The Province • Sports (;f

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

SFU looks
very strong
in the pool

really want to win for each other and field out back and has then sprint deep
Win or lose, Cap College our"Wewhole
little idea of what a team should routes while he throws them a football.
be," said Blues guard Marie Rwigema. "We
But, beneath all that, the 27-year-old has
women want to have fun want
to win for the fun, team idea. We want a firm grasp on team-building. He's recruit

After a year out, Ryan Laurin and Gra
ham Duthie are looking to swamp the
competition at the NAIA swimming and
diving championships at SFU this week.
Laurin, a junior from Mission, and
Duthie, a senior from Fort Saskatchewan,
Alta., red-shirted last year for SFU, and
instead focused on international com
petition. SFU won the NAIA men's title
in convincing fashion and, with Laurin
and Duthie back, they're favoured to do
it again this year.
Laurin is the Cana
dian record holder in
the 50-metre freestyle
and is almost two full
seconds faster than
his closest NAIA com
petition this year.
Duthie, meanwhile,
is a former Canadian
champion in the 100
metres and has been
swimmer of the meet
in his three previous
NAIA championships.
"Laurin is a solid performer for us and +
is very strong right now," said SFU coach
Liam Donnelly.
"He could not only be in position to
break a record in the 50 free but he could
challenge Alex Baumann's record in the
100 freestyle - a record that was set
back in the early 1980s.
"Duthie has been plagued by injuries
but he is really getting on a roll."
The pair will team with Graham Wood
and Tom Gaschler for a 4-x-50-metre
relay team that undoubtedly will chal
lenge for the NAIA record as well.
SFU also won the women's title last
year and is favoured to do so again, led
by junior Lisa Huffman, who captured .
three gold medals at last year's cham
pionships.
The meet runs today through Satur
day, with preliminaries starting each day
at 11 a.m. and finals going each evening
at 6 p.m.

They don't have any big-name stars. They
don't go through a typical practice. And
they don't seem to have a care in the world.
But they just migr.t be the best college
women's basketball team in B.C. before all
is said and done.
The Capilano College Blues, led by coach
Paul Chiarenza, are a free-spirited, free
wheeling, good-time gang.
Just because they're easy-going, though,
doesn't mean they're easy to beat, evi
denced by the fact that they started the
year at 8-1 before finishing at 14-4, good
enough for third place in the B.C. Colleges
Athletic Association standings.
Cap College is one of the teams to watch
at this weekend's provincial championships
in Kamloops. And you can bet they're going
to hav1:: a blast going after the title.

The UVic Yikes shoot for a sweep of
Canada West men's and women's bas
ketball titles this weekend when they
play host to both best-of-three playoff
finals.
The UVic women face the Calgary
Dinos, a team they split with in early Feb
ruary in Victoria. The Yikes won 53-49,
while the Dinos took a 67-49 decision.
Meanwhile, the UVic men play host to
the Alberta Golden Bears, a team they
swept in mid-February at home. UVic
won 75-55 and 66-63.
The first two games of each set are Fri
day and Saturday, with 6:30 p.m. starts
for the women and 8:15 p.m. tip-offs for
the men. Third games, if necessary,
would be Sunday, with times to be deter
mined,

Gerry Kahrmann - The Province

Team ideal pays off
Cap College's Amanda Beers (left) and Marie Rwigema share a laugh during practice for upcoming provincial championship.

Stories by Steve Ewen
Sports Reporter

to win to prove that you don't have to be
a super psycho hardcore team to be a
championship team. We want to win to
prove that you don't need a coach that's
yelling at you every other minute to be suc
cessful.
"Paul wants everybody to get the most
out of it. He doesn't want superstars. He
wants everybody to be a part of the team
in every way. And when you don't succeed
you feel like you're letting him down and
letting down the idea of what a team should
be."
The laid-back Chiarenza certainly has
some kooky ideas by basketball standards.
When he feels practice is getting monoto
nous, he runs his team through his "fancy
lay-up drill," where his players must do
something off-the-wall en route to putting
the ball through the hoop. Or, instead of
rt'mning wind sprints, he takes them to a

ed personalities as much as players, and
his team meshes well. That's part of the
reason why, without a single provincial all
star team player, they can compete with
the likes of the first-place Fraser Valley Cas
cades, who have a half-dozen former high
school stars.
"We've got a lot of natural skill on this
team but we have more heart than any
thing," said 6-foot-4 centre Melissa Chancey.
"We've got a lot of people on this team that
will do whatever it takes to win. If it means
no one scores except for just one girl, then
we will do it."
And you can bet they'll do it with smiles
on their faces.
The men's and women's college provin
cials start Thursday at Cariboo College. The
semifinals are Friday, starting at 2 p.m., and
the women's final goes Saturday at 6 p.m.,
followed by the men's at 8 p.m.

Yikes vie for 2 titles