NCAA News Archive - 2003

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Briefly in the News

Jun 9, 2003 8:48:56 AM

The NCAA News

CoSIDA's Arch Ward goes to NCAA statistics director

Jim Wright, NCAA director of statistics, has been named as the Arch Ward award winner for 2003. Presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the honor annually recognizes a CoSIDA member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information, and who, through his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.

Wright will receive the award during CoSIDA's annual convention July 2 in Cleveland.

A member of the NCAA statistics staff for 28 years, Wright currently oversees eight members who compile weekly national rankings and annual records books for 11 sports across all three divisions, five statistical manuals and Rating Percentage Indexes for eight Division I championships.

Wright, a veteran media coordinator, has served at 32 national championships, including 25 College World Series, the first women's basketball championship and the Division I Wrestling Championships. Wright also was honored earlier this year with the American Baseball Coaches Association's Meritorious Service Award. In 1989, he earned the ABCA's Wilbur Snypp award for national contributions to college baseball.

Wright, a graduate of Ball State University with bachelor's and master's degrees, formerly was assistant sports information director at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He assumed duties as sports information director at the University of Southern Colorado in 1974 before joining the NCAA a year later.

50 free crowded at Wheaton (Illinois)

A glance through the Wheaton College (Illinois) swimming records will have people seeing not double, but quadruple. Sam Gyorfi posted a winning time of 21.05 seconds in his heat of the 50-yard freestyle in the preliminaries of the 2003 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. Gyorfi's time, a personal best and a school record in the event, mirrors the time his older brother, Paul, turned in just a year earlier at the same meet. The Gyorfi brothers, oddly enough, cling to a share of the record along with a pair of swimmers from the 1991 squad, Mike Power and Jason Groezinger, to set up a four-way tie.

Two regionals are better than one

Two months ago when Rick Willis took over for Randy Schneider as interim softball coach at Wartburg College, he already had closed out his fifth season as the school's head football coach after guiding the team to a 10-2 record and an appearance in the West region final of the NCAA Division III Football Championship.

What were the odds that Willis would repeat the feat of leading another team to an NCAA regional final in the same academic year?

That is exactly what he did. The Knights softball team notched two wins over third-seeded Lake Forest College and one victory over top-seeded Gustavus Adolphus College to claim a regional championship.

That earned Wartburg its first trip to the Division III Softball Championship finals, where the incredible season, which included a school-record 38 wins and an appearance in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship game, ended with a 2-1 elimination-game loss to eventual Division III national champion Central College (Iowa).

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

Women's College World Series

The University of California, Los Angeles, won the 1982 Women's College World Series by breaking a scoreless tie in extra innings. That's how this prestigious event began.

The first WCWS was played in a location accustomed to hosting the Men's College World Series -- Omaha, Nebraska.

The two combatants in the championship game -- UCLA and California State University, Fresno, were shy about scoring at first. It took extra innings to break the ice -- and settle the score -- as UCLA plated two runs without getting a hit.

In fact, UCLA managed just one hit the entire game but scored the decisive runs in the top of the eighth on two walks, a double steal, a sacrifice fly and an error. That was enough for UCLA freshman pitcher Debbie Doom to close out the victory.

Doom won all five of UCLA's games in the tournament, allowing just two hits against Fresno State in the final. The Bruins scored just seven runs in those five games but shut out their opponents over the last 43 innings.