Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • B004

B4 SPORTS Saturday, April 7, 2018 Arizona Daily Star ARIZONA GYMNASTICS Wildcats miss NCAA regionals but will send 2 to Alabama practice. Then she had to take a test she would be missing Wednesday and complete some make up assignments. "It's just a lot of stuff on the road that we have to do besides gymnastics just to make sure everything's getting done and we're staying on task," Berg said. Although the team isn't going, and there was a lot of class work to be done before she could leave, Berg said she's excited to be able to go to Tuscaloosa a city she has never been to and to see her father and brother over the Even without the extended support available with the team, Berg said she believes having last year's regional experience will help her feel more comfortable. "Although I'll be by myself, it's just a good meet to go to," Berg said.

"The atmosphere is a lot more different than other meets. It's a lot more serious (and has) a lot of different schools we've never competed against. "So, I really just want to go, do one of my best routines and hopefully end on a good score." Contact reporter Norma Gonzalez at 262-3265 or ngonzaleztucson.com By Norma Gonzalez ARIZONA DAILY STAR Arizona finished the regular season ranked No. 38 nationally, two spots short of qualifying for the NCAA gymnastics regionals. But Madison Cindric and Christina Berg will still be able to represent the GymCats at the University of Alabama on Saturday.

Cindric qualified to compete in the all-around, and Berg will perform on the uneven bars. Berg, a sophomore from Illinois, said she wished the team could have qualified but will still try her best. "It's disappointing the entire team couldn't have qualified for regionals, but it's also good for me that, what I worked for all year, has paid off. Especially on my standout event," Berg said. "I can go and compete and get one more chance to get a good score and end on a high note." Last year, Berg finished in the top five in uneven bars at regionals.

Berg has competed both on floor and bars this season, but she said she has always excelled at uneven bars. This season, Berg scored a season and career high of 9.925 on the apparatus. "It's always been my best event, since I was little," Berg said. Both athletes will be split up and join qualifying teams on their rotations. Berg will be one of two individual athletes rotating with the University of Illinois; Cindric will compete alongside the University of Michigan.

Berg said she will cheer on the Fighting Illini while also supporting her UA teammate But before Berg could leave to Tuscaloosa on Thursday with Cindric and their two coaches, Berg had to get better. The sophomore fell sick early in the week and took a couple days off from ARIZONA TRACK AND FIELD ARIZONA ATHLETICS Local products Thompson, Gehr shine at home event UA forum calls for wider dialogue about sex assaults TODAY What: Jim Click Shootout When: Field events start at 9 a.m.; running events start at 12:30 p.m. Where: Drachman Stadium STAN LIU ARIZONA ATHLETICS Arizona's Alyssa Thompson finished second in the heptathlon at the Jim Click Shootout with a total of 5,596 points. By Frank 0. Sotomayor SPECIALT0THEARIZ0NA DAILY STAR Alyssa Thompson and Dominic Gehr, two of many athletes who decided to stay near home to compete for the UA track and field teams, both finished a strong second Friday in the multi-event competitions of the Jim Click Shootout at Drach-man Stadium.

The meet swings into full gear Saturday as the UA lines up against Kansas State, whose women's team is ranked 10th nationally; Auburn, ranked 19th for men; Ohio State, 21st for men; Cincinnati and Illinois. Thompson, a UA senior, turned in the fifth-best heptathlon score in the nation and improved her personal-best score to 5,596 points in the seven events over two days. Unattached athlete Rachel Macintosch won with 5,683 points. Thompson's solid performance stands a good chance to qualify her to compete in the NCAA decathlon championships, which accepts only the 24 top scores in Division I. "She still has a lot in her" to improve, UA assistant coach Matthew Mc-Gee said.

year, he won All-American honors by finishing third in the NCAA finals. Freshman Turner Washington, a U.S. high school champion discus thrower from Canyon del Oro, leads a strong corps of UA discus throwers. Washington was a silver medalist at the Junior Pan Am Games last year in Peru. Middle -distance runner Carlos Villarreal, from Rio Rico, was another "catch" for the UA.

He had options, ranging from Auburn to UCLA, but he said he decided to stay near home. He won All-American honors during the recently completed indoor season in the run. He will run the 800 meters on Saturday. "I've been a Wildcat fan my whole life," Villarreal said. "I'm way happy here.

I get to see my family and they come to all the home meets." "We want all those good athletes from the state of Arizona to come here." Harvey and his assistants have done well in drawing athletes from around the world. This year's team includes athletes from Germany, Latvia, Sweden, China and Kenya. But the core of the UA team is built on Southern Arizonans, those from Phoenix area and one from Nogales, Sonora high jumper Karla Teran. In the last two years, the Wildcats have scored local recruiting coups. First, they added blue-chip high jumper Justice Summerset.

Now a sophomore, Summerset set the state high school record while at Mountain View; last Gehr scored 6,709 points in the 10 -event decathlon, landing him among the 20 top scores in the NCAA. He finished behind Kansas State's Aaron Boot's 7,397 points. Thompson, a Salpointe Catholic graduate, spent one year at Wake Forest before transfeerring to the UA. Gehr, the 2017 high school state decathlon champion from Marana, said he loved competing in front of his family and friends. Athletes from Southern Arizona and the Phoenix area who compete for the UA bring a smile to UA head coach Fred Harvey.

"They are kind of my pride and joy," he said. ARIZONA'S AYT0N WINS KARL MAL0NE AWARD than not to have committed a code of conduct violation to be found guilty. Gallego also reviewed with the group the laws regarding domestic violence, various types of sex crimes and talked about how Arizona is a non-expungement state, meaning a conviction will stay on a person's criminal record for life. "I've always lived by the motto 'When you've seen better and know better, you have to do Steptoe said, telling students they need to share what they've learned and to call people out when they make comments or conversations that perpetuate rape culture. "Have these conversations." One student asked Steptoe and Gallego if they knew what happened with the UA administration's handling of the Orlando Bradford case.

Bradford, a former running back, was arrested in September 2016 for assaulting two girlfriends. Campus police reports indicate that another women had come forward months before Bradford's arrest to say he'd been abusing her, but little action was taken in response to her accusations. The student said campus officials had "swept the situation under the rug," to which Steptoe replied, "Oh, yeah." Steptoe said he'd been shocked at what had happened with Bradford, who he'd worked with in his previous position as associate director of Arizona Athletics C.A.T.S. Life Skills. Steptoe also expressed remorse about the situation, saying, "I was not having enough of those conversations with him." But while he was unsettled by Bradford's actions, Steptoe said that Bradford's roommates' lack of action while witnessing the abuse was what upset him most about the situation.

Bradford's roommates, all fellow UA football players, watched multiple times as he hit his girlfriends, police say. On all but one occasion, they did nothing. Gallego reminded the group that if a student doesn't want to move forward with a Title IX investigation, there's not a lot the school can do to remedy the situation. It's unclear if the UA opened a Title IX investigation in response to UAPD's report involving Bradford, as the UA previously declined to produce those records, citing student privacy laws. "Students don't have to go to UAPD, but they can at least make a report to campus and the Office of Institutional Equity will investigate," Gallego said.

"Maybe it's not the first report (about this person.) Maybe it's a pattern." The first step in eradicating rape culture is to talk about it, Gallego said, telling the group that part of being an adult is learning to have uncomfortable conversations. "Don't feel these conversations can't be had, because they can," Steptoe said. "And it's time to start having them." Contact reporter Caitlin Schmidt at cschmidttucson.com or 573-4191. Twitter: (Ucaitlincschmidt By Caitlin Schmidt ARIZONA DAILY STAR Under a cloud of allegations involving sexual misconduct, the UA athletic department hosted a discussion Thursday night about law and rape culture. The event was part of I Will Week, a student-led campaign in its fourth year that works to end rape culture on campus by raising awareness of sexual assault and promoting consent.

Throughout the week, organizers held events on campus to educate students about issues including masculinity, dating and relationships and LGBTQ rights. Representatives from more than 20 campus groups were on the UA Mall throughout the week, offering resources about where to get help with issues involving sexual harassment or assault, said student body President Matt Lubisich. "It's really great that the university and students are addressing this issue head-on," Lubisich said. As part of the campaign, students were asked to sign the I Will Pledge, committing to help end the normalization of sexual violence in society. As of Friday afternoon, 3,000 students had signed the pledge, with one more event still on the agenda.

Syndric Steptoe, a former UA and NFL player and director of alumni career and professional development, addressed a group of about 20 students during the discussion Thursday night. Steptoe said rape culture is normalized in kids through advertising, music and society, and that it's up to everyone to make a change. "This is an issue that women can't get rid of," Steptoe said. "It's going to take men to step up and answer that call to end that culture." Steptoe told the students that part of the reason he's so passionate about the issue is that his mother was a victim of domestic violence, and what he watched her go through was "unbearable." Society teaches women not to get raped instead of teaching men not to rape, Steptoe said, adding that the problem is that young men are not being educated to treat women as equals, rather than objects. "When are we going to say enough is enough and come to bat for women?" Steptoe asked the group.

Twenty to 25 percent of students will be sexually assaulted while attending the UA, said Janis Gallego, an attorney who works for Associated Students of the University of Arizona's legal services division. Half of those rapes will take place at fraternity or sorority houses. Students that identify as LGBTQ are twice as likely to be a victim of sexual assault. But less than 20 percent of UA victims report sexual assaults to police, Gallego said. "More people need to report on our campus," she said In many cases, the student code of conduct is stricter than Arizona law, where the standard of evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt, Gallego said.

A student only has to be found to have more likely ribbed and booed Ayton throughout the game, and he responded with 18 points and 16 rebounds. "It was a lot of adversity in that game, a lot of distractions, but we had one goal to win that game," Ayton said. "Not having coach Miller coach that game was a lot of pressure. But it really brought me and my teammates together. It was us against the world.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the win. But we grew and our relationships got stronger." Purdue's Carsen Edwards was given the Jerry West Award as the top shooting guard, Brunson won the Bob Cousy point guard of the year award, Villanova's Mikal Bridges was named the Julius Erving small forward of the year, and Seton Hall's Angel Delgado was named the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar center of the year. Bruce Pascoe Arizona's Deandre Ayton was given the Karl Malone Award as college basketball's top power forward Friday, beating out Duke's Marvin Bagley and three other finalists. Ayton was also a finalist for the Wooden Award, a player of the year honor that was given to Villanova's Jalen Brunson. Ayton led Arizona in scoring (21.1) and rebounding (11.6) as a freshman last season.

His 24 double-doubles over 35 games set a new UA school record and tied for first nationally last season with Minnesota's Jordan Murphy. When asked during the show what his most memorable moment of the season was, Ayton said it was UA's overtime loss at Oregon on Feb. 24, when coach Sean Miller sat out in the wake of a Feb. 23 ESPN report that said he allegedly discussed a $100,000 payment for Ayton. Oregon student fans MILLER Continued from Page Bl has changed the timeline of the alleged discussion several times, from 2017 to fall 2016 and back to 2017.

ESPN quoted sources familiar with federal evidence, though that evidence remains sealed. "We deal with the information we have on the table," Heeke said. "There's only so much of that and we make our decisions based on that." Robbins and Heeke told the regents Friday that they were pleased with the agreement they ultimately reached with Miller. "I'm appreciative to coach Miller for stepping up and, shall we say, putting some skin in this," Robbins told the regents. "He put his money where his mouth was.

"We obviously supported coach Miller through a very difficult time and we look forward to him having great success and being our coach for a long time." Before the regents voted to pass the amendment to Miller's contract, Regent Ron Shoopman said he gave credit to Robbins, Heeke and Laura Todd Johnson, UA's senior VP for legal affairs and general counsel, for not rushing to judgment. Both the Sept 26 federal complaint, which resulted in the arrest and firing of former UA assistant coach Book Richardson, and the ESPN report have led to considerable speculation about Miller's future at Arizona. "In these emotionally charged situations, it's very easy to get caught up in all the hysteria," Shoopman said. "Rather than do something, this group was thoughtful, fact-based and unemotional, very pragmatic in moving forward. "I think it really speaks well that we moved in a methodical way rather than an emotional way." The regents also approved a provision detailing Miller's obligations as a "responsible employee" under Title IX, which includes reporting requirements, cooperation with Title IX investigations and participation in Title IX training.

Johnson said the Title IX language wasn't just for Miller and will be added to all of the UA's coaching contracts. "It's just a best practice that we're committed to," she said. Miller's contract, which runs through 2021-22, already says he will lose all of his longevity fund shares if he is fired for cause. The new provision simply means he could be penalized even if he remains on the job and is charged with a crime or found guilty of a Level 1 NCAA violation. A Level 1 violation involves what the NCAA calls a "severe breach of contract" and is the most serious of four levels of violations.

Examples of Level 1 violations include lack of institutional control, academic fraud, failure to cooperate in an NCAA enforcement investigation, unethical or dishonest conduct. Miller's longevity fund, made up of 91,557.5 shares of Andeavor Logistics stock, is currently valued at $4.11 million. He became vested in the shares on May 31, 2017, and he is scheduled to receive them on May 31, 2020. Miller can also receive another $1.18 million worth of Andeavor shares in May 2022 if he stays until June 2020. In a sense, Miller is al ready paying a penalty for the off-court questions that surround his program.

The UA has lost all three of its 2018 recruits, while several other four-and-five-star prospects dropped the Wildcats, leaving Miller with only six scholarship players on board for next season. The spring signing period begins Wednesday, and the UA is already pursuing many incoming freshmen and grad transfers. Four-star forward Devonair Doutrive is scheduled to visit campus this weekend. Whatever happens in recruiting, Heeke said he is confident the Wildcats will "be ready to go" when McKale Center's doors open again next season. "I don't viewus as under a cloud of anything," Heeke said.

"This is a tremendous basketball program and a fabulous athletic program and a world-class university. It will continue to be that going forward.".