The Gettysburg Times from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania • Page 9

SportsSports GETTYSBURG TIMESTUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2008S ECTION NCAA EN ASKETBALL OURNAMENT From staff reports The Mount St. basketball will make its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament with a play-in game tonight against Coppin State at Dayton. With a win, the Mount would travel to Raleigh, N.C. to face top-seeded North Carolina in a first- round game Friday. Shall We Mount St.

defeated Sacred Heart, 68-55, on the road on Wednesday night to secure the third- ever bid to the NCAA Tournament. Freshman Jean Cajou and sophomore Kelly Beidler each scored 15 points to lead the Mount to the victory. Cajou was named the MVP of the NEC Tournament after averaging 16.0 points in the three games. March Madness: The Mount is 4-0 in March this season and has won five straight games heading into the NCAA Tournament. After falling to 10-13 after an 83-75 home loss to Wagner on Feb.

7, the Mount has won eight of the past nine games to improve to 18- 14 on the season. Mount and the NCAA Tournament: The previous appearances in the NCAA Tournament were 1995 and 1999. Both years, the Mount was a No. 16 seed. In 1995, the Mount lost to Kentucky, 113-67, in Memphis, while in 1999, Mount St.

fell to Michigan State, 76-53, in Milwaukee, Wis. Quick Hits Sophomore point guard Jeremy Goode has 172 assists this season, the fourth-best single season mark in Mount history. The 18 wins are the second- most since the school moved to NCAA Division I in 1988-89. Cajou has scored in double figures in six straight games. Cajou is averaging a team high 17.7 points in that stretch, hitting 32-of- 48 (66.7 percent) from the field and 17-of-26 (65.4 percent) from three-point range.

The Mount has won five straight games, the second time this season the team has posted a winning streak of five or more games. It is the first time in the Division I era (1988-present) that the team has had a season with two five-game or better win streaks. The Mount made 11 appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament, winning the national title in 1962. In addition, the Mount advanced to the Division II Final Four in 1957, 1961, 1981 and 1985. Mount NCAA Tournament Records: The following are the top individual performances in NCAA D-I Tournament games: (date, player, opponent, points) Points 3-16-95 Chris McGuthrie Kentucky 20 3-16-95 Riley Inge Kentucky 15 3-12-99 Melvin Whitaker Mich.

St. 13 3-12-99 Gregory Harris Mich. State 12 3-12-99 Aaron Herbert Mich. State 12 (See MOUNT on Page B4) ARRYL HEELER ETTYSBURG IMES Mount St. basketball coach Milan Brown watches his team practice last week at Knott Arena in preparation for play-in game against Coppin State in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Time to dance Mount St. tees it up in NCAA Tournament OUNT ARY SVS OPPIN TATE BY JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. Joe Gibbs Racing should have won at Bristol Motor Speedway. Instead, it was a Richard Childress Racing sweep. Once again, Hendrick Motorsports was nowhere near Victory Lane.

Five races into the season, the team that won 18 of 36 races last year is still looking for its first victory. Yet to call it a Hendrick slump might be overstating really going on right now in NASCAR. For the first time in recent memory, there appears to be parity in top series. All four manufacturers and four different teams have won at least one race this year, and Carl Edwards made Roush Fenway Racing the only multiple winner. At this point last season, Hendrick had three wins and Chevrolet had four.

Early results hinted this season be a repeat of runaway rout, and race at Bristol solidified it. Jimmie Johnson was the only Hendrick car to lead laps a meager 14 of them but none after Lap 53. Instead, Gibbs drivers Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch battled each other for the lead while combining to pace the field for 372 of the 506 laps. When they out front, a Childress car was: Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton combined to lead 115 of the laps. Then it was Burton jumping past Hamlin for the lead during the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish, and taking Harvick and Bowyer with him for the first 1-23 team sweep in NASCAR since Roush did it in the 2005 season finale.

lot of times just to have three cars finish Bristol is Childress said. It was more than luck that pushed the three Childress cars to the front on Sunday. It was hard work and a commitment from every team in the garage to step up and try to knock Hendrick off the throne it has occupied the past two seasons. In fact, it was Burton himself who loudly declared before the season that everyone was gunning for Hendrick. not coming into this year to take a he said in January.

not here to run second. not here to talk about how good Hendrick is. not why we exist. We exist so people talk about Now that people are talking about teams other than Hendrick, Burton is among the first to downplay any perceived slump. While noting that five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon had an uncharacteristically quiet 11th-place run, Burton suggested it was only a matter of time before the Hendrick drivers return to their winning ways.

wake the sleeping giant, going to be hard to he warned. no getting around Except, unlike the last few seasons, there are teams apparently capable of beating them. So what exactly has happened to close the competition? In some regards, the competition was never that far off. Rick Hendrick, himself, admits his team lucked into many of its wins last season, particularly early in the year when Gibbs drivers seemed headed to victories before mechanical failures and pit road miscues handed Hendrick cars the win. had great luck.

We were not as good as we looked last said the owner. were not that much better than everybody And in running as well as it did, the Hendrick group was somewhat saddled by three of its teams racing for the championship. It forced the organization to focus on the final 10 races of the year, while many groups were able to devote more resources toward 2008 preparations. (See NASCAR on Page B3) Hendrick blanked; parity in full swing NASCAR BY ADAM MICHAEL Times Sports Writer Plenty of people were sporting their best green and white attire Monday, but Michael reason had nothing to do with the Patron Saint of Ireland. Last night Quealy was voted in as the new football coach at Fairfield High School at the Fairfield Area School Board meeting.

The new coach did not attend the meeting but returned phone calls soon after its closing. Pennsylvania being such a great football state, I want these kids to have the same quality football experiences and opportunities that other great programs in Pennsylvania Quealy said. Fairfield athletic director Drake and principal Wayne Sherrard, Jr. held the preliminary rounds of interviews and superintendent William Chain said he was involved in the later parts of the process. He was impressed when the number of candidates expressing interest in the coaching position reached double digits.

Chain said Quealy stood out because of his technical outlook on the game and his 17 years of coaching experience. His proximity to the school he is a Fairfield resi- dent was an added bonus. For now, Quealy will continue to teach at Francis Scott Key in Maryland. wanted somebody that we hoped would be with Chain said. can talk about here and now, you always talk about going to be true five years from now but hoping for Quealy has worked with the youth recreation league in Fairfield and looks to continue to target progress with younger children as well as development of the varsity program.

With two sons, 7 and 11, and a daughter, 12, in Fairfield, the new coach should have no problem reaching out to that part of the community. successful high school coach has a quality rec league behind Quealy said. so small we have a middle school program so that rec league is like a middle school program. be working very close with them. like to think our program starts when the players are eight years old and ends when they are The decision to hire Quealy was made just over three months after the board decided not to renew the contract of former head coach Stu Mackintosh.

Chain said Quealy was aware of the unusual circumstances he was entering into with the controversial non-renewal of contract. Chain added that he was relieved to find a suitable coach for the position to help revive the football spirit in Fairfield. (See FAIRFIELD on Page B4) Fairfield names new football coach IGH CHOOL OOTBALL Mike Quealy the pick to take over Knight program Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley fields a ground ball hit by Cleveland Asdrubal Cabrera during their spring training game Monday in Clearwater, Fla. A SSOCIATED RESS HOTOGRAPH From wire services CLEARWATER, Fla. The Philadelphia Phillies finally got some offensive from Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.

Rollins and Utley, who both came into the game batting below .200, had run-scoring singles in a five-run second inning and the Phillies beat the Cleveland Indians 6-4 Monday. Rollins, Utley and center fielder Shane Victorino helped the top three spots in the Phillies lineup finish 6-for-7 with five RBIs. Starting catcher Carlos Ruiz was 3- for-4. gaining on them, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel joked of his team, which is now just 7-12-1 in Grapefruit League play. were all right (offensively).

Today was a pretty good While the offense sizzled, Chard Durbin kept his name in the mix for the vacant fifth job. Durbin allowed three runs on four hits in five innings, striking out one while walking two, to earn the win. go out there and do what they tell me to do and whatever happens, Durbin said. pitching well and healthy, then in good Despite giving up 11 hits and six runs in four innings, Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee was content with his performance. far as locating pitches and throwing my off-speed stuff, I felt Lee said.

(See PHILS on Page B3) Rollins, Utley come to life in win over Indians AJOR EAGUES Huskies to travel rocky road in tourney BY DOUG FEINBERG AP Sports Writer four seniors have never been to the Final Four. To get there before their college careers end, the Huskies must potentially get past Big East rival Rutgers in the Greensboro Regional. The No. 1 seeded Huskies (32-1) will open against No. 16 Cornell on Sunday in Bridgeport, Conn.

Other No. 1 seeds are North Carolina, Tennessee and Maryland. Connecticut, ranked atop the AP poll for 12 of the final 13 weeks, is hoping to get to the Final Four for the first time since 2004. The Huskies lost to LSU in the regional final last season. being the overall No.

1 got first shot at regional committee chair Judy Southard said. we moved on through placing the teams in the bracket, when we got to Rutgers they also were shipped to Greensboro. spent quite a bit of time studying that and trying to find a way to avoid that happening. Once we really got to analyzing it, we got to an impasse if we were to protect the balance of the If the Huskies get to the Final Four April 6-8 in Tampa, Fla. it will be the first Connecticut senior class in 20 years to not have played in at least the national semifinals.

No. 2 seed Rutgers handed Connecticut its lone loss during the season, beating the Huskies on Feb. 5 in a Big East matchup. Rutgers lost in the national championship game last season to Tennessee. so many teams to choose from kind of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said.

guess Rutgers is the number-eight seed in the country? I find that hard to believe, but I guess they are. If I were them, be questioning a little bit going (See TOURNEY on Page B3) OMEN OLLEGE ASKETBALL Yankees eager to face Hokies in Blacksburg Page B2 drag kids into football. They either want to be football players or they put a good staff together and show how hard willing to work and hopefully their hard work will follow. be looking toward the future instead of looking Mike Quealy, Fairfield football head coach.