After 37 years as MSU’s head diving coach, John Narcy will finally leave the pool. Narcy, 66, brought closure to his collegiate coaching career at the 2002 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, Texas, on Saturday. The Spartan’s only diving representative, senior Carly Weiden, placed 11th in the one-meter dive and 24th in the three-meter dive. “I had a great farewell,” Narcy said.
A big chunk of the uncertainty surrounding the MSU hockey program’s future ended Monday with the hiring of Northern Michigan head coach Rick Comley.But the uncertainty for Tom Newton and Dave McAuliffe is just beginning.The two Spartan assistant coaches are in a precarious position.
Rick Comley was so firmly entrenched at Northern Michigan University that only a “very good reason” could sway him to leave Marquette. Apparently, the head coaching position at MSU was enough persuasion. Comley, 55, was formally introduced as the fifth head coach in the history of MSU hockey at a press conference Monday in Munn Ice Arena.
Wrestler finishes 7th Junior Gray Maynard earned All-America honors with a seventh-place finish at the 2002 NCAA Championships on Saturday. “It feels all right,” the two-time All-American said.
Northern Michigan head coach Rick Comley will be named MSU’s next hockey coach at a press conference today, the university announced Sunday night.“Rick Comley is a fierce competitor,” retiring MSU head coach Ron Mason said in a written statement.
Eugene, Ore. - Hope of a Women’s National Invitation Tournament title came to an end Saturday for the MSU women’s basketball team. The Spartans (19-13) lost 65-54 to Oregon (21-13) in the WNIT semifinals. Playing in front of 5,304 fans at McArthur Court in Eugene, Ore., gave the Ducks a decisive advantage. “They had a great crowd tonight with a lot of energy tonight,” sophomore forward Julie Pagel said after Saturday’s game.
Ann Arbor - It really was a pretty strange ending. As it turned out, longtime MSU head coach Ron Mason concluded his career Friday afternoon with a 2-0 loss to Colorado College in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Yost Ice Arena. The loss, particularly so early in the tournament, was surely disappointing for Mason - a 62-year-old, super-competitive, old-school coach who will become MSU’s next athletics director on July 1.
With a three-point frenzy and clutch free throws, Indiana and Oklahoma earned their respective berths to the Final Four.
With a keen eye and a swift bat, Bob Malek has made a name for himself on the baseball field.The junior right fielder raised eyebrows last season when he set MSU’s single-season hits record at 88 and boasted a .427 average at the plate.For the two-time All-American, winning is what matters most.“I just want to win,” Malek said.
Ann Arbor - So much for phase one of MSU’s “Loosen Up the Offense Project.” The No.
The 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships started Thursday and two Spartans’ title hopes are finished. Juniors John Wechter and Rashad Evans lost their first-round matches, sending them both into the consolation brackets.
Ann Arbor - MSU’s national title hopes drowned in a sea of offensive futility Friday afternoon at Yost Ice Arena.The No.
The Michigan High School Athletics Association presented three working plans Thursday to make boys’ and girls’ sports seasons equal.But none of the plans included changing the seasons for girls’ basketball or volleyball.Tom Wilson, the initiator of the Michigan Gender Equity Team, said the plans are not fair.“I don’t think it will work,” Wilson said, referring to all of the plans.
Junior goaltender Ryan Miller is trying to inject his fellow Spartans with his personal postseason motto - national championship or bust. “You want to win and you have the will to win and you express that and hold it as an ideal,” Miller said.
The women’s gymnastics team (15-6, 2-4) will compete in the Big Ten Championships on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. The No.
Senior defenseman Jon Insana remembers being overwhelmed during MSU’s game against Colorado College in the NCAA Tournament West Regional in Madison, Wis., on March 28, 1999. MSU was trailing the Tigers 3-2 late in the third period and, with less than two minutes separating the Spartans from a disappointing end to their season, emotions started to burst out. “I remember (former defenseman Brad) Hodgins on the bench, literally in tears,” said Insana, who was a freshman at the time.
After the Spartans defeated DePaul 87-76 in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament it was clear MSU had finally meshed. It was sophomore forward Julie Pagel’s 20th birthday, and the entire MSU team gathered at midcourt to sing “Happy Birthday.” “I wish the team would do more of that,” Spartan head coach Joanne P.
The MSU football team’s spring season sprung into action Wednesday with the first of 15 practices.
The 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships start today in Albany, N.Y., and five Spartans are looking to claim titles. Senior Chris Williams and juniors Karl Nadolsky, Gray Maynard, Rashad Evans and John Wechter will take the mat representing the green and white on the national stage. It will take five-straight decisions for each Spartan to claim the NCAA Championship, but a top-eight finish is enough to garner All-America honors. Spartan head coach Tom Minkel is confident each wrestler has a chance at becoming an All-American. “I think all five of them have the potential to have an outstanding NCAA Tournament,” Minkel said. Last season, the Spartans sent five wrestlers to nationals and four returned with All-America honors - graduate Pat McNamara, junior Nik Fekete, Williams and Maynard. Nadolsky (24-12) was the only Spartan participating in last year’s nationals not to earn All-America honors.
The MSU men’s and women’s soccer teams signed seven new recruits. The women’s team signed four Tuesday.