ASU says goodbye to wrestling successful senior Jeremy Hart

Andy Morris Sports Beat

The time has come to say goodbye.

Appalachian State University senior wrestler Jeremy Hart concluded his career for the Mountaineers with a disappointing loss in the NCAA Championships last weekend in Iowa City, Iowa. But the loss does not aptly characterize Hart's amazing and successful performances for his team.

A soft-spoken individual from MacArthur, W.Va., Hart came to Appalachian as a two-time state champion and a high school All-American. However, those awards were not what Mountaineer coach Paul Mance saw in him.

"Jeremy was one of those kids that all coaches look for Ñ tenacious, ambitious and hard working," he said. "We knew he was the kind of kid we wanted, but we didn't know he would be as good as he was."

Hart would go on to capture three Southern Conference individual championships and qualify for the NCAA championships three times. He won more than 100 bouts for the Mountaineers, finishing his career with a 108-29-32 overall record.

"I'm definitely glad that I chose Appalachian," said Hart. "I've enjoyed working with the other athletes, and I like the school (a lot)."

Throughout his years at Appalachian, Hart has established himself as a hard-working leader and positive example. The team has voted him Most Dedicated and Most Valuable wrestler two years in a row. No other wrestler has won both awards in the same year.

But it is his dedication to hard work that earns him respect.

"When he is in the room, all of the kids know that nobody else works as hard as he does," said Mance. "He leads by example to push everyone to their best and everyone sees he is a great person because of his work ethic." Jeremy attributes his hard work to simply having a love of the sport.

Many athletes today hate the daily routine of practice, but Hart is quite the opposite. "Everyday I walk into the practice room, I like to practice," he said. "I like competing, but I like to practice just as well."

Despite the successes of his career, Hart has had his share of problems. In the middle of his sophomore year, the NCAA made a rule change stating that no wrestler would be allowed to compete at a lower weight class than they had already competed at in the season.

The change was meant to end the drastic weight-cutting that resulted in the deaths of three wrestlers in one year.

At the beginning of the season, Mance had announced that Erik Smith, a nationally ranked wrestler, would wrestle at 134 lbs. for the Mountaineers, and Hart would compete at 126.

However, Smith was declared academically ineligible for the first semester, and Hart moved up to 134 temporarily with the intention of moving back to 126 when Smith could wrestle again.

But the NCAA made the rule before Hart moved back down and the Mountaineers were stuck with two good wrestlers in the same class.

Hart's appeal to the NCAA was denied, and he sat out the conference season in hopes of obtaining a redshirt Ñ which was denied as well.

Finally, after exhausting all options, Hart filed a lawsuit and Judge H. L. Kirkpatrick III of the State of West Virginia Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, the Southern Conference and Appalachian State University, effective Jan. 8, 2001.

The injunction barred the organizations from denying Hart the opportunity to wrestle and protected him from any disciplinary action the organizations may have taken in reaction to the ruling.

After the long ordeal, Hart still came through to finish his career at Appalachian. "He's had a great career," said teammate P.J. Boccia. "He's one of Appalachian's best wrestlers."

Men's Tennis looks for late season success

James Nix Club/Intramural Sports

The members of the Appalachian State University men's tennis team hope to put their 3-8, 1-5 record behind them as they move into the last stretch of the season.

"We've played the toughest teams already," said ASU coach Bob Lake. "We're getting better, so we should have a good rest of the season. We have eight matches left, and hopefully we can win six out of those eight. That's what I would really like to see."

Five of the next eight matches will be played in Boone, giving ASU the home court advantage.

Lake hopes that the tough competition will better prepare his team for the Southern Conference Tournament in April.

"We're playing better going into the tournament," said Lake. "If we build up some confidence I think we'll do some damage."

The Mountaineers most recent loss was to East Tennessee State University (ETSU) on Sunday. The Bucs (5-7, 2-1) won 5-2.

To start the match, ETSU won two of the three doubles matches. Doug Ormsby defeated Roberto Fernandez 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 at number three to give the Appalachian men's team its first point.

Craig Rice and Dan Holman fell at number one and two respectively, along with Ben Shuster and Robbie Ormsby at four and five.

Rick Hauchman was the only other Mountaineer to win.

ASU faced an equally tough opponent on Saturday when it lost to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) 1-6.

The Mocs (9-6, 5-2) won all but the number four singles position, where Shuster defeated Fungai Munjanja 7-6, 6-4. In doubles, Holman and Rice defeated Jason Ontag and Jesse Koti 9-8.

Both matches ASU played this past weekend were well played and could easily have gone either way according to Lake. "Even though we lost this weekend, we proved we could play," said Lake. "That's huge."

Other recent matches ASU has had include a 0-7 loss to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (9-5), a 7-0 victory over the Virginia Military Institute (8-5, 0-3), and a 1-6 loss to Furman University (11-6, 5-0).

ASU's next match is today at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

ASU Baseball triple-header yields two wins and a disappointment

Chris Boyce Varsity Sports

Appalachian State University's bid for a sweep of Southern Conference (SoCon) rival UNCG ended in a disappointing way Sunday afternoon Ñ a Spartan three-run ninth inning hand-wrapped by a couple of Mountaineer errors.

After taking both games on Saturday from the Spartans, 8-6 and 10-4, the 7-4 loss puts the Mountaineers at 8-17 overall and 6-5 in the SoCon.

With the score knotted at 4-4 and one out, UNCG's Ramon Balderas singled off of ASU's Matt Wood, sparking the three-run comeback.

The Spartans' Richard Hopp followed Balderas's base hit with his own single to right field, giving the Spartans runners at the corners and only one out.

Then, a hard grounder to first base by UNCG's Doug Schutt was mishandled by ASU first baseman Marko Little, and Balderas scored easily off of the error.

The bad breaks continued for the Mountaineers after Wood's pickoff throw to second bounced off of Hopp's leg and into the outfield, allowing Hopp and Schutt to advance to second and third base.

After pitching UNCG's Chris Cook to a full count, Wood gave up an RBI sacrifice fly to left field scoring Hopp and giving the Spartans the 6-4 advantage.

With two outs and a runner on second, Chad Hayes' RBI single scored Schutt and the lead increased the final margin to three runs after the Mountaineers were unable to respond in the bottom of the ninth.

Appalachian State's Ben Hager worked a solid 7 and 1/3 innings, striking out seven and earning three runs.

Scooter Michael (3-2) picked up the win for the Spartans while Wood took the loss.

The Mountaineers scored quickly after an RBI single by Robbie Huffstetler gave the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead through one inning.

Appalachian State added to its lead in the third inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by Mike Lee that scored Huffstetler from third base.

The Spartans tied the game at 2-2 after consecutive one-run innings in the fourth and fifth innings, but the lead was short lived after the Mountaineers added a two-run sixth inning highlighted from RBI's by Luke Little and Ben Wellborn.

The Spartans then scored another two runs in the top of the eighth to tie the game at 4-4. Cook started the comeback in the eighth with a walk, and then Hayes' single past third base put runners at the corners and only one out, thus ending Hager's day.

But Wood struggled to stop the Spartans' rally, allowing four hits and giving up two walks combined in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Mountaineers caught Hayes in a pickle but in the process allowed Cook to score, making the score 4-3 in favor of ASU.

The Spartans then added another run on an RBI single by Jesse Martin, making the score 4-4 and setting up the Spartans' ninth inning comeback.

The Mountaineers failed to respond in the bottom of the eighth inning after Wes Timmons grounded out to the short stop with the bases loaded and two outs. "Anytime it's frustrating to load the bases and not come out with anything, especially when you have people up there that you know can do the job," said Appalachian State head coach Troy Heustess.

Although the team is pleased at taking two of three games from the Spartans, Hager says the team needs to sweep some series to get back in the SoCon driver's seat. "We should've taken three out of three but we'll take two out of three from them.

We've got to take three out of three from teams like that to get us back at one or two in the conference," said Hager. The errors at the end of the game according to Luke Little were a critical factor in the loss.

"That's what hurt us the worst, the mental mistakes. We were in the game the whole game and we just let it go at the end." said Little.