Concussion, losses slow rugby team
Men's
hockey squad scores 17 times in two games; alumni, Willie the Wildcat cheer on
crew
By David
Morrison
Last Saturday was a day to forget for the Northwestern men's rugby
club. Literally, in the case of Daniel McDonell.
The senior played 15 minutes before he suffered a concussion -- at
least that's what his teammates tell him. He remembers nothing about the 27-15
loss to DePaul.
"It's the weirdest feeling ever," McDonell
said. "There's an eight-hour block that is just missing."
Still reeling from a 40-0, season-opening loss to
Illinois-Chicago, the Wildcats thought the historically weak DePaul club team
would be an easier game.
But the Blue Demons jumped to a 20-0 lead in the first half.
The Cats came back to score 15 unanswered points, but injuries to McDonell, freshman Keven Brown,
who suffered a broken ankle, and sophomore Steve Kastrayano,
who fractured his skull in the Illinois-Chicago match, stalled the comeback.
The Cats had to use high school players to fill the holes on the
field, and DePaul ended up on top.
McDonell attributed the club's 0-2 record to a lack of playing time,
caused by NU's late September start.
"We lacked some of the experience and finesse that comes with
practice," McDonell said. "We start so late
that it's hard to catch up."
The Cats don't have much time to mature since the Chicago Area
Rugby Football Union Cup takes place this weekend.
CARFU consists of area teams, including Loyola,
The top one or two teams move on to the Midwest Tournament.
The Cats have not been able to replicate the success they enjoyed
in their back-to-back CARFU Cup championship seasons of 1998 and 1999.
NU is ranked fifth out of the six teams participating this
weekend, and its first opponent is DePaul.
With the NHL in the midst of a labor dispute, puckheads
everywhere are thirsting for hockey.
Luckily for them, the NU men's hockey club just started its
season, notching two victories over
Bucking the stereotype of slow-moving, low-scoring games, the Cats
scored 17 goals in their two encounters.
Freshman forward Justin Schorr led the
goal scorers with five.
Standing only 5 foot 7 and weighing 140 pounds, some say Schorr is
"He's a phenomenal player," said junior Reed van Gorden.
"He's a great contribution to our team."
Schorr leads a highly talented freshman class, the largest class van
Gorden can remember.
The Cats head to
Like NU,
Van Gorden describes the Hawkeyes as
"one of the better teams in the league," and could be a good early
season test for the club.
WILLIE'S ROAD TRIP
Alumni ties run deep for NU, as the men's and women's crew clubs
found out last weekend.
When the rowers arrived in
The extra cheering section provided the encouragement needed for a
good race.
"Most of the race you don't hear anything but the
coxswain," senior Mary Zell said. "But you
could hear the cheers from the shore in the last 20 strokes."
The men's openweight four finished fifth
out of 29 boats, and the openweight eight finished
sixth out of 27.
The women's lightweight four brought home a fourth-place medal,
gliding over the 4500-meter course in about 19 minutes.
While the men's and women's clubs have separate coaches and never
compete against each other, they share the camaraderie usually found in
teammates.
"We spend a lot of time together," Zell
said. "We travel together, we're really supportive of each other, and I
consider us as one team."
All of the hard work put in by the rowers is leading to the Head
of the Charles regatta in
Reach David Morrison at d-morrison3@northwestern.edu.