MSU Alumni Magazine, Fall 2004 issue - MSU Alumni Association ...

credit, first and foremost, to the
players and their ongoing commitment
to do their very best
every day because that is their
primary goal. It is also a credit to
the staff and to everyone who has
ever played for MSU, everyone
who has ever worked for it. I am
just so proud to be a part of this
team.” MSU boasts its most
prominent winning streak since
1975, when the Spartans enjoyed
an 8-0 streak.
Christopher Smith
GOLF IS CORE-IGIBLE—A frustrating
game, golf can be more
easily mastered by following the
advice of John Dal Corobbo, director
of golf instruction at MSU’s
Forest Akers Golf Courses and
one of America’s top teachers according
to Golf Magazine. In his
new book, Model Golf–The Nine
Core Skills to an Enlightened Golf
Game, he focuses on core basics
while eliminating the kind of extraneous
information that fill up
golf magazines. Dal Corobbo
takes the reader step by step
through each of the nine core
skills of golf with clear descriptions,
diagrams and photographs.
A former Nike Tour member and
a seven-time qualifier for the National
PGA Club Professional
Championship, Dal Corobbo was
the 2002 Michigan PGA Player of
the Year. Model Golf is available at
both Forest Akers Golf Courses
for $20.00 (call 517-355-1635).
The book was produced and published
by the MSU Division of
Housing & Food Services Marketing
Communications Dept.
OLYMPIC STADIUM TURF—The
grass used at Olympic Stadium
during the 2004 Olympic
Games in Athens in late August
was created and perfected by
MSU turfgrass experts. In the
photo below, taken on Aug. 17,
three days before the start of
competition, workmen are laying
final modules of grass to create
a field that mirrors the modular
field in Spartan Stadium.
SPARTAN OLYMPIAN DECATH-
LETE—Former MSU All-American
track star Paul A. Terek, ’02,
competed in the decathlon in
Athens, Greece, as a member of
the 2004 U.S. Olympic Track
and Field team. Although he did
not medal, Terek will use that experience
to launch his medal bid
in the 2008 Games in Beijing,
China, as he demonstrates in
this photo taken after the closing
ceremony on Aug. 29. At the
July trials in Sacramento, CA,
Terek won the third and final
spot on the U.S. decathlon unit
by just a couple of seconds in the
1,500-meter event, the last of
ten grueling events in two days.
In previous Summer
REUTERS/Gary Hershorn
Games, MSU Archives basketball & Historical Collections star Steve
Smith competed in Sydney in
2000, while diver Julie Farrell-
Ovenhouse competed in
Barcelona in 1992.
MEMOIRS FROM MISS BAS-
KETBALL—Julie (Polakowski)
Swanson, ’87, the state of Michigan’s
first “Miss Basketball” and
a star player for MSU in the early
1980s, has authored a novel for
youngsters, Going For The
Record (Eerdmans Books Publishing
Co., 2004). The book,
featuring a female star athlete in
Leenalau County, is essentially a
roman à clef. As a high school senior
in Leland, Swanson led her
team to the state title and scored
812 points in 28 games, setting a
single season scoring mark.
Even today, the mark is in second
place alltime. At MSU,
Julie made Big Ten Honorable
Mention in 1985. Swanson is
currently a mother of three in
Charlottesville, VA. Her husband
Steve, ’85, former MSU
soccer player, is the women’s soccer
coach at the University of
Virginia.
MSU BRAINASTS—
With a team GPA of
3.31, the MSU gymnastics
team ranks
among the top
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
schools in the nation both athletically
and academically. Six
Spartan gymnasts were named to
the 2004 NACGC/W All-
America Team for earning a GPA
of 3.5 or higher. Junior Anna
Hunsinger and sophomore Victoria
Iakounina both posted a
3.87 GPA to lead the team academically.
Senior Lindsey Voth
ranked third with a 3.81. Junior
Lauren Simpson posted a 3.78,
while sophomore Jenna Rivers
earned a 3.64 and junior Jaime
Miles posts a 3.62. The women
gymnasts have enjoyed academic
success for several years, posting
a team GPA of at least 3.0 since
2002 and earning a 3.3 or higher
as a team the past two years.
THE ICEMEN COMPETETH —
Two former Spartan icers, forward
Bryan Smolinski and defenseman
John-Michael Liles,
made the 2004 U.S. World Cup
Hockey Team that opened competition
Aug. 31 in Montreal,
Canada. Liles enjoyed an excellent
rookie season with the
NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.
Smolinski, a veteran who has
played with Boston, Pittsburgh,
New York Islanders, Los Angeles
and Ottawa, previously was a
member of Team USA’s gold
medal squad at the 1996 World
Cup of Hockey.
PAGE 48
FALL 2004
MSUALUMNIMAGAZINE