The week in review, 4/15

Quite the week in Manhattan. Here are the highlights...

Baseball

More awful Great Plains weather messed with the schedule for the Wildcats-Cowboys series in Stillwater. The two teams didn't get to begin play until today's twinbill, and the series will finish up tomorrow. I'm not sure why they didn't play Saturday, as I checked the weather in Stillwater and the rain had cleared out, unless there was so much water the field was unplayable.

Anyway, the Cats had a pretty successful day today. Okie State came in at second place in the conference, but the Bat Cats managed a split today, outhitting the Pokes 28-18 for the day. So at this point we have accomplished the baseline goal for this weekend (not getting swept) and could make a huge stride toward postseason play with a win tomorrow to take the series. Here are the current conference standings (all other series have been completed).

1. Texas 12-3
2. Oklahoma State 7-4
3. Missouri 7-5
4. Texas A&M 8-6
5. Nebraska 7-8
6. K-State 5-6
7. Oklahoma 5-7
8. Baylor 6-9
9. Texas Tech 5-9
10. KU 5-10

The big winner this week was obviously Nebraska, who took two off Oklahoma to move up to fifth place. The big loser was Texas Tech, who was swept by UT. With a win tomorrow, we would move ahead of the Huskers into solo fifth place with six series to go. At this point, I really like our position, because we have played most of the top teams in the conference already. We have remaining series with Oklahoma (in Manhattan), Nebraska (in Lincoln), KU (1 home, two away), Texas A&M (in Manhattan) and Baylor (in Waco). We realistically should be able to win three of those series (OU, KU, BU) and could potentially steal one more from either A&M or NU. If we do manage to pick up three series wins, we're (almost) certainly in Oklahoma City and would likely be invited to an NCAA regional. Way to play, Bat Cats, keep it up.

Men's Golf

The Links Cats ran into some hard times in the desert, finishing dead last at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational. Granted, there was some stiff competition with some of the best programs in the Pac 10 and Big 12 competing. Bobby Streb played two good rounds, but a 78 in the second round kept him out of a better finish (he was T-50th).

The team will return to Kansas for next week's conference tournament, held at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson. That will almost certainly be the end of the Cats' competitive season because an NCAA regional invitational is not in the cards for this year's squad. Here's hoping the young guys on this team put their time to good use this summer and make some strides so we can have a little more pride on the course next year.

Women's Golf

No action last week for the women, who begin play tomorrow in Waco, Texas, at the conference championship held at Ridgewood Country Club. My apologies, ladies, nobody should be forced to endure three days in Waco, which has to be the earthly manifestation of the devil's asshole.

Track & Field

The tracksters split the weekend between the UTEP Invitational in another beautiful Texas town (El Paso) and the John Jacobs Invitational in Norman, Okla.

No event champions in El Paso, but Morgan Bonds took home the crown in the Jacobs Invite 800 meter run.

Next week, K-State travels to the heart of enemy territory for the 80th running of the Kansas Relays. I never made it to Lawrence for this event while I was in school, but I would highly recommend a meet like this to anyone who has the time. You'll get to see a lot of really good athletes competing on a big stage, and there will be several big names from USA track and field. For more information, click here.

One event I can personally vouch for will be the Track Cats' action in two weeks, when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for the historic Drake Relays. The highlight this year will be Alan Webb running the mile, but this meet is an absolute must for track fans. Great stadium, great atmosphere, great athletes, and an event that is REALLY well run. They always finish on time or ahead of time here, there's no dithering around up there. For more information, click here.

That's the week's news in the sports programs, but that was hardly the end of the week's events.

A couple sad stories to report. First, my thoughts go out to newly arrived offensive lineman Alesana Alesana (whom I mentioned earlier) on the death of his fiancee. Despite the overwhelming likelihood of an early death, Alesana proposed to her while she was in the hospital. A heart transplant made things look better for a while, but her body rejected it and she died last week. That has to be an awfully difficult thing for someone so far from home to go through, and Alesana will be absent from next week's spring game for the funeral and to be with his and her family. Take all the time you want, big guy, football will always be waiting for you when you get back. I hope they do something nice at the spring game to let him know the Purple Nation is behind him on this one.

In other sad news, former defensive lineman John Stucky (K-State 1968-69) died last week at the all-too-young age of 59. He had been sick for a while with an unspecified illness. At least he didn't play on the worst teams in K-State history...

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In case the horse wasn't fully bludgeoned to an unrecognizable pulp, the Topeka Capital-Journal had another piece about Frank Martin's alleged/proved travails at Miami Senior High. I don't care to comment on it anymore, but the article can be read here.

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In other news, the rest of the college football world has decided to forfeit the 2007-08 season and declare Nebraska the national champs after the Huskers 38-0 win over...themselves.

Oh yeah, and if you didn't see it, here is some sweet video of backup QB Joe Ganz and his teammates doing their end zone dance after a touchdown. Move over, Chad Johnson...



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Longtime Kansas City Chief Will Shields has announced he will retire. Best of luck to ya, Will, may you be blessed with better post-retirement health than most NFL players.

Fortunately, the Royals were rained out today in Baltimore. It prevented them from enduring another loss to a crappy team, and falling another half game back in the AL Central.

More exciting news to come this week...