Roadrunners On Deck Jan. 23 Women’s Hoops vs Nebraska-Kearney 5 p.m. Auraria Men’s Hoops vs Nebraska-Kearney 7 p.m. Auraria  Jan. 25 Women’s Hoops vs. Fort Hays State 5 p.m. Auraria Men’s Hoops vs. Fort Hays State 7 p.m. Auraria Swimming vs. Denver & Colorado College at Denver University 11 a.m. Jan. 29 Men’s Hoops at Regis University 5:30 p.m. Women’s Hoops at Regis University 7:30 p.m. WEEKLY RESULTS Jan. 18 Men’s Hoops beats Southern Colorado 66-51 Women’s Hoops lost to Southern Colorado 65-63 Men’s Hoops beats N.M. Highlands 77-52 Women’s Hoops beats N.M. Highlands 82-66 Jan. 12 Women’s Hoops lost to Morningside College 83-71 Jan. 9 Men’s Hoops beats Mesa State 85-52 Women’s Hoops beats Mesa State 66-60 Jan. 4 Men’s Hoops beats Western State 81-55 Women’s Hoops beats Western State 63-40 Jan. 3 Men’s Hoops beats CU-Colorado Springs 74-50 Women’s Hoops beats CU-Colorado Springs 61-56

That’s team manager Eve Watanabe behind the camera and perched above the basketball court. For the last two years, the technical communications major has dutifully video taped each Metro men’s basketball practice. Afterward, Watanabe hands an assistant coach the video, which is later dissected for player perfection.

Whether she realizes it, the Japan native is recording the best basketball team in Colorado. And with each press release, Metro sports information director Nick Garner likes to remind everyone of that, and rightfully so. It’s not to say the defending Division II Champs can beat the Denver Nuggets or the University of Colorado (Metro has pursued a match up with CU) but it’s time to face the music, compared to the Roadrunners everyone else is screeching along.

Over the past five and a half years no team, men’s or women’s, at any level, has a better record than Metro in the state. Since head coach Mike Dunlap arrived for the 1997-98 season, the Roadrunners have gone 151-30. Not the CU men’s team (90-77) nor women’s team (96-70), not even the Nuggets (137-281) have won more games.

“It’s something that comes as a result of hard work and having really good players and having a good administration,” Dunlap said. “...It’s a standard that we’ve worked towards in a very distance way, but day in and day out we crawl on all fours to get that.”

While carrying a humble attitude and fully recognizing the feats of the other athletic programs, the coaches and players also carry an aura of calm professionalism about them, albeit blue-collared. For example, after a loss to Fort Lewis back on Dec. 14 went down like chunky milk, and dropped their national ranking 23 spots to No. 25, the Roadrunners spent more time preparing and less time regretting. The result, an eight-game win streak, continuing with a recent 66-51 win over Southern Colorado Jan. 18.

Now 13-2 overall and 6-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Metro is back in top half, with a No. 11 national ranking. The ascent produced no signature moments. But the two-a-days, extra shooting, film sessions and lifting over break are paying off big time. The Roadrunners are in a mode where they are making each other look good by “getting the right people the right shots in the right spots,” said forward Mark Worthington.

The right people would be All-American mentions Luke Kendall (19.1 ppg) and Patrick Mutombo (18.3 ppg).  Both have taken nearly half of the teams 892 shots and combined to shoot 49 percent. Kendall has erupted at times, scoring 34 points to carry Metro in a 60-54 win against Sonoma State Dec. 21.  His career high is 38.

“When he is in a zone you just leave him alone, and the guys do a good job of finding him,” Dunlap said. “Our players are very good about being unselfish and getting our better shooters and scorers the ball, so (Kendall) and Mutombo are getting a lot of shots, as they should.”

It helps that both players can move without the ball and can catch and shoot off screens. Mutombo is shooting 50.7 percent, because most of his shots are off curl picks that leave him no more than 15 feet from the rim, which is like a lay up to the 2002 Elite Eight MVP.  It also helps when the best point guard in the conference is at the top of key directing everything and seeing everything unfold. Clayton Smith is averaging league bests in assists (7.27) and steals (3.53) per game. 

“I think we are playing pretty basketball, and we are playing at that magical level we can achieve and reach,” Kendall said.

While perfection is a ultimate goal for most of us, so is progress. During the win streak, Metro has cut its turnovers down from 14.4 a game to just 10. And while there is more than a month of basketball left to play, Metro might be, but isn’t, concerned about their ranking in the North Central Region.

They have no ranking. And only the top six teams in the region go to the National Tournament.

“We’re not ranked, great,” Mutombo said. “We are just going to put our heads down, our knees on the ground and keep working and keep digging, digging and digging and our chance will come.”

Photo by - David Merrill Metro junior Lester Strong dunks over Mesa State guard Jeremy Cummings during a 85-52 win Jan. 9 at the Auraria Events Center.

The Roadrunners will definitely have to get down and dirty for their upcoming game. They face fifth-ranked Nebraska-Kearney Jan. 23. The Lopers (14-0; 7-0) are the best shooting team in the country at 54.1 percent and boast the best offense in the conference at 91.5 points a game. They’re also loaded at every position.

“Kearney has been building over the past two or three years with this group that they have that is laden with seniors for this moment,” Dunlap said.

Metro counters with the sixth-best defense in the land, tops in conference, holding opponents to 56.7 points. Though, Metro likes to work the ball on offense with orderly set plays that eventually wear a defense down or lull them to sleep (take your pick), they’ll look to run the fast break first, especially when Smith and center Lester Strong are on the court. Both have world-class speed, and when the two hook up, it’s highlight reel material.

In February, the schedule doesn’t ease up. Metro closes the regular season with games at Fort Hays (13-2; 5-2) and Nebraska-Kearney, both unforgiving arenas. But along with the national title, the Roadrunners also carry the burden of being favorites no matter where they go. They’ve heard the commentary all year from the masses.

“These outside influences….,” Mutombo began. “They come and ask you all these questions and put all these expectations on you all the time, and they put that title on you. But I’ve never seen that guy in practice. I’ve never seen that guy on the sideline telling me that when I’m taking my jumpers to not fade away. I don’t believe in that. I believe in us working together as a cohesive group, everyday. The rest of it; that is not our problem.”

Headlines

Photo by - David Merrill Metro center Malene Lindholm battles Mesa State’s Rosa Masier for a loose ball during Metro’s 66-60 win over the defending conference champs on Jan. 9 at the Auraria Events Centers.

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder.

For Metro women’s head basketball coach Dave Murphy, the “Laker Drill” is all about gaining mental toughness and confidence.

Coming at the end of a grueling practice, as it usually does, the players see it as a full out assault on their heart rate.

“Conditioning,” junior forward Rachel Grove said. “It’s all about good conditioning.”

They start by using two 20-pound medicine balls. Then each player sprints the full length of the court for a lay up, while passing the ball to three teammates staggered on the floor. Players rotate as three minutes tick off the clock. The goal is to make 100 points before zero. If not, the team starts over, which the players have learned to avoid.

“We try to deliberately run it at the end of practice, because we know that there is probably not a lot left in their tank and we want to really test their mental toughness,” Murphy said about the drill. “It’s a situation where you really have no place to hide. You can’t hide in that drill. If you are loafing everybody knows. So there is team pressure, the coaches are watching, the clock is running, the points are being kept—it’s all or nothing.”

What the Roadrunners have learned most over break is they need all 12 players to contribute to the team’s success or like Murphy said, Metro will wind up with nothing—in the W column, that is.

The Roadrunners were in a nose-dive entering the break at 2-5. They emerged above the clouds with a winning record for the first time in two years. The Roadrunners (8-7; 5-2 league) have won six of their past eight games. In one stretch they went on a five-game winning streak and defeated Mesa State, the reigning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champions.

“Even though we’ve lost a couple of close ones that has built a little bit of momentum, but there is nothing like winning to really make you believe,” Murphy said. “Everyone of these kids can be phrased about their commitment level and work ethic. I don’t know anybody who has outworked them. I’m just hypoethically saying that I can’t believe anybody has outworked us over Christmas and that’s the beauty of it.”

Photo by - David Merrill Metro guard Martina Gandzalova drives past Mesa State defenders during the game Jan. 9.

Metro, though, will be trying rebound with from a last second 65-63 loss to Southern Colorado on Jan. 18. They have home games coming up against two of the top teams in the RMAC in Nebraska-Kearney (12-3; 7-0) Jan. 23 and Fort Hays State (9-3; 5-2) Jan. 25.

It’s been sheer joy for Murphy to watch his team grow tighter as a unit. Instead of rushed shots, forced passes and ill-advised turnovers, smoothness is starting to prevail. Metro’s starting five each have had big games. The leading scorers are Malene Lindholm (12 ppg) and Natasha Molock (11.5). The Roadrunners bench has been awesome as well. In a 63-40 win over Western State Jan. 4, a win that put Metro over the .500 mark for the first time in 63 games, the Roadrunners got 33 points and 14 rebounds from their bench. For the year, Murphy has gotten steady production from subs Natalie Quinn, Martina Gandzalova, Jillian French, Saree Meccage, Crystal Deichert and Michelle Duncan. Together they have averaged 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds.

“They come off the bench and we don’t have a drop in the level of play,” said Courtney Pettitt, the starting point guard. “The five that come off the bench can be starters in any moment of the game.”

One of Metro’s biggest feel good moments of the year came in a 60-53 loss to Colorado State University, or how they like to look at it, a near win over a solid Division I program.

“Their coach came up to us afterward to say that we deserved that game,” Quinn, a guard, said.

In fact the first words out of CSU head coach Chris Denker’s mouth were: “We got lucky.”

With less than six minutes to play, Metro held a seven-point edge at 49-42, and began to believe they could pull off the upset in front of 2,256 fans at CSU’s Moby Arena.

But Metro went the next three minutes and 28 seconds without a basket, as the Rams took their first lead, 50-49, and eventually pulled away to the final margin.

“We had a lot of confidence in that game,” Quinn added. “We wanted that game so bad. I’ve never seen us want a game as bad as we wanted that one.”

After a home loss to Fort Lewis Dec. 14, in which they shot 27.8 percent, the Roadrunners took some time off for Christmas. They returned to practice with a new attitude and a effective jump shot as Metro swept through the Grand Canyon Classic in Arizona Dec. 28-29 by beating host Grand Canyon 75-62 and Georgetown College 66-61.

In her starting debut, Gandzalova promptly lead the team with 17 points against Grand Canyon. Most importantly, the Roadrunners got out of their shooting funk, hitting over 52 percent in the second half.

“Going into Christmas break we were 2-5 and still doing a lot of soul searching and a lot of sorting out in terms of who can play where and what combinations were good for us,” Murphy said. “In Phoenix, we got on track.”

The five-game winning streak began there and continued thanks to a Hein three and a Molock steal as Murphy snuck off with a 61-56 win against his former team at CU-Colorado Springs Jan. 3.

In four years at CU-Springs, Murphy pulled the program out of a string of five losing seasons. Last year he led the Mountain Lions to a 19-9 mark, which included an 81-44 blowout of Metro. It seems the tables have turned a bit.

“We are playing really well as a team, we are starting to gel and figure out our roles,” Grove said. “I don’t know if it’s coach Murphy that’s been the turning point. We just decided to get it done.”

With the score 56-56 and 17 seconds to play, Hein drained a three pointer. Then Molock striped the Mountain Lions’ B.J. McNeally from behind and was fouled. She sealed it at the line

In the next game, Metro shot down Mesa State head coach Steve Kirkham’s remarks with ample bite to extend its win streak to five.

Ousted by the Mavericks in the first round of last year’s conference tournament, the Roadrunners had a score to settle, plus they were a bit peeved by Kirkham’s radio remarks before the game.

Up by as many as 11 early in the second half, the Roadrunners held off a late surge by Mesa that cut the lead to one with 25 seconds left. But Metro hit its free throws for a 66-60 win Jan. 9. Molock scored 17 points, showing that her game is more than just dribble-drive. During the beginning of the second half, she scored 10 straight points on long jumpers from the corners and from beyond the arc.

“Their coach said a couple words about us that we were not going to be a problem,” Pettitt said after the upset. “I think we definitely proved that we are a problem, not only to them, but to a lot of the teams in the RMAC.”

Headlines

“If he wasn’t hard on me my first couple years here, I wouldn’t be the type of player, the type of person I am today,” said Smith, the starting point, who has learned to open up to people.   

“He believes in us,” center Lester Strong added.

The day before Dunlap collected win No. 148, a 85-52 victory over Mesa State Jan. 9, to surpass Bob Hull for the most basketball victories in school history, the sixth-year head coach had his team gather around him after practice. He didn’t trumpet the record-breaking event. He did, however, tell them how he really felt about wins and losses. He doesn’t really give a damn.

Yeah, Dunlap would love it if the team won, only because he wants his players to feel the sweetness. But he doesn’t stay up nights wondering how to beat Nebraska-Kearney. He stays up worrying about his players, his family, his assistant coaches, the athletic trainers and even the team managers. He loves them all. He gets frustrated with the team’s constant mistakes, but he doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

Dunlap also worries that he might not be doing the best job as coach, mentor and friend. Deep down, though, he must realize that bad coaches don’t win two Division II National Championships or have a nearly 100 percent graduation rate.

“He’s a great coach, the best coach I’ve ever had and I’m not saying that to kiss his butt,” said Mutombo, who was selected as a preseason All-American. Two years ago, he was riding the bench.

Dunlap continues to fine-tune his coaching skills. He learns how the best coaches and teachers ply their craft. He reads a lot of leadership books and constantly talks about Norman Vincent Peale, whose famous book, The Power of Positive Thinking, sold more than 20 million copies in 41 languages. 

“Each morning you wake up and say I don’t know a lot, I need to find out more,” Dunlap said. “And if you say that in a Norman Vincent Peale way, where it is an affirmation, then you are always on the hunt for more information as I am. This teaching thing is a hard deal and it’s going to be hard until the day you turn out the lights, but it is rewarding in moments.”

Every year a rumor enters into the media whirlwind that Dunlap is headed for a Division I school. But he continues to pass up the dough. He’s happy at Metro. He likes the program and the people he works for and his family loves Denver. “It’s going to take something special for him to leave,” assistant coach Derrick Clark said.

Meanwhile, the man continues to worry, with his family and team being his hobbies, and the four-to-five hours he sleeps at night, being his leisure time.

Headlines

Photo by - David Merrill Metro baseball player Aaron Garcia signs a message while Mike Crump holds Children's Hospital patient Kayla Ross's scrapbook. Ross was to be released from her stay Jan 16.

Coaches, though, were scared to insert him in a game—he could get hit, he could cost us the win—so Chase sat. It was the same for football and soccer and wrestling. His parents thought it was unfair.

The day before Chase, 11, went in for brain surgery that would hopefully stop the seizures, four members of the Metro baseball team knocked on his door on the fifth floor of The Children’s Hospital.

Brian Edwards, Jason Humphrey, Aaron Garcia and Matt Ludwig handed him a stuffed animal and a Roadrunner sticker and started talking sports, when Chase, with his head heavily bandaged, froze up. Doctors came rushing in, asking him questions, but Chase couldn’t respond. He didn’t know where he was. Chase’s mother, Denece Crowe’dotson tried to get him to focus on the word “house” and “home.”

The baseball players backed against the wall and held their breath and waited in stunned silence, before Chase shifted back to being a kid again.

Asked afterward what he felt, Humphrey just put his hand over his heart and clutched his chest. No words were necessary.

“It’s so unfair that these kids are here,” pitching coach Tim Carlson quietly said.

All 27 players and three coaches split up into three groups, each taking a different floor, to visit with the children Jan. 16. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champions weren’t shy about inviting anyone out to a home game, either. Several players spent 15 minutes signing and writing get-well wishes in 13-year-old Kayla Ross’s scrapbook.

A while back, Metro head baseball coach Vince Porreco had an ill niece in The Children’s Hospital. He was grateful for the family-orientated atmosphere, and how they took care of her. He thought it would be nice to go back and bring some sunshine to the children with the team. Always more spectacular than any medical break through is the human touch.

“These kids go through a lot,” Porreco said. “Doing this just humbles you, brings you back down to earth and it makes you realize that these kids don’t have it as good as these guys (the players) do.”

Swinging to the opposite field will always be easier than staying in a hospital for a month or having brain surgery, which brings us back to Chase. Two days after the operation (doctors removed a fist-sized part of his brain) his mother happily reported that the surgery went “super great,” and that Chase was recovering nicely and going home in a few days.

Chase, who can’t wait to play baseball again and wasn’t scared going into the procedure, wanted to pass along this message to the Roadrunners: “I hope you guys have a great year and win all your games.”

Headlines

Swim team going the distance, but still needs work
by Eric Eames
The Metropolitan

Sometimes Vanessa Espinoza feels like swimming all day long and quite frankly, the freshman from Lakewood is one of the few that can swim on and on and on and….

“The longer the distance the better she is,” Metro head swim coach Rich LeDuc said.

After a serious two and a half hour morning workout in the pool on Jan. 11, the Metro men and women’s swim and dive teams lost in a short meet against the Colorado School of Mines later that afternoon. The men lost 105-82, while the women were defeated 216-146 at the Auraria Events Center in what was only the second—and final—swim meet at home for the Roadrunners.

Overall, LeDuc was “exceptionally” disappointed with the results, but a couple of athletes made waves. Junior Brenna Fernandez swam a lifetime best in the 100-yard butterfly, knocking nearly a second off her old record, with a time of one minute and 8.85 seconds. Christine Jiskra finished second in the 50-yard freestyle, establishing a new team best with a time of 26.60. On the men’s side, 6-foot-5 Tim Auty swam the 500-yard freestyle under five minutes to finish first at 4:57.37. Auty also helped the men’s 200-yard medley relay team to a first place finish over Mines, with a winning time of 1:41.96.

This being the sixth (and probably not the last) time Metro and Mines have competed against each other this season, the contest’s atmosphere had more of a picnic by the pool feel to it.

“We see them so often that our guys cheer for them when we go to other meets and they cheer for us,” LeDuc said.

Plenty of admiration went to Espinoza, who gave a triathlon-type performance and still wanted to go longer. For the first time in her life, she swam the 1,000-yard freestyle in 13:22.28, which is 40 lengths of the pool or over half a mile.

“I asked him (coach LeDuc) if I could swim it,” Espinoza said. “I wanted to swim it just to try it once, but I wanted to swim the mile,” but the mile is not an option.

Right after the 1,000-yarder, Espinoza jog over from lane two to lane five and bounded onto the diving board like a kid upon hearing the recess bell. With her heart thumping out her chest and seemingly unfazed, Espinoza clapped her hands, ready for more. Ten seconds lapsed before she was doing the 200-yard freestyle, which she swam in 2:33.16. That’s nearly 16 straight minutes of arm swinging and leg kicking. Later she swam the 500-yard freestyle in 6:47.17.

“She more than anybody, or certainly more than most people, handled it better than I thought she would,” LeDuc said. “... She was not feeling very well after she swam the 200 and she kind of tried to weasel out of the 500, but I told her that wasn’t going to work.”

“I was exhausted. I’m still exhausted,” Espinoza said, with an ice bag wrapped around her right shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting to swim the 200 right after the 1,000 (usually there is a break in between). I thought they were kidding, but they weren’t.”

Just like the other winter sport programs, LeDuc took advantage of the break to put the teams through double session workouts. Perhaps it’s a problem with being considered a Priority III sport, but whatever the reason LeDuc didn’t have the luxury of drilling a full team. Several people went home for break and LeDuc hopes they are working out with their respective club teams. A few Roadrunners were missing in action from the meet against Mines, most noticeably national qualifier Mathieu Mermillon, diver Steve Snyder and junior Jonathan Stercy.

“As you might have been able to tell today, some of the people that swam didn’t swim a lot over break and the results reflected accordingly,” LeDuc said.

Between renovating her house and her job, Espinoza was one of those people, who didn’t put in a lot of pool time. But she nearly made up for it in one day.

Mermillon heads to National Tournament

After the first part of the season, Mermillon has already qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament. The junior, made the “A” cut for the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:06.21. He also made “B” cuts for the 100-yard breaststroke (59.50) and the 200-yard individual medley (1:56.12). An “A” cut means a swimmer gets an automatic invitation to Nationals and the NCAA pays for the athlete’s trip to the tournament, while an athlete with a “B” cut time isn’t afforded such a luxury.

For the next couple of weeks, LeDuc will continue to push the swimmers through two-a-days and allow them to rest a bit before the conference tournament. The fourth annual Central States Conference Championships is slated for Feb. 13-15 in Springfield, Mo., at Drury University. By then, LeDuc expects to see significance seconds shaved off every swimmer’s time.

“At conference, that would be the time where we are trying to have everyone swim the fastest,” LeDuc said. “That’s where we measure are self yearly, by what we do at conference and that’s where we expect everyone to have their best performances from as many people and in as many events as possible.”

Photo by - Joshua Buck Metro's Brenna Fernandez swims the last leg of the 100 yard butterfly Jan. 11 during the team's home meet against Colorado School of Mines. After the heat Fernandez said that her time was the best she had ever posted knocking nearly a second off.

Headlines