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7 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, April 28, 2003 GAME SCHEDULE I ^ M \ I p r I i L 1 SOFTBALL at Coastal Carolina (DH), 4 p.m.Wednesday PnVTAPT TTQ I VI ■ I W I I 1 ' BASEBALL at Wofford, 7 p.m. Wednesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I 1 I I I |Ll in Murireesboro, Tenn., Friday to Sunday E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com B Vy B B K y BASEBALL vs. Kentucky, / p.m. Friday PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNgS/THE GAMECOCK ■ x X NAME: | Jocelyn Penn MAJOR: 1 Sociology POSITION: Forward DRAFTED BY: Charlotte, First round, 10th overall 2002: Completed 100 passes for 1,334 yards and seven touchdowns. Rushed for 655 yards and four touchdowns. Forced two fumbles while playing defense. - Drafts determine futures of basketball, football players NAME: Corey Jenkins MAJOR: African-Americai studies POSITION: Strong safety DRAFTED BY: Miami, Sixth round, 181st overall continuing their careers on the grid iron next fall, while Jocelyn Penn and Petra Ujhelyi will take the court in the WNBA this summer. After go incr fhrrmcrh BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE HAMECOGK While many seniors across the USC campus are deciding what they will do after graduation, for some, their decision was made by professional sports organizations this weekend. Carolina had three football players taken in the NFL draft Sunday, while two women’s bas ketball players were chosen in the WNBA draft Friday. Defensive lineman Langston Moore, safety Corey Jenkins and fullback Andrew Pinnock will be all afternoon Saturday, the first day of the NFL draft, without a player chosen, USC saw Moore go to the Cincinnati Bengals with the first pick in the sixth round (174th overall). For Moore, finally hearing his name called was a huge weight lifted off his back. “It’s a big relief to be chosen by Cincinnati,” Moore said. Despite his going at such a late point in the draft, he said, “I’m happy I got picked at all. I knew I had a chance to go somewhere.” The Bengals are trying to change their image after numer ous losing seasons, and with new head coach Marvin Lewis on board, Moore said there’s a lot to look forward to. “I’m just going to play for a great coach (Lewis), who’s a great defensive line coach,” he said. “They also have one of the best running backs in the league (Corey Dillon).” Seven picks later, with the 181st overall selection, the Miami Dolphins took USC’s Jenkins. Jenkins, who had been the starting quarterback before converting to safety, said Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstadt told him he would move around between safety and linebacker. But, like Moore, be ing chosen was the highlight of the day for Jenkins. “It was a sigh of relief. The first day went by, and then the second day came. The fourth round and the fifth round,” Jenkins said. “They’re a team that’s estab lished, and I just want to make the team and contribute on spe cial teams.” Pinnock, who many people predicted would be drafted much earlier than he was, was chosen by San Diego in the seventh round with the 229th over all pick. He guessed that a reason why he dropped in the draft was that, after his workouts, he was put back into the running-back pool from the fullback pool. Nevertheless, it was a long wait and well worth it. “I feel good. Now I can calm down. I was disappointed as the rounds went by, but I saw that a lot of top running backs weren’t being picked in the first few . rounds,” Pinnock said. He will re port to minicamp in San Diego on Thursday and expects to be put in one-back formations, as well as the position of blocking back. “I’m just anxious to get the op portunity, and I thank God for the chance to play. I’m just ready to get my foot in the door,” he said. Unlike the NFL draft, the WNBA’s annual selection of col lege athletes might not have ever happened. Originally scheduled to take place April 18, the WNBA draft was in a state of limbo for a week because of ongoing negoti ations between the league and its 2002-2003: Scored 50-plus points twice this season. Led team with 24.3 points per game and 112 steals. Named as All American and first-team All-SEC. ^—rnT-mn■ players’ union. With an agree ment reached on Friday, the league gave the go-ahead to have the draft, and as expefcted, Carolina was represented for the second straight year. With the 10th overall pick in the draft, the Charlotte Sting chose to use its first-round pick on Penn, a forward. Penn, who rewrote a good deal of the USC record books this past season and was a first-team All-SEC selec tion, looks forward to resuming her basketball career so close to home. “It feels good to know where I’m going to play this summer. I’m excited to have the opportu ♦ DRAFT, SEE PAGE 8 USC hurdles team breaks world record by matt rothenberg the gamecock The USC track teams will leave the City of Brotherly Love having rewritten the world’s track-and field record books. The Gamecocks competed at the famed Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia from Thursday through Saturday and made sure to come back to Columbia with a number of ac complishments. Among those is a new world record, set by the men’s shuttle hurdles team. Freshman Kenneth Ferguson also took the champi onship in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, while Lashinda Demus reciprocated that feat on the wom en’s side. The quartet of Corey Taylor, Fred Townsend, Charles Ryan and Ferguson raced to a 53.94-sec ond finish in the shuttle hurdles, breaking the former collegiate record of 54.40, which was set in 1981 by a University of Tennessee team. Carolina broke the world record set in 1999 by a team that featured USC volunteer assistant coach Allen Johnson. USC head track-and-field coach Curtis Frye was clearly pleased with setting the new world record. “It’s not that we ran a record, it’s who ran the record and who previously held the record. Our kids, a bunch of college kids, ran great,” Frye said. “For me, who favors the hurdles, it’s fantastic. I never anticipated us setting the record.” Ryan said: “Our performance at this run felt great. We came out two weeks ago and didn’t run up to our expectations. We came out here to win the event, and I mean we blew it out. I know we ran strong, and our time is going to show it.” Ferguson continued his bril liant performances this outdoor track season with a first-place fin ish in the 400-meter hurdles. His NCAA qualifying time of 49.63 seconds was about three-tenths of a second quicker than the second place finisher. Ferguson said he could have run faster had he had better weather. Demus, the top-ranked hurdler in the 400 meters, beat Melanie Walker of New Jersey’s Essex Community College with a time of 56.90 seconds. Demus’ team mate, Tiffany Ross, placed third in the 400 hurdles with a time of 57.72 seconds. “This was not my best time, but with the cold I was happy with it,” Demus said. “I did not run that well but was able to get through the event healthy.” Among the top-five finishes for the USC women’s team included the 4-by-400 relay team, which landed in third place, about five seconds behind the champion “People step up and you find out who you can count on.” CURTIS FRYE use HEAD TRACK COACH ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PENN RELAYS up next month, Frye will use the results from the Penn Relays as a way to shake out his team. “We had a great effort by a lot of people. Corey Taylor did a good job by stepping up and getting into the mix in the hurdles. We’ve found some people that can do some different things, and that’s just what this meet does,” Frye said. “People step up, and you find out who you can count on, so when you get to the national championships, you know exact ly what you have.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports @hctmail.corh Texas Longhorns. The 4-by-200 re lay team also finished third, be hind Lousiana State and Texas, while the women’s shuttle hur dles team landed in second place behind LSU with a time of 53.83. Antoinette Wilks placed third in the long jump championship. Chelsea Hammond finished on top in the long jump, while Kemesha Whitmire finished fifth. Keri Groover finished second in the discus throw. On the men’s side, top-five fin ishers included a second-place fin ish by the sprint medley relay team, which was a little less than four-tenths of a second behind winner Tennessee. Taylor was the fifth-place fin isher in the 110 hurdles, while Greg Royster also leapt to a fifth place finish in the pole vault. Greig Cryer placed third in the longjump. With the SEC and NCAA Outdoor Championships coming My turn to give out the grades BRAD SENKIW Here’s a report card on USC athletics. The 2002-03 season of college sports is ending for most of us stu dents as the school year comes to an end this week. I thought it was only fitting to give you the first Senkiw’s USC Sports Report Card to grade some of the more popu lar, as well as the lesser-known, atmetic accompiisnments ana failures that took place. ♦ I’ll start with a big one: foot ball. hr August, it appeared that an exciting season was on the hori zon after another bowl game win and a play-making quarterback be hind center. Unfortunately, the of fense couldn’t figure itself out, and inconsistencies with players and coaches made it a tumultuous year. The whole team looked like a merry-go-round, with offensive players switching to defense and then back to offense and vice ver sa. Defensively, inexperience, in consistency and a coaching change highlighted the side of the ball that for years had been so sta ble. I will say that a strong spring helped ease a little of the pain of a rough season. In the end, USC foot ball gets a C. A win over Clemson or a trip to a bowl game would have bumped that up for sure. ♦ Speaking of underachieving, the men’s basketball team set that standard with a lackluster per formance this season. It seems mediocrity was head coach Dave uaom s tneme as the team strug gled against a tough conference season and what was a somewhat weak preconference run. Losses on the road piled up week after week as the team played well only in the new Carolina Center. I will say that injuries once again played a major role in the heartache, but how many years will that excuse carry? It seems odd that three of the four seniors who were supposed to lead the team this year missed consider able time because of health. Are these guys not in good shape, or is it just bad luck? Whatever the answer, I fear Odom needs a much-improved season next year, or whispers of job security might become louder. It was a hard con ference this season, but USC didn’t get that one big win that it usually grabs in the SEC. So, the team gets a D+. ♦ The USC women’s basketball team made it to the NCAA Tournament for the second con secutive year, an impressive feat. But the team bowed out in the first round and Jocelyn Penn’s in credible career came to an end. I know the women’s team didn’t draw much of a crowd this sea son, but it was fun to watch, nonetheless. Penn scored 50 points twice, and the team played several good SEC teams and hung with every one of them. This team wasn’t quite as deep as last year’s, thus trin tn Ql?/-' on/1 NCAA Tournaments. But those trips were just as exciting and compelling. Head coach Susan Walvius once again earned her salary and those girls gave maxi mum effort, so they get a B+. ♦ With the USC baseball team coming down the stretch of its schedule, it’s hard to get a good assessment of how the team has performed. The Gamecocks are not as powerful at the plate as last year’s team, and putting enough runs together to help out a young pitching staff has led to more loss es than expected. David Marchbanks has been a beast at the mound, grabbing his 10th win of the year this weekend. For USC to make it deep into the SEC Tournament and even farther in ♦ SENKIW, SEE PAGE 8