Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 145, Greencastle, Putnam County, 29 January 1986 — Page 6
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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, January 29,1986
16-1 DePauw climbs to No. 2 in nation
By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Extending two winning streaks with two victories, DePauw University has achieved its highest ranking ever in the NCAA Division 111 basketball poll. The 16-1 Tigers enter Wednesday night’s 7:30 p.m. game at Marian College in Indianapolis as the nation’s No. 2 ranked team, right behind 17-0 Potsdam State from New York. DePauw returns to Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center for four consecutive home games beginning Saturday at 3 p.m. against Franklin College.
Eagles lure Ryan away from Bears PHILADELPHIA (AP) Buddy Ryan, the coach of the vaunted defense of the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, is the new head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Ryan was signed late Tuesday, according to team owner Norman Braman and General Manager Harry Gamble. Braman, reached by phone at his Miami home, told The Associated Press early today that “I can confirm that we’ve signed Ryan.” Gamble said he negotiated most of the day Tuesday with Ryan before the 51-year-old coach signed a five-year contract, ending a search that began Dec. 16 when Marion Campbell was fired. In the following weeks, there were reports that Braman strongly favored David Shula, the 26-year-old son of Miami Dolphins Coach Don Shula, followed by reports that Jim Mora, coach of the United States Football League Baltimore Stars, had agreed to coach the Eagles of the National Football League. Mora became the coach of the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday. Ryan has been an assistant coach in the NFL for 18 years, the last eight with the Bears. In his tenure with Chicago, the Bears were among the top 10 defensive teams six times. The Bears this season led the NFL in total defense, capping their success by smothering the New England Patriots in a record setting 46-10 Super Bowl triumph. Ryan has been given much of the credit for the Bears’ 18-1 record and NFL title. After the Super Bowl rout of New England, the Bears carried Ryan off on their shoulders. Before his eight years with the Bears, Ryan coached eight years the New York Jets and two with the Minnesota Vikings. His popular “46” defense is a 5-1-5 set named after its original middleman, former safety Doug Plank, who wore uniform No. 46. The “46” forces offensive linemen into one-on-one blocking and opens up avenues for blitzing.
Only true iron man will appreciate ABC telecast
By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Many of us dream about a trip to Hawaii. Five days in the warm tropical sun with the Pacific Ocean splashing on the beach and around our well-tanned legs. Pretty tough to think about right now, isn’t it? Randy Torr won a trip to Hawaii, but he didn’t get to spend it relaxing on the beach and watching grass skirts wave in the breeze. Watch ABC Wide World of Sports Saturday (4:30 p.m.) and you’ll see why he was there and what he was doing instead. THE 1972 GREENCASTLE High School graduate fulfilled a dream when he qualified for the Iron Man Triathlon World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. “I’ve worked four years to get to this one,” Torr said while he and wife, Heidi (formerly (Knights) and their son, Jason, were home during the Christmas holiday. Don’t expect to see Torr when the ABC cameras capsulize more than 14 hours of competition into a 90-minute program that includes commercials. “The winning team was eight hours, 50 minutes and some-odd seconds,” Torr recalled. “My time was a little under 14 hours. I finished about halfway in the pack.” But the effort was just as great for the 31-year-old Torr as for the winners. He swam the 2.4 miles against ocean current, pedaled a bicycle 112 miles up and down hills in the hot sun and high humidity across lava beds with a 30-mile-an-hour wind gusting in off the ocean. And finally,* running 26.2 miles up and down those same hills and back acroos that lava bed. “ALL I WANTED TO DO when I first found out I was in it, I just wanted to finish. And believe me, I didn’t know if I could finish at the time,” Torr said. The competition started with the 2.4-mile swim in the ocean. That got exciting before it started, as organizers informed the athletes there was a hurricane 300 to 400 miles off shore and waves were six-to eight-feet high when competition began. There were 1,055 competitors jumping into the water, all trying to get out of the pack and keep from getting knocked out by someone jumping on them. “The swim was something else,” Torr recalled. “YOU HAD A CONSTANT rocking and the water was warm and it was very clear. But the whole time you were going up and down and up and down.”
WINNERS OF 14 straight this year and 45 in a row at Neal Fieldhouse, the Tigers moved up to No. 2 with victories over Huntington and lUPUI, while last week’s second-ranked team, WisconsinWhitewater, suffered a pair of losses. “The only thing I want to do is stay ahead of Otterbein and Wittenberg and they don’t seem to be losing any games,” coach Mike Steele said of the poll. The top ranked team in each region annually is host for the opening round of the NCAA Division 111 tournament, like DePauw was in 1984 en route to the Final Four at Grand Rapids, Mich. DePauw, No.
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He saved the basketball from going out of bounds, but South Putnam's Brian Meek (left) had trouble finding an open teammate over Todd Sutherlin's outstretched
Upon getting to the beach, the athletes had to run as quickly as their weak legs would allow, change into biking clothes to start a 112-mile ride. “As soon as you finish with the swim you have no legs. You’re just trying to get your equalibrium back,” the son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Torr, 828 E. Washington St., related. After the swim Torr was in good shape. “I knew I was going to finish it as long as something besides myself didn’t put me out of it,” Torr said of the positive feeling. THEN THE BIKE RACE started. “I didn’t have too many problems throughout the race. I got sick a little bit on the bike and I lost some time there. I had a flat and lost some time there,” he said minimizing a 30-minute delay. No one is allowed to help the athletes outside of the exchange areas. So when his back tire blew about three miles from the next transition point, Torr had to change it himself. His hands were shaking so bad he couldn’t pop the new tire over the rim. It was obviously a frustrating situation, a mental challenge. But the whole thing, training and the race itself, is as much mental as physical. Self discipline. “PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE the mental (training) that goes into it. Right now, if you’ve never run, you could build up to a 10-K (run) in not that long of a time. But mentally, for this, day in and day out, everyday I got up and I knew I was going to spend three to four hours, some part of my day, training for this and that was tough,” Torr explained. When the flat took place Torr was in pretty good position. Only three miles from the exchange area he was preparing himself mentally for the final 26.2-mile run. By this time it was late afternoon, a high hot sun, as Torr recalled. “The only thing that gets you going is the crowd,” he said.
4 ranked Otterbein, No. 9 ranked Wittenberg and No. 13 ranked Calvin College are all in the Great Lakes Region. OTTERBEIN MOVED INTO the No. 4 spot, an improvement of two places over last week, with a win over Wittenberg, who dropped two places. Coach Steele remained hopeful at Tuesday’s Tiger Talk that guard Neal Ogle could join the Tigers again before the season finished. The 5-10 senior guard severed the tip of a finger on his left hand when it was trapped in a door at Hogate Hall dormitory Saturday around noon. “I’m not concerned with replacing Neal
arms. Meek scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help South by Greencastle 66-61. (BannerGraphic photo by Carol Estes).
Fields' Findings
on the floor during games. What I’m concerned with is replacing Neal in practices,” Steele said, praising the Clinton Central High School product’s scrapy, diving style. “When Neal’s out there practices are pretty lively.” THROUGH 17 BASKETBALL games 6-4 forward David Galle remains DePauw’s leading scorer (15.1 points per game) and rebounder (7.4 per game). Sophomore for-ward-center Mike Connor has improved his average to 12.2 points per game with back to back 18-point efforts, while sophomore Dan Falotico is averaging 11.1. Hanging around the 10-point mark are
Eagles hold off Cubs for 10th straight win
BySTEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor It’s a month before the IHSAA state high school basketball tournament begins, yet Tuesday night South Putnam and Greencastle squared off in a championship caliber West Central Conference game. Getting 29 points and 10 rebounds from Brian Meek and some clutch points from Mark Sutherlin in the final minute, South Putnam extended it winning streak to what is believed to be a school-record 10 straight victories with the 66-61 win over Greencastle. IT WAS DIFFICULT to tell Greencastle is 4-9 and South Putnam 11-3. Each team committed just nine turnovers and each had opportunities to win the basketball game. “I have to give Greencastle credit, that’s probably one of the best games they’ve played all year,” coach Bill Merkel said. “They showed good patience on offense, then came back and played pretty good defense.” And that was how Greencastle stayed with South. The Cubs’ patience against the Eagles’ one-and-one defense on David Rushing, with emphasis shifting when he left the game periodically, resulted in a 17point performace for both Scott Dunn and Chris Hanson. Dunn scored 12 in the second half and Hanson put in 11 in the first half. “THAT’S ONE THING we’ve been working on is Chris becoming more of a scoring threat for us and I think that worked well for us tonight,” Greencastle coach Doug Miller said. “People are going to have to recognize the fact Scott is going to score for us every game out.” Miller recognized South’s strength in the third quarter, backing the Tiger Cubs into a 2-3 zone to keep the ball away from Meek, while guard Troy Greenlee struggled with his normally lethal perimeter shooting. Greenlee hit just 3 of 12 shots from the floor through three quar-
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Preparing for the Iron Man Triathlon World Championship became a family project for the Torrs. Randy (right) was competing and trained for hours each day, but Heidi (left) and their son Jason were always there, riding a bike or in a back pack, giving support. The Torrs
THROUGHOUT THE COMPETITION the athletes are drinking water and eating on the run, trying to keep enough fluids and energy foods in their system. But during the run it really gets mentally challenging. “The pain is there, but you can’t dwell on that. I was remembering songs when my sister was playing her albums (as a kid). I was putting myself someplace else,” Torr said, trying to communicate what he thought and felt at the time. It was a tribute to the months of training he put in that the day after the race he wasn’t in a hospital or even too exhausted to move. “Really, the month prior, if you weren’t ready, you weren’t ready,” Torr said. THAT’S PRETTY GOOD for a guy who hated to run while playing football for Gary Cassells and wrestling for Dan Layton at Greencastle High School. “Wrestling was probably the sport I had to run the most. Coach Layton was my coach and every chance I got to duck behind bleachers, every chance to hide, I did it. I hated to run,” Torr recalled. But after watching the 1982 Iron Man World Championship on Wide World erf Sports, he had to try. “That’s when I
point-guard Phil Wendel (9.2 points per game) and rejuvenated 6-6 forward-center Joe Vanderkolk (9.0). Wendel continued to lead the Tigers with 106 assists and in steals with 37, just one ahead of backcourt mate Scott Lewis, As a team, the Tigers are shooting 52 per cent from the floor and a mediocre 68 per cent at the free throw line. However, opponents have managed just 48 per cent from the floor and 69 per cent at the line. With the number of wide margins growing, the Tigers are outscoring their opponents 81.1 points to 65.4 points per game.
It appeared South could blow this game wide open at any time, especially during the first half. The Eagles extended a 14-8 lead from the 1:18 mark of the first quarter to a 20-12 cushion when the second period started. That lead hit 10 points, when Meek scored the opening bucket of the quarter inside. HOWEVER, THE CUBS picked off several perimeter passes and used the five Eagle turnovers to cut the margin to 31-28 by halftime. Greencastle hit 6 of 10 shots from the floor in the period, while South managed only 4 of 12. South resumed complete control of the basketball game in the opening two minutes of the second half, Meek scoring eight points. However, that was an indicator to coach Miller. “They’ve got a lot of different offensive weapons, What you’ve go to do is just try and see what’s not working for them and try to shut off what is,” Miller said. SO HE BACKED the Tiger Cubs into a zone, used patience on the offensive end to slow down the Eagles and for the only quarter all night won the board 11-7. With Rushing scoring nine points and Dunn netting six more and 5-8 sophomore Chad Remsburg somehow getting four rebounds, Greencastle took a 49-45 lead into the fourth quarter. Greencastle’s lead didn’t hold up three minutes into the fourth quarter. Greenlee used a technical foul against Dunn to trim the game to 51-50 and during a Greencastle timeout Merkel switched South into a traping defense that led to back to back Cub turnovers. “Then the momentum was our way,” Merkel said. KENT YOCOM PUT one of his 12 rebounds back up and through for a 52-51 South lead and Greenlee penetrated by way of the baseline for another two points. “Troy hit some big shots down the stretch and is always going to, he’s that kind of
will lean back in their southern California home Saturday evening no doubt to watch the competition on ABC's Wide World of Sports. (Banner-Graphic photo by Steve Fields)
thought, ‘Gosh, that would be the most fantastic thing I could ever do in my life.’” Now Heidi and Jason could probably have thought of a few other things to top that, but they went along with him "I COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT without Heidi’s backing because it does take so much time. It was literally like a second job,” Torr said. However, the Torrs turned the weekend training into family outings. Randy would leave their southern California home around six in the morning on the bicycle and meet Heidi and Jason in an ocean side park in the San Diego area He would run in the park and picnic with the family So the trip to Hawaii was a family effort. “I think that’s one of the reasons Heidi was there to begin with because she knew we d get a trip over there,” Randy joked He dropped from about 165 pounds to 144 pounds around race tme, so over the holiday visit mom’s home cooking was greatly appreciated. But Torr isn't finished running or training. In March he'll compete in the L A. Marathon sJ coach Layton, Torr’s not hiding any more.
DIVISION 111 TOP 20 1. PoUdam St., N.Y. 2. DePauw University" 3. LeMoyne-Owen, Tenn. J®"* 4. Otterbein, Ohio* 5. Scranton, Pa. J «. Wlsconsln-Whitewater 7. Clark University, Mass. ,4 *' 8. Washington College, Md. ». Wittenberg. Ohio* 10. Jersey St. 11. Upsala, N.J. |*3 12. Trenton, N.J. 13. Calvin College. Mich* ,4-2 14. St. John’s, Minn. 13-2 15. Nebraska Wesleyan 1w 10. Maravian, Pa. ,4_4 17. New York University I*- 2 18. Centre, Ky. 14-4 10. North Park College, 111. 15-4 20. Tie: Hartwick, N.V. and 11-3 W. Connecticut St. 13 -l •Great Lakes Region Team
ball player.” Miller said. South hit just 18 of 27 free throws (67 per cent) for the night and Greencastle tried to use that to its advantage in the final minute. “We could have put the ball game away earlier if we hit our free throws,” Merkel said. I think we missed three one and ones down the stretch. ” But the plot backfired, Sutherlin took the ball down the lane for an uncontested layup and a 62-59 Eagle lead while the Cubs were trying to commit a foul away from the ball. SUTHERLIN, WHO SCORED seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, hit two free throws with five left in the game to ice South’s third WCC win in six outings. The loss dropped Greencastle to 33 in conference play. South goes for its 11th straight victory Friday night when West Vigo comes to visit and Saturday night will host Avon. Greencastle travels to Terre Haute South Friday and plays host to Monrovia Saturday. *** Both South Putnam and Greencastle were without their tallest players Tuesday night. South’s 6-5 senior Greg Phillips and Greencastle’s 6-5 sophomore Jim Noll were out with the flu. Greencastle (81) Dunn 8-18 1-2 8 17, Nelson 1-1 0-8 4 2, Durham 1-3 8-1 4 2, Hanson 7-8 3-S 3 17. Rushing 4-13 5-5 5 13, Remsburg 1-4 8-0 2 2, Penley 1-20-012, Sutherlin 3-5 88 2 8-Totals FG 28-53, FT M 3, PF 21 South Putnam (88) Meek 10-18 9-13 2 28. Bridgewater 2-8 8824, Yocom 2-8 2-4 3 8, Greenlee 7-18 2-3 2 18, Sutherlin 3 5-8 211, Pickens 80 8110-Totals FG 24-56, FT 1827, PF 12 REBOUNDING Greencastle (28>-Dunn 4, Durham 4, Hanson 4, Rushing 4. Remsburg 4, Sutherlin 3, Nelson 2, Team 3. South Putnam (34)-Yocom 12, Meek 10, Bridgewater 4, Sutherlin 3, Greenlee 2, Pickens 2. QUARTERSCORING Greencastle 12 ts 2 1 12-61 South Putnam 20 11 14 21-86 TURNOVERS: GHS9, SPB JUNIOR VARSITY GAME: SP 47, GHS 40