match I have so-and-so, if I
lose I have so-and-so,’” Powless
said. “I did that last year. I lost
on the fi rst round, and then in the
wrestlebacks I didn’t get who I
thought I would get because there
was another upset, so I ended up
wrestling someone and things
didn’t work out for me. This year
I’m defi nitely going to take it one
match at a time and only worry
about that fi rst match.”
TRACK AND FIELD
Helmer not fazed by expectations for IU squad
BY CHRISTOPHER WEBB
chriwebb@indiana.edu
IU coach Ron Helmer isn’t
going to let the No. 6 IU track
and fi eld team’s success overhype
its expectations.
Going into the NCAA Indoor
Championships Friday in Texas ,
IU brings three students who recently
earned Great Lakes Athlete
of the Year honors, in addition
to Helmer, who was named
Great Lakes Coach of the Year
by the United States Track and
Field and Cross Country Coaches
Association .
He said his team must compete
with realistic results in mind.
“The best way to succeed is to
lower expectations,” Helmer said
of his team. “They need to understand
that they don’t have to
perform a superhuman feat.”
Although IU sophomore
Andy Bayer , senior Faith Sherrill
and junior Derek Drouin might
not put up superhuman numbers,
they have excelled this season
by putting up numbers that have
helped give the team a top-10
ranking throughout the season .
IDS FILE PHOTO
Senior Paul Young squares off with sophomore Ryan Konz during the
intra-squad scrimmage Oct. 27 at Assembly Hall.
Sherrill said she was pressured
to do better this season after
winning All-American honors
last year , as well as winning her
event in the shot put at the Big
Ten championships in Lafayette.
While Sherrill tries to repeat
her success this year, Bayer said
he is just coming into his own.
“After cross country season
I just put into my mind what I
needed to do this year,” said Bayer,
who was named the men’s Big
Ten Track Athlete of the Year.
“The Big Ten meets were helpful
in letting me know what to expect
from myself.”
Although the expectations
for Bayer were slowly creeping
over the horizon at the Gladstein
Fieldhouse , Helmer said Bayer’s
progression since high school
was staggering.
“Bayer wasn’t very good in
high school,” Helmer said. “He
didn’t become the whole package
until he started doing well on
the track. And the kid is so unassuming,
and I love it because
there is nothing like an athlete
accepting being great and then
doing great.”
WOMEN’S TENNIS
12
CHET STRANGE | IDS
Freshman Sophie Garre returns the ball while her doubles partner,
freshman Diana Kyllmann, watches during the duo's match against Notre
Dame's JoHanna Manningham and Chrissie McGaffi gan on March 5 at the
IU Tennis Center.
IU boasts nation’s
No. 6 recruiting
class for 2011 season
BY DANIEL ALLAR
dallar@indiana.edu
The IU women’s tennis team
has signed fi ve players to land the
No. 6 recruiting class in 2011 , according
to the Tennis Recruiting
Network.
The recruiting service, which
ranks players on a fi ve-star scale,
lists Ariel Beckerman as a fourstar
prospect and the Hoosiers’
other recruits as fi ve-star players.
Carolyn Chupa , ranked No.
22 in the class , is the top prospect,
and the other fi ve-star signees —
Alecia Kauss , Katie Klyczek and
Shannon Murdy — are in the
top 51 .
“It’s very unique in that next
year we’re going to have nine
players on the team and fi ve are
freshmen,” IU coach Lin Loring
said. “That’s very strange.”
The fi ve newcomers , all from
the United States , will replace
three international seniors on
a roster that currently has only
one American, freshman Kayla
Fujimoto .
Loring said his squad will not
be in a rebuilding mode.
“Normally if you lose three
seniors who are starters, you’re
going to have a rebuilding year,”
Loring said. “I don’t expect us to
drop off at all. We should end up
with even better depth than we
have this year.”
Fujimoto said she knows most
of the incoming freshman from
playing junior tournaments together,
and she even practiced with Katie
Klyczek, a Munster, Ind., native
who is coming to IU as the No. 51
prospect in 2011 .
“I’ve trained with her since
we were probably 11 or 12 so I
know her really well,” Fujimoto
said. “She’s one of my really good
friends.”
The team will be a lot different
next year, Fujimoto said, but
she said she is looking forward to
playing with the incoming class.
“I’m really excited about having
them here, knowing them from
juniors and stuff,” Fujimoto said.
“It will be a lot different dynamic
because there will be a lot more
Americans than international, but I
think the team’s mostly pretty excited
that they’re coming.”
This season’s team, meanwhile,
is gearing up for its Big Ten opener
at 11 a.m. Saturday at rival Purdue .
“I didn’t know anything about
the Indiana-Purdue rivalry last
year before I came, but now I understand
it’s big,” sophomore Leslie
Hureau said. “We’re ready for
it, I think. We’ve been practicing
well, and we just want to go out
there and compete, do our best.”