U.S. Olympic Snowboarders dominate competition, take medals in the halfpipe

by Catharine Hernson assistant perspectives editor

The United S~tes broke ground this weekend, striking gold in the Salt Lake City Olympics. Snowboarder Kelly Clark won the first gold medal in the women's halfpipe. Her medal winning performance was quickly followed by a medal sweep in the men's halfpipe snowboarding event.

The U.S. invention of snowboarding is still in its infancy in the Olympics. Tricks evolve and change every day making the halfpipe event hard to judge. Judging consist~ of four categories: standard maneuvers, amplitude, rotation and overa11impression. A perfect score would be 50 points with an athlete receiving 10 points from all five judges, two judges for im- pression and one for other areas. continued from page 16

Clark, an 18 year-old form Mt. Snow Vt., received a near perfect score of 47.9 on her final run of the day. Had she not wowed the judges with her highly technical maneuvers, France's Dorianne Vidal would have won the gold medal with her high score of 43.

The win was extra sweet for Clark because she bruised her tailbone in a practice run the day before the finals. Clark's injury happened as she practiced a McTwist, a 540-degree flipping rotation.

Ironically, it was the final trick she threw in her gold medal-winning run, and she landed perfectly.

In the men's lialfpipe Ross Powers threw a pair of McTwists in his gold medal run. Powers, 23 of Stratton, Vt., stood atop the podium with Americans on both sides.

Danny Kass, 19, won the silver while J.J. Thomas, 20, received the bronze.

The U.S. sweep of the men's half-pipe was the first sweep of a Winter Olympics event in 46 years. The men were all pleased with their performances. Powers' score was far ahead of the pack while Kass and Thomas barely edged out the competition.

The United States was looking for a large medal count after the Sept. 11th tragedy to boost national morale. The United States started the world of snowboarding and in the 2002 Olympics overtook the rest of the world with its style and resilience.

Apparently just having bodies in the stands isn't always enough, however. According to junior women's soccer player Kristen Luft, "Fans keep you going when they cheer you on, but when it is a quiet crowd, I could care less whether they are there or not."

Fans not only have to show their support for their team by showing up to the games, but they have to be cheerleaders for them too.

So why are there so few fans at Cabrini's sporting events? According to Dzik, "Students today are different ·than students in the past. They have other interests such as the internet, which wasn't around in the past, and most students have part-time jobs that take up much of their spare time." He also mentioned that so many students on campus are in the habit of complaining that there is never anything to do. If boredom sets in, tum to the calendar of events on your wa11or call the Dixon Center to find out what teams have games that might need a few extra people in the probably minimal crowd. Maybe part of the problem is that there is little promotion of games and sporting events on campus.

Dzik mentioned that since student activities is in charge of all of the activities on campus, shouldn't sports fall under that? Maybe if people were more informed about certain games, the players wouldn't have to look up to empty

Spring Break

if the various departments do not submit events to me, they don't make it to the calendar."

With lack of awareness or maybe just lack of interest on behalf of the campus community, the term "playing to a funeral crowd" has been thrown around by head men's lacrosse coach Steve Colfer, which means that most of the teams are playing for friends and family. "Most people that come out are friends and family, but more people come out on nice days, especially when both soccer teams or maybe the lacrosse teams • have home games on the same day," Luft said.

JohnDzik, stands. When asked about the possibility of increasing publicity of sporting events, Mary Beth Horvath, director of student activities said, "That's really not my area; they are a different department. There is a calendar that is put out with events listed on it, but

With everything that is going on in a student's busy life, maybe there is a spare hour or so that can be spared to come out and support the athletic teams that work so hard to bring honor and victory home to Cabrini. Dzik said, "Being involved in a col1ege community also means being a supporter of the community's athletic teams. I would like to see more faculty and staff out there supporting the teams as well to help build community spirit."

Last Minute Special. Save up to $100 per. person!!

Cancun, Acapulco. Jamaica, Bahamas, Florida

Organize Your Group and Travel Free!!

Student Travel Services

Call 800-648-4849 www.ststravel.com

Carrie Mishner

Regional Sales Manager, New York Student Travel Services

1344 Ashton Road, First Floor, Hanover, MD 21076

Tel. 800-648-4849 ext. 269 Fax 410-859-2442

Email cmishner@ststravel.com www.ststravel.com

lntramurals Announcement

If anyone has suggestions for the intramural program, contact Kate Corcoran @ extension 3909. Please offer opinions about what you would like to see this year with intramurals and what has worked in the past.