Utah State University - Buzzer Yearbook (Logan, UT)

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story more closely reloted to the men's progrom. With o 12-19 record. Cooch Cindy Perkins ond teem come close to mok-mg the region's playoffs. but Weber Stote ond powerful Colorado stood in their way. The Rggies dropped on emotionally draining 91-76 gome to Colorado ond to Weber. 93-86. Possibly the most difficult coaching ossignment of the year fell in the lop of women's gymnastics cooch Roy Corn. Corn steered the team through o number of eorly seoson problems ond into o notional tournament for the third yeor in o row. The figs got into the tournoment the hard way. vio on ot-large bid. The bid come after scoring o school-high 142.4 teom score ot regionals. Wanita Lynch. Deb Peterson. Julie Kueng ond Lori Kreikemeir provided most of the scoring. Corn's teom wos hurt by generally lower scoring in the eorly rounds of the notional tournoment ond settled for o 132.7 score ond 14th place. USU’s wrestling teom qualified two athletes for the NCRfi tournoment ond captured third place in the PCRR conference. Trocy Moore won his fourth PCRR individual title, winning the 118-pound weight doss this yeor. However. Moore foiled ogoin to win o match once he got to the notional meet. The Rggies olso qualified heavyweight J.L. Coon. Coon, who olso ploys football

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held to 14 points os the Rgs won. The seoson come to its inconsistently typical ending, however, os USU lost the following night to Fresno Stote, giving Tueller ond company o 12-16 seoson record. The ftggies’ key cost member. Brian Jockson. overoged 23.1 points o gome. He passed Cornell Green os the second highest career scorer in Utah Stote basketboll history, wos MVP of the In-Bonk Tourney ond wos nomed to the PCRR oil-conference teom. Jockson's next role will be with the Portland Trail Blozers of the National Basketball Rssociation. os he wos picked in the second round of the NBR draft in June. Meonwhile. women's volleyball wos on track to the notionol tournament; ogoin. During the previous two years o veteran squod hod placed first ond second in the notionol tourney. But graduation drained Coach Marilyn McReavy of oil but Jo Vrazel in the stor-studded teom. Despite the personnel losses, the Rg-gies ployed respectably in several UUest Coost invitotionols ond then breezed through their conference schedule to eorn on invitation to notionols. Rt the tournament, o tough three-gome match loss to Pacific took the wind out of the Rggies soils. The Rgs' seoson ended loter ot the hands of Col-Poly Pomona, giving USU on eighth place finish. The women's basketball teom hod o

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for U5U. won the conference title, but like Moore foiled to win o motch ot the NCflft meet. One of the good ports of this year's men's sporting story wos one that dealt with the tennis teom. USU’s teom finished the 1981 season with its first winning record in yeors. but could only monage a sixth-place at the PCfift championships. UUith a 14-13 season. Coach Garrett MocFarlone hod a pleasant surprise in the play of junior Clark Barton. 8arton started the season in the number two singles spot but found himself in the number one spot halfway through the season. He finished the season with a strong 17-10 record. Ralph Maughon’s track team was USU's most competitive in recent years. The tracksters finished fifth ot the conference championships and scored their highest point total in their PCflfl history. The Rgs qualified three individuals for the national meet including Kent 8endix-en. who, for much of the season, hod to his credit the country's longest javelin throw at 266 6 . Neil Mower also represented the Aggies in the javelin, while Scott LUolker ran the intermediate hurdles at the nationals. During the same time in the some sport, the work of Lyle Knudson's women's track team was often buried under the accomplishments of other nationally known women's programs at Utoh Stote. Due to a limited budget, the entire teom was not able to attend the AlAUJ notional meet. Many of the tracksters that did make the trip came close to qualifying. but only pentothlete LUendy Lim-baugh made her way to the notional tournoment. To close the curtain on sports for the 1980-81 season, the women's softball team brought on upbeat ending home to Logan, in the way of a notional championship. Not many teams win back-to-back notional crowns with two different rookie coaches. The Aggie nine accomplished that feot with Kelly Phipps at the helm lost year and Lloydene Searle duplicating the triumph this year. Although there was a coaching change, the formula of winning remained the same—strong pitching from Mary Lou Romm; stingy, oir-tight defense and enough hitting to win. Robin Petrini. Vo Arvizu, Karen Caywood and Kerrie Himmelspach tightened the defense up the middle, thus supporting Romm's performance on the mound. It was Arvizu's defensive gem in the championship game with Cal Stateful lerton that sewed up the 4-3 win and returned the title to Utoh Stote. LUith pens in hand, members of the USU coaching staffs will begin writing their outlines for next year, trying to edit out the mistakes, jumbles, and fumbles of this season. A lot of room for progress makes next year look more promising. In most coses the way up shouldn't be to hard to find but in others, particularly women's softball, an Oscor-winning season is a hard act to follow.lll