Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 May 2000 — Page 20

V

rnecovcaer

-»

FRIDAY, MAY 19,2000 ■ PAGE B8

■Mays

CtMIvnical Company

w uiivimcai company ■■■■■■■■■

' ■- V';,, ; IPS attendance policy hits Manual girls’ track

/ • '» , • - '.v

Monique Gross emerges in spite of policy By JAMES M. KEOUGH JR. Sports Writer What comes first, the chicken or the

Sgg?

I Certainly, the coach of the Mahval

|High School girls’ crosscountry andtr^ck, J^or rolk 1 tnpwk the honor 101."

\ Talk about Ending a mixed message.

his story is perplexing. as much success as he has experienced In fact, it raises all types of questions, since his arrival. A large part of his prob“This year, I have turned away 27 girls lem has been his ability to attract and due to the attendance portion of the IPS retain girls for the program.

^program is asking this question. , l Obviously, student athletes are stuJdents first and foremost. However, when tthere is a policy in place that may rip at the Ispirit of high school athletes, it may be

'worth taking another look at.

* Sean Marcum is as much an advocate Jbr quality education and attendance for ■IPS students as there is in the system, but

grade policy that came out in January,” said Marcum, who transferred from Tech High School to Manual a couple of years ago. '’All 27 girls made the 4.0 grade requirement, and 10 of Them were on the

frail.”

_ „ ed fries _

the Manual girls’ program, despite

Components of the IPS grade policy are

not aiding this situation.

‘The retention of girls has been the primary problem. Jobs and other priorities seem to take precedent over athletics,” said Marcum. “l am very proud of the 13 girls in ouf program. They have improved over the last two years. Over the last two

being devastated li|y the IPS requirement, years, we didn’t win a meet.

is an improved program heading in the Southport Sectional this week. They have won seveh out of 39 meets (7-32) and may have threeVhletes that could advance to

the next roii

However,Vcording to Marcum, this is

The level of competition has been raised a notch for Manual heading into the sectionals. Marcum recently received a letter from the IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) informing him that Manual would now participate in

the Southport Sectional. This means Manual will be competing with Ben Davis, Arsenal Technical, Speedway, Northwest and Warren Central. It appears things are only going to become more challenging for the Redskins. The competitors to watch for Manual are sophomore Monique Cross, who specializes in the 100 and 300 meter hurdles, and juniors Sarah Besser and Jamie Sparks. Besser specializes in the one and twomile relays while Sparks runs the two-

mile.

However, Cross is the one to watch according to Marcum. A standout on the Manual girls’ basketball team. Cross was urged to participate in track for conditioning purposes. Now she is on the brink of breaking the

school record in the 300 hurdles. The current school record is 50.4 seconds, she ran 51.6 earlier this year. ‘‘She is the one I am most pleased with. She came out of nowhere. She is on the basketball team and I urged her to come out for track and stay in shape,” said

Marcum.

Cross placed first in three meets in the 300Jmrdles and one in the 100. She also placed in the conference meet. Additionally, she is a strong student with developing leadership capabilities. “She is a B student and she comes to school everyday. She is strong willed. I have to explain things to her completely before she will agree to follow along,” said Marcum. “Ultimately, she pushes herself.”

76ers are back ic series with second win over facers

By STEVE HERMAN AP Sports Writer All of a sudden, Philadelphia is back in the series. And once again, the Indiana Pacers are perilously plose to ending Larry Bird’s coaching career. * First, the Milwaukee Bucks extended Indiana’s first-round series fo a deciding fifth game. Now. after two straight victories, the 76ers jue within one game—at home on Friday — of taking the Pacers to a seventh game in the Eastern Conference semifinals. ■ “Now we have an opportunity to play Game 6. It’s phenomenal. It’s a tribute to my guys,” Sixers poach Larry Brown said after a 107-86victory Monday night. “We might not always play perfect basketball, but the effort is there. Going home, with our fans. I’m thrilled about that.” Philadelphia didn’t play perfect basketball, but it was more than adequate to take care of the reeling Pacers, who were without Reggie Miller and his 25-point playoff average. Miller, suspended one game for retaliating against the 76ers’ Matt Geiger in Game 4, will ■ be back on Friday. A seventh and deciding game, if necessary, would be back in Indianapolis on Sunday. “The way we played, we wouldn’t have beaten them even Jvith Reggie. We were soft,” Indiana’s Mark Jackson said. “All I know is we need to regroup be-

fore we find ourselves fighting for our lives again. But history tells me we’re going to come out aggressive. For some reason, we’re a better team when we’re up 3-2 than when it’s 3-1.” Bird, who will step down as coach at the end of the playoffs, win or lose, would not blame the loss on Miller’s absence “Reggie helped us with the first wins, but we had some breakdowns tonight. We came out and lost our confidence,” Bird said. “It’s easy to lay the blame on someone, but it was all of us.” No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven NBA series. ‘The pressure is kind of on those guys,” said Allen Iverson, who had 37 points for Philadelphia. “Everybody expected they would bejit us. When it comes down to talent in this league, we’re not at the top ... but we have more heart than anybody else in the league. “We really feel like we’ve got a shot. We’re going to bring our ‘A’ game, and for them to get out of there with a win, they’re definitely going to have to bring their ‘A’ game.” The 76ers hit seven of their first eight Shots and took a 15-0 lead. “You hope to get a good start, but there’s no way in the world I imagined we’d get off to that lead,” Brown said. “I know they lost a great player. You can’t make up for somebody of his ability not playing, but all the conversation

was they didn’t need him, they would win without him, so it’s just a tremendous effort on our part.” Iverson hit his first three shots and had seven points during the 15-0 run. But without Miller, the Pacers had virtually no scoring besides Rik Smits, who had 14 of his team-high 15 points in the first half. A 10-2 run pushed the lead to 29-16 at the end of the first quarter, and the 76ers kept control in the second period with a 14-2 streak, including two free throws by Iverson on technical fouls against Travis Best and Derrick McKey. Philadelphia pushed the lead to as many as 25 points and led 60-37 at halftime, when the Pacers left the floor to a chorus of boos. Unlike Saturday, when die Pacers came back from 18 points down to lead by five before losing 92-90, they never made a serious charge in the second half. Theo Ratliff scored a career playoff-high 26 points, and Toni Kukoc and Aaron McKie had 13 apiece. Indiana’s Jalen Rose, averaging 21.4 points in the playoffs, missed his first six shots and finished 4-for-15 from the field with 13points. Without Miller, it was “harder to get shot attempts. They, were trying to make me pass the ball and they did a good job,” Rose said. “They got out so fast, jumped on us so early and attacked a lot of things we like to run.”

Jbnes gave an eager audience a show to remember last i (Rhoto/Michael Patton)

id In his victory against Richard Hall.

clones makes big hit in Conseco

Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson (with ball) takes Pacer, Travis Best to the cup. After two straight Victories, the 76ers are within one game of taking the Pacers to a seventh game In the Eastern Conference semifinals. (photo/Walt Thomas)

4 JAMES M. KEOUGH, JR. 5 Sports Writer According to a source close to the Indiana Pacers Basketball Corporation, one of the primary reasons for the interest in bringing a Roy Jones, Jr. boxing event to Indianapolis was to raise the profile of arguably the best, pound-for-pound professional boxer on the planet. While he has beaten all challengers and carries a set of championship belts, it was believed by his promoters and others involving with promoting this landmark event that Jones is the best-kept secret in professional boxing. Additionally, with a state-of-the-art like Conseco Fieldhouse to host such an event, why not try to diversify? Well, it appears all missions were accomplished as Jones put on a dazzling performance at the expense of Richard Hall Saturday night. Jones hit the number oneranked light heavyweight contender everywhere except the bottoms of his feet in route to an 11 thround technical knockout. After a dominating first round in which Hall hit the canvass twice.

it appeared Jones may have stretched out the victory in order to give an eager audience a show the lived up to the hype. After the dominating and sometimes cruel and brutal beating administered by Jones, one thing is for certain. Roy Jones is one of the best fighters in the world. Make no mistake. According to the fight promoter, Murad Muhammad, Conseco Fieldhouse and the city hosted a world-class event. Jones also voiced his approval with his treatment while in the city and his desire to return. The executives from HBO, another sponsor of the event, gave the Fieldhouse high ratings as being a facility capable of hosting a world-class boxing event. George Foreman, a boxing analyst for HBO, was in attendance as well as several local dignitaries. For a few seconds, the Fieldhouse began to have the feel of the Mirage in Las Vegas (NV) or an Atlantic City boxing venue. The standard crowd that assembles for a Pacers home game or other similar event, generally reflects the conservative undertone of our city.

v

However, this is. professional boxing and diversity was paramount. \ Remnants from “Superfly” or “The Mack’Vr “Dolemite” permeated the Conseco Fieldhouse. Silk suits, wide-brimmed hats and pastel colors met the eyes in all directions and commonplace with professional boxing, there were loyal followers that attend boxing event regardless of where they are. \ One of the best fights of the night took place in the balcony or upper deck of the Fieldhouse involving enthusiastic boxing fans, inspired by the efforts of Jones. In total, better than 13,000 boxing enthusiasts poured in Conseco Fieldhouse to enjoy a competitive evening of boxing. Several members of the Indiana Pacers are avid boxing fans and had tickets to the fight. However, due to weather problems in Philadelphia following the team’s loss in game four of the Eastern Conference semifinal, the Pacers didn’t arrive until after the conclusion of the main event. However don’t surprised if Jones returns to the Fieldhouse next year. Stay tuned.

% ♦