March Madness

This is a sports column I recently wrote for our print edition about March Madness and the way it effects my family. I hope you enjoy!

By Bailey VenJohn

Staff reporter

She watches games all season, especially her favorite team, the Kansas State Wildcats. When March rolls around the watching becomes serious.

The person who fills out brackets and cares and knows more about this tournament more than anyone I know is my Grandma, Mary Alice Carlile.

My family has filled out brackets for as long as I can remember. I haven’t exactly been one to excel at it, but you could say I’m decent.

March Madness has fallen nothing short of its name this year. Madness is really the only way to describe it.

Underdogs this year haven’t disappointed either. Three 12 seeds knocked off 5 seeds in the first round. Florida Gulf Coast University was a surprise when they conquered the No. 2 seed Georgetown. This was only the second year FGCU was eligible for the NCAA tournament.

The big deal about the tournament for most people is picking teams for their brackets. Which team is going to go all the way and who is going to fall short?

Once all the seeding and matchups come out, Grandma starts her research. She listens to all the shows on ESPN to hear about which team they are picking for each game.

She said “I watch ESPN, look at the paper to see who’s favored and the team records, I also pay attention to the teams with the most seniors.”

So why does she like March Madness so much? Grandma said “Every game they play their hearts out, because it’s the only way they’re going to keep playing. It’s win or die.”

Ever since she retired in 2000, she has had the time to follow college basketball closely and she has done just that.

When it comes to games, she prefers to see the upset. Unless it’s her team.

One of her favorite tournament stories involved my grandpa and a new kitchen floor.

Grandma came home one day in 1995 and he was laying a new floor. She walked into the house and noticed a gap a couple inches wide between floorboards. Grandpa said, “You can just cover it with a rug.” Grandma asked, “Well, how did that happen?” and Grandpa answered “Well, I was watching a game.”

My brother, Cooper thinks the championship is the most exciting part. Grandma was quick to disagree “Every game is good and exciting because they want to win. Every game is back and forth.”

In the Final Four, Grandma had Louisville, Georgetown, Gonzaga and Indiana picked. While this Final Four isn’t realistic with Georgetown and Gonzaga getting beat out early, her championship game is still a possibility between Louisville and Indiana. She has Indiana taking it all.

Bailey VenJohn is a freshman majoring in communication. You may email her at bailey.venjohn@sckans.edu.

 

The Good and The Bad

The women’s tennis team came out on top twice Thursday afternoon. Taking on Central Christian in the morning the Builders recorded a 5-4 win. Later in the day Oklahoma Wesleyan was the opponent. The women swept the Eagles 9-0.

Abby Gengler, sophomore, was pleased with the matches she said “Speegle told us going into the second match that we would have to be more patient and I think that we all were and that’s a big part of why we won.”

The women take on Seminole State Junior College March 28 in Ark City next.

Kelsey Smith, sophomore, said the team needs to improve it’s consistency most.

On the other side of things the men’s team didn’t have as successful of a day. They recorded 4-5 losses in both matches.

Nick Morris, junior, said “I thought we played really well. We started off slow in the first match against Central Christian and lost a close one.”

The match against Oklahoma Wesleyan came down to the final match. The score was tied 4-4 and the winner was determined by whether Morris won his match. Unfortunately he lost in a tie breaker and OWU conquered the win.

Morris said “In the second match against Oklahoma Wesleyan it seemed like everyone stepped their game up to a whole new level. OWU is a very tough team and we knew that coming in.”

The men’s team don’t play again until March 30. It is two matches both in McPherson, the first against Central Christian and the second Hesston.

Men's Tennis 3/5

Tuesday afternoon the men’s tennis team got their spring season off to a shaky start. The Builders suffered a loss to a nationally ranked Seminole State junior college team.

It wasn’t the best conditions to be playing tennis in. Jessie Riggs, senior, said “it was cold and windy.”

“We played Seminole State once last year and got one match” said Riggs.

“We’ll continue practicing, work on things we didn’t do so well, it was a good learning experience” Josh Sapp, junior, said about how the team has to bounce back.

The team plays again next Thursday the 14^th at home. Central Christian and Oklahoma Weslayan will make the trip to Winfield.

The Builders plan to continue to get better and come out strong to get the wins on Thursday.

Hollace Dillon, freshman, said “We will have practice and coach will let us know what we need to focus on, point out our weaknesses, work on a strong mental game and work on teamwork for the doubles.”

Saturday Matchups.

 

Saturday brings what could almost be considered the kickoff of men’s and women’s spring season. The team hasn’t played since the tournament in New Mexico on February 1, 2 and 3.

Baker University comes to Winfield at noon to take on both Builder men’s and women’s teams.

Melissa Roetzer, biology senior, is the women’s team captain. She said “We plan to do pretty well this weekend. We haven’t ever played Baker so we want to see how we match up.”

It’s been a month since the women have played. Their record coming out of the New Mexico tournament is 2-5.

"The weather has made it tough but we’ve done a good job of conditioning and staying in shape” said Roetzer.

Looking farther into the season Roetzer said “We have a really strong team this year. I’m excited to see how we do in conference.”

On the men’s side of things Max Manley, business administration junior is captain. He said “We haven’t ever played them before so we’re excited to play someone different.”

The men’s record is 1-6 after the tournament in New Mexico.

The team has been preparing in the off season by conditioning. Manley said “The guys have been putting in more work in the weight room, more than past year. We’re doing things on our own to improve.

Jason Speegle, head tennis coach, has set the expectations high for this season.

“I expect us to compete at a higher level than last season. I expect us to be in better shape, be more consistent and more competitive” said Speegle.

In the offseason the teams have done all sorts of preparing. Conditioning and playing against several high quality teams at their kickoff tournament are just a few examples.

“We’ve worked on consistency and where to hit the ball to gain advantage. A few players have changed stroke technique.” said Speegle.

 The team has set a season goal to get in the team tournament at the end of the year. The top 4 teams in the conference make it. Both men and women tied for it last year but both lost the tie breaker.

Individually Speegle said he wants the players to get more consistent, hit more balls back than their opponent and win more matches.

Recent Articles

Here are two articles that I have written most recently. The first is about our men's basketball team and the second is about our track teams sweeping conference. Enjoy!

http://scupdate.org/?p=17622
http://scupdate.org/?p=17648

Learning Experience

The teams returned Sunday night to Winfield after being in New Mexico for the past few days. The men's and women's teams each added two marks to the loss column for the season. Going into the tournament the team's were expecting tough competition. They knew it would be a great learning experience though. They return to the courts March 2 against Baker at home.

Teams Travel to New Mexico

Here is the link to an article I wrote about the teams travels to New Mexico. http://scupdate.org/?p=17391