To hit or to be hit, that is the competition. Well, at least for two Spartans running backs. Junior Tyrell Dortch and sophomore Jaren Hayes have been moved from taking hits on offense to laying hits on defense in the early stages of spring football.
The daily juggling act for student athletes between classes and practice is being recognized as the 2004 Winter Academic All-Big Ten Conference Team was announced Tuesday. Among the 409 students recognized by the Big Ten are 32 Spartans, hailing from four varsity sports.
On Valentine's Day, the MSU men's basketball team defeated Minnesota, 69-58, at Breslin Center.
It's safe to say the MSU baseball team has turned its season around, for now. The Spartans (9-10) won their fifth straight game, stomping Siena Heights, 13-1, at Kobs Field on Tuesday.
The MSU hockey team's season-long struggles with offensive production and maintaining consistency hurt the Spartans when it mattered most - the NCAA Tournament. MSU finished the season with two losses to stand at 23-17-2, but in those two losses, only one goal was scored and only two players tallied points. "It's such a blessing in today's game to score," head coach Rick Comley said after Saturday's loss to Minnesota-Duluth.
A week before the first meet of the season in January, senior gymnast Lindsey Voth landed wrong on a tumbling pass, breaking bones and tearing ligaments in her foot. After her surgery on March 1 to remove bone c hips and insert four screws into her foot, Voth realized she would not be able to compete with the MSU women's gymnastics team at the 2004 NCAA Central Regional Championships, which is being held Friday at Louisiana State. "I expected to have my senior year be my best season," Voth said.
The Spartans had a loud and enthusiastic student cheering section at Kobs Field on Monday afternoon. And they had plenty of reasons to be boisterous for the near three-hour contest. The MSU baseball team's offense blistered the scoreboard and left-handed pitcher Scott Koerber silenced Indiana Tech hitters, giving the Spartans a 10-4 victory. It was the fourth-straight victory for MSU (8-10), bumping the Spartans' home record to a perfect 4-0 this season. "Four in a row," MSU manager Ted Mahan said after the game.
For someone who understands most of the sports out there, except cricket - can't they just run faster to speed up games?
I write this as I watch the Duke Blue Devils play a tight game against the Xavier Musketeers in an Elite Eight matchup that certainly means more for Duke than it does Xavier. The outcome of the game probably is negligible in the cosmic sense.
Sophomore Ian Clutten finished 31st in the 100-meter breaststroke on Friday at the 2004 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships. Clutten earned a time of 1:01.96 at the competition in East Meadow, N.Y.
Grand Rapids - The MSU hockey team played a strong first period against Minnesota-Duluth, down by only one goal in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Van Andel Arena. All the Spartans needed was to carry their play over to the next period.
The MSU women's basketball program is on the rise and the 2003-04 team took a few big steps, as it broke or tied numerous records en route to one of its most successful seasons ever. "Our goals were to win championships; we flirted with those goals but came up short," head coach Joanne P.
Led by senior pitcher Jessica Beech, the MSU softball team launched its home season with a convincing sweep of Valparaiso on Saturday at Old College Field. The Spartans (17-10) made just one error and registered 15 hits and three home runs in the doubleheader. "These are the things we need to do," head coach Jacquie Joseph said.
Laden with baby powder and energy bars, the MSU men's track and field team pledged a competitive effort in its first outdoor event of the year which yielded two 12th-place finishes over the weekend at the Stanford Invitational at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
The MSU women's golf team tied for seventh place after the last day of competition at the 2004 Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in Athens, Ga., this weekend.
The MSU women's tennis team earned its first Big Ten win of the season with a 6-1 victory over Penn State on Sunday. The Nittany Lions fell to 6-9 overall, 0-3 Big Ten, while MSU improved to 6-8, 1-2. The Spartans swept all six singles matches on Sunday. On Saturday, MSU lost, 4-3, against No.
The No. 44 MSU men's tennis team was victim to a 4-3 upset at No. 56 Penn State on Sunday. The Spartans doubles team of senior Chris Mitchell and junior Andrew Formanczyk to move to 18-9 for the season, but it was the only doubles win MSU would earn. Freshman Joseph McWilliams, junior Cameron Marshall and Mitchell each earned singles wins for the Spartans, who drop to 13-7 overall, 0-2 Big Ten. In the Big Ten opener at Ohio State on Saturday, MSU fell to No.
Senior Jamie Krzyminski saw a record-breaking run Friday at the Stanford Invitational. Krzyminski, who was the lone representative of the MSU women's track team at the Invitational, placed second at the meet.
Despite an unscheduled double-header against Western Illinois, the MSU baseball team pulled out two victories - including one shutout - on Saturday at Kobs Field. The first game was a shutout with a score of 14-0, while the second game was neck-and-neck, with two runs in the bottom of the ninth leading to an 8-7 win.
In front of a Breslin Center crowd that was buzzing with anticipation Saturday, Drew Neitzel, MSU's point guard of the future and recently-crowned Mr. Basketball of Michigan, scored 36 points and showed why he could be the missing ingredient for the Spartans next season. It was the biggest game of Neitzel's high school career, and it was on the biggest stage.