| Summary: | SPORTS Page 9 February 14, 2003 Braving the cold necessary for distance runners Blair Sander Sports Editor Venturing out from the indoor warmth of Olson Forum to run around the snowy streets in blustery, sub-zero temperatures is often standard for Concordia s dis-tance runners. However, they know that it s all in the worthy name of being ready for the fierce com-petition to come during this year s track season. Jogging 16 miles around Fargo-Moorhead on a Sunday morning when the wind-chill is negative 30 isn t as fun as it might sound, said senior Kirk Nelson. But we do it to beat the other guy who s in bed saying to himself, 111 just take today off. In any case, one can never say that the bone-chilling cold affected the readiness of the Cobber distance runners. We ve probably got the strongest distance squad that Concordia s ever seen, but unfortunately, the MIACs also the strongest it s ever been in the distance events, said senior Brian Stotts. According to Stotts, a lot of people are running crazy times and especially so at longer dis-tances. Like all the distance runners, he knows that success is possible, with the only exception that it s going to be a lot tougher than previous years. Not that it dampens their spirits any. I love watching one of my buddies make a strong move We ve probably got the strongest distance squad that Concordia s ever seen. Brian Stotts Senior with 200 meters to go as the rest of us go nuts wondering if he s going to be able to hang on to the finish, Stotts said. I love the way that both teams are just screaming for their guy during that final lap. Being able to prove oneself and hang on, however, only comes after pushing through physical and mental pain when training. Of course, having a body predisposed to distance running helps get one started. It may be hard to believe, but training really isn t all that bad, Stotts said. Once you get up around 70-80 miles a week, it gets pretty easy. Eventually you can t even make yourself hurt anymore. According to freshman Tyler Bormann, every day becomes a mental challenge for staying motivated and focused on training hard, espe-cially on the down days when one isn t feeling well or is just plain worn out. When we look back on the feeling we received from chal- It may be hard to believe, but training really isn t all that bad. Brian Stotts Senior lenging ourselves, he said. I think we relish in the opportu-nity to tackle that same chal-lenge the next day. I believe that it is mental strength that gives the extra kick at the end of a race and the runner with the most guts and mental strength prevails in the end. In an attempt to quantify what the mental to physical strength ratios are, many peo-ple have said that running is 90 percent mental and only 10 percent physical. Junior Ben Nylander wouldn t exactly agree, but he knows that mental toughness is very important. During his freshman year, a senior distance runner told him that, when it comes to the final lap, it isn t the fastest runner who will win, it is the one that wants it the most. That was his attitude, and he made some amazing deficits in the final lap, Nylander said. I think that that is definitely true. According to Nelson, you only gain the physical fitness side by already being mentally fit. To be good at running, you have to train 360 days a year. This is impossible if you can t stay focused on your goal. Running is cumulative; you almost have to be obsessive-compulsive about it. Success is determined pri-marily on your work ethic, training consistency and disci-pline and not your genetics [as it is for sprinters and jumpers], Nelson said. People are bom running ten seconds fiat in the 100m. People are not born running 8:30 in the 3k. ESPN mentions Concordia; New Visness record Jim Johnson The Concordian If you haven t heard about the record-breaking Concordia women s basketball player by now, then you should either come out from under your loft or watch Sportscenter on ESPN once and a while. That s right: Sportscenter, the most popular sports newscast program on television, mentioned Concordia College - Moorhead last Saturday, in a story about sophomore basketball player, Jamie Visness. Upon hearing the news, Visness didn t believe it at first, but thought it was pretty cool. Visness went 4-for-4 from the foul line against Carlton last Saturday to put her at 64 free throws made in a row. Her 62nd free throw broke the NCAA Division III women s record for consecutive free throws. The old Division III record of 61 was set 14 years ago by Valerie Kepner of Baldwin-Wallace in the 1988-89 sea-son. The weekend was still young for the sophomore forward though. Visness proceeded to go 4-for-4 on Sunday against St. Mary s and set the record for consecutive free throws by a woman in college basketball at any level. Ginny Doyle of Richmond, Virginia, a Division I school, held the old mark of 66. Visness made her final 12 free throws last season and is currently 56- for-56 during this season. That adds up to 68 free throws made in a row and counting, as of last Sunday. This record puts to shame going 10- for-10 with your buddies during a shoot around. Dealing with the added pressure and the extra attention, the modest Visness is ready for the spotlight to get back on the team so they can focus on the play-off run. It was a relief to break the record, Visness said. There were three news cameras at practice on Monday, and a couple newspapers were here. I m glad that s over so we can focus on the next game. The Cobbers are in the middle of a tight playoff race and are currently fifth in the MI AC. with a 10-9 confer-ence record. They re one of four teams competing for the final three playoff positions. Personally, getting that record has been my biggest accomplishment, Visness said. But making the play-offs would be better. Team accom-plishments are more important, and basketball is a team game. Concordia women s basketball coach, Troy Odegaard, who called a congratulatory time-out immediately after Visness record-breaking free throw, thought this was the greatest individual achievement he s ever coached. I ve been around a lot of great teams, good teams and a first-round draft pick (Tyronn Lue, Washington Wizards), Odegaard said. This is neat for me to see. It s great for the school and another line in the r sum for the women s basketball program. Asked whether or not this record had hit her yet, Visness calmly turned the question aside and put the focus back on the team. When the season is over and I m done with basketball, that s when it will probably hit me, Visness said. We re in the middle of a playoff hunt, and that s much more important. The Cobbers have two remaining games to fight for playoff position. Tomorrow they take on the Hamlinc Pipers in an away game at 1 p.m. Then they finish off the season at Augsburg on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. Sports f Calendar Friday: ':S:W^W Men's Hockey hosts St. Olaf College 7:00 p.m. Women's Hockey @ Gustavus 7:00 p.m. Saturday: J0x0^i- Wrestling @ St: Olaf Tournament 9:00 a.m. Men's Track hosts Cobber Invitational 12:00 p.m. l ^ . Women's Track hosts Cobber Invitational 12:00 p.m. .£^*£ Women's Basketball @ Hamline 1:00 p.m. Men's Hockey hosts St. Olaf College 2:00 p.m. Women's Hockey @ Gustavus 2:00 p.m. Men's Basketball @ Hamline 3:00 p.m. Wednesday: Women's Basketball @ Augsburg 5:30 p.m. Men's Basketball @ Augsburg 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday: Swimming @ MIAC Championships @ University of Minnesota 10:30 a W 7:00 p.m. No 'off season in Vikings' offices : EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) - The Minnesota Vikings locker room is barren right now, but its work as usual in the offices upstairs at the team s headquarters, Winter Park. This has nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into the alleged misbehavior at the Arctic Blast, either. Free agency begins in just a few weeks, and the draft isn t far off. As a club looking to use some late momentum it gained in an otherwise dismal season, this is a critical time for the Vikings. It s an off season only for the players. We re analyzing every-thing we did last year - turnovers, takeaways, explo-sive plays for and against, red zone, running game passing game, pass coverage, coach Mike Tice said in between meetings last week. Identifying all the areas in need of an upgrade, the coach-ing staff has asked itself, Did we not have good enough play-ers? Or did we not have good enough players yet? Free agency begins Feb. 28, and the Vikings have plenty of salary-cap room to use toward it. Equally important is the April draft, when they 11 have the seventh overall pick in each round. They need to add several dependable starters through those two avenues, starting with a defensive lineman, a cornerback, help for the kick return game, a backup middle linebacker to learn behind Greg Biekert and possibly a replacement for free safety Ronnie Bradford, who retired. At first glance, the Vikings free agent crop last season was unimpressive. Wide receiver Derrick Alexander was a big bust and kicker Doug Brien didn t make it through half the season. While several depend-able starters emerged like defensive end Kenny Mixon and strong safety Corey Chavous, there weren t any high-impact additions. Tice insists, though, that the Vikings did well and don t need to redeem themselves this time around. Owner Red McCombs expressed some concern about the quality of the free agent crop last season, but Tice - in postseason meet-ings - convinced his boss it wasn t that bad. We had a good free agency - contrary to comments that have been made in the paper either by Mr. McCombs or by others, Tice said. Perception is not always reality. Yeah, we had a couple mis-takes, but if you look at the 17 or 19 players we brought in . you came out of it with some good role players and some very solid starters. The draft didn t look so hot, either, at first, but once first-rounder Bryant McKinnie ended his holdout, fourth-rounder Brian Williams grabbed a starting cornerback spot and sixth-rounder Nick Rogers showed promise as an outside linebacker, the evalua-tion obviously improved. After several years of shuf-fling, the coaching staff and personnel department appears to be on the same page - some-thing it often wasn t during Dennis Green s tenure as coach. I think we re right on track, Tice said. We added a lot more than teams normally do (last year). To get that many players to be in concert is a hard thing to do. Tight end Jim Kleinsasser and running back Moe Williams are unrestricted free agents, and the Vikings will make a priority to re-sign them. Jim Kleinsasser will be a Viking unless somebody tells me he can t be, Tice said. We 11 make sure of it. We would like to get our players back. The best success you can have in free agency is to keep your players. Tice is proud of the chem-istry he helped establish last season while putting his pro-gram in place. He s still figur-ing out ways to make his team better. Right now, I m looking at what time we feed the team for a snack on Saturdays, Tice said, without a hint of humor. Marion man invents golf scrubber MARION, Iowa (AP) - You don t have to tell Greg Glass that it s never too early to think about golf. He has golf on the brain, not only because he loves the game but because this season he hopes to begin selling his invention - a personal golf club scrubber. After investing two years and 520,000 in the development of his Golfer s Choice club scrub-ber, Greg just can t stop talking about it. Every day I wake up, I m excited, says Greg, 42. He and his wife, Deanna, recently returned from the Professional Golf Association merchandise show in Orlando, Fla., where his invention received rave reviews. Even though several compa-ny representatives expressed interest, they couldn t make more than a verbal commitment until it s actually on the market. To do that, Greg needs either a licensee to manufacture it or $70,000 from an investor so he can distribute it himself. We want to find somebody locally we can deal with, Greg says. We want Cedar Rapids to be our distribution center. Originally from Delaware, Iowa, Greg attended Maquoketa Valley Community Schools. He moved to Texas with his parents before he graduated and wound up staying in Texas for more than two decades. After earning a business degree from the University of Texas, he was a Fort Worth police officer .for four years. Eventually he started Durable Medical Equipment supply com-panies in Abilene and Lubbock. About five years ago, in the day-to-day operation of busi-ness, Greg learned with doctors the advantages of playing golf. I couldn t understand why anyone would want to chase a little white ball around, he says. Now I see. It relaxes you. In the meantime, Greg hooked up with his high school sweetheart, Deanna Bond Schroeder of Marion. They mar-ried last summer. She s a social worker at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, and he oversees their business, Special K s Transport, which transfers medical patients to and from hospitals and care centers. Greg s invention came out of the frustration of having dirty golf clubs. The Texas course he frequently played had stationary scrubbers at the first and 10th tees, but they were inadequate and filthy. Inexpensive scrubbing brush-es you attach to golf bags didn t work very well and scratched his valuable clubs. He wanted something better, so he sketched his idea, received a patent and spent $4,000 on a prototype. Greg s Golfer s Choice club scrubber is a lightweight tube 5 inches in diameter and 10 inches long with brushes inside and the capacity to hold 3 cups of easily changed water or cleaning solu-tion. You simply uncap the tube and slide a club head inside for two or three strokes to clean it. With hundreds of thousands of golfers, Greg thinks he s got the equivalent of a hole in one. Men will buy them, he says, and women will buy them, and women will buy them for men because men love gadg-ets. BALLET •TAP JAZZ •IRISH March Classes ctattt I I I I UK J/2I/U Restoration taken NOW 236-9900 f a rgcT theatre 314 Broadway * 235.4152 * www.fargoth*atr?.OITJ Opm* Vakntfm'f D*r! Talk to Her m "m story offetUhm mnJ phitotophir*, rommne* mnd remont." 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