The Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver made its presence known over Labor Day weekend this year. Crowds came downtown to see the open-wheel race cars whiz by and to feel the heart stopping excitement that is Grand Prix racing.

Qualifying for all races began on Friday and lasted through most of Saturday. Because of rain the event was cut short, and in the case of the Trans-Am drivers, was cancelled altogether. The cancellation of qualifying had a huge impact on Trans-Am driver Johnny Miller, who had to start in a poor track position. Miller finished third, behind Boris Said, who took second, and the winner Scott Pruett.

Another thing that affected the drivers was the debris on the track. The debris made the turns, among other things, very difficult for all of the drivers.

“I felt that the track was, by all means, as good or better than it was last year. The debris was more of the challenge and issue than, I think the pavement, so all in all, I think that this is a very nice place to race,” Miller said. “I thought (the pavement) was fine. I thought the bumps seemed quite a bit smoother. We are running a little bit different setup than we ran last year, so it’s a little bit tough to evaluate.”

Pruett agreed that track was one of the most challenging in the series, “This is one of those tracks where you can’t challenge it to 100 percent, because if just one little bobble and that one-tenth that you’re trying to pick up, you end up given (the other drivers) a half second.”

The Grand Prix race had a rough start this year. The drivers started the race trailing the pace car in what is called a rolling start, which means that they are not stopped at a start line, so when the green flag is given, the drivers can reach their top speed without hesitation. Unfortunately, race officials waved off the green flag start and the race began with two yellow caution laps; thus causing the drivers to lose speed, momentum, and laps. Each yellow caution flag means that the drivers have to slow down and follow the pace car, but the laps taken behind the pace car still count as laps in the race.

The race, which consisted of 106 laps around a 1.647-mile street course with 9 turns, had 20 drivers competing for first place as well as to be the series point leader.

Driver Paul Tracy, in the #3 Player’s car, had a terrible qualifying time, which put him in the fifth row at the start of the race. This affected Tracy’s race performance, which lead him to finish in fourth place. Tracy managed to retain the title of series point leader. After winning the race, driver Bruno Junqueira, in the PacifiCare car, trails Tracy by 18 points in the race for the championship.

Rookie Sebastien Bourdais, driving the McDonalds car, finished the race in second place. This is Bourdais’ first season in the CART series, but he is making a name for himself, as he is fourth in the point standing.

As if the race was not exciting enough, things became even more exciting when the American Spirit car, driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay, caught fire while pitting. The gas line got caught in the tank and Hunter-Reay, unknowingly, drove away, causing the alcohol/methanol fuel to spill out all over the car and driver, which then caught fire. Hunter-Reay escaped the fire without injury, but the team’s day was finished.

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The Roadrunners started their season without home field, their home fans, and some of their players, yet they were able to win their season opener 2-0.
The Roadrunners had to start their season at windy Open Space Park because of the field conditions at Metro.

Although Metro lacked a lot of things, it did have something that may provide a strong dividend at the end of the season: Eric Butler and team chemistry.

Butler, Metro’s leader in multiple categories including shut-outs, added another shut-out to his name and provided leadership to a team that he wasn’t able to last season because of an injury. And the team chemistry was good early on as the team spent most of its day talking, which lead to a positive result.

The game started with the Metro coming out and taking control early. The ‘Runners created early opportunities with a point-blank miss by Jeff Mason over the outside of the net. It would be followed shortly by Alex Greco getting an on-net opportunity that would be blocked by one of Bryant’s defenders. It wouldn’t be long after this before Metro would get the only goal they would need. In the first half, Eric Butler would launch one into the sky, have it come down in the opposite goaltender’s box, bounce over a defender and land right where Zack Cousins could strike it home on the low side for the first goal of the game.

“It’s pretty exciting getting the first goal of the year,” Cousins said.

After the goal, the two teams would exchange fouls and shots, but ultimately go into the half with a score of 1-0.

In the second half, the Bulldogs would wake up to turn on the intensity. But aside from an opportunity off of a corner kick early in the second half, Metro would remain in control of play. In the second half, the Roadrunners would close the door on any comeback hopes, as Greco and Antonio Porras would have a two-on-one, which resulted in Porras scoring the final goal of the game.

“I kind of made a run behind (Grecu), (the ball) hit me through for a breakaway; I sort of miss hit it. Good thing it came back to me, and then I put the second (attempt) in,” said Porras about his goal.

The Roadrunners started their season off well, but during the game, the Roadrunners collected frequent offside calls, including three consecutive calls on Porras that might have prevented them from increasing their lead earlier in the game.

“A lot of it was their stepping up and our players were playing it too late,” Porras said. “(We) were taking too many dribbles making us offside, but if we can get that organized, we’ll be alright.”

“We had great balls out of the midfield, Butler played really well, our defense was strong, Porras put his goal away, we had a couple people out, but we kept our focus and got through it,” Cousins said.

Butler played his first game since being out most of last season with an injury.

“It feels good though to get a shut-out the first game of the year, ” he said. “It feels good to get back out here. I’m excited, I haven’t played in a competitive game in a while, but it feels good to get back to business and put some zeros on the board.”

“I thought we played well, we were organized for 90 minutes, which is very different from last year, (when) it seemed like we’d only used to go 70, 80 minutes,” said Michael Abetya. “Everybody kept talking, everybody played as a team and we scored some goals and we kept balls out of (our) net.”

This year’s team has jumped off to a positive note in two areas. One, they are getting players back from previous red cards and injuries instead of losing players to it. Secondly, they are playing together early. This season’s team believes it is coming out of the gates strong, which is a good sign, because this attitude may lead to a repeat of 2000, the year they went to the Regional Playoffs or possibly even further.

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Hello, Metro State! I am Donald Smith and I am going to a stand up and tell it like it is. I’m going to start off by informing most of you on campus about the great sports teams you probably don’t know or don’t seem to care about. I’m also going to bring the pros and the cons out in this issue. This, in my opinion, is what you should be watching for this upcoming year.

First, the soccer programs. Both the women’s and men’s soccer teams had amazing seasons . . . the only problem was that while the women’s team lived their season out like Cinderella, the men’s team was like Sleeping Beauty. Why? Well, Coach Danny Sanchez did something that his predecessor didn’t do: care.

After Sanchez’s arrival, mid fielder Janelle Brandt (11 goals, 12 assists) and forward Joslyn Brough (7 goals, 8 assists) both had big seasons. Last season’s newcomers, defensive back Colleen Feelin (numerous defensive stops) and mid fielder Melissa Miller (7 goals, 4 assists) made a huge impact on the team as they would finish their season with two things they had never had before: a regional title and a Final Four invite.

This season look for:
The women to try and repeat and improve on the success (19-3-3) they had last season. Starting out of the gates as the #5 team in the nation according to NSCAA/Adidas and a healthy goalkeeper, 1st team all- tournament team player Mandy Allen, freshman-of-the-year Amy Leichliter and well playing defense in between the two, there’s no reason why that can’t happen.

Key Additions:
Naomi Clarke, Freshman-of-the-year in 2000 and three-time NSCAA Adidas All-American who had 38 goals and 19 assists at Lock Haven last season.
Ymara Guante, the 3rd team NJCAA All-American in 2002 and 1st team All ACCAC in ‘01 and ‘02 has helped lead her team at Pima Community College to one Championship.

Men’s Soccer:
Look for the healthier Metro squad to return to form as Eric Bulter, Michael Abeyta, Zack Cousins and Alex Greco, take out their frustrations from last season on every team in the RMAC with their relentless motors and speed. Also, watch for the Roadrunner men to join the women in the playoffs this season.

Key Additions:
Josh Elmbaum: former teammate of Abeyta at Oregon State hopes to bring some chemistry to Metro.

Aldo Alcaraz-Reza is either going to aid the depth of the team or raise the intensity of the starting line-up.

Eric Butler: Huh? You may wonder, but look at it like this, Eric was destined for the history books as a senior, but an injury may have Butler return to possibly win more than just a spot in the record books.

Volleyball
For the past three seasons, Metro head volleyball coach Debbie Hendricks has led the Roadrunners to numerous convincing wins during the regular season and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament. But for the last two seasons the Roadrunners seem to have hit a wall after winning the RMAC crown . . . a wall called the Regional Playoffs. But like all seasons, anything can happen. Only this time the pressure may not fall on a few upper class men. Although the team is a bit younger, they still have senior leadership. All-time leader in assists and team captain Devon Herron, Shawna Gilbert and Jessy Roy will have a lot to do with the success or failure of the team. This year sophomores Renee Hazlewood and Andrea Highstreet will bear some of the weight and freshman Stephanie Allison looks like she can bring the power once seen by previous outside hitter Marina Bazana.

Key Additions:
Alana Street: In four years of high school, she helped put up four banners. (Two state titles, two runner-ups) The former 3A volleyball player from Wyoming plans to continue helping put up banners as she comes to contribute here at Metro.

These are my views on how everything will go. Hopefully, all of our teams will do as well as they can.

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