__College’s Triathlon club returns to campus after four-year hiatus__

p. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. you’ll find sophomore Ben Bartlett swimming laps at the Rec Center pool. After his classes end in the afternoon, he’ll trade his swimsuit for jogging shorts. Then on weekends, in between time spent at a part-time job, you’ll see him on his bike, going on trips as long as 70 miles.

p. A member of the College’s Club Triathlon team, which re-formed this past fall after a four-year hiatus, Bartlett’s intense weekly training regiment is par for the course for anyone training for the one, two, three punch of swimming, running and biking that a triathlon packs.

p. Bartlett estimates that he spends 20 hours a week working part-time and 15-20 hours training in the three triathlon disciplines. Add school work into the mix and Bartlett’s schedule is packed.

p. “It’s unlike anything else,” Bartlett said. “With the multi-sport lifestyle, you really have to find time to fit things in.”

p. But all the sacrifices he’s made have paid off. At a half Ironman event in April, Bartlett took third place overall and first in his age category (20-24) with a time of 4 hours and 18 minutes. Junior Jon Anderson, another member of the Club Triathlon team, qualified for a national competition in St. Louis after winning his Clydesdale weight category of 200+ pounds in 5 hours and 11 minutes.

p. On June 10, Anderson and several other members of the Triathlon team will compete in the local Yorktown Sprint Triathlon which involves swimming 750 meters, biking for 13.5 miles and a 5k run. The sprint distance is the shortest of four triathlon distances which include olympic, half Ironman and Ironman. While the longer events require greater endurance, sprint triathlons are all about speed.

p. “I have some speed, but not a lot. It’s really difficult for the way I’m built to do short races,” said Bartlett, who is skipping the Yorktown Sprint to train for a different event.

p. Anderson competed in the Yorktown Sprint last year and said his training in the next few weeks will be focused on getting his body ready for a faster paced race.

p. Bartlett’s goal is to qualify for the Ironman Hawaii World Championship next year, but in order to do so he must earn first or second place in his age group at the Buffalo Springs Lake Half Ironman in Lubbock, Texas June 23. The half Ironman event consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run (half-marathon).

p. “I think I have a shot at it,” he said. “I need to get in more quality training time.” Bartlett pointed to the difficulty of balancing work, a part time job and training.

p. “In this sport, all the professionals do is eat, sleep and train. College students who try to compete don’t have that opportunity,” he said. “I never get enough sleep.”

p. While he thinks he has a good chance of doing well at the Buffalo Springs Lake Half Ironman event, finding the time to train the necessary 3-4 hours a day will be his biggest obstacle.
Anderson also said training for a triathlon as a full-time student was a feat in itself.

p. “It takes a lot more will power than other sports,” he said. “You have to get up early and schedule around everything you do in college. Not only that but you have to be ready to experience pain which taxes your body.”

p. Six people train year round for Club Triathlon while several dozen more have expressed interest in competing, according to Anderson. Most of the training is done on an individual basis, with some group swim training and partner bike training.

p. “A lot of the training involves longer workouts and a lot of it involves doing a block of run and bike, then bike and swim back to back,” sophomore Chuck Feerick said, who will be competing at the Yorktown Sprint. “Most days you do two to three disciplines.”

p. Currently the team receives no funding, and everything from entry fees in competitions to equipment is paid in full by the athletes. Costs for a competitive bike can run anywhere from $500 to $8000, and wet suits for swimming range from $200-$400. “It’s one of the more expensive sports out there with all the complicated equipment,” Anderson said.

p. Triathletes can also receive sponsorships if they have good enough results to get noticed Bartlett said, who currently has a coaching scholarship from May through October. His coach talks to him over the phone and via email, giving training plans and other advice, but does not meet with him in person.

p. While members of Club Triathlon often train together, the real beauty of the sport is its individual nature.

p. “You’re not pushing anybody but yourself,” Bartlett said. “You don’t have to live up to anybody’s standards but your own.”

__Conference losses hurt team’s playoff chances__

Rain postponed the opener of a three-game series between the College and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington at Plumeri Park Friday night. Junior pitcher Pete Vernon, who had been slated to start Friday, took the mound for the College Saturday afternoon to open a doubleheader against UNCW. The lefty pitched a complete game, shutting down a potent Seahawks lineup as the Tribe won the opener 5-0. But the College could not keep the UNCW bats silent for long, as the Seahawks exploded for 33 runs over the next two games, winning 14-5 Saturday night and 19-1 Sunday. Losing the series dropped the Tribe to 25-21 overall and 11-12 in the CAA.

p. Vernon, whose record improved to 7-4 on the season, efficiently moved through the Seahawk lineup Saturday, striking out four batters while allowing only three hits and four walks. His performance earned him CAA Pitcher of the Week honors.
“Pete [Vernon] was able to keep all the hitters off-balanced, he was able to mix all his pitches up and throw all his pitches for strikes,” junior catcher Tim Park said. “He gave us a great game.”

p. Vernon did have some trouble early on, allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base. The lefty settled down quickly, however, forcing the next batter into a double play. Vernon escaped the inning with help from a base-running gaff by UNCW’s catcher Jonathan Batts, who tried running from home plate to second following a ball-four wild pitch. Park got to the ball swiftly, fired a strike to senior second baseman Brent McWhorter, and caught Batts in a run-down between first and second for the final out.

p. The Tribe capitalized on the momentum shift immediately, as McWhorter led off the bottom half of the first with a single, moved to second on a Park sacrifice bunt, and scored two batters later on senior third baseman Greg Sexton’s sacrifice fly. The College would push across one more run in the inning to take an early 2-0 advantage.

p. The Tribe struck again twice in the fifth and once more in the eighth to stretch the lead to five runs as Vernon continued to mow down Seahawks, facing no more than four batters an inning from the second till the ninth.

p. “Coming off of a really tough weekend at [Virginia Commonwealth University], we just wanted to, as a pitching staff, come in here and set a tone for the weekend and give our offense a chance,” Vernon said.

p. While the weekend got off to a promising start for the Tribe, it would not end that way. Freshman pitcher Kevin Landry started game two of the doubleheader Saturday and got shelled immediately. Landry, whose record fell to 4-5, lasted only 1.1 innings and surrendered seven runs, all earned, as the College fell into an early hole. By the time the Tribe came to bat in the bottom of the third, UNCW led 10-0 en route to a 14-5 Seahawk victory.

p. The rubber match held large playoff implications, as the two schools entered the final game of their weekend set tied for fifth in the CAA standings. The Seahawks, propelled by yet another offensive outburst, jumped ahead of the Tribe early for the second time in as many games Sunday, scoring six runs in the first inning, five more in the second, and an additional four in the fifth. While the Tribe did manage 12 hits on the afternoon, the College failed to score a run until the eighth inning, when the game was well out of reach.

p. “We actually hit pretty well [today], we just didn’t get them all bunched,” Park said. “We are usually pretty good about that. When we get runners on, we move them over and score them, we just struggled with that today.”

p. Dropping two of three to UNCW is a setback in the Tribe’s pursuit of a playoff spot, but with six games remaining in the regular season, the team is not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
“We can’t give up, we’ve got to keep trying,” Park said. “We are still in good shape. If we win our next two series we should be able to make the playoffs. So we just got to go there and take care of business.”

p. The College will travel to the University of Delaware next weekend to battle the Blue Hens. Delaware currently stands third in the CAA, but a sweep by the Tribe over the weekend would push the College ahead of Delaware and help secure a spot in the playoffs.

p. The Tribe faces George Washington University today at 7 p.m. at Plumeri Park.

When I sat down to write my final column of the year, I had a few ideas kicking around about what I should do. At first I thought I’d write about my intramural soccer team — Team So-Good-It’s-Scary — about our heartbreakingly premature exit from the playoffs, and the lessons we learned that transcend the win-loss column and allow us all to lead richer, more fulfilling lives (lessons such as how to rationalize soul-crushing losses into “moral victories” — which we all know don’t exist). Then I realized that I’d already written that article (see Feb. 24 and Nov. 3 issues) about dodgeball and indoor soccer, respectively.

p. Then I thought I’d write about our women’s soccer team, insinuating that their precipitous drop in rank at the end of the season had something to do with the entire feather scandal from earlier this year. But I had already written about a massive conspiracy against our feathers as well (Sept. 15). An article about the luxuries of the Rec Center? Done it (Sept. 9). A column which makes a passing stab at a nineties folk-singer, causing legions of her loyal and humorless fans to descend upon the Flat Hat website and make a series of nasty and misspelled comments?

p. Amazingly enough, it happened (April 10). So, when one runs into the situation of having written every single type of article possible, does the columnist shun the previous forms and create an entirely original work which people will echo throughout the ages? Rather, bravely following in the footsteps of those pioneers at VH1 who seem to have created several million hours worth of shows without ever producing a single new thing, he does a countdown of the top five (however I choose to define them) moments of the preceding year.

p. 5. Jewel Fans Go Berserk — In the wake of the Theta 5k Race for charity, I decided to write an article chronicling my overblown, satirical experience in the competition. In the article I asserted, rather sarcastically, that I placed second because a Jewel song was playing as I sprinted to the finish line, distracting me from the win. At that point, I may or may not have called Jewel a bimbo. The article was promptly posted on a Jewel fansite forum by an anonymous Flat Hat reader (who deserves a medal for what follows). I was immediately struck with mixed feelings of great joy and sadness as I read the twenty-one venomous comments. Joy, because of how hysterically funny the commenters were, unbeknownst to themselves, and sadness with the knowledge that I will never write something that funny. Ever.

p. No more commentary necessary. What follows are a few of my favorite comments, unedited: jayjsantana wrote “you are seriously a morron for putting the blame on Jewel and then calling her a bimbo. Your the Bimbo.” Santino wrote “You, sir, have no right to impune your falsifications and misguided opinion on a musical artist who has more money than you could actually spend,” and “Go bury your head in theh sand somewhere, because these people want your head, and if you aren’t careful, it may just be fed to them.” These are just a couple gems. Because of them, however, I’ve realized that Jewel is the greatest musical genius of all time. For serious, if Beethoven was a female hippie that used to live in a van, he’d look more or less like Jewel (just kidding, but I thought I’d throw that in there — Jewel fans don’t speak sarcasm). For the full story, check it out online.

p. 4. Tribe Feathers Get Clipped — I don’t mean to say that this was a highlight, only that this was one of the most important stories of the year. The idea that some committee can come to the College and tell the administration the degree to which they’re allowed to offend Native Americans is ridiculous. Either change the Indian theme altogether, or realize that a few feathers is the least of anyone’s problems.

p. 3. 6th Man a Huge Success — Traditionally, students here at the College haven’t cared about basketball. In fact, last year most students couldn’t find the basketball court if you took them to the top of William and Mary Hall and then pushed them down the stairs. This year, thanks to the 6th Man apparel program, students showed up in record numbers. Finally a little Tribe Pride leaked past November.

p. 2&1. Women’s Tennis and Men’s Cross Country Place Rate Highly In NCAA — We go to William & Mary. Let me repeat that — William & Mary. A few distinctions set us apart from the average school. For example, we have academic standards, even when it comes to athletes. Also, our campus holds a little over five thousand students. That’s it. You could fit four of us into one Virginia Tech, and it would take seven to equal the double-National Champion Florida Gators. Despite that, the women’s tennis and men’s cross country teams took their spots among the best programs in the country.

p. The women’s tennis team hasn’t finished their season yet, so little can be said for sure, but the consistency of this year’s squad suggests that they’ll be capable of holding their no. 13 ranking come nationals. Senior Megan Moulton-Levy, who earned All-American honors last year, and sophomore doubles partner Katarina Zoricic have clawed their way to the number one position in the country, leading their team to their current position.

p. The men’s cross country team raced to eighth place in the country, improving eleven spots on their national ranking going into the championships and earning the second best finish in school history. Led by junior Christo Landry’s All-American performance, the entire team packed closely together to vault ahead of some highly lauded programs — a position that the team will no doubt look to recapture in the fall.

**The case for Durant**

p. With both Texas forward Kevin Durant and Ohio State center Greg Oden having now declared for the 2007 NBA Draft, the debate over who should be picked no. 1 is now well underway. While a solid case could be made for either player, Durant is clearly the better selection.

p. Durant emerged this year as a game-changing performer, taking over for his team right when they needed him. His jump shot is lights out from any distance, his mid-range game is solid and he can get to the rim practically at will. His defense certainly needs some improvement, but someone with his length (6 feet 10 inches tall) has the natural tools to make an impact on the defensive side of the ball.

p. Oden certainly has plenty of good things going for him. At 7’, 280 lbs, he is a true center — a rare find in the NBA. He can change a game defensively with his shot-blocking presence, and the tremendous strides he made offensively this season show his potential to become a big-time scorer as well.

p. But Oden also displayed some troubling tendencies during the NCAA Tournament, losing his cool at key points by committing careless fouls and not stepping up when his team needed him most, leaving it instead to guards Mike Conley and Ron Lewis. While Durant’s Texas squad suffered an earlier than expected second-round loss at the hands of USC, Durant proved all year long that he was the go-to guy for the Longhorns, often carrying his team to victories.

p. One argument that will be made before the draft is that while talented swingmen like Durant come around often, skilled centers like Oden are a rarity. While there is certainly truth to this, it must be noted that Durant is not your run-of-the-mill swingman. He is the type of player who only comes around once in a blue moon, a pure scorer with three-point range and the competitive spirit to put a team on his back. Oden would be one hell of a player to have on your team, someone you could put talented guards around and field a very competitive team, but Durant would instantly lift your team. Teams should not let the big versus small arguments sway them too much one way.

p. Whoever grabs the top pick via the NBA’s lottery system (the Memphis Grizzlies, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, in that order, have the best chances), they should disregard team personnel and other factors and simply take the best player available in the draft — Kevin Durant. The good news for the team with the second pick is that Oden’s no slouch either.

p. __Jeff Dooley is the sports editor for The Flat Hat.__

p. **The Case for Oden**
The past year in College basketball saw the implementation of the NBA’s new age limit. The result has been two of the most talented college basketball players in recent memory — Ohio State center Greg Oden and Texas forward Kevin Durant. It is almost a foregone conclusion that these two will be selected first and second in this year’s NBA draft, and while the selection order will be contingent on what mediocre franchise wins the May 22 lottery, Greg Oden should and will be the first player taken.

p. This is not to take anything away from Durant, whose 25.1 points per game were tops in the Big 12, and who was consistently the nation’s most exciting player. However, Oden’s talent level and potential for development are downright scary. He is one of few players in this day and age who is a true center. He is a menacing presence on defense, leading the Big Ten in blocks and rebounds, and was a dominating force for Ohio State, despite playing half the season with only one good hand.

p. The obvious case for Oden is that he has the potential to develop into the game’s next great big man. While it was potential that led the Pistons to select Darko Milicic with the second pick in the 2003 draft — passing on Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade — this situation is entirely different. Oden has emerged from some of the most intense competition in the country. Despite foul trouble and fatigue issues during the NCAA tournament, Oden’s performance on basketball’s biggest stage — 25 points and 12 rebounds in 38 minutes of play during the Buckeyes’ 75-84 defeat at the hands of Florida in the NCAA championship game— showcased that he is not only ready for the NBA, but ready to step into the starting role for just about any team.

p. The teams most likely to draw the first pick in the lottery are Memphis and Boston, though several other cellar-dwellers also have a shot. The Grizzlies, with the inside presence of Pau Gasol, might at first-glance be inclined to take Durant, but the mere prospect of Gasol playing alongside Oden is frightening, and would make them instant contenders in the Western Conference. The Celtics, and just about any other team in the lottery, would reap the benefits of a dominant big man that has been compared to Patrick Ewing and Tim Duncan. Durant will be taken second, and both will see significant minutes and contend for rookie of the year honors.

p. __Alex Ely is the editorial writer for The Flat Hat.__