New student housing will be a re-ality on campus by fall 2009. The MSU Board of Regents ap-proved the $21 million project at their meeting on Friday. MSU President Dr. Jesse Rogers

said the demand for more housing is very clear and it is “time to get start-ed on more.” University housing is usually full by April, months before the applica-tion deadline has passed. Dr. Howard Farrell, vice presi-dent for university advancement and student affairs, said housing on cam-pus is continuously at 100 percent

occupancy. Students are placed in off-campus housing each semester, which he considers less than ideal. The new housing will be built where the Mercantile Building cur-rently stands. The cost to raze the site will be $57,000. The funds will be provided by a private gift, accord-ing to university officials. The apartment-style residence

hall will be three stories tall and con-sist of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and four-bedroom units. Still in the design phases, the cost-per-bed is 80 percent higher than that of Sunwatcher. Each unit will feature a full sized bed, dresser, walk-in closet, and desk for each student, as well as a full-sized washer and dryer.

In the current plans, the majority of the units featured are two-bed-room, something the architects said would be “appealing” for what stu-dents wanted, both today and for the future. Regent Munir Lalani thought oth-erwise, claiming that the students’ desires are less important than what their parents can afford.

“We need to look at it again and make it more affordable,” Lalani said, suggesting that the architects use mostly four-bedroom units rath-er than two-bedroom units on the project to keep costs lower and to increase the number of students that the facility could accommodate. He also suggested doing away with the small number of one-bed-room units that had been drawn into the plan altogether. “We’re not for-profit business de-velopers,” Lalani said. “Our job is educating our kids affordably. We need to accommodate more kids and give them more affordable rent.” The new project will have its own parking lot as well. The regents also voted to include the $17.3 million cost of purchasing Sunwatcher Apartments, which the university currently leases, into the loan for the new residence hall.

THE WICHITANpage 4

THE STUDENT VOICE OF MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2008

Stepping up Sequel to dance movie proves it has the right moves to top the original.

page 8‘Stangs fall shortMens basketball team continues to slump during conference play, dropping both of their last two games.

New housing to be completed by fall 2009BRITTANY NORMAN

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

An A

rt Af

fair

High school students compete for cash awards, display art in MSU gallery

The MSU art department held the 16th annual high school art competition Saturday, awarding $2,000 cash to entrants. First place winners in each of the eight categories were given $100, second place won $50, third, $25. Two $500 scholarships weren’t awarded because no one applied for them. Alison Beck, one of 146 en-trants in this year’s program, ad-mitted the $100 prize might per-

suade her to attend MSU when she graduates. “I’m not sure where I want to go yet. I want to get out of Wichita Falls,” the Rider sophomore said after being awarded the photogra-phy category’s first-place prize. The high school competition, which usually results in three to five scholarships annually, drew no applicants this year, said Gary Goldberg, professor of art. “We do this program to recog-nize local high schools and to let them know about our program. It’s probably one of our main recruit-

ing tools,” he said. The art department also uses the Visual Arts Scholastic Event to showcase high school art and raise awareness of its own program. MSU submitted eight high school pieces to the UIL-judged VASE this year. The contest is judged on stricter criteria than MSU’s high school competition. VASE hasn’t seen many results at MSU yet, Goldberg said. About 20 art majors are on scholarship this semester. The art department awards scholarships from $500 to $4,000 every year.

CHRIS COLLINS

MANAGING EDITOR

Student artists from area high schools competed at MSU last week. Photos by Patrick Johnston, Herschel Self

Two Kappa Sigma pledges were arrested and charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief Friday morning after filling Bolin Fountain with soap. MSU police saw a white truck pull into a lot near the fountain at about 1 a.m. Friday. Officers observed Ryan Arnold, 18, and Chance Gibbs, 21, get out of the truck and begin pouring eight pounds of laundry de-tergent in the fountain. They might not have been caught, hadn’t the truck pulled into the same parking lot as an MSU police vehicle. The driver of the truck fled the scene. Arnold and Gibbs were taken to Wichita County Courthouse and released later that day. There isn’t evidence the students were using alcohol, Police Chief Michael Hagy said, although a report said alcohol involvement was suspected. “It’s minor on a scale of crimes that happen. When people commit minor, inconvenient criminal activ-ity, they don’t realize there’s a substantial cost involved.” Dean Price, superintendent of the central plant, is person-ally in charge of Bolin foun-tain’s upkeep. “It’s a problem

that takes 10-12 hours to fix. It’s a pretty involved process.” Every time the fountain is soaped – five to six times a year – Price empties the 10,000-gal-lon structure to scrub and pres-sure wash it. More chemicals are added to keep the water clean. Finally, another 10,000 gallons of water is needed to refill the fountain. The painstaking process can cost the university $300 in equip-

ment and labor, according to Kyle Owen, associate director of the physical plant. “It’s a pain. It’s a real headache when it happens.” An informal meeting between Kappa Sigma fraternity and Dean of Students Dan Neely has sched-uled Thursday to discuss disci-plinary action for the organiza-tion. The fraternity faces charges of damage to public property. Arnold and Gibbs couldn’t be reached for comment.

Fountain vandals nabbed,jailed for soapy hijinks

CHRIS COLLINS

MANAGING EDITOR

Bolin Fountain stands empty on Tuesday evening. It is in the prcess of being cleaned after a prank Friday morning left it full of soap. Photo by Patrick Johnston

MSU emergency alert systemto utilize email, text messaging

In the wake of recent school shooting incidents across the na-tion, MSU has decided to speed their efforts to get a more effec-tive crisis management plan in place.

Part of the new crisis man-agement plan, MSU Alert, is an emergency notification system that gives the university the abil-ity to send emergency informa-tion by email and text-message to individuals who sign up for the service.

The service is free and will be availible to all MSU students, fac-ulty, and staff.

Campus Police Chief Michael Hagy said they are currently troubleshooting the issues and working out the kinks in the system by testing it with the student senators.

The Crisis Management Committee is also reviewing the possibility of installing loudspeaker systems on cam-pus, as well as several other options as they continue to meet on a regular basis.

BRITTANY NORMAN

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

This is the front view of what the new residence hall will look like when completed. Photo courtesy

A good f r i e n d of mine raised an issue with me recent-ly.

T h e y said that a change for the worse has taken place in

me. I just “wasn’t the same per-son anymore.” Although this confrontation was out of concern and not spite, I was still hurt. I addressed the issue, thought it through, and to be fair, avoided denial.

I settled on the fact that ev-eryone must change in order to grow. Whether the change is for good or for bad, it is inevitable. If no one changes, no one will grow. How can you live without growing?

Roman poet Ovid once said,

“Omina mutantur, nihil iterit.” Which in Latin means, “Ev-erything changes, nothing per-ishes.” To me, this means that even if one person was to change greatly in morals, ethics or man-ner of living, they will always be themselves at the core. The person that they once were, as a child, or even a week ago, will always exist inside them…how-ever deeply it may be buried.

Even those who go through dramatic, or even traumatic changes are, and always will remain, themselves. Though it may be more difficult to find that essence, the person is there. Whether that character exists in actuality, endeavor, or in heart, never should someone else doubt that that person is just gone for-ever.

In order to have a life, you have to live. Every situation you find yourself in, every person you meet, and every problem you face is necessary for your

development. Development is change. Maturity is change. Life is change.

But can “change” also be just based on perception?

I think so. I think that we don’t see things as they are, we only see things as we are. From all of this, I learned that you must live to grow and grow to live. But also, you must adapt your per-ception to this growth.

One of my favorite song lyr-ics is: “Savor the moment ‘cause your memory’s fleeting. Take a photograph as the last train is leaving.” In relevance to this situation, I say, make note that you may never look upon the same scenery, person or perceive a situation in the exact same way ever again. History may repeat itself and you may reunite with a person, but nothing will ever happen the same way twice. Sit-uations, thoughts, actions, and even you will be different in due time.

Do not deny this. If you are alive, then this is true.

Every experience, every day, changes you somehow. Whether that experience is basic learning, maturing or even a life-chang-ing epiphany, you will change. You will grow. When it comes to changing and maturity, no one can grow until they accept the fact that they have the abil-ity. Denial doesn’t liberate you from this obligation. It oppress-es you.

I have grown up, I have grown. Whether I really have changed for the worse I do not know. That is a conclusion for those who know me best. In my defense, or perhaps in apology and final word, I have this to say:

“God grant me the seren-ity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Staff Editorial

Growing up means changing

HALEY CUNNINGHAM

FOR THE WICHITAN

ViewpointsTHE WICHITAN

Finalist2004 Associated Collegiate Press

Pacemaker Award

Sweepstakes Winner 2006 Texas Intercollegiate

Press Association

THE WICHITAN

Copyright © 2007. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Asso-ciation. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. First copy of the paper is free of charge; additional copies are $1. The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before in-tended publication. Letters should be brief and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address for verification purposes. The editor retains the right to edit letters.

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Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Brittany Norman

Managing Editor Chris Collins Entertainment Editor Courtney Foreman

Op-Ed Editor Position Open Sports Editor Bobby Morris

Photo Editor Patrick Johnston

ReportersRichard CarterCourtney ForemanJosh Mujica

PhotographersLoren Eggenschwiler

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Copy EditorKimberly Stiles

AdviserRandy Pruitt

Out of touch In the same meeting in which members of

the MSU Board of Regents agreed to purchase a

house on Hampstead to give the university more

room to expand, they also made plans to sacrifice

an enormous chunk of existing space in the center

of campus for the benefit of a small percentage of

students. The plan? Raze three buildings on cam-

pus, including Marchman and McCulloch, and

build a Greek Row.

The demolition and construction will be

funded by private donations, but that doesn’t

change the fact that the university has been work-

ing on the acquisition of more room for expansion

for years. In our relatively dead-locked location,

buying any new land is expensive and difficult.

When the time comes to demolish old buildings

that already stand on university property, it seems

obvious that the space should be used in a way

that benefits the university as a whole.

Not just those in fraternities and sororities.

Greek housing is important—to Greeks.

To the rest of the campus, it would be a waste of

space that could be used for something that would

benefit more than a small number of students.

Something like a parking lot, maybe.

For the most part, MSU seems to do a

good job recognizing student needs and filling

them. But with the new athletics fee poised to

strain all students’ budgets for the benefit of the

athletes, and designated housing solely for frater-

nity and sorority members is a waste of valuable

space. Someone in charge is losing touch with

whom they’re supposed to represent: the whole

student body. Not just a part.

While listening to the radio late one night I heard a song from a group called Semi-sonic. The song had one line repeated several times. Had the line been uttered once, it would have still been unforgettable. The line went like this: “Every new beginning comes from some other begin-ning’s end.” Wow, I thought, how true?” We go through life’s stages and phases without thinking about this, that in order for us to move from one part of life to an-other we need a conclusion. Let-ting go is sometimes hard and we wish we could stay in those happy moments forever, yet we want to move on and see what

else is out there. High school was a wonderful phase of my life, where honest-ly I wish I could have lingered. My parents paid for everything and took total care of me. At the same time, I wanted to move on with life and see what else was out there. I know a lot of college students feel this way. However, we need to leave the safe walls of MSU and move on to the world of work. One of my friends, a gradu-ating senior, said to me a few weeks ago “I wish I could stay in school for the rest of my life. I’ve never had a real job before and the thought of it is scary.” I understood exactly how she felt. Even though she said this, I know she can’t wait to start working so that she won’t be “broke” any

more. But what she doesn’t un-derstand is that she needs to end this part of her life in order to start the next. The end of childhood leads to the beginning of adolescence; the end of adolescence leads to the beginning of adulthood. An-other example of this came to me that same night, on the same radio station as the first song. There was a line in another song that said, “Isn’t the best part of breaking up, dinging someone else you can’t get enough of, someone who wants to be with you, too?” Again, I’ll say it. Wow, that’s some good stuff. I’ve been hurt in a relation-ship. I’m sure most people have. At the end of the three-year rela-tionship with my ex, I felt like I would die because I wasn’t pre-

pared for it to be over. But after six months, it was time for a new beginning, and yes, I did find someone else whom I couldn’t get enough of and who couldn’t get enough of me. College relationships are great. We make friends we think we’ll keep for the rest of our lives and we find mates we hope to marry someday. The truth is, most undergrad relationships don’t last as long as we’d hope. But soon enough, this chapter of our lives will come to an end. Be it that job, that car, that friend-ship, that dream house, nothing lasts forever in this life. And “every new beginning comes from some other begin-ning’s end.”

Endings bring new opportunityNICHOL PHILLIP

FOR THE WICHITAN

News THE WICHITANFeb 20, 2008 3

- As One Gospel Choir performance/

canned food drive; Saturday, Feb.

23, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.

- Athletics luncheon every Tuesday

and Thursday at Pelican’s on Mid-

western Parkway at noon; video

replays, coach updates; Cost $8.

- UPB presents open mic night;

Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in

CSC Shawnee Theatre

- Sadie Hawkins Social; Feb. 29, 8

p.m. - 1 a.m.; CSC Atrium

- What Employers Want Seminar;

Feb. 20, 12 - 2 p.m.; CSC Comache

Suites

- How Mustangs Round up A’s and B’s

Seminar; Tuesday and Wednesday 2

p.m. - 4 p.m.; Dillard 329

- Walk in Their Shoes Exploration Day;

Thursday, Feb. 21, 12 - 3 p.m.; CSC

Comanche

Campus briefs

Students may notice a change come course evaluation time – there will be no pencil or paper. Starting this semester, course evaluations university-wide will be done online. Courses in the Dillard College of Business, West College of Education and Fain College of Fine Arts tried the online evaluation system in past semesters, but most drew a low response. “I’m in favor of it,” Dr. Roy Patin Jr., professor of finance, said. “We need to continue to remind students to do this.” Patin said the number of student responses in his classes was very poor. “In a class of maybe 35, about 10 responded,” he said. Patin used the online course eval-uation system in spring and fall of 2007. The number of responses de-clined from spring to fall, he said. “We need to find a way to publi-cize this better,” he said. “Students could do a better job than admin-istration, I think. We have to find a way to get a bulk of students in-volved, no matter how you do it.” Patin said despite the online evaluations having a low number of responses, he still prefers them to be done that way. “I did not like taking class time to do that,” he said. “We’re in the electronic age. Students weren’t ex-cited about doing it in class.” However, he said, a downside to

the setup is the possibility of inac-curate results. Evaluations may be at one extreme or the other. “With any survey, if you do not get a good number of return, you may have biased results,” he said. Ayse Kaya, marketing instructor, also said she prefers the online eval-uations, but does not like the rate of response. Kaya saw 29 to 40 percent par-ticipation in her classes.“It’s the instructor’s responsibility,” she said. In fall 2007, she did not offer in-centives to encourage participation, but said she is considering it for this semester. “Usually those who fill it out are unhappy,” she said. Kaya said she would like to be able to view the names of students who had participated in order to help with extra-credit incentives. “I think participation will go up,” said Dr. Emerson Capps, associate provost and dean of graduate stud-ies. The online evaluations were first done through web-based courses – courses that used WebCT or were supported online. Faculty members reported positively about the evalu-ations being done this way so the West College of Education tried it out. In Fall 2007, the program ex-panded to most of the Dillard Col-lege of Business Administration and all of the Fain College of Fine Arts. “That gave us a large enough pool of students to see what prob-lems we may run into,” Capps said.

When evaluations were done on pa-per, the forms were handled through Information Systems. They printed an estimated 17,000 copies of the evaluation form each semester. “It will save an enormous amount of money for Information Systems,” Capps said. “It will save time for professors and students and it will save a lot of trees.” Faculty in the West College of Education had response rates closer to 100 percent. Out of a class of about 25, Dr. Jane Owen, assistant professor, had all but two or three of her students participate. “I didn’t have any problems,” Owen said. If possible, she arranged for her students to spend the first couple minutes of class in a computer lab to complete the evaluations. “It was quite a process,” she said. Despite the hassle, Owen said she prefers the evaluations to be done online as opposed to on paper. “It seems to makes sense to me,” she said. “You can ask and encour-age, but that’s the student’s choice. That’s who we’re here for after all!” Dr. Martha Burger, associate pro-fessor in the West College of Edu-cation, said professors should check who is participating and remind those that aren’t. “We really work hard to get 100 percent,” Burger said. “But we do run the risk of students not doing it.” She said one idea for advertising the system is to send e-mail mes-sages to students reminding them of

the importance of their voice. A high number of faculty agree that doing evaluations online is bet-ter than on paper, but some think the system needs work. Mass Communication Instruc-tor Sandra Grant said one-fourth to one-third of her students participat-ed online. “We ask people what they think at the wrong time of the year,” Grant said. Evaluations are given, in most cases, one to two weeks before fi-nals. Students are usually stressed, busy and tired and don’t want to be bothered with evaluations. By this time, faculty should know their students and how they feel about the class, she said. She said students who filled out the online forms either had an ax to grind or had something very posi-tive to express. “We should try it again. If we continue to get low number, we should try something else,” she said. Dr. Phillip Wilson, chair of the management department, had re-sponses of 18, 19, 36, 40 and 70 percent. “That is disappointing,” Wilson said. “I prefer them done online if we get better student participation. Information is easier to process.” He said the responses don’t come from middle-of-the-road people. Students who are more involved are more passionate about the evalua-tions.

MARISSA MILLENDER

FOR THE WICHITAN

Online course evaluations way of the future; paperless system will save time, money

The U.S. House of Representa-tives voted Feb 8 to limit the rising cost of college education. The College Opportunity and Af-fordability Act is a comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Edu-cation Act. The bill passed 354-58, despite criticism from the Bush ad-ministration. Among provisions included in the legislation is the creation of a user-friendly website to help fami-lies better understand the costs as-sociated with college. The Education Department site will group schools according to tu-ition and the rate at which tuition has increased at each institution. “To solve the college-cost crisis,

we’re empowering consumers with meaningful information about col-lege costs and holding institutions and states accountable for keeping higher education affordable”, said California Rep. Buck Mckeon, the ranking Republican on the educa-tion committee. The new legislation includes both an increase the maximum eligible Pell grant amount and revisions to the student lending industry. Low-income students will be eligible to receive a Pell grant year round. In recent years, students have increasingly turned to alternative lenders to fund their education, which typically are more expensive than federally subsidized loans. With the legislation, private lenders will be required to inform students of their funding options, including the cheaper federal alter-

natives. Currently, students applying for federal financial aid – both grants and loans – must submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The bill aims to simplify the ap-plication process, creating a two-page FAFSA-EZ form available to low-income families. Also included in the legislation, is increased accessibility to federal funding for minority students, stu-dents with disabilities and military personnel. According to the Government Accountability Office the average college students spends $900 per year on textbooks – a situation Con-gress hopes to improve. Universities will be required to provide students with information on textbook costs earlier, to encour-age financial planning.

Also, publishers will have to provide university faculty with full textbook costs before they choose to purchase materials for a class. House Democrats and Repub-lican agree the bill is necessary to combat the increasing cost of higher education. According to the US Department of Education the average annual tu-ition and fees for in-state students at four-year public universities is $6,200, and $23,700 at private four-year universities. “The bill will create a higher-education system that is more af-fordable and fairer and easier to navigate,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Chairman of the Commit-tee on Education and Labor. The House bill is similar to one passed in the Senate earlier this year, and the two will eventually have to be merged.

KIMBERLY STILES

FOR THE WICHITAN

New House bill to limit college expenses

Attending the Democratic rally will be local politicians

“We’reby election time,” Thornton said. “If they get

interested in politics now, they’ll be more likely to

continue to vote in future elections.”

He said one problem is that the younger generation

sometimes vote in line with their parents and don’t take

the time to think about what really matters to them.

“There’s a lack of feeling that your vote matters,” he said.

“Many students are not involved in politics.”

Payton referenced MTV’s “Rock the Vote,” a program

designed to turn the younger audience on to politics.

Many college students don’t have time to watch hours of

TV. Radio programs could do a better job of getting the

message out in a way more students are likely to

encounter, she said.

Programs like the “Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show

with Jon Stewart” get the message out about politics in a

way that’s encouraging to the younger audience and still

informative, said Thornton.

“It’s a dry topic,” he said. “[Advertising] is going to have

to be quick and convenient.”

The system is in place to help people, but students need a

reason to get Involved, Thornton said.

“I think a lot of students will vote because of the

Iraq situation.” Payton said. “For me, it will be about

education.”

Students will not vote based on rallies. They will vote

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MSU Democrats and the MSU Homebound Conservatives share a common goal: to get students in-formed and voting. “That’s our goal. We’re trying to get everyone registered,” said Mary Payton, president of the MSU Dem-ocrats. The groups are organizing ral-lies to spread the word not only on national candidates, but also local ones. The Conservatives’ rally is Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Clark Stu-dent Center. The Democrats’ rally is Feb. 28. Attending the Democratic rally will be local politicians Roger Wan, running for congressman, Cecil Yo-der, and Kelly Mestas, both running for Sheriff. “We want students to think for themselves and be interested in pol-itics,” said Chase Thornton, presi-dent of the Homebound Conserva-tives. “We want students to vote and get involved.” Fliers will be printed and made available to students detailing presi-dential campaigns and their individ-ual platforms.

“We try to emphasize to vote on the person and not on the party,” Thornton said. “It’s not really a par-ty line, it’s and ideology line.” Payton emphasized that they’re not pushing Clinton or Obama, but instead, are pushing for students to vote. At the Democratic rally, a place will be set up to fill out voter registration cards, get them nota-rized, and have them mailed by the organization. Payton said often students may fill out the card, but don’t make the effort to send it. Thornton said his organization is going classroom to classroom around the university to spread the word about politics and getting stu-dents involved. They are also tar-geting the younger generation by visiting senior classes at area high schools. “We’re trying to catch the seniors that are 18, or will be by election time,” Thornton said. “If they get interested in politics now, they’ll be more likely to continue to vote in future elections.” He said one problem is that the younger generation sometimes vote in line with their parents and don’t take the time to think about what re-ally matters to them.

“There’s a lack of feeling that your vote matters,” he said. “Many students are not involved in poli-tics.” Payton referenced MTV’s “Rock the Vote,” a program designed to turn the younger audience on to politics. Many college students don’t have time to watch hours of TV. Radio programs could do a bet-ter job of getting the message out in a way more students are likely to encounter, she said. Programs like the “Colbert Re-port” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” get the message out about politics in a way that’s encouraging to the younger audience and still in-formative, said Thornton. “It’s a dry topic,” he said. “[Ad-vertising] is going to have to be quick and convenient.” The system is in place to help people, but students need a reason to get involved, Thornton said. “I think a lot of students will vote because of the Iraq situation.” Pay-ton said. “For me, it will be about education.” Students will not vote based on rallies. They will vote based on their values, Payton said. Both parties feel that candidates haven’t always catered to the needs

of the younger generation, but grad-ually that is changing. “College students are not the vot-ing majority,” Payton said, “but if we can get more students involved in voting, they will see us as a more unified and informed group that they will want to focus on.” The MSU bookstore and student activities are also trying to get stu-dents on campus informed and in-volved in the voting process. “We want to take away the ex-cuse that they weren’t informed,” said Jim Johnson, assistant book-store manager. “In the age of the in-ternet and cable TV, there’s no rea-son why anyone should not know how to vote or who the candidates are.” The bookstore hosted an all day President’s Day celebration on Mon-day with free refreshments, cook-ies, informational packets outlining each candidate’s platforms, and free voter registration cards available to students, faculty and staff. Johnson said they decided to do it this year because Texas matters as a primary and it’s still a wide-open election. Residents of Texas will have the opportunity to vote for their candi-date on Tuesday March 4.

MSU Democrats, Conservatives join forces to encourage student voting

LISA MOORE

FOR THE WICHITAN

Help Wanted

EntertainmentTHE WICHITANFeb. 20, 20084

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Step Up Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum),

a foster child, finds him self in a complicated situation when he gets in trouble with the law. Instead of serving time in jail, he is forced to complete community service at the Maryland School of Arts.

With Tyler’s great dance skills, instead of doing his Janitorial duties he finds himself helping the lovely and privileged dance student, Nora.

Sparks fly between the two on and off the stage as Tyler tries to step up and prove one last time, that he does belong.

Step Up 2: The Streets

The sequel to 2006’s Step Up,

this movie follows the life of an or-phan who is coincidentally, a trou-blemaker. Andie (Briana Evigan) dances with an underground hip-hop crew when she finds herself getting into a bit of trouble at school. When Andie is threatened by her care-taker to clean up her act or be sent to live in Texas, a cameo by previ-ous Step Up star Channing Tatum, pulls some strings and gets her an audition to attend, you guessed it, Maryland School of the Arts. With her “streets” style of dancing, you can only imagine the transition she must go through in order to keep her place in this school and find her way in the world she is thrown into.

COURTNEY FOREMAN

FOR THE WICHITAN

If we’re being honest, one of the main reasons anyone saw Step Up in the first place was because the ultra-hunk movie star Channing Tatum played the star role. The first movie wasn’t amazing, but did actively capture the dance etiquette and hard work it takes to transition from a hip-hop dancer to a refined ballerina. But, in comparison to Step Up 2 The Streets, the first falls flat. The sequel had a significant more amount of dancing than the first and, the dancing was better choreographed and better presented to the audience. Yes, the plots of both movies are a tad unrealistic, but that’s not why people go see dance movies. If we wanted reality when it came to dancing, we would rent a documentary. Since fantasy is so much more enjoyable to watch, I think people who like the cheesy, want to start dancing in your chair, mixture of Stomp The Yard and Save The Last Dance kind of movies, will really enjoy this flick.

The writers’ strike is over, but the irony remains: At the same time the standoff between producers and scriptwriters was stretching into weeks and m o n t h s , t h e a t e r s all over the coun-try were sc reen ing examples of how writ-ing for the movies was at one of its infrequent, but clearly identifiable peaks. For con-firmation, look to this year’s A c a d e m y A w a r d -nominated s c r i p t s for both best original screenplay (“Juno,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Michael Clayton,” “Ratatouille,” “The Sav-ages”) and best adapted screenplay (“Atonement,” “Away From Her,” “The Diving Bell and the Butter-fly,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood”). These 10 worthy competitors are practically

irradiated with skilled-to-masterly narrative control and dialogue that’s almost musical in both timing and resonance. Not long ago, critics were la-menting how, despite the wealth of acting talent throughout the movie business, there seemed so few

scripts around that were wor-thy of it. There can be, for ex-ample, the Os-car-winning Helen Mirren of the intelli-gently scripted “The Queen,” but then there could also ex-ist the Helen Mirren of the previous year, taking part in “Shad-o w b o x e r , ” whose script was, putting it mildly, less well-thought-out. And yes, Julia Roberts gets to do an

“Erin Brockovich” or a “Confes-sions of a Dangerous Mind.” But then, there’s always stuff like “The Mexican.” Last year, however, Roberts was able to take advantage of a juicy script by Aaron Sorkin for “Charlie Wilson’s War”, which didn’t even make the cut for Academy Awards

consideration, so stiff was the com-petition among the smart movie set. Neither did these: “Gone Baby Gone,” “Starting Out in the Eve-ning,” “Zodiac,” “Knocked Up,” “Into the Wild,” “The Namesake,” “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Superbad,” “Eastern Promises,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Margot at the Wedding,” “I’m Not There,” “Great World of Sound” and “Rescue Dawn.” All of which drew persua-sive, sometimes impassioned praise from critics and audiences on behalf of their scripts. So how do these things happen? Does talent or inspiration peak col-lectively at random? Do studios horde the good stuff and wait for the right astrological alignment to propel these screenplays into pro-duction? Nothing as scientific as that. “The studios are the corn flakes box,”

says Terry George, 55, who wrote such movies as “In the Name of the Father” (1993) and “Hotel Rwanda” (2004). “They’re now the package, and what’s inside doesn’t matter as long as it moves off the shelves. The independents are where good stories are being told. Look at the two front-runners for best adapted screenplay: ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘There Will Be Blood.’ They both have these weird endings that don’t conform to whatever the studios believe the audiences want. That they’re getting such attention right now gives hope to all of us who want to make good movies.” Andrew Bergman, 63, a novelist and screenwriter for such comedies as “Blazing Saddles” (1974), “The In-Laws” (1979) and “Honeymoon in Vegas” (1992), agrees that this year’s Oscar-nominated scripts are an especially fine yield. “If you notice,” he says, “all of them except ‘Ratatouille’ are inde-pendent or foreign-made. That tells

you where the major studios are in terms of putting out a movie like ‘Lars and the Real Girl,’ which I thought had an unbelievable script. Maybe you could have made that back in the ‘70s when movie stu-dios were still movie studios. But now they’re divisions of multina-tional corporations where you have to make bigger profits here and overseas. To do that, they have to be risk-averse. And you can’t make good movies without taking risks.” So, will a banner year produce another rush of good scriptwriting? History shows the more plentiful years of good movies are rarer than average-to-mediocre years. Industry pundits predict that the writers’ strike’s most immediate im-pact will be the lack of on-set rewrit-ing during production of films made during the strike, and that audiences will notice the lack of polish over the next year or two. George also worries that the poor box-office performance of movies

related to such post-9/11 issues as terrorism and Iraq will mean “no one will give us a dime on movies with political topics,” which pro-vide reliably fertile ground for com-pelling storytelling. Nevertheless, the quality of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies gives him reasons to believe. “Good movies still get made, even with the profit ratio of the blockbusters that demand nothing more of you than your money. And with technology changing and access to movies wid-ening, there’ll be even more ways for writers like me to tell stories without being hampered by stu-dios.”

Step Up takes it to the streets

A tall, strapping blonde with the ability to change from caring to kill-ing in twenty minutes can be none other than the talented (and gor-geous) Hayden Christensen. This Canadian born actor went unnoticed in the United States, until he signed as Anakin Skywalker in the two Star Wars prequels, but he was far from being a beginner.

He began his acting career at the age of 13 on various T.V. shows with not only cameos, but also leading roles. In 2000, Christensen played a teen who was sexually molested by his stepmother in Fox’s Family Net-work TV series, “Higher Ground.”

Christensen, popular in the dat-ing world, has been linked to ac-tresses Sienna Miller and Rachel Bilson, both of which he met while filming.

In addition to his love life, he has

been nominated for Best Support-ing Actor and won Breakout Perfor-mance of the Year in his outstanding role in “Life as a House.”

From cameo to leading role, here are a few of Chris-tensen’s top flicks that put him on the ballot sheet.

“The Virgin Sui-cides”

(1999) Chris-tensen plays a small role in Sofia Coppola’s direc-tional debut. He gives a charming performance as an academic achiever and awkward young man who is granted permission to join three other boys as escorts for the four lovely but sheltered Lisbon sisters.

“Life as a House”(2001) Christensen turned in a

highly regarded supporting per-

formance as the glue-sniffing, pill-popping, disaffected teenage son of Kevin Kline. He is forced to spend a summer with his dying father and becomes closer with his family and slowly begins to normalize himself in this tearjerker.

“Star Wars: Episode II”(2002) The role of Anakin Sky-

walker pushed him into the spotlight with his ability to completely change his look from angelic to crude with a flash of his eyes. In both of the second and the third Star Wars, Christensen gives a convincing role of a character’s internal struggle be-tween good and evil, despite George Lucas’s lack of involving dialogue.

“Awake”(2007) During surgery people

have experienced “aesthetical awareness,” a condition when an-esthesia fails during surgery. In this thriller Christensen portrays a para-lyzed man who is conscious and can feel every incision, but is incapable

of doing a n y t h i n g about it.

“Jumper”(2008) Christensen’s latest hit is

an action/science fiction flick where a genetic anomaly allows him to teleport himself anywhere. He dis-covers this gift has existed for cen-turies and finds himself in a war that has been raging between “Jumpers”

and those who have sworn to kill them, which includes the talented Samuel L. Jackson.

At the movies, this was the year of smart scriptsBY GENE SEYMOUR

NEWSDAY(MCT)

Hayden Christensen makes Hollywood look goodLAUREN WOOD

FOR THE WICHITAN

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FOR THE WICHITAN

Imagine a band that mashes the southern sounds of the All-man Brothers or Lynyrd Skynrd with driving old-school metal. That’s the sound that John Henry Vs. The Machine is going for. The band name says it all, said drummer Stephen Welch. The folk legend John Henry rep-resents the southern side of the band’s sound. “The machine represents technical metal music, the old-school driven metal,” he said. “It’s pretty much us trying to blend the two variations. It’s a harmony of the two.” A high-energy group gain-ing more and more southern metal converts with each show, the band will play a huge metal show this Saturday at the Ameri-can Legion 169. The all ages show also fea-tures national recording acts Oh, Sleeper, Memphis May Fire and area bands Eli Cash and Corithea. The show is being promoted by MSU student Nicole Barron,

and numerous MSU students are featured in the area bands playing that night. John Henry formed about a year ago when guitarist Charles Harlow joined the three remaining members of The Last Italian Mob Story that included singer Daniel Brito, guitar-ist Zane Starbuck and Welch. The quartet recruited bassist Scott Szczepinski and started jamming. “We recorded it, “ Harlow said, “put it on Myspace and the next thing we know we have 6,000 plays on one song. “We wrote five more songs, start-ed playing shows and people loved us,” he said. The band has so far performed at the American Legion 169 and 120, along with Paradigm and out of town shows such as the Metroplex Club, The Door and Old Kelly’s. It’s tough to describe the band’s sound, even for members of the band, but they say that southern in-fluenced heavy metal will do, and it starts with the guitars. It’s a sound that comes from the meshing together of Harlow and Starbuck’s different styles of gui-tar playing. Before coming to John Henry, Harlow admits to playing

in southern rock and country cover bands. “I grew up playing honky-tonks all over the place. And it’s still in me. I cannot get away from it. When I write something, I try to make it the most technical thing anyone ever heard but it’s still going to have the Lynryd Skynrd/Allman Brothers groove,” he said. On the other hand, Starbuck doesn’t listen to country but rather groups like Fall of Troy. He’s not really sure what word there is for his style of playing. “I didn’t re-ally have anybody to teach me how to play guitar,” he said. “I just sat down and started playing.” In addition to their brand of southern metal mash-up, the group has recently begun to introduce a progressive element to their sound. “Everyone kind of adds their own thing,” Welch said, “because people listen to different things.” Welch and Brito usually come to-gether to write the song lyrics. “I just pick something I want to write about,” Brito said. “Usually we map out all the vocals like rhythm and delivery first and write about fram-ing people for murder, things like that.”

‘John Henry vs. The Machine’ mixes southern rock with metal

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Films vie for Best Picture award at Oscars

Daniel Brito of area southern metal band John Henry vs The Machine. the group will perform this Saturday at the American Legion 169 begin-ning at 6 p.m. Photo by Richard Carter

THE WICHITANFeb. 20, 20086 Feature

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At speeds of up to 150 mph in an eighth of a mile the crowd is a blur outside his car win-dows. Mat Thomas’ hands grip the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turn white. Quickly, Thomas pulls a lever and a parachute deploys behind him. Five seconds ago he was at the starting line waiting for three yellow lights. “It’s a show,” Thomas said. “The fans come out to watch us race and they want to see us go fast.” The 26-year-old MSU stu-dent is not alone. Other students spend their Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the drag strip. Some race, others watch. Darrell Reid, owner of Wichita Drag Strip at Wichita Raceway Park, has controlled the track for about five years. He said the ma-jority of the fans are between 19 and 35 years old. People gather at the track be-cause they’re car enthusiasts, he said. The track also attracts nu-merous airmen who would rather come watch some cars race than sit around at Sheppard Air Force Base. “We want them to race the strip, not the street,” Reid said. “Anything you got you can bring it out off street and run it.” WRP is a National Hot Rod Association-sanctioned track, which means it complies with a set of safety rules and regula-

tions. All drivers running in a class must be NHRA certified and meet the safety requirements for that class. The track must also meet safety requirements. One important rule requires that it have a manned ambulance at the end of the track. “Some people come out here with friends or whoever,” Reid said. “Some have been doing it a long time.” MSU Alumna Kari Gee, 24, has been around racing as long as she can remember. When she was 17 she started driving a 1968 Camaro with a big block Chevrolet engine. Then, she ran an eighth of a mile in an average of 6.50 sec-onds. Now she drives a rear engine dragster, running an eighth of a mile in an average of 4.80 sec-onds. When in college, juggling rac-ing and class was only difficult is she had weekend homework. Her dad and brothers do most of the work on her car, but she tries to help out when and how she can. “It’s all about family sup-port,” Gee said. “But seeing the win light come on in my lane is always a good feeling.” MSU Alumnus Tommy Keeter got his mechanic background from watching his father work on cars. Keeter got into drag racing when he was installing a sprin-kler system for Top Fuel Drag-ster Champion Eddie Hill and his wife, Ercie. Hill and Keeter

got to know each other well and Keeter was hired to Hill’s pit crew in 1996. He worked with the Hills for about four years before he started doing engine work with Al Weiss, owner of

The Auto Shop on Callfield. In 2000, Keeter made his first pass down a drag strip as a driver in his friend’s 1976 Camaro. He now drives a 2000 Bickel Firebird for The Auto Shop and

Wichita Tank in the Texas Out-law Top Sportsman class. The state-wide class requires teams to be consistent. Teams focus less on who gets there first and more on who can run an

eighth of a mile in 4.70 seconds. Keeter hopes to step up to the Texas Outlaw Pro Modified As-sociation in 2008. In the TOPMA class, cars run numbers closer to an eighth-mile in 4.00 seconds. “It’s challenging both mental-ly and physically,” Keeter said. “It’s loud and it’s fast.” Thomas and his father, Stan, have been racing together in the OTS class for about three years. They have both been racing fa-natics their entire lives. “I got the racing bug from my dad,” Thomas said. “He does it just because he likes it.” Thomas started out driving a 1988 Don Ness Camaro. He was OTS Champion in 2006. Last winter Thomas and Stan Thomas switched to a 2001 Don Ness Firebird. Thomas has dreams of being a professional driver one day. He enjoys watching the NHRA na-tional races. “I’m earning degrees as a back-up plan,” he said. He grad-uated from MSU in December 2006 with a bachelor’s in busi-ness management and is back studying for a bachelor’s in manufacturing engineering. Thomas said his mother sel-dom comes to the races because it makes her nervous. However, NHRA rules require drivers in the OTS class to wear a certain amount of safety equipment, in-cluding a full fire suit and a hel-met. “You want your friends to win, too,” Thomas said. “It gets everyone’s adrenaline pumping,

Revved upWichita Raceway Park draws car enthusiasts, speed junkies

MARISSA MILLENDER

FOR THE WICHITAN

Mat Thomas does a burnout in the 2001 Pontiac Firebird owned by his father, Stan.

Photo courtesy Gina and Danny White/Draglist.com

‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’

‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,’ a musical comedy, will be performed March 6-8 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 9 at 2:30 p.m. Photos courtesy of MSU Theatre Department

Sports THE WICHITANFeb. 20, 2008 7

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BOBBY MORRIS

SPORTS EDITOR

One of the most overlooked and often underappreciated aspects of collegiate athletics is the entire recruiting process. The ability to recruit solid players year-in and year-out in any sport separates great teams from great programs. Recruiting solid student athletes is essential, to continue retooling your program and sustaining a high level of competitiveness over long periods of time. Mustangs’ athletics are mak-ing strides during the off-season of multiple sports to try and solidify their great seasons with the promise of many more to come. The football team, along with both the men’s and women’s soccer teams, experienced banner years this past season. All of the coach-es took crucial steps on one of the most important days of the year to help keep the success that rolling. National Signing Day is almost a right of passage in collegiate ath-letics, the time of the year when many high school seniors make the official jump to college and gather around with friends and family, and sign official Letters of Intent. This day comes every year, on the first Wednesday of February, and breaths new life into athletics pro-grams, propelling the teams into spring workouts and even summer training camps.

FOOTBALL

The football program made the most drastic additions to their squad a couple of weeks ago, eventually adding 44 transfers and prep sign-ings, 41 of these players were added on National Signing Day. During coach Bill Maskill’s ten-ure the Mustangs have experienced consistent growth and success, highlighted by playoff appearances in 2004 and 2006. Maskill holds not only the best winning percentage in MSU history, 59-28 (.687), but also the most wins in school history. Despite the overwhelming suc-cess and evident recruiting fortune experienced under Maskill’s tenure, this class excites him even more than previous classes. “This is probably the most ath-letic group we’ve signed in my six years here,” said coach Maskill af-ter announcing the 2008 class of recruits. “This is a really good class which turns into a special class with the addition of the mid-term trans-fers. I’m excited to see what they can do.” The football team inked two four-year college transfers in an at-tempt to fill voids left by graduating seniors, Tony Burson and Daniel Polk. Quarterback Polk and offen-sive lineman Burson are considered by many to be two of the best in Di-vision II football at their respective positions. So, Maskill had his hands full when attempting to find players to fill those positions. Zack Eskridge, a 6-3, 210-pound quarterback transferred to MSU

after spending last season at Texas Christian University. He will lead the charge, with frosh Brandon Kelsey to help the Mustangs in the post-Polk era. Transferring offensive lineman from around the country, helped fill the evident void left by an ex-perienced offensive line last season. The Mustangs accepted transfers from Brandon Washington, previ-ously at the University of Tulsa, and Matt Hanson and Dillon Sulli-van, both from at junior colleges in California. Moving to the defensive side of the ball the Mustangs made some crucial moves in order to bring in some bigger, more athletic safeties and bring in a speedier, deeper line-backing corps. Maskill seemed especially thrilled about the local addition of 6-1, 200-pound safety, Ray Daniels, from Vernon. “He’s big time. If he would have been in the Metroplex with his size and speed,” said Maskill, “We would have never got him.” Daniels highlights a big, athletic safety class along with Royse City’s Bert Boudreax, Cypress Ridge’s Brandon Smith, and Alief Hastings’ Jared Davis, while the addition of seven linebackers immediately bring depth and speed to the middle of the field. This year’s class brings future promise along with immediate tal-ent to the football program, which seems poised to continue to succeed under Maskill’s reign for year’s to come.

MEN’S SOCCER

The MSU men’s soccer team just completed its banner year since coming back into NCAA Division II back in 1995. They ended up go-ing 18-3-2 on the season and made it all the way to the NCAA Division II Final Four last season after claim-ing the Southwest Soccer Confer-ence title. The team is vying for their third-straight trip to the NCAA Division II postseason, and they will do so with a healthy mix of youth and ex-perience. The team is returning an ex-tremely experienced roster with ten seniors and six juniors. Coach Doug Elder will be adding four midyear transfers and three prep signings to mesh with this already very accom-plished team. “With a good returning class, the midyear transfers and signees should add depth to our returning 2008 roster,” Elder said. “The mix-ture of experience transfers and in-coming freshmen will compliment our team at each position.” The group of four midyear trans-fers includes: Nick Auditore, Kyle Hyden, Bryan Sajjadi, and Reid Schmitt. Highlighting the group is Sajjadi coming to the team from the University of New Mexico and Auditore who is returning to MSU after two years of Community Col-lege soccer. “Bryan (Sajjadi) gives us a wealth of experience from the high prep, club, and collegiate level,” El-der said, “He will be seeking time

as a starter up front.” Auditore is returning to MSU after spending his redshirt season here in 2005. He then moved on to play for Mesa (Ariz.) Community College where the speedster earned NJCAA All-American honors after scoring 31 goals this past fall. “Nick (Auditore) has blazing speed and a knack for finding the net. He will definitely help and vie for a starting spot at striker,” said coach Elder.” Along with the additions from midyear signings, Elder has brought in Kyle Cornwell, Mahmoud Ihmei-dan, and Colin O’Donnell to hope-fully bring immediate depth to the team as prep signings. Mahmoud is joining his NSCAA All-American brother, Ahmad, on the team as Elder hopes to shape him into just as prominent a player.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Coach Jeff Trimble had a pretty tough job ahead of him, trying to make a young team even younger with the addition of a new year’s incoming class. The women’s soc-cer team rode youth, speed and some minimal experience to a 12-4-2 overall record and their first ever national ranking at the end of their season. The team is returning 19 of last year’s 23 letter winners and added seven prep signings and one mid-year transfer to increase the depth all over the field. Highlighting this year’s recruit-

ing class was the addition of Brit-tany O’Neal who just transferred from Centenary College (La.) to join the Mustangs and her younger sister, Brandi. Brandi was a standout in her freshman season with the Mustangs, eventually garnering first-team All-Lone Star Conference honors. Trimble hopes that Brittany will bring that same aggressiveness to play next season for the Mustangs. “Brittany scores goals while add-ing pressure to the defense,” Trimble said about the lone midyear transfer added to the roster this spring. This class was mostly dominated by prep standouts that were brought in to infuse some life and keep the team young, speedy, and most of all intense. “I wanted to get intense girls that are physical and work hard,” Trim-ble said. “We felt like we had speed on the team, but this class gives us the intensity and work rate that will allow us to compete in the Lone Star Conference and beyond.” Prep signings included: Heidi Avila, Lindsey Durham, Christine Elder, Madison Grassi, Lindsay Pritchard, Hanna Staley, and Cath-erine Carr. With the experience that the team has already combined with the young talent brought in by this year’s class there’s no reason to be-lieve that this program has the abil-ity to compete now, and for years to come.

MUSTANGS

PLAYER

PROFILE

Brandy Moore

Basketball I #5Junior Guard

Hometown : San Antonio, TexMajor : Kinesiology with an

Education minor

Brandy Moore brings fire power to the outside for the Mustangs,

as well as some experience. Moore earned all-district and all-region honors while at Holmes High School, where she also lettered in volleyball. Moore

competed in Blinn College and in Temple College before arriv-ing at Midwestern State Univer-sity to lead the outside scoring

attack this season

Did you know?!

Brandy’s 22nd birthday is this upcoming Sunday

BOBBY MORRIS

SPORTS EDITOR

A strong winter storm hit Wich-ita Falls last week, forcing Mid-western State University officials to cancel what would have been the softball team’s home debut against Texas A&M-Kingsville last Saturday. The imminent threat of inclem-ent weather forced officials to can-cel the initial double-header set against Tarleton State for last Fri-day, then when the weather fore-cast rang true, all of the activities for the weekend were cancelled. No date has been set for either of the double-headers to be re-scheduled. MSU will be traveling today to Florida to play a series of games and a tourney. The Mustangs will be competing in a double-header

on Thursday against the Universi-ty of Tampa set to begin at 3 p.m. Then, at 3:30 p.m., the Mus-tangs will begin their participa-tion in the Eckerd Triton Tourna-ment hosted in St. Petersburg, Fla. MSU is set to take on Palm Beach Atlantic first, before competing against Nova Southeastern at 6 p.m., on Friday. The Mustangs will finish the tournament on Saturday by tak-ing on the host-Eckerd squad at 9 a.m., then playing their final game against Saint Leo at 2 p.m. in the afternoon. Due to the recent cancellations over the weekend, the Mustangs’ home debut is now scheduled again for March 2nd where they will open up an eight-game home stand with a double-header against Abilene Christian at 1 p.m. in a LSC crossover match-up.

Softball’s home debut delayed

National Signing Day nets Mustangs promising recruits

BOBBY MORRIS

SPORTS EDITOR

Two of the most decorated players in MSU football history, quarterback Daniel Polk and cen-ter Tony Burson, played their final football season as part of the Mus-tangs’ squad this past season. But they are not leaving quietly, that’s for sure. The trophy cases at the homes of Daniel, Sr. and Arlene Polk and Joe and Jan Burson must be filling up quickly, as both of the players keep racking up awards after com-pleting their final seasons at Mid-western State.

Last Monday, February 11, both players were recognized again in the 20th annual NCAA Division II All-American teams released by the Don Hansen Football Gazette. Polk and Burson were both named to the third-team All-Amer-ican team in the Football Gazette adding to the already countless number of awards both have re-ceived. Back in December, Don Han-sen’s Football Gazette also select-ed both seniors to the All-South-west Region’s first team. Then, more recently, the senior duo was named in D2Football.com’s an-nual announcement of their post-season accolades. Burson was

named to the All-American second team; while Polk was named to the All-American honorable mention team. Polk was also invited to com-pete in two different post-season exhibition games to showcase his talents to those at a higher level. He was invited to quarterback the West All-Stars in the Valero Cactus Bowl in Kingsville on January 11, and he also take part in the West-ern Refining Texas vs. The Nation game back on February 2, in El Paso. Only time will tell if the duo can recieve any more awards as the two most decorated players in the MSU football program’s history.

DynamicDuoPolk Burson

BOBBY MORRIS

THE WICHITAN

THE MSU GOLF TEAM TEED OFF THIS WEEK AT THE ST. EDWARD’S INVI-TATIONAL AT GREY ROCK GOLF CLUB, THEIR fiRST EVENT OF THE SP RING. FRESHM AN TRAVIS KLUTTS LED THE WAY FOR THE TEAM fiNISHING IN SOLO SECOND-P LACE AT 4-OVER P AR. GOING INTO THE fiNAL ROUND OF THE TOURNAM ENT KLUTTS TRAILED THE TOURNAM ENT-LEADER, SAM POWELL OF NORTHEASTERN STATE, BY EIGHT STROKES. KLUTTS OP ENED THE SP RING SEASON WITH A 6-OVER P AR 77, BE-

fore settling in and recording a solid even-par 71 on Monday to head into the final round. Klutts really came to play in the final round, however, rising up the leaderboard hole-after-hole. Klutts carded a round-best 69 in the final round, giving Powell a run for his money in the final round. Powell squeaked by posting a 2-over par 73 in the final round to bring his overall score to even par, while Klutts’ spectacular final round brought him up to 4-over par and into a solo second-place. Meanwhile, the rest of the MSU golf crew continued to struggle at

the Grey Rock Golf Club. Senior Gordon Quebodeaux shot a 9-over par 80 in the final round on Tues-day to take him back to a tie for 30th place at 17-over par. Junior Andrew Ludley followed Quebo-deaux with a matching 80 in the fi-nal round bringing him to 18-over par for the tourney and in a tie for 41st place. Other members of the golf team, senior Brady Jones and sophomore Mitch Molen, finished at 21- and 23-over par respectively rounding out the teams scoring and placing the team at an overall 55-over par

for the tournament. Klutts led the team all the way up to a seventh place finish in their opening tournament of the sea-son. “We’re capable of playing bet-ter than we played,” said MSU coach Jeff Ray. “We need to put it together in the same round...this is a great field, a very competitive one.” Midwestern State’s next com-petition is set to take part in the Crawford-Wade Invitational at the Tanglewood Resort in Pottsboro on March 3-4.

THE WICHITANFeb. 20, 20088 Sports

JOSH MUJICA

SPORTS WRITER

WALKING INTO THE STEINKE CENTER LAST SATURDAY, THE MSU WOM EN’S BASKETBALL TEAM KNEW THEY DESP ER-ATELY NEEDED A WIN TO STAY ALIVE FOR LONE STAR CONFERENCE P OSTSEASON CONTENTION. UNFORTUNATELY, SO DID THE TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE JAVELI-NAS. THE JAVELINAS SNAP P ED AN EIGHT-GAM E LOSING STREAK AND OUSTED THE MUSTANGS, 86-71 TO IM P ROVE TO 6-17 ON THE SEASON AND 2-8 IN LSC SOUTH COM P ETITION. “THEY P ENETRATED THE BALL HARD AND WERE ABLE TO GET P OINTS ON P ENE-TRATION, THEN WHEN WE ADJUSTED THEY HIT SHOTS FROM THE ARC,” MSU COACH SHANNON BURKS SAID.

TAMUK shot 54 percent from the field for the game and hit 11-of-21 from 3-point land. Before the game, the Javelinas were only averaging 38.3 percent from the field and 34.6 percent from the 3-point line. Felicia Soza hit five 3-point-ers to finish with 23 points for the TAMUK and junior center LaKei-sha Jones hit 11-of 14 from the field to end with 24 points and ten rebounds denying the Mustang vic-tory. Senior guard Stacey Staten tried to keep the Mustangs close and had a career-high 24 points for the Mus-tangs hitting 8-of-12 from the field. Junior guard Brandy Moore con-tributed fourteen points including four 3-pointers. “We had too many turnovers and

too many breakdowns on the defen-sive end to give us a chance to win it,” Burks said. MSU has lost four games in a row and has accumulated a 2-10 road re-cord on the season. The Mustangs haven’t won on the road since Jan. 10 against East Central. “I’m disappointed that we made this long trip and didn’t perform any better than we did,” Burks said. MSU will return home to face-off against Angelo State tonight at D. L. Ligon Coliseum. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. The game can be heard live on 100.9 BOBFM, bobradio.fm or msumustangs.com. Broadcast time for the women’s preview is set for 5:45 p.m. Men’s coverage will directly follow the women’s game.

JOSH MUJICA

SPORTS WRITER

THE MSU MUSTANGS HAD THEIR HANDS FULL SATURDAY NIGHT AS THEY TOOK ON TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE IN LONESTAR CONFERENCE SOUTH P LAY AT STEINKE CENTER. THE GAM E WENT BACK AND FORTH BUT THE JAVELINAS WENT ON A 20-4 RUN M IDWAY THROUGH THE fiRST HALF TO P ULL AWAY WITH A 78-63 VICTORY. “WE STRUGGLED SHOOTING THE BAS-KETBALL TONIGHT,“ MSU COACH JEFF RAY SAID. TRAJINSKI GRIGSBY P OSTED HIS NINTH DOUBLE-DOUBLE OF THE SEA-SON WITH SIXTEEN P OINTS AND TEN REBOUNDS, AND CHRISTOP HER REAY ADDED TWELVE P OINTS AND FOUR RE-BOUNDS. SENIOR CHRIS DAVIS TALLIED NINETEEN P OINTS AND NINE BOARDS FOR THE MUSTANGS, WHILE NOLAN RICHARDSON IV THREW IN TEN P OINTS SHOOTING 4-OF-11 FROM THE fiELD. SENIOR JEREM Y FORD fiNISHED WITH SIX P OINTS ON A P AIR OF TREYS AND DIDN’T REACH DOUBLE-fiGURES FOR

the first time in six games. The Mustangs shot a mere 40.4 percent from the field for the game and went a horrific 6-of-24 from 3-point land. “We did get inside pretty well,” Ray said. “But we really never drew enough fouls. It took our guards out of rhythm and they are our best scorers.” TAMUK had great bench pro-duction as junior guard Naquawn Lee posted seventeen points in 21 minutes and center Stephen Story contributed thirteen points in 22 minutes. MSU didn’t have a single point from its bench, adding to their woes from the field. The Javelinas led 35-22 going into the locker room at the half but the Mustangs rallied with a 9-2 run and pulled the score to 39-35 with 14:52 to go. However, TAMUK’s Wendall Mulkey scored three straight lay-ups in a 8-0 run to push the Jave-lina lead back to double digits and

the Mustangs were unable to play catch up. Mulkey ended the game with fourteen points going 7-of-10 from the field. “The kids are still working hard, fight all the time and play hard,” Ray said. “The outcome hasn’t al-ways been how we like it.” The Mustangs are now 11-12 on the season and 3-6 in LSC South Division play. TAMUK improved to 16-8 on the year and 5-4 in divi-sion play. Midwestern State is set to return home on tonight to take on An-gelo State at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m., or 25 minutes directly following the finish of the women’s game. The game can be heard live on the radio at 100.9 BOBFM or on the internet at bobradio.fm or msumustangs.com. Broadcast is set to begin at 5:45 p.m. with the women’s game beginning at 6 p.m., and the men’s coverage to follow directly after-ward.

The Wichitan is seeking sports writers!!

If interested, contact Bobby at 397-4704

BOBBY MORRIS

SPORTS EDITOR

TRAVELING DIFfiCULTIES DE-LAYED THE START OF THE MIDWEST-ERN STATE-TULSA RUGBY M ATCH ON FEBRUARY 9, BUT THAT WOULDN’T STOP THE MUSTANGS FROM GAINING THEIR FOURTH WIN OF THEIR OVERALL SEASON.

A HOTLY CONTESTED M ATCH SAW THE MUSTANGS P ULL AWAY FROM THE GOLDEN HURRICANE IN THE fiRST HALF 21-5. TULSA SHOWED EXP E-RIENCE AND BRINGING THE M ATCH

within six points, until Midwest-ern State University broke away to secure the match late in the second half, 31-22.

Team captains from both MSU and TU helped lead this match, and promoted clean and sportsmanlike play from the be-ginning.

The MSU rugby team will travel up to Stillwater, Okla. in two weeks to take on Oklahoma State University on Saturday, March 1st at 1 p.m.

Rugby team wins first match of spring, 31-22

Mustangs takes disappointing 86-71 loss

Shooting Slump

Klutts finishes strong to take second place

Poor shooting plagues Mustangs in 78-63 loss

Patrick Johnston THE WICHITANMSU Forward Trajinski Grigsby (21) makes a skip pass over a West Texas A&M defender late in the overtime match-up last Wednesday night in D.L Ligon Coliseum.

Patrick Johnston THE WICHITANMSU guard Kaylon Hodges drives down the lane for a lay-up as teammate Andrea Buben (30) and West Texas A&M opponents look on late in the eventual MSU loss.