by Rich Arnold

For the second consecutive year
the Grinnell baseball team
traveled to Texas for a week-long
session oi spring training. A squad
oi seventeen men made the trip
down to Ranger, Texas during the
iirst week oi spring vacation ior
games with host Ranger Junior
College and visiting Blinn College.
Room and board were provided by
RJC in return for playing games
with the various Ranger teams
(they have several).

The Pioneers played five games
at Ranger. three with Ranger
teams and two with Blinn. All five
games were Grinnell losses. but
considering the quality oi the
competition and the iact that
together Ran er and Blinn had
already play over 35 games, the
contests were, for the most part,
wellvplayed.

Grinnell's first game. against
Ranger’s varsity, was curiously
the Pioneers' best game as they
dropped a 4-3 decision. Junior
mound stalwart Paul Delaney
pitched exceedingly well in his iirst
outing and could have picked up a
win with a little better fielding
from his teammates,

Throughout the entire week the
Pioneer bats were producing hits
regularly, which is a great imr
provement over past seasons. With
some of the proven dependable
hitters not yet untracked, hitting
should prove to be a strong point of
this year‘s souad.

Defensive flubs plagued Grinnell
in all five games, and these errors
gave rise to lopsided scores in two
games. Attributing the errors to
the fact that the Pioneers first
exposure to the outdoors coincided
with their first game cannot be
offered as an excuse for the sloppy
deiensive play, but it was a lactor.

Pitching, an insoluble woe oi
recent past seasons. appears
improved, but not yet proven. with
returning hurlers Delaney, Dan
Edwards, Todd Kucera, Lorne
Robinson, and Craig Zippe come
plemented by freshmen Mike
Cohen, Charlie Gogel. and Dave

, Success

by Dave Sclicchtcr

Four college swimmers com»
peted in postseason competition
during spring break, Competing in
the NCAA Division III (small
college) nationals, Norm Zimr
merman earned AlermeriCan
honors In diving,

Zimmerman. optional diving
champion in the Midwest Cons
Ierence, placed fifth in the 1 meter
and seventh in the 3 meter Com-
petition. A freshman, Zimmerman
broke every school and pool diving
mark during the past season.

John Chambers set a school
mark in the 100 yard butterﬂy with

a time of 54.6. Unfortunately, this .

time was not fast enough to qualify
the junior for the finals. Also
competing ior Grinnell in the meet
was Bruce Jones who failed to
qualify for the finals in the 100
backstroke.

Margo Wessner, holder of
several women’s team records in
her freshman year, competed for
the Grinnell swim club in the Iowa
AAU (American Athletic Union)
state meet held in the PEC pool.
Wessner swam to iirst place twice
in the meet. She Won the 1518 year
old 100 backstroke and finished
iirst in the women's open coma
petition in the 200 backstroke. in
another open division event,
Wessner placed eighth in the zoo
Individual Medley. . t

Wick, the arms are there, but as of
yet it is not fully known what the
arms can do. Delaney and
Robinson both are improved over
last season and will probably
anchor the pitching squad. The
sheer number of pitchers offers
Coach John Pfitsch a choice of
whom to use, an option not existent
last year.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of
this season’s team is a contingent
of skilled freshmen ballplayers.
Mark Brooks and Bob Meyer will
start at first and second base.
respectively, and Joe Oxman will
see plenty oi playing time as a
utility infielder-outfielder and
designated hitter. Gogel will play
in b h the outfield and infield in
addi on to his pitching duties. In
the Texas games the ireshmen
formed the core of the hitting ate
tack.

Coach Pfitsch was pleased wiﬂi
the Texas trip: “I thought the
Ranger trip was excellent; better
than last year. We played more
games against stiiter competition
and I think we have a better team,
at least in terms of potential. than
last year‘s team. The addition of
three or {our freshmen has con-
siderably helped the club.”

Tomorrow the Pioneers open
their Iowa season with a double-
header at Coe College. Rounding
out the starters will be Paul Crane
behind the plate, Zippe at short
stop, and John Haigh at third base.
Tom Goetz will patrol left field,
Delaney or Gogel will defense in
center depending upon who is
pitching, and Gogel, Oxman, or
Rich Arnold will be in right.
Delaney and Robinson are slated to
pitch the two games.

Thursday, home varsity and
junior varsity games are ten-
tatively scheduled with Simpson
College and Saturday the cons
ference season starts with a key
home doubleheader with Cornell
College. Cornell and Gl‘innell are
iighting tor the Iowa championship
of the Midwest Conference, the
winner to advance to the Con-
ierence playoiis.

The Scarlet and Black. April 2. 1916—1). 8

—spor_
From Ranger
with hope

Runners schedule set

Grinnell’s men’s track team is
ending its iirst week oi training
and Coach Mo Hunt is eyeing a six
week schedule for the Pioneers.
The iirst meet on the calendar for
Grinnell is Saturday, April 10.
Grinnell will host the Morgan
Taylor invitational which will
leature such visiting teams as Coe

~Dnuglas Halsey; The Scarlet and Black

On March 1: and March 14 the Grinnell College Physical Education
Complex hosted the lowa Junior Olympics swim meet. Almost m
girls irom all over the state swam the iirst day and nearly 400
boys participated the second day of the meet. Twenty—seven state
records tell during the two days or competition and the PEG was
packed with swimmers and viewers watching the records tall.
Grinnell's own Scarleteers and Tanagcrs provided entertainment and
the meet was a great success tor all concerned. Grinnell College
student Margo Wessner, swimming for the town ot Grinnell team, took

two firm as the ‘story at‘ lert relates: '

and Golden Valley of Minnesota.

Other meets scheduled this
season for the Pioneers include the
William Penn Invitational (April
14), Central Invitational (April 21),
and the Drake Relays, held April
2324. The Midwest Conference
Meet will be hosted by Grinnell on
May 15.

Winter
awards

Awards for the winter teams
were recently announced and
many Grinnell athletes were
honored by their teammates and
coaches The season was a
productive one for most oi the
teams. Mo Hunt had his best
wrestling squad in years, the
men’s swim team finished a strong
and close second in the conierence,
and the women’s swim team
completed a winning season,

Junior Hosea Engram was voted
the most valuable wrestler and
ireshman Gordon Stacey was
selected the most outstanding
wrestler. Engram and Stacey were
selected next year‘s co-captains.
Sophomore Rick Grayson was
chosen the most improved grap-
pler,

The most valuable men’s
swimmer this past season was
John Chambers. The most im-
proved award went to freshman
Chris Corton and Bruce Jones was
elected the most valuable fresh-
man. Chambers and junior Doug
Johnson were re-elected as co-
captains for next year.

Sophomore Virginia Munoz was
selected by her teammates as the
most valuable women's swimmer
and senior Cathy Hankes was
selected for the second year in a
row as the most improved
swimmer.

Last words
on b-ball

by Tom Arenberg

Before the season, it was hard to
judge the caliber of the Grinnell
varsity basketball team. Twenty
games, a on overall record, and a
seventh place finish later. it iPtill
hard. \

Perhaps the team’s true quality
was displayed in the last two
games of the season, whe _
Pioneers upset Cornell and 5 ed
top—ranked Coe for half the contest.
Or maybe the 1-10 road record was
more indicative of the team’s
caliber. Most likely, the tru” \iel
of performance lies somewhere in
between those two extremes.

But even if the team was in-
consistent during much oi the
season, senior forward John l-laigh
was not. The Midwest Conference
announced recenuy that the 5’11”
Haigh had been named to the first
ailconference team. It is the
second straight year that Haigh
has received that honor. The icing
was by the conierence coaches.

Haigh was also named Grinnell’s
most valuable player this season in
a vote by Pioneer player rid
coaches. Senior guard Craig we
was voted the “Mr. Hustle" award
and senior forward Jeff Fallon was
named the most improved player.

. Haigh led the confers r in
scoring with a 22.5 ave. e.
Overall, he poured in points at a
rate of 22.0 per game. Besides
leading his teammates in scoring,
Haigh topped six other major of-
fensive categories for the
Pioneers.

Almost twice as far behind Haigh
in team scoring was junior guard
Carl Warner, with an 11.5 average.
For conierence games only,
Warner was the leme's
nineteenth highest scorer. Center
Scott Lewis was the only'xher
player to average in double
iigures. Grinnell's highest single
game point total was 35, by ﬁngh
against William Penn.

in other categories, ’s‘ior
forward Jeff Fallon was the
leading rebounder, with Haigh
second. Lewis‘ 50.5 field goal
percentage was tops among
regulars. while reserve Joe
Kingma sank 16 oi 26 to lead the
club with a 615 mark. Haigh was
the number one free throw shooter.

Next year’s schedule includes
several new teams, but most
importantly, Grinnell will not have
to play ten of its iirst 12 es
away lrom home. Mitchell, who
admits he must take some of the
blame for the poor scheduiivw this
year, thoroughly mixed tog lier
the road and home contests next
season.

The Grinnell JV started the year
well, compiling a 3-2 record and
including several routs, but a‘fer
game losing streak plunged the
final record to 3-7. For most of the
season, Kingma and Charlie Gogel
were the outstanding performers.

The JV had only six full-time
players and Wlth three vacancies
in the varsity, it is doubtful that the
number will increase, unless there
are many ireshman candtgaes.

it

al 6 COMMERCIAL STRE‘

 

