2.17 Issue: Sports in brief

Fernandez eclipses 3,000-meter mark

Temple’s newest track & field athlete, graduate-junior Blanca Fernandez, shattered Temple’s indoor 3,000-meter record at the Valentine Invitational at Boston University last Friday.

Fernandez established a new record mark of 9 minutes, 16.24 seconds, finishing in eighth overall.

First-year coach Elvis Forde said he was impressed with Fernandez’s performance, which could allow her entry into the NCAA National Championships.

“[Fernandez] had a really good run,” Forde said. “[She] really put herself in the position to get a chance to be in the NCAA [championship]. It will just be a waiting game now until that selection process begins.”

However, Forde will give Fernandez one more opportunity to improve her time further and qualify for the national meet, as she’ll travel to Notre Dame on Saturday to compete in the Alex Wilson Invitational.

“We will run her one more time over at Notre Dame next weekend to see if she can get in automatically,” Forde said. “They only take so many people to the event, so we’re going to keep our fingers crossed for her and hope that things go well.”

Tyler Device

St. Fleur breaks 21-year-old record 

Sophomore Bionca St. Fleur also set a new all-time mark for the university on Friday, as she finished the 200-meter dash in 24.30 seconds, shattering a 21-year-old Temple record.

With the record-breaking time, St. Fleur finished the event in 12th overall. The previous Temple indoor 200-meter dash record of 24.50 seconds was set by Toya Adams back in 1994.

“I was actually really surprised,” St. Fleur said. “I always wanted to go sub-25 [seconds], and before I got on the [starting] line, all [coach Elvis] Forde was saying was, ‘You need to break 25.’ I think I had great preparations, just with all the workouts that coach Forde has been putting us through.”

St. Fleur also said she feels like she is following the path of a fellow runner, Jamila Janneh, who also holds Temple records of her own.

“I know [Janneh] broke a record her sophomore year, too,” St. Fleur. “I feel like I’m following in her footsteps, and [she’s] inspired me to just do the best I can and put on for Temple track.”

-Tyler DeVice

Former lineman honored

A member of the Temple team that went to the Garden State Bowl in 1979 will be honored next month.

Former Temple defensive tackle Matt Lauck will be enshrined in the Gloucester County Hall of Fame on March 24, it was announced Thursday. He spent the 1979 and 1980 seasons with the team.

He’ll be honored for his career at Pitman High School, where he was a standout football player and wrestler. His accomplishments in high school included his participation in the first New Jersey North-South all-star football game, along with a New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association state heavyweight wrestling championship in 1979.

-Andrew Parent

Butts earns weekly award

Freshman guard Alliya Butts was named the American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week Monday for her performances against Tulsa and Houston last week. It marks her second time this season winning the award.

In a 75-67 loss to Tulsa on Feb. 10, Butts scored a team-high 17 points and added two assists and two steals. On Feb. 14 against Houston, she scored a team- and game-high 22 points and had six assists in a 72-60 victory.

In 14 games since entering the starting lineup on Dec. 28, 2014, Butts has averaged nearly 16 points per game.

The Edgewater Park, New Jersey native is averaging 13 points per game and has posted double-figure scoring marks in 10 consecutive games.

-Michael Guise

Cummings honored by conference

Senior guard Will Cummings led the way for the men’s basketball team in a pair of wins last week, and it helped earn the Jacksonville, Florida native his first career American Athletic Conference Player of the Week award.

The honor, announced by the conference Monday, comes after Cummings led the Owls with 21 points, five assists and four steals in the team’s 75-59 defeat of Cincinnati last Tuesday. He followed Tuesday’s showing with a 17-point game this past Saturday in Temple’s 66-53 victory against East Carolina. He added seven rebounds and six assists in the win, the Owls’ seventh straight.

He’s averaging 13.7 points per game in his senior season, along with 4.1 assists and 1.8 steals in 25 games played. After suffering a left-leg muscle strain against the University of Tulsa on Jan. 10, Cummings has started each game since he missed Temple’s 84-53 road loss at Cincinnati Jan. 17, and logged 40 minutes against the Bearcats last Tuesday, his first time playing the entirety of a contest since his injury.

-Andrew Parent

Butts earns conference honors

Freshman guard Alliya Butts made the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll Monday for her performances last week.

The Owls’ point guard started the week with a season-high 30 points in a win over Memphis. She followed that by dropping 19 points in a loss against Tulane on Saturday.

Despite some trouble shooting the basketball at times this week, Butts was able to consistently get to the free-throw line, as she scored 12 of her 49 points this week on foul shots. The Edgewater Park, New Jersey native also contributed on the defensive end, where she had three steals in both of the team’s games last week. She’s recorded a steal in seven straight games.

Butts also saw a jump in her playing time last week, as she logged at least 30 minutes in both contests, compared to the 23.6 minutes per game she’s averaging on the season.

-Owen McCue

2.3 Issue: Sports in brief

Field Hockey: Tiernan earns conference honors

Temple junior midfielder Nicole Tiernan was selected as the Owls’ lone representative on the 16-player All-Big East Conference preseason women’s lacrosse team last Tuesday. The conference’s eight coaches voted on the roster.

Her 29 goals ranked second-most on the team in 2014, and helped result in her Big East second-team selection last season, as well as an invitation to try out for the U.S. Women’s national team last summer.

Big East newcomers Florida and Vanderbilt both contributed players to the preseason all-conference squad, including a league-best four from the Gators.    

-Matt Cockayne

Track & Field: LaRoache takes gold

Senior Kiersten LaRoche was the only Temple track & field athlete competing on Friday, but she kicked off the team’s win with a victory.

Hosted by George Mason University, the two-day event started off with the men’s and women’s pentathlon competitions.

LaRoche’s event, the Pentathlon, was a five-part competition consisting of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800-meter run.

LaRoche dominated the competition, placing first in three out of the five events – the 60-meter hurdles in 8.91 seconds, the shot put with a distance of 10.89 meters and the long jump in 5.49 meters.

She placed second in the high jump, clearing 1.64 meters, and in the 800 with a mark of 2 minutes, 31.52 seconds. These finishes were enough to accumulate 3,671 points in the women’s pentathlon, which awarded LaRoche the first-place finish.

The event was worth 10 points and gave Temple the early lead in women’s competition.

LaRoche finished fifth in the 60-meter dash with a mark of 8.80 seconds in Day 2 of the competition on Saturday. The Owls swiped four gold medals en route to finishing fourth overall.

-Tyler DeVice

Football: Rhule honing in on four-star recruit

As the time dwindles in the 2014-15 recruiting period, the Owls are making a concerted effort to land four-star running back T.J. Simmons to its Class of 2015.

Per a report from the Inquirer, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound back visited Main Campus last week and – after decommitting from UCLA, is expected to sign with the Owls next Wednesday, during national signing day.

Simmons is ranked the No. 17 running back in the country by rivals.com, a recruiting website.

Simmons is one of two four-star recruits expected to sign with the Owls, the other being New Jersey defensive back Kareem Ali Jr., who has already signed his letter of intent, according to Owlscoop.com.

-EJ Smith

Women’s basketball: Covile makes honor roll

Junior forward Erica Covile was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll Monday for the third time this season.

In games last week against Connecticut and Central Florida, Covile averaged 13.5 points, 9 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.5 assists. She is averaging 11.2 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game for the season.

The Owls, who went 1-1 through the two-game stretch, are fourth in The American with a 6-3 conference record and a 10-12 overall record.

-Michael Guise

Men’s basketball: Owls earn multiple honors

Will Cummings and Obi Enechionyia each earned American Athletic Conference honors Monday for their performances in wins against Central Florida and Tulane last week.

Enechionyia is the conference’s rookie of the week after averaging 10.5 points per game and 3 rebounds per game for the week.

Cummings was included in The American’s weekly honor roll after he averaged 13.5 ppg along with 5 rebounds and 4 blocks per game, respectively, through both games for the Owls (15-7, 6-3 The American).

-Andrew Parent

Softball: Cut team set to return as club

After being one of the five varsity sports cut by the athletic department last year, the softball team will return to play next season as a member of the National Club Softball Association.

The softball team ended its final season 15-30 (5-13 American Athletic Conference) and would have returned 15 players had the program stayed afloat.

The squad joins men’s gymnastics, men’s track & field and the baseball team as former Division I sports that are now club teams at the university.

-EJ Smith

Sánchez bound for Big 5 Hall of Fame

Pepe Sánchez, a former Temple All-American, was announced Monday to be headed to the Big 5 Hall of Fame. He’ll be inducted Monday, April 13 at the Palestra during the season-ending Big 5 banquet.

The Argentina native will be enshrined alongside longtime Philadelphia Daily News reporter Stan Hochman, former University of Pennsylvania forward Ugonna Onyekwe and Fox Sports 1 broadcaster Bill Raftery.

In a Temple career spanning from 1996 to 2000, Sanchez was named Big 5 MVP for his junior and senior seasons, while he still owns the university’s all-time record with 5.9 assists per game through his four years with the Owls.

While scoring wasn’t a primary aspect of his game, his assist numbers and 365 career steals helped him play two seasons in the NBA. After the 2002-03 season, Sanchez played for four teams overseas before closing out his career with Weber Bahia Estudiantes in Argentina from 2010-2013.

No. 16 Nittany Lions blank Owls

No. 16 Penn State dealt a 7-0 blowout defeat to the men’s tennis team Sunday. The Owls lost each match in straight sets.

The shutout marked the first instance this season in which the Owls were held without a point. They managed to get one point in matches against St. Joseph’s and Drexel in the City 6 Tournament.

The Nittany Lions controlled each match, and did not allow the Owls more than four games in any set.

Although the Nittany Lions dominated the Owls, coach Steve Mauro said this match is a stepping stone for his team.

“When you are winning games against these better teams and players, it gives you some confidence that you can compete with stronger teams if you put in the time to get better,” Mauro said.

Mauro said Penn State was better than squad Sunday, but that it can use this match early in the season as a judgment of where it stands as a team.

“Penn State was just better than us today,” Mauro said. “I think that something that the guys can take away from the match today is that we can compete with some of the better teams in the country … some of the scores were close on some of the courts, especially [junior Santiago Canete’s] match.”

The Owls (2-3) will have some time off before taking on Philadelphia University Feb. 13.

-Dalton Balthaser

LaRoache takes gold in Day 1 of Patriot Games

Senior Kiersten LaRoche was the only Temple track & field athlete competing on Friday, but she kicked off the team’s win with a victory.

Hosted by George Mason University, the two-day event started off with the men’s and women’s pentathlon competitions.

LaRoche’s event, the Pentathlon, was a five-part competition consisting of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800-meter run.

LaRoche dominated the competition, placing first in three out of the five events – the 60-meter hurdles in 8.91 seconds, the shot put with a distance of 10.89 meters and the long jump in 5.49 meters.

She placed second in the high jump, clearing 1.64 meters, and in the 800 with a mark of 2 minutes, 31.52 seconds.

These finishes were enough to accumulate 3,671 points in the women’s pentathlon, which awarded LaRoche the first-place finish.

The event was worth 10 points and gave Temple the early lead in women’s competition.

The Owls will take part in the second day of events at George Mason on Saturday.

-Tyler DeVice

Tiernan named to all-conference preseason team

Temple junior midfielder Nicole Tiernan was selected as the Owls’ lone representative on the 16-player All-Big East Conference preseason women’s lacrosse team on Tuesday. The conference’s eight coaches voted on the roster.

Her 29 goals ranked second-most on the team in 2014, and helped result in her Big East second-team selection last season, as well as an invitation to try out for the U.S. Women’s national team last summer.

Big East newcomers Florida and Vanderbilt both contributed players to the preseason all-conference squad, including a league-best four from the Gators.

-Matt Cockayne

1.27 Issue: Sports in brief

Fencing: Kastor sitting out season

Coach Nikki Franke confirmed last Saturday that former fencing captain Tiki Kastor will not be competing this season for academic reasons.

Last season, Kastor helped lead the Owls to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Fencing Championships. Individually, she finished seventh overall in the meet last season.

With a top finish in the NCAA Fencing Championships, Kastor was able to compete at the United States Fencing Association Division I National Championships last April, where she finished in fifth in the Division I women’s sabre competition at the senior national level,

Kastor qualified for the 2014 Senior World Championships, in which she went as far as the round of eight in Direct Elimination. She finished in fifth place.

The sabre fencer will have one more year of eligibility, Franke said.

-Danielle Nelson

Owls No. 10 in recent rankings

The fencing team dropped a spot in the CollegeFencing360 poll.

The first of three rankings was released last Wednesday, with Temple ranked No. 10 in the nation, one spot shy of its No. 9 ranking from last season.

Although the Owls dropped one spot since the last ranking, coach Nikki Franke said she was not surprised.

“That was the first poll that came out that season,” Franke said. “So based on who we fenced so far and who other teams had fenced, it was a reasonable ranking. I wasn’t upset about it.”

Before the rankings came out, the Owls faced nine teams in their two collegiate meets since the season started.

Now, Franke said the rankings will be used as motivation for the team.

“We talked as a team saying, ‘If we want to move up, we have to beat teams they ranked ahead of us,’” Franke said.

That is what the Owls did on Saturday when they beat No. 6 University of Pennsylvania and No. 9 Northwestern, going undefeated in the first meet they competed in since the release of the ranking.

Coach Franke said the next poll will be released in February.

-Danielle Nelson

Tennis: Mauro nabs new transfer

The men’s tennis team has added transfer student Ian Glessing to the 2014-15 roster, a university spokesperson said. Glessing will join the team this semester.

Glessing, a junior, is a transfer from Arizona Christian University, where he recorded a 17-7 singles record in his sophomore season.

He is a Scottsdale, Arizona native.

-Dalton Balthaser

Football: Rhule hosting signing day celebration

In celebration of the NCAA football national signing day next Wednesday, Feb. 4, the Temple Owls Club will host three separate events celebrating the signing period in Philadelphia, Cherry Hill and Ambler next week.

Along with a 6 p.m. dinner, coach Matt Rhule will present a program highlighting the team’s class next Wednesday night at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. The club will show the second half of Temple’s men’s basketball game against Central Florida.

Rhule will stop at P.J. Whelihan’s in Cherry Hill for lunch next Thursday at 11:30 a.m., while the latter program will take place at Talamore Country Club in Ambler.

For both dinner events, Owl Club members will receive a discounted admission price of $20, while the general admission cost is $25.

Admission for the lunch event at P.J. Whelihan’s will be $10 for club members and $15 for the general public.

-Andrew Parent

Women’s basketball: Butts honored by conference

Freshman Alliya Butts has been named the American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week. It was announced Monday.

In the Owls’ 83-50 victory against Cincinnati last Tuesday, Butts scored 17 points, grabbed four rebounds and tied a career-high with five assists. In conference play, the young point guard is averaging 14 points per game.

Since being inserted into the starting lineup on Dec. 28 against Memphis, Butts has averaged nearly 14 ppg and scored in double figures five times.

For the season, Butts is second on the team in scoring average – netting 11.3 ppg, good for No. 20 in the conference, the sixth highest freshman. She also has 42 steals, which leads the team and ranks No. 2 in The American.

-Michael Guise

1.20 issue: Sports in brief

VASCONEZ OUT FOR SEASON

Senior tennis player Hernan Vasconez will miss his final season of eligibility after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament during the winter break.

The injury occurred while practicing and getting ready for the upcoming semester’s season in his hometown of Ambato, Ecuador, a university spokesman confirmed last Tuesday.

The lone senior on the team has amassed a 33-31 record in singles play and a 22-19 record in doubles during his three-and-a-half years of competition for the team.

-Dalton Balthaser

GOLF’S SPRING SCHEDULE RELEASED

Temple’s spring schedule will consist of five tournaments prior to the American Athletic Conference Championships, coach Brian Quinn announced last Friday.

The team will kick off spring competition with the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate from March 22-24 in Williamsburg, Virginia, while the Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, South Carolina will take place a week later, spanning from March 27-29.

Three April tournaments will follow in weekly succession, includin g the Princeton Invitational April 11-12. The team will conclude its season at the conference championship, held April 25-28 at the Black Diamond Range on The Quarry Course in Lecanto, Florida.

The Owls highlighted their fall season with a fourth-place result out of 19 schools at the Hartford Invitational on Sept. 22-23, along with the top finish at the Temple Invitational Oct. 11-12 in Huntingdon Valley.

-Andrew Parent

ROWING PENS SIX RECRUITS

Last Thursday, coach Rebecca Grzybowski announced the signing of six rowers who will make up the program’s 2014 recruiting class.

High school seniors Emma Alford (Grosse lle, Michigan), Catie Gackowski (Midland Park, New Jersey), Mariel Tucker (Pottstown), Jenna Rosado (Northfield, New Jersey), Allie Nussbaum (Andover, Massachusetts) and Rachel Kelley (Somers Point, New Jersey) will join the team for the 2015-16 season.

“We are thrilled to welcome Emma, Catie, Rachel, Allie, Jenna and Mariel to Temple and to our team,” Grzybowski said via press release. “Without question, this is our best recruiting class to date and we are confident that they will make an immediate impact.”

Tucker, the lone Pennsylvania product of the group, competed for Vesper Boat Club alongside her time competing for Owen J. Roberts High School. She has competed both at the club nationals and the Royal Candian Henley Regatta, while she finished fifth with a 2,000 ergometer score at the Mainline Slide Event as a junior at Owen J. Roberts last year.

-Andrew Parent

BOWLES NAMED JETS HEAD COACH

On Jan. 14, the NFL’s New York Jets announced the hire of Temple alumnus Todd Bowles as its head coach.

Bowles, 51, spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals, while coaching in the same role for the Philadelphia Eagles under former coach Andy Reid in 2012.

Bowles amassed 245 tackles and seven interceptions during a four-year playing career with Temple, and spent the bulk of his eight-year NFL career with the Washington Redskins before switching over to the coaching ranks

He was given his first NFL coaching job with the Jets in 2000, when he was in charge of the team’s secondary.

-Andrew Parent

After winning week, Owls receive Top 25 votes

The men’s basketball team received 33 points in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, which was released Monday.

Monday’s poll marked the first time Temple garnered Top-25 consideration since the week of March 11 during the 2012-13 season, when the Owls reached the second round of the NCAA tournament in their last season before jumping to the American Athletic Conference from the Atlantic 10.

Conference victories in the last week against Connecticut (7-5, 0-1 The American) on Wednesday and Central Florida (7-6, 0-2 The American) Sunday ran the team’s current win streak to five games. During the streak, which included a 77-52 win against No. 10 Kansas on Dec. 22, the Owls (11-4, 2-0 The American) have benefited from an improved 3-point shooting effort.

Since gaining eligibility to play on Dec. 18, transfers Jesse Morgan (14 points per game) and Devin Coleman (5.0 ppg.) have added depth to a squad that needed it, while another transfer in Jaylen Bond has averaged eight ppg and 7.9 rebounds per game. Bond had a career night against the Knights on Sunday, when his 21 points and 14 boards helped Temple to an 84-78 victory.

The Owls will face Tulane University (11-3) and the University of Tulsa (9-5) this week, The American’s two teams along with Temple that have started conference play with a pair of wins. Temple’s road contest against Tulane will tip off Wednesday at 7 p.m., while the Owls will host Tulsa at the Liacouras Center Saturday at 3 p.m.