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(02/26/07 5:00am)
The environment inside IU’s Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse had all the ingredients of a high-powered action movie as it hosted the men’s Big Ten indoor championships, complete with gunshots, foot-races and a lot of screaming. \nThe stars of the meet for Indiana were senior long jumper Kiwan Lawson and junior triple jumper Kyle Jenkins. The two combined to give IU 31 of its 72 points.\nWith a leap of 7.73 meters, Lawson earned IU 10 points and became the Big Ten men’s long jump champion on day one of the meet. Fresh off of the podium Lawson ran a personal best 21.39 seconds in the 200-meter dash prelims, easily qualifying for the finals on day two. Lawson would finish third in the finals, giving him another trip to the podium, while earning IU six more points.\n“This is the Big Tens, this is what it all comes down to,” Lawson said, “and it was at home so you really have to get into it and pump yourself up, and create some energy and momentum for your team.”\nMen’s interim head coach Wayne Pate also discussed how being at home was a great motivator for his athletes.\n“The crowd has been great, and I really think that the guys are running stronger since they are in front of their family and friends,” Pate said.\nLawson’s teammate Jenkins was also crowned a Big Ten champion. Jenkins won the triple jump on day two of the meet. He posted a leap of 15.66 meters and earned IU 10 points. Jenkins also finished fourth in the long jump on the first day of the meet, earning IU five more points. \n“It is great to see these two carry on the tradition of jumpers here at IU,” Pate said.\nSophomore Ryan Smith posted a school record and personal best of 1:19.03 in the 600-meter dash on the day one preliminaries. Smith then came back to the field house the next day and broke that record, posting a time of 1:18.99. The previous school record was 1:19.25 set by Ryan Huber in the 2000 Big Ten Championships.\nIf the meet were a movie than it would not have had a happy ending, as despite being in second after day one of the championships, IU ended up fifth. Wisconsin won its seventh Big Ten title in as many years, scoring 120 points. This was primarily because of their dominant distance team, something the IU squad has been lacking in all year. IU’s distance medley was the only event to bring in points on the distance side. The team consisting of junior Brennan Plotner, sophomore Martin Stephen, freshman Milos Mikic and freshman Tyler McCreary finished sixth in the event with a time of 10:08.35.\nPate was happy, however, with how his team performed overall this weekend.\n“As a coach you always want more from your athletes, but I am very pleased with the effort the guys showed me,” Pate said, “especially the guys who scored that weren’t expected to. The whole team seemed to really lay it all down on the line – they didn’t have their best times, but they did what they had to. Now all we need is more of these kinds of athletes.”
(02/23/07 5:00am)
For the men’s track and field team to win the Big Ten indoor championships this weekend, it will need more than talent and a home facility advantage. It will need leadership and motivation. Thankfully the team has been getting these two things in heavy doses all year from not only their coaches, but junior sprinter Doug Dayhoff.\nAt the beginning of the year, men’s head coach Wayne Pate named Dayhoff a captain of the men’s team. Since then, Dayhoff has been setting examples for younger athletes, not only with his feet, but with his work ethic and personality. \nAnd the other athletes are taking notice, sprinter’s coach George Freeman said. \n“Coach Pate elected the captains, but the team would have voted for Doug,” Freeman said. “It’s been a pleasure coaching him. He is very outgoing and responds well in practice and is a good leader.”\nDayhoff also embraces his role as a team leader. \n“It means I need to set a good example for the team (and) really set a high standard for the rest of the guys,” Dayhoff said.\nIU sprinters run what they call “ladders” in practices. This is where they start with a distance and then either increase or decrease the distance with each following run. Coach Freeman’s favorite ladder was called the “telephone number.”\nThe ladder started at 500-meters and after three of those worked, its down to 100-meters. These types of workouts need fellow athlete’s leadership to keep the team happy and working hard.\n“Doug would say, ‘OK, we will run this distance in this time,’ and then run the distance two seconds faster,” senior sprinter and relay partner of Dayhoff’s Trey Warfield said. “So of course the rest of the team sees this and tries to keep up.”\nDayhoff’s intensity in practice carries over into competitions. He has the fastest time on the team in the 400-meter dash at 47.76 seconds, making him fifth fastest in the Big Ten.\nBeing a captain on the team means that Dayhoff has to manage his team’s morale, something Freeman and Warfield agree that Dayhoff is very good at.\n“Doug is a great leader. Before we run races, when we are all warming up and are tense, he’ll come over and crack a joke and get us all to loosen up,” Warfield said.\nDayhoff and the rest of the men’s track and field team are excited about heading into this weekend’s Big Ten championship meet held in Bloomington.\n“This is the best part of the season because we have done all of the prep work, and now we can see it all pay off,” Dayhoff said. “We always have goals heading into meets. Personally, I just want to be on that podium after I run, score points for my team and to be able to see my team win.”\nThe excitement is so high that Pate said he saw some athletes with so much energy they were doing cartwheels, and that he just wanted them to save that energy for the weekend.\nFor many athletes, this weekend could be the culmination of a lot of hard work and training. \n“This is my last indoor Big Tens and all I want to do is get on that podium,” Warfield said, “it is just time to go out there and do what we have been trained to do.”
(02/19/07 5:00am)
Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams look to use success in Friday’s Hoosier Hills invite to boost their confidence heading into next weekend’s Big Ten championships.\n“The team did really good,” assistant coach Jake Wiseman said. “They are definitely improving getting ready for the Big Tens.”\nThe men’s team took four events, including the 200-meter dash where senior Kiwan Lawson finished first with a personal best time of 21.71 seconds, which also clocks in as the team’s best time in the event. Junior Doug Dayhoff was second behind his teammate with a time of 21.87 seconds, while junior Keith Heerdegen rounded out the top five with a time of 22.02 seconds.\nSophomore Jeff Coover also finished first in pole vault with a height of 5.07 meters. Sophomore Blayne Burkholder increased his personal best for the second week in a row, posting a height of 4.92 meters, finishing third.\nCoover is currently second in the Big Ten behind Michigan State’s Mark Langlois, whose best jump this season (5.21 meters) edges out Coover’s best by 1 centimeter. Coover, however, feels that he is more consistent than Langlois.\n“I’m coming along nicely, I hit 5.20, repeated it, and I know I can do it week in and week out,” Coover said. “I know that I’m ready to make my mark on my first attempt, and that’s what it could come down to, number of attempts.”\nThe women’s pole-vaulters also had a strong meet heading into the conference championships. \nFreshman Vera Neuenswander finished third in the pole vault with a mark of 3.50 meters. Freshman Katherine Hopkins set a personal best 3.35 meters.\n“This was a good tune-up week,” Wiseman said. “I’m expecting good things out of the team. They just need to stay calm and do what they need to do.”\nThe women’s side of the track and field team, like the men’s, also had four wins Friday. Freshman Jackie Coleman won the triple jump with a personal best 11.53 meters.\nSeniors Lorian Price and Stacey Clausing finished second and fourth in the 60-meter dash. Price had a time of 7.68 seconds and Clausing had a time of 7.71 seconds.\nSophomore Audrey Smoot won the 600-meter run with a time of 1:34.01, and senior Candace Perry won the long jump, leaping 5.77 meters.\n“We’re excited and ready to go for Big Tens. We’ve got a group of seniors that we expect big things out of and they expect big things out of themselves,” women’s head coach Judy Wilson said in a statement. “We also have an excited and enthusiastic group of underclassmen. We have a lot of potential and need to come out with both guns loaded.”\nThis weekend’s Big Ten championships will split up the men’s and women’s track and field teams. The women travel to Illinois, and the men host in Bloomington.
(02/16/07 5:01am)
The IU track and field teams have been hurdling past meets all year long and are finally able to see the finish line. They have only one more hurdle before the Big Ten championships, the Hoosier Hills Invite, this weekend.\nThe invite will be hosted by IU Friday afternoon in the Gladstein Fieldhouse, and will serve as a tune-up meet for the Hoosiers' top athletes.\nSenior hurdler and jumper Lorian Price is one of those top athletes. Price is ranked in the top five all time at IU in the long jump and the 60-meter hurdles. So far this season she holds the team's second-best time in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.48 seconds, set last weekend at Arkansas, and the best result in the long jump at 5.98 meters.\n"This will be a week to fine tune things," Price said. "And get everything ready for next weekend."\nIU coach Wayne Pate is having Price run what he calls an "off-event," which means instead of running in her specialty event, the 60-meter hurdles, Price will run in the 60-meter dash.\n"We have some people doing off-events instead of their specialty events," Pate said. "Lorian is running the 60-meter dash because it will help boost her speed."\nPrice said that she really wanted to work on her turnover -- increasing the speed of her strides -- this weekend. \n"This is all a part of peaking," Pate said. \nPeaking has been a common theme with the team since the beginning of the year. The goal for the season was to have all of the athletes perform their strongest in he conference championships.\n"We have been working hard all year," freshman hurdler Chris Sackmann said. "We have recently started to slow down our workouts so we can do the best we can."\nSackmann currently holds the best time for the 60-meter hurdles on the men's side. His personal best, 8.24 seconds, has been going down with almost every meet, now that practices have become less intensive. \n"This definitely has to be the time to peak," Price said. "I'm excited to go into the Big Tens. Things are starting to come together with the anticipation of next weekend and I am starting to peak."\nSackmann added that he is excited for his first Big Ten championships.\n"Last weekend in Arkansas we had a big meeting and the coaches all got us fired up for the meet," Sackmann said. "I can't wait to feel what that is like for the biggest meet of the season."\nThe biggest meet of the season, the conference championships, will be held in Bloomington for the men. Illinois will host the women.\n"We have a lot of athletes who are ranked high, and we know those athletes will be competitive," Pate said. "It's the second tier athletes that are right on the cusp, and need to perform well and take away points from other teams who are expecting to get them. The second line will decide how well we do"
(02/12/07 2:31am)
Three Hoosier track-and-field stars must have decided the weather in March will be better in Arkansas than in Bloomington. \nThe three booked return trips this weekend for the NCAA Indoor Championships.\nSeniors Kiwan Lawson, Stacey Clausing and Lindsay Hattendorf all provisionally qualified for nationals in March.\nFayetteville, Ark., played host to the three qualifiers and the rest of the men's and women's track-and-field athletes who competed in the Tyson Invitational this weekend.\nIn the men's long jump, Lawson leapt a distance of 7.75 meters, which ties a personal best that is currently fifth best all-time at IU.\nLawson's teammates, junior Kyle Jenkins and sophomore Jeff Coover, could potentially be traveling back to Arkansas, as they provisionally qualified earlier in the year.\nCoover also tied his personal best and provisional qualifying mark of 5.20 meters in the pole vault this weekend.\n"It is encouraging to have several good performances here, since this is the site of NCAAs," men's track-and-field interim head coach Wayne Pate said in a statement. "Kiwan and Jeff both had great marks, and this is the time that we want our athletes to start peaking."\nClausing also qualified in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.90 seconds. She could be competing in two events at nationals since she qualified in the 400-meter dash last weekend.\nHattendorf qualified for nationals in the 5,000-meter run this weekend with a time of 16:39.95. Hattendorf qualified last weekend in the 3,000-meter run at the Indiana Relays in Bloomington.\nThe recent qualifications bring the total number of Hoosiers who could attend nationals to six.\nSophomore Wendi Robinson posted a personal best in the mile, clocking in at 4:53.20. That time was strong enough to place her fifth. \n"Wendi really showed a step in the right direction tonight," women's interim coach Judy Wilson said in a statement. "She ran faster in the second half than she did in the first, and I'm excited because she ran the race that I wanted her to run. I don't think she has showed us everything she has yet."\nFreshman Faith Sherrill threw for a personal best in the shot put with a distance of 14.07 meters. Sherrill now holds the longest throws on the women's squad for both the shot put and the weight throw (16.09 meters).\nJunior long jumper Devin Moore and junior sprinter Doug Dayhoff from the men's team posted personal bests in their respective events as well. Moore jumped a distance of 6.93 meters, finishing 11th behind Jenkins, who came in eighth, and junior Tyler Skelton, who finished in ninth.\nIU will host the Hoosier Hills invite this weekend, and then it's the Big Ten championships Feb. 24, hosted by IU on the men's side and by Illinois on the women's side.
(02/09/07 4:31am)
The young Hoosier track teams are packing up their shoes, speed suits and toothbrushes as they hit the road for the first time this season. \nThe teams are heading to Fayetteville, Ark., the home of this year's NCAA Indoor Championships and this weekend's Tyson Invitational.\nThe Tyson Invite will host the stiffest competition the Hoosiers have seen this year. But it will also provide an opportunity for national's hopefuls, such as seniors Lindsey Hattendorf and Stacey Clausing, to run on the same track they will be running on in early March. \nArkansas' Randal Tyson Track Complex houses one of the steepest banking 200-meter tracks in the NCAA with a bank of 60 degrees.\n"There isn't much you can do to prepare for such a high track," men's coach Wayne Pate said. "It will give our athletes a chance to see the facilities for nationals. It will be the first time there for a lot of our kids."\nThe men's side of the meet boasts athletes from 15 teams in the Trackwire 25 Power Rankings, including the tied-for-19th Hoosiers. Indiana athletes on the women's side will face athletes from 12 of the Trackwire Top 25 teams.\nTwo Hoosiers looking forward to the competition are sophomore mid-distance runners Caitlin Lauer and Molly Beckwith.\n"The competition is better -- best we've seen actually, so I'm really excited for that," Lauer said.\nLauer will be running the 800-meter run and a leg of the 4x400-meter relay this weekend. Beckwith will also be running the 800-meter run, and has been training with Lauer all year. \n"We workout together just the two of us, and really push each other," Beckwith said. "In fact, we weren't able to run together part of this week, so we ran by ourselves and our times were identical, so it is great to have someone running the same times as me -- pushing me."\nThis is Beckwith's first season with the track and field team. She played four years of high-school soccer, received a soccer scholarship at IU and was a standout reserve on the women's soccer team. She played in all but two of the Hoosiers' games her freshman season, and scored two game-winning goals, the first freshman to do so since 2003. Beckwith switched from soccer to track this year due to knee problems she has been battling since her sophomore year in high school.\n"I ran track my freshman year in high school and posted numbers that would have been competing in the Big Ten today, but I chose to play only soccer my sophomore and junior years because I loved it so much," Beckwith said.\nBeckwith ran track again her senior year while finishing her four-year career in soccer, but said she wasn't as fast as she was her freshman year, and is still working her way back to where she once was. \n"Both Molly and Caitlin show us a lot of promise in mid-distance," women's head coach Judy Wilson said. "Both are talented, strong competitors that workout very well together"
(02/06/07 8:01pm)
Though brewing beer is not offered as a major at IU, two former undergrads have gone on to make it their careers.\nBecause of the competition with large manufacturers and their cheaper alternatives, microbreweries might have a disadvantage in such a well-established market. But two Bloomington-based brewpubs have been operating successfully during the last decade. The owners of both the Bloomington Brewing Company and the Upland Brewing Company rely on students, alumni and city residents for business.
(02/05/07 5:11am)
This weekend's Indiana Relays marked the fourth consecutive meet held in the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse, and the meet provided a chance for the young Hoosier track and field teams to get a taste of what the Big Ten championships will be like.\nThe relays were set up like the Big Ten championships. In the first day of the meet athletes compete to qualify and go on to the finals the next day. The other meets held in Bloomington this year were setup to have numerous heats for an event and the best times or distances would win. \n"This meet was made similar to the Big Ten championships so it would get our athletes an idea of what to expect," men's head coach Wayne Pate said. "Some of our runners did well, some got tired from the first day, and qualifying will be much harder when we get to the Big Ten championships."\nHoosiers on both the men's and women's side posted personal bests this weekend. Senior Kiwan Lawson finished third in the long jump with a distance of 7.30 meters and finished fourth in the 200-meter dash with a personal best time of 21.97 seconds.\nSophomore sprinter Wil Glover finished fourth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.96 seconds, and his teammate junior Jacob Moylan finished seventh with a time of 6.98 seconds.\nJunior Kyle Jenkins was nursing a hamstring injury, so instead of participating in the triple jump, Pate placed Kyle in the long jump where he posted a season-best 7.12 meters in finishing fifth. \n"Kyle should be 100 percent next weekend at Arkansas and will compete in the triple jump," Pate said.\nThe women track and field athletes turned in a very impressive meet. \nSeniors Courtney Johnson and Lindsay Hattendorf put up provisional qualifying times for the NCAA National championships in March.\nJohnson put up a time of 8.42 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, barely edging out the provisional qualifying time of 8.43 seconds.\nHattendorf had a personal best in the 3000-meter run, finishing third, and provisionally qualifying for nationals with a time of 9:32.32. Senior Jessica Gall ran unattached to IU to save her eligibility for the outdoor season and finished second with a time of 9:29.69. Women's head coach Judy Wilson said Gall will run in the USA indoor meet. \n"It is always helpful running with Jess," Hattendorf said. "We both know how to push each other and work together."\nFreshman Vera Neuenswander posted a career-best 3.77 meters in the pole vault, placing her fourth in the competition, but moving her into second all-time for women's pole vault at IU. \n"We have a great mix of experienced upper classmen and talented freshmen who are looking to be competitive at the big ten in three weeks," Wilson said. \nHattendorf echoed similar sentiments to that of her coach.\n"This team is amazing. I have never felt this kind of chemistry with the track team. It is pretty awesome. Everyone keeps working hard and that's what we need to do"
(02/02/07 4:53am)
The Harry Gladstein Field House will play host to a fourth consecutive meet this weekend, as IU track-and-field athletes gear up for stiff competition in the Indiana Relays before they travel to Arkansas for the Tyson Invitational. \nTwo Hoosiers who are looking for competition are Vera Neuenswander and Jeff Coover. The pair anchors the women's and men's IU pole vaulting squad, respectively. \n"The two should almost be brother and sister," pole vaulting coach Jake Wiseman said. "I can't overemphasize how hard they work."\nNeuenswander is a freshman from Jefferson City, Mo. While in high school, she was a state champion in pole vault in 2003, 2005 and 2006. She holds the third-best all-time record for women's pole vault at IU, with a jump of 3.75 \nmeters. \nNeuenswander said she decided to come to IU after many visits to the campus. \n"The coaches here care, and it is a great atmosphere," she said.\nCoover, a sophomore, also talked about the campus when discussing why he came all the way from La Jolla, Calif. \n"I also have a brother on the team, Paul, and he has been a big role model to me, and was an important factor in my decision," Coover said.\nBut it has been Coover who has been a role model for the pole vaulting squad. Last week he set a career best while posting a NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 5.20 meters, meaning he could be going to the NCAA National Championships.\n"It's not very likely that my mark will get me to nationals, because they only choose the 10 or 11 best pole vaulters in the nation," Coover said. "But it is awesome to have my name in the running and be considered."\nNot only was Coover's jump a career best, but he said it was his first time over 17 feet and that it felt good to finally clear that mark.\nThese meets are what the track and field teams as a whole have been preparing for with the Big Ten championships only a month away. \n"This is the time when we need to start to peak," Wiseman said.\nIn practice the pole vaulters help each other out and cheer each other on knowing that they will be coming up against some stiff competition, including the teams not just in the Big Ten, but also those that will be at the Indiana Relays this weekend. \n"They make each other better in day-to-day practice," Wiseman said. "It has been fun coaching this team. They are young and they really bring the best out of you"
(01/29/07 3:01am)
This weekend's Gladstein Invitational saw the IU track and field teams make many strides as they gear up for the Big Ten Championships.\nThe meet, in which more than 900 athletes participated, was hosted by the Hoosiers in the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse for the second year in a row. \n"We have over 900 athletes here, including some schools from the South, so the competition level is really good," men's head coach Wayne Pate said. "Most of our meets don't often have this level of competition, but thanks to the new track our meets are doubling in size." \nNine athletes posted personal bests, including sophomore Jeff Coover. Coover cleared 5.20 meters in the pole vault, not only setting a personal best, but also clearing the NCAA provisional qualifying height, meaning that Coover will likely be one of a handful of Hoosiers to compete in the NCAA National Championships. \nSenior Stacey Clausing is another athlete likely to go to nationals. She qualified in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.37 seconds, and will also likely qualify in the 200-meter dash.\n"Our goal for Stacey this weekend was to get her qualified in both the 200 and 400," assistant coach George Freeman said. "She qualified for the 400, but that took a lot out of her for the 200." \nClausing did not qualify for the 200-meter dash, but still won the event posting a time of 24.21 seconds.\n"The coaches have been stricter, and have been pushing us harder during the week," said junior men's sprinter Ryan Smith, who posted a personal best last week at the Indiana Team Classic. "Coach Pate has really been pushing us harder; so has coach Freeman who even has us worrying about the exact angle our bodies are positioned in the starting blocks. Our practices are like competitions between one another, but all in good fun." \nAthletes from IU were able to lock up first place in eight events this weekend, including sophomores Caitlin Lauer and Audrey Smoot as well as senior Molly Beckwith. All three posted personal bests and took the top-three places in the women's 600-meter dash. This was Beckwith's first time competing in the 600-meter dash.\nSuccess this weekend was not limited to just the Hoosiers. Southern Illinois' Brittany Riley set a world record in the women's weight throw. Riley, who has been competing in the weight throw for only three years, swung and then hurled the 20-pound ball attached to a chain a distance of 24.57 meters clearing the automatic qualifying time for the NCAA by more than 3 1/2 meters. "Well that was farther than my last throw," Riley said after the throw. "When they told me it was a world record, I was excited of course, but not overly ecstatic." \nThe throw cleared the previous world record of 24.23 meters set by Erin Gilreath. Both throws were recorded in Bloomington at the Gladstein Fieldhouse.
(01/26/07 4:50am)
After strong performances at the Indiana Team Classic last weekend, the men's and women's track and field teams prepare to host the Gladstein Invitational on Friday and Saturday.\nThe women will be led this weekend by senior Stacey Clausing, who currently holds the team's top times for the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash. Clausing, who posted career bests in the 200- and 400-meter dashes in last weekend's meet, hopes that the young squad can perform well while preparing for the Big Ten championships in late February.\n"We need to keep our legs fresh, while still putting up good times and remaining competitive," Clausing said. \nMen's throwing coach Wil Fleming's sentiments were in line with Clausing's while he discussed how his throwers were preparing for this weekend's invitational.\n"Our oldest thrower is a redshirt sophomore, so our team is young and has a lot of enthusiasm," Fleming said. "At this point in the season they are still learning how to compete, and this meet provides them the opportunity to face better competition in preparing for the Big Ten championships."\nOne of the young throwers who has grasped how to compete is the number one throwing recruit in the nation, freshman Eric Werskey. He currently holds the team best in shot put by over 1 meter with a distance of 17.67 meters and has the second best weight throw with 16.06 meters. Werskey said he chose IU because it was a great program and it was close to home. \n"Both of my parents went to IU, so it was kind of in my blood," Werskey said, "… also because IU is a competitor in the Big Ten."\nWerskey is used to the caliber of competition the Big Ten will offer. While in high school Eric competed in Beijing, for the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships, where he finished 13th in Group B of the shot put. \nThe men's squad also boasts a standout athlete in the triple jump heading into this weekend's meet. Junior Kyle Jenkins recorded the best triple jump of the NCAA season last weekend at the Indiana Team Classic. Jenkins jumped a distance of 15.86 meters, earning him the title of Big Ten Athlete of the Week.\nThe Hoosiers are hoping to showcase their talent this weekend. The Gladstein Invitational will bring in top athletes from colleges such as Louisville, Michigan, Mississippi, Butler and Southern Indiana.\n"We have a lot of talent on this team but talent doesn't win anything," Fleming said. "On the men's and women's side we could have several Big Ten champions, so the key is to continue working hard, taking it one week at a time, taking care of business this week, and hopefully the chips fall into place to where our team can be successful"
(01/18/07 3:34am)
Checking out the Frangipani Room in the Indiana Memorial Union at 7 p.m. Fridays, a passer-by would witness people dancing joyously in a circle to European music.\nAnd it wouldn't be out of the ordinary --just another weekly meeting of the IU International Folkdancers.\nSusan Sutton, an anthropology professor at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and an expert on modern Greek studies, said folk dances tell stories, often imitate life and capture scenes from various European cultures.\n"(Folk) dancing plays different roles in different settings, and it is always filled with cultural meanings," she said. "... When young people on Paros get together to do the dances, they affirm a sense of community, togetherness and belonging."\nStudents who attend the club meetings said they get a real feel for the companionship the club offers.\n"I enjoy the sense of community," said Emily McFarlin, a graduate student in music and fifth-year IU folk dancer. "Besides sharing in wonderful music and dance together, I value my friendships with the people who are part of the group, including students, professors and community members."\nThe group has been around for 30 years and is made up of faculty, students and Bloomington residents.\n"The group size varies dramatically, but we have a core of about 12 stable dancers," said IU philosophy professor Leah Savion, who has danced with the group for 24 years. "Any Friday can have from 10 to 30 students who show up," Savion said, "and we meet every Friday, rain or shine, all year long."\nFor the first hour the club members do easier dances and leaders teach, then they take requests for the last half of the practice, McFarlin said.\nThe club meets every Friday but has extra rehearsals to prepare for the different performances they put on. Their most recent performances include the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis and the multicultural festival held here at IU.\n"(A folk) dance is a type of dance you can practice rigorously and still be a novice," Savion said, "because every dance is different."\nBefore a performance, the group practices about 10 dances and selects its best dancers to perform. Usually their dances consist of six to 14 dancers, but Savion said the hardest dances usually only have two dancers. \n"I have been folk dancing since I was a little girl, so I checked that IU had a folk-dance club before I applied to the school," McFarlin said. "This club is a great way to have fun, get some exercise, challenge your feet and meet all sorts of friendly people"
(11/15/06 4:45am)
Journalistic reporting requires an effective relationship between reporter and source to relay important information to the reader. This is especially true when reporting on the issue of sex research. \nOften breakdowns occur between source and reporter that skew important public health information, but a collaboration of IU experts has created a class designed to strengthen the relationship between journalist and sex researcher.\nThe course, J460: Sex in the News: Beyond the Headlines, will be offered through the School of Journalism in collaboration with the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.\nThe idea for the class came from a workshop the Kinsey Institute created that addressed the issue of sex in the media. According to the workshop's Web site, www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/KIJ, eight journalists and eight sex researchers gathered with the goal of finding a way to provide research-driven information that would benefit the public.\n"We are very lucky at IU to have an exceptional School of Journalism along with the Kinsey Institute and such a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and make a difference in the way information about sex is reported," said Kinsey Institute communications director Jennifer Bass.\nLesa Hatley Major, the assistant professor in the School of Journalism who is teaching the class in the spring, said such collaboration between sex researchers and journalists is rare. \nThe Journalism Bulletin explains that the class will explore the barriers in responsible coverage, challenges, biases, political implications and ethics related to presenting and covering sexual news.\nMajor said she hopes what she teaches can be applied to other areas outside of reporting just sex research. \n"The goal of the class is to help students understand the relationship between source and journalist in order to benefit the public," Major said.\nThe class is designed for students who are interested in covering sex research in the media but is also for students who are going to be involved with sex research and want to learn how to communicate with journalists.\n"I first heard about the class while looking up classes being offered for the spring semester on the journalism Web site," said Joanna Jacobs, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. "I needed another elective and (J460) struck me as different from the other normal journalism classes always offered." \nJ460: Sex in the News: Beyond the Headlines deviates away from the usual offerings of the School of Journalism.\n"Most of the classes in the journalism school are geared toward reporting hard news, but I'm more interested in doing health or entertainment news," Jacobs said. "So it's great to have more choices and information on how to go about covering those issues differently"
(10/18/06 4:11am)
Many students add a unique flair to the outsides of their laptop computers with stickers and drawings. Now, the computer company Averatec is offering a way for students to show the world their technological creativity.\nIn the first ever "It's About Me" contest, amateur designers can win Averatec 7100 Series laptops for creating the best "skins," or cases, for the laptops. Voting on the contest Web site, www.createyourcase.com, determines the winners.\nThe contest ends Saturday and is free to enter. Five random registrants, including both design contestants and voters, will also win Voya 300 Series Global Positioning Systems.\nAccording to the contest's Web site, the digital image of the skin, which contestants will upload on the site, can be anything from a picture taken from a camera to a drawing scanned into a computer.\nCreating a laptop skin falls under a field of informatics known as interaction design, said Eli Blevis, assistant professor of informatics at IU.\n"Interaction design is the new meaning of human-computer interaction which is properly a subdiscipline of computer science," Blevis said. "(It) includes influences from cognitive science design and education, as well as others."\nAfter the image is uploaded to the Web site, people may vote for it an unlimited number of times, incorporating a marketing aspect of the contest. Though not a requirement, Averatec strongly suggests contestants put up information about how to vote for their image on other personal Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.\nTo win the contest, one would need to be well-rounded, said Darek Connole, an Averatec spokesperson for the contest.\n"(You'd need) a culmination of different artistic skills, and you would have to have a lot of friends or be good at social marketing," Connole said.\nAveratec's Director of Product Placement Bret Berg said he knows creativity in college kids can often lead to rather "racy" content. Berg is not discouraging this content, but asks that students keep everything clean and legal and is not allowing copyright or trademark infringement.\nThe contest is open to anyone over the age of 18, and more than 2,000 entries have been submitted.\nSo far, the gallery of entries includes logos of universities, pictures of island getaways and an image of a Furby smoking marijuana. \nBerg said he allowed the Furby picture in the contest because he didn't find it offensive. However, he did disqualify pictures of 9/11 because they weren't very creative and were too offensive for the contest's standards.\nAll registrants for the contest, whether they enter a skin or simply vote for one, enter a drawing for which five random people will win a Voya 350 Series Portable GPS system from Averatec. The GPS system has a touch-and-go screen with optional stylus, has 1.6 million locations and can be mounted in a car or fit in a pocket.\n"The optional stylus with the GPS system is nice," Connole said, "because I don't know about you, but I have fat nubs for fingers."\nBerg says the contest's goal is to get Averatec known among consumers in a way that encourages creativity in college students.\nThis creativity can lead to careers in the future, Blevis said.\n"There are many jobs are available in this field," he said. "In fact, a bunch of the design for computer works is done here (in the United States)"