University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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' if I was a clisappoiming season lor the 2003- 4 Rebel Men ' s Golf team that ended in the non-renewal of 1 1 -year head coach Woody Cowart and a last place finish in the SEC tournament. Entering the season, the Rebels hopes where high. The team returned four letter winners, including Jarrod Gardner, who the previous summer qualified for the U.S. Amateur. He lost in the first round of match plays, but not without a fight. He won three of the last four holes to force e.xtra holes, but lost on the 19th. Gardner, a senior from Westwood, Texas, was the first player under Cowart to qualify for the match-play portion of the Amateur. The Rebel men ' s links team also boasted seniors Lucas Boyd, Dan Luke and Pope Spruicll along with juniors Derek Abel, Ben Dowell, Bryan Kane, Ryan Michals, David Shields and Adam Swope. For the 2003-04 season, the team finished with an overall record of 68-76-5, a .473 winning percentage. The team earned five top- five luiishes and one lop-lhrec. They won no events. In the team ' s five fall loiunaments. the team ' s best finish was fifth in September ' s Mason Rudolph Championships. Eighteen A DIFFERENT STROKE The men ' s Rebel Golf team landed last place in the 2003-04 season, but their hopes are high for 2004-05 with the return of a championship wntten hx BEN BEITZEL pholngraplml by DARRELL BLAKELY teams competed in the 36-hole tournament including SEC foes South Carolina (3), anderbilt (4), Kentucky (6), LSU fT-7) and , labama (15). In that tournament, Ciardner notched his best finish of the year with a tie for fifth, shooting 75-70 in the two day event. The team ' s best finish of the season came in March 2004 at the L ALR Lindsey Collegiate, when the team placed second in the 54-hole event. For the tournament, the men shot a combined 887, just seven strokes off the championship pace, set by Arkansas-Little Rock. A veteran and a newcomer spurred the Rebels best finish of the year. The senior, Spruiell, fired his best finished, a tie for sixth and freshmen Kyle Ellis finished all alone in third place. This tournament finish came on the heels of two-consecutive fourth place finishes at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate and the Conrad Hehling Imitational, both 54-hole events. In the Herb Wimberly, redshirt freshmen Galium Macaulay, of Kincardine, Scotland, finished a season-best tie for eighth. Despite this promising start of the fall season, the final two tournaments where disappointments for the Rebels. In the Billy Hitchcock Intercollegiate, in Opelika, Ala., the team finished at a tie for eighth, behind SEC foe and toiu ' nament winner Auburn, as well as Memphis and Florida State. . ' gain, Spuiell and Ellis led the Rebels, both finishing at e en par for the tournamenl. good enough lor a tie at seventh place. Then, in the Rebel ' s final tournament, the team finished three strokes behind Alabama to finish last in the SEC tournament. At St. Simons Island, Ga., the Rebels dug an early hole, shooting an opening day 302, that they never climbed out of Swope led the team, firing a three-day score of 218, good enough for his highest finish of the year at 24th. Despite a disappointing end, and the release of long-time coach Cowart, the Rebels entered the simimer with the re-hire of former golf coach Ernest Ross. Ross coached the team from 1979-87, winning the SEC in 1984. I am excited about returning to Ole Miss, the Ole Miss alumnus said after his June hiring. I welcome the challenge, and I appreciate the opportunity to once again coach the men ' s program. I can ' t wait to get started. It will be a long road for Ross, but fVom the bottom, the only way the team can go is up. : SENIOR Jordan Dempsey ; finished 19tti inthoSK i Tournament, wtiicTfwas the ; highest ranking on the Ole ' Miss Squad, Dempjsyi? from I Jacksonville, Fla. and has won ' two letters. 360 I The Ole Miss 2005

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READY TO RUN Olympic hopeful Antwon Hicks and Lady Rebel Latoya McBride carry THE rebels to THE 2004 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships imltm hv MATTHEW SHARPE ' 61 seconds. That was the time needed by Antwon Hicks lo win the 60-meter hurdles at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championship in Fayetteville, Ark. As Hicks ' first individual championship, it came on his 21st birthday, and it wasn ' t a bad birthday present. A four-time All-American hurdler, Hicks is no stranger to winning, having captured the 2002 U.S. Junior National Championship and the 2002 World Junior Championship. JAVELIN THROWER nicknamed T-MAC, was the only Lady Rebel to earn an invitation to the NCAA Outdoor or Indoor Championships in 2004. LaToya McBride, a junior from Pine Bluff, Ark., took 1 5th place in the championship ' s heptathlon. Ailing from a foot injury sustained in the spring. Hicks spent more time on the bench than on the track during the outdoor season. When Hicks did completely return in the Southeastern Conference championship, he appeared to be near full form, capturing second place in 13.59 seconds in the 1 10-mctcr hurdles. Ole Miss hosted the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championship at the new, $5 million track and field complex adjacent to Vaught- Hemingway stadium. Eight SEC records were reset during the championship. Hicks produced a 13.56-second Ume in the 1 10-meter hurdles at the NCAA Regional to qualify him for the NCAA Outdoor Championships - his third straight appearance. The men ' s 4x400-meter relay team, including Demondrick Shumaker, Kao Wokoma, Mark Gregory and anchor Franz Bernard, took fourth place in the regional, just missing an automatic qualificatif)n for the NCAA Championships. However, their top time of 3:06.73 placed them in the championship with Hicks and the only Lady Rebel to make the meet, Latoya McBride. Hicks clipped the seventh of 10 hurdles in the final race, slowing him to a seventh place finish with a time of 13.54 seconds. The men ' s 4x400-meter relay team barely missed cjualifying for finals. Hicks ' focus then shifted to the Olympic trials injuly in hopes of a spot in Athens. Head track and field coach Joe Walker said Hicks ' prime time for Olympics would be around 2006, which hosts the winter games, but 2008 will be Hicks ' best opportunity for an Olympic berth. Hicks advanced beyond the first two qualifying races in Sacramento, Calif, before being ousted in the penultimate race. Hicks turned in a school record dme of 13.45 seconds, but was .04 seconds short of advancing to the final |ualif)ing race. On the women ' s side, distance runner Rachel Ellison and heptathlete Latoya McBride led the Rebels throughout the season. With a time of 4:22.43, Ellison set a school record in the 1,500-meter race at the SEC Championship. Ellison advanced to the final race but did not score. McBride, the lone Lady Rebel at the NCAA Outdoor Championship, tied her personal best score in the heptathlon at her first NCAA Championship. The junior from Pine Bluff, Ark., took 15th place with 5,189 point. Other highlights of the SEC meet in Oxford include Antisha Anderson ' s fifth place finish in the javelin with a throw of 126-0. Also, the women ' s 4x1 00-meter relay team, consisting of Amber Bledsoe, Chiquita Stephens, Kimberly Mulkey and LaToya McBride, finished fourth at the SEC Championship and the regional meet. The team was leading in the final race before a shaky handoff slowed the team. Anchor McBride completed the race, producing a dme of 45.19 seconds - a fourth place finish, one hundreth of a second from qualifying for the NCAA Championships. Athletics | 359

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JUNIOR Ryan Michals, of Orland Park, IIL, was a transfer ' .ludent ffom f lorlda Gulf Coast University in the 2003-2004 season. He will be a returning senior witfi Coach Ross. Athletics I 361