The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 27

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW 21 tuesday, feb. 14, 1984 Washington skier (not Mahre) wins gold Armstrong leads 1-2-4 American finish in GS By D. BYRON YAKE AP Sports Editor SARAJEVO, Yugoslavia The Americans, dealt a cold hand early, finally showed their mettle at the Winter Olympics, with Debbie Armstrong winning the gold women's giant slalom Monday and teammate Christin Cooper taking the silver. Armstrong earned the United States its first gold medal of the Games with her heroics on the slopes of Mount Jahorina. She and Cooper boosted the U.S.

medal count to three, following the silver medal won in pairs figure skating by Kitty and Peter Carruthers of Wilmington, Sunday night. Add to that a commanding performance by Scott Hamilton in the compulsory figures of the men's figure skating. Toss in a to fourth place by Tamara McKinney in the giant slalom, two Americans in the top 10 after the first double luge trial and a third-place spot in ice dancing for Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert with free dancing remaining. Sprinkle in a bit of success by the U.S. hockey team, which defeated Austria 7-3 Monday night behind Pat LaFontaine's three goals, and you have a U.S.

Olympic team on a hot streak. "I was beginning to think we were snake-bit," a hoarse William E. Simon, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said. "This is just great for the United States." The key was Armstrong's victory.

"America has been waiting for this," someone shouted to Armstrong at the finish line. "Now America's got it," Armstrong fired back. "You could hear Americans howling in the streets downtown when they announced it," said Pat Ahern, a Nordic combined member of the U.S. team. "I actually got chills up my back," bobsledder Bob Hickey said.

"It's really us psyched," said downhill skier Tiger Shaw, of Stowe, Vt. The Americans and other athletes also got relief from a chronic snow storm that turned the Alpine events schedule into turmoil. It seemed promising, at last, that Californian Bill Johnson would get a shot at the gold medal in the men's downhill on Thursday. In hockey, Canada, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union clinched berths in the medals competition. Canada defeated Norway 8-1, while Czechoslovakia beat Finland 7-2 to gain berths from Group B.

It was the fourth straight victory for the Canadians, who have a solid chance for a medal. The U.S. team, which failed to make the medals round, finally won a game after losing its first two and tying the next one. Its Olympics will be over on Wednesday after it plays Finland. (Continued on page 3) Stevens to Pollard: WSU's door is open PULLMAN Washington State University junior forward Bryan Pollard, who did not practice with the Cougars for three days last week and missed WSU's game with Arizona State Saturday, met with Cougar head coach Len Stevens Monday, indicating personal problems were the reason for his absence last week.

"At this point we've left the door open. Bryan is still on our team, but we don't know when and if he will be back this season," Stevens said at practice Monday. "He's going through some personal situations right now that he's having, problems with," Stevens said. "Most probably 90 percent, doesn't deal with basketball. It has all piled up on him and affected his play.

He feels at this point he's not in a good position to contribute." Pollard, a 6-4 forward, started WSU's first 19 games and was the team's number two scorer with a 12.0 average, and second in rebounding. "We have not suspended him, added. but he "He will is not be with us this week," Stevens in the frame of mind to play basketball. He's down and he's got to deal with some personal problems outside basketball. He's got to take care of those first, before he's going to be able to come back in a good frame of mind and do what is necessary to be successful." Stevens said he and Pollard would continue to talk.

"We're going to communicate with each other. He needs more time to sort things out so he feels more comfortable." Freshman Joe Wallace, 6-5, started in Pollard's place against and Stevens said he would start at Oregon Thursday. DESCENTE 434 AP photo Twenty-year-old Debbie Armstrong of Seattle races to an Olympic gold medal time in the women's giant slalom Monday in Sarajevo. Armstrong was reluctant skier; parents SARAJEVO, Yugoslavia (A.P) All those weekends spent skiing with her parents, when she really wanted to do something else with her friends, have paid off for Debbie Armstrong, the women's Olympic giant slalom champion. Armstrong, 20, of Seattle, led an American 1-2-4 finish in the giant slalom the first Alpine ski event completed at the Olympics.

High winds and snow had wiped out four previous days of skiing and forced repeated postponements. Armstrong came to skiing reluctantly. Her father, Hugh Armstrong, is a psychologist, but both he and his wife Dollie taught skiing parttime, and they urged her to come along when they went to the mountains on weekends. "You know how it is," Armstrong says. "When your parents want you to do something, you don't want to do it.

I wanted to play with my friends, but I gave in. "'It didn't really happen for me until I was older. I didn't make the U.S. Ski Team until I was out of high school, so I made no real sacrifices like a lot of skiers do." Her parents watched their daughter's victory Monday. "I knew it could happen," her mother said after the race.

"But I don't think it has sunk in yet." Armstrong recovered from a broken leg at the World Championships in 1982 to score points in eight World Cup races last season, her first taste of international competition. This year she has finished third in a super giant slalom and fifth in a giant slalom, but despite those successes is better known as a downhiller. "I've been pegged as a downhiller," she said. "but I like all three disciplines. My best results have been in giant slalom.

For a time, all I was running was downhill, downhill, downhill. I had to keep on the coaches to let me run GS." Fortunately, they listened. "I knew when I saw the hill yesterday that I could do well on it," she said of the Olympic giant slalom track at Mount Jahorina. "It's a worker hill. You can't let up all the way down, and that's what I did.

"I came in here really relaxed. We all did. All I thought about in the starting gate was having fun. I knew if I kept my head together and skied positive, I would do OK. I wish I could always feel this way." celebrates AP photo Armstrong her gold medal.

Cougars can count on at least one blue chipper PULLMAN Now that recruiting, and recruiting stories, are history, Jim Walden was ready to announce his first blue-chip prospect 1 would turn out for spring football. "I've always said that you don't recruit blue chip players, you graduate them," Walden, peering over his reading glasses, said Monday. "But he may break that Who is this blue chipper? Ryan Knight? Gaston Green? No. The two southern California running backs considered to be out of the Herschel Walker mold are heading for USC and UCLA, respectively. Well, what, then? Is Walden confusing blue chips with cow chips? Nope.

What's more, selling Cougar football to this player may have been the easiest job of the recruiting season. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Dan Lynch to the Wazzu fold. OK, so you're welcoming him back. The news that Lynch will be granted an extra year of eligibility and that Spokane's Lewis and Clark High alum will use it is welcome news to a football team where depth in the trenches could be all that stands in the way of success. Lynch, starting left offensive guard on WSU's 7-4 team of 1983, was to have been part of a long list of graduated linemen from both sides of the ball: Keith Millard, Eric Williams, John Winslow, Charlie Flager and (Dan's brother) Pat Lynch.

But the NCAA decided that those freshman in 1980 Lynch was one who played in 20 percent or less of the games that year, could claim 1980 as a redshirt pushed her 5 And play in 1984. It helps to strengthen the notion that this could become one of the best teams in Walden's seven-year tenure. Which, as you know if you've followed the Cougars for any length of time, means it could be one of the best teams in Pullman in half a century. "I'm not ready to predict anything," Walden says. "I am ready to challenge this group to be the best.

We've got a lot in the lineup to indicate this bunch could be a good team." WSU was supposed to be good in 1982, too, after coming within a game of the Rose Bowl the season before. The Cougars finished 3-7-1. They were supposed to be good last year, too. And again finishing one win from the Rose Bowl they were, although a disastrous 2-4 start had left doubts. (If I may interject here Walden, like so many, wondered what went wrong early.

My half-baked theory is that one problem is this: In Seattle, Husky coach Don James can insist in August prior to another bowl season that his looks like a 3-8 team. A He can do so because every season ticket to UW games has been sold. Walden, meanwhile, must promise the stars in August, since part of his job is to get fans into Vince Devlin Sports staff writer Martin Stadium. His players read about how wonderful they are, and forget to work at becoming so). But that was 1983.

This is 1984, and the first roadblock to another winning season on the Palouse may be an improved Pacific-10 Conference. Many thought the Pac-10 was way down last season. Walden, with UCLA's romp over Illinois in the Rose Bowl to back him up, doesn't buy that. "With the total balance in this Pac-10, you can look very mediocre within the league," he says. "But then you go outside the conference and play somebody else who's dominant in their league, you see what The Pac-10 should be on the upswing, anyway.

"I can't imagine USC not being better," Walden says, "and UCLA may end up with a better record next year, just because they don't play the monster schedule again." Throw in the Arizona and Washington schools, and Walden says, "Things are going to be shakin' and bakin' next season." It has nothing to do with the latest class of Pac-10 recruits, the Cougar coach says. "Anyone planning on this class of recruits getting them into the top three this year," he says, "regardless of the lies they told them, has got another thing And, Walden believes a New Year's date in Pasadena may come down to not who you played, but who you didn't. His Cougars skip both Arizona schools. Washington won't play Arizona State or UCLA. Cal will tough it out against all nine opponents.

USC will find tough going as well, missing only Oregon State. Led by running back Kerry Porter, Washington State will return a lot of important names from '83. His biggest concerns, says Walden, will be depth in the lines, at the always troublesome tight end spot, and experience at quarterback. "The talent at quarterback doesn't worry me," Walden says, "but the amount of time Mark Rypien and Ed Blount have in game situations does. We lost a very experienced quarterback (in Ricky Turner)." The schedule's another concern.

Two of the Cougars' first three games are on the road, before giant crowds at Tennessee and Ohio State. Plus, WSU opens conference play against the 1-2 punch of USC and UCLA although USC will be required to make its first trip to Pullman since the 1950s. Otherwise, Walden sees just one problem one that might sell a season ticket or two. "Really, our biggest problem is that everyone can't play," says the coach. "We as coaches have to be honest, and give everyone a truthful chance to play.

But when it's settled, the players have to realize that only 11 at a time can be out there. "That's the chemistry part of it that's so important." One last question, coach. Will Washington State ever make it to the Rose Bowl? "The old rule of thumb is that you never get there until you get close, and we've been close a couple of times now. "But really, I'd rather keep close and never go than to go once, and have the program slip back to where it was. It's better to be one game from the Rose Bowl, than to have people questioning whether you belong in this Football season's nearly seven months away, but at least that one question's been answered.

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