The Cornell Daily Sun - Sports

Olympics Put Focus on Gymnastics

Cory Bennett — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone remembers it. Kerri Strug, grimacing, as she stared down the runway towards the vault that seemed much more intimidating than its height, width and standard-issue brown color would suggest. Strug, who had injured her ankle on a botched landing during her previous vault attempt, gingerly bounced up and down, testing the joint.

Then, with a deep breath, Strug took off and executed a near-perfect vault, sticking essentially a one-footed landing. America won gold. Strug was carried off the vault by her coach and into Olympic history.

Former Red Player Returns as Coach

Matthew Manacher — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

With all due respect to Thomas Wolfe, you can go home again. Bill Walkenbach ’98 will return to the top step of the Hoy Field dugout this spring as head coach of the baseball team.

Although he assumes the helm of a ball club that finished last in the Gehrig Division each of the past three seasons, Walkenbach hopes to return the program to the same prominence it had attained while he was an assistant coach at Cornell from 2003 to 2005.

The Claremont, Calif. native succeeds Tom Ford, who has transitioned into the role of associate head coach with the program after managing the team for 18 seasons. Walkenbach, a former standout player for the Red, has gotten coaching experience all over the country since he graduated ten years ago.

Volleyball Hopes For Share of Spotlight

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Kerri Walsh. Misty May-Treanor. You’d have to be living under a rock to not know who these names belong to. Walsh and May-Treanor make up one of the best — if not the best — ever beach volleyball duo. The team capped an impressive Olympic tournament with an unprecedented second-straight gold medal, as well as 108 wins in a row. They haven’t lost a match in over a year.

And while Cornell does not currently have a varsity beach volleyball team, its women’s indoor squad is hoping that all of the attention lavished on volleyball (America’s indoor and outdoor teams won a combined four medals — three gold and one silver) will give their own program a boost this season.

Innate Competitors Find Homes Among Red Rowers

Shannan Scarselletta — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

You were seven years old when you first noticed it. Never satisfied with getting picked first for kickball on the blacktop, you needed to be the captain. Soon you were timing the kindergarteners’ 40-yard sprints to recruit early, and you suddenly found that your best friend was Todd Lung, the 5-10 fourth grader whose birth certificate was more questionable than those of the Chinese Olympic gymnastic team. Later in life, you probably turned into a three-sport athlete, P.E. all-star or a just a pick-up basketball fiend who calls backcourt violations and carries a playbook with his gym shorts. You are a competitor who lives for a challenge. And men’s varsity crew is looking for you.

Olympics Shine Light on Track and Field

Allie Perez — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The 100m champion is known as “the fastest man [or woman] in the world.” Yet the sport of track and field does not fascinate the everyday public in the same way as mainstream sports like basketball and football.

The Olympics, however, traditionally put the sport in the spotlight — pumping up track’s national profile.

“[The media] play it up,” said junior sprinter Jessica Weyman. “[Events] like distance, they can be a little boring. So they cut between that [and other events]. People who don’t even know [about track] have been watching.”

Olympic Swimmers Draw More Attention to Sport

Keenan Weatherford — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It’s a much-discussed phenomenon: every four years the United States suddenly develops an interest in swimming, gymnastics, equestrian and the other sports that are traditionally ignored by major television networks and sports media outlets.

Swimmer Michael Phelps’s well documented road to an Olympic record eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics could capture the imagination of swimmers across the country.

“It’ll definitely be on peoples’ minds now,” said senior Kevin Carey. “It’s not going to be one of the major sports but it got a lot more people into the world of swimming.”

Disillusioned With the Olympic Propaganda Machine

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Ever since I was in elementary school, the Olympics have been very special for me (cue the mandatory self-deprecating sports editor humor). Until I was painfully forced to recognize the reality of my physical limitations in high school, I was convinced that I would be representing my country in the 100-meter sprints some day. And, although that dream died along with my sprint speed, I never lost my love for the history and drama that is the Olympic games.

This summer I, along with viewers from all over the globe, tuned in to watch the jaw-dropping spectacle of Beijing’s Opening Ceremonies. I’ll admit, it was hard to ignore that fuzzy feeling creeping up from my throat and into my eyes as I watched a fairly unremarkable man run laps around the upper lip of Beijing National Stadium.

Red Rower's Run Stops Short of Podium

Allie Perez — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:02:33 -0400

A former Cornell rower’s run at an Olympic medal came to an end this morning as Ken Jurkowski '03 finished fifth in his men’s single sculls semifinal heat at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park with a time of 7:11.52. There is, however, still one more chance for a former Cornell athlete to take the podium in Beijing.

Jen Kaido '03 — the last Cornell representative at these Summer Games — will race in Sunday’s women's quadruple sculling final at 6:30 a.m. EST. The other elite crews competing against the U.S. will be Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Ukraine and host country China. In the Kaido’s semifinal yesterday, the American women finished second to a German squad that led for the entire race.

Red Rowers Roll in Beijing

Allie Perez — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:05:11 -0400

Two former Cornell rowers — both of whom left Cayuga’s waters five years ago and are now first-time Olympians — have advanced into the later rounds of competition of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

With a time of 6:53.26, Ken Jurkowski ’03 cracked the top-3 in his quarterfinal race early yesterday morning. Jurkowski, the lone single sculler on the American team, will race in the men’s single scull semifinals tomorrow at 4 a.m. EST, while Jen Kaido ’03 and the other three members of the U.S. women’s quadruple sculls crew rowed their way to a second-place finish in their quarterfinal race at 4:50 a.m. EST early this morning. The women's final time trailed leader Germany's by less the four seconds.

Eleven New Members Bound for Cornell Hall of Fame

Keenan Weatherford — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:26:48 -0400

Five All-Americans and an Olympic medalist highlight the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame’s class of 2008. Eleven new members will be inducted into the Hall on Nov. 7.

The medalist in the class is John Nunn ’64, a varsity heavyweight rower on the 1962 and 1963 crews that won IRA titles who won a bronze medal as the stroke of the double scull in the 1968 Olympic Games. The 1963 crew — undefeated in U.S. collegiate competition — upset the world champion Ratzeburg Club of West Germany on the way to the finals of the Eastern Sprint championships.

The All-Americans who will be inducted are John Griffin ’79, lacrosse; Cari Hills ’98 women’s lacrosse and field hockey; Glen Mueller ’72, lacrosse; Mike Raich ’88, football; and Kate Walker ’97, women’s track and field.