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Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

GCSU teams having solid fall campaign

Wendell Staton must feel like one lucky athletics director.

He was hired to the position at Georgia College & State in late August, and the program he’s still getting familiar with is just rolling along this fall.

The women’s cross country team is ranked 10th in the national track and cross country coaches’ Southeast Region, one of four Peach Belt Conference teams in the regional poll.

The Bobcats have finished in the top 20 percent of the three bigger meets they’ve competed in and compete next in the conference meet on Saturday at UNC Pembroke.

The men’s team remains ninth in the Southeast, with five conference teams ranked.

The women’s soccer team has spent much of the season in the NCAA Division II women’s soccer’s Southeast Region poll but fell from No. 10 in recent weeks.

GCSU entered Wednesday’s match with UNC Pembroke 7-5-3 overall and 3-1-2 in the Peach Belt, good for fourth place.

And the men’s golf team has been ranked first or second in the two major college golf polls. The Bobcats have finished in the top third of all five fall tournaments.

AROUND MERCER/A-SUN

• The conference tournament doesn’t start until Oct. 31, but it’s all but a postseason matchup tonight when Mercer hosts Campbell in the women’s soccer regular-season finale.

Six teams make it to the tournament, and the Bears are that sixth team right now, one point ahead of East Tennessee State and one point behind Campbell and Stetson.

Mercer has won three straight by an 11-3 margin.

Campbell still has first-place Kennesaw State left on the road, and ETSU must face Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson — both tied with Campbell for fourth — on the road.

Florida Gulf Coast is ineligible for the tournament while continuing the transition to Division I.

Seven of the 11 A-Sun teams have winning overall records, including Mercer at 8-6-2.

AROUND GCSU/PEACH BELT

• GCSU will host Alumni Day on Saturday with an afternoon of activity for former Bobcats and Colonials. There are alumni games in baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball and soccer, with a baseball home run derby starting things at 1 p.m.

The department will host a cookout on the West Campus before the 4 p.m. women’s soccer match against Columbus State.

• The conference got a boost from the lizard recently.

GIECO has become the title sponsor for all 13 Peach Belt championship events.

The conference will call each event the “PBC-GIECO Championship Series.”

• Joe Young (Bleckley County) led GCSU to a sixth-place finish in the Mizuno Savannah Intercollegiate golf tournament with a two-round 212 Monday and Tuesday.

The Bobcats had the best finish among Division II schools, and Young was fourth with a 4-under-par 212 on the 7,016-yard Savannah Quarters Country Club course.

GCSU’s 877 was 25 strokes behind winner East Carolina. Host Georgia Southern finished fifth.

AROUND FVSU/SIAC

• Saturday’s showdown between the top two teams in the SIAC will be available online.

ESPN360.com, now on Cox Cable, will carry the battle between No. 8 Albany State and No. 19 Tuskegee. Kickoff is at 2 p.m., and the game will be re-broadcast on ESPNU at noon on Sunday.

ASU is 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the SIAC while Tuskegee is 5-2 and 5-1. Morehouse and Fort Valley State are next at 4-2.

ALUMNI UPDATE

• It has been a disappointing season for all of Purdue’s seniors, but Saturday’s upset of Ohio State was a bright spot for cornerback Brandon King (Houston County).

King helped the Boilermakers to their first win over a ranked team since 2003 with a pair of third-quarter interceptions. His second pick gave Purdue the ball on OSU’s 47, and the Boilermakers converted it into a touchdown for a 23-7 lead en route to the 26-18 win.

King is ninth on the team with 22 tackles and took the team lead in interceptions with Saturday’s performance.

• Corey Robinson (Westside) is only a sophomore, but the linebacker from Miles unofficially leads the SIAC with 78 tackles, an average of 11.1 per game. That doesn’t include stats from Miles’ game at Stillman on Saturday, which weren’t turned in to the SIAC office.

Robinson had only one tackle in that 20-0 loss and has, according to Miles’ Web site, 79 tackles in eight games, an average of 9.9, which would put him third.

• Darius Marshall (Baldwin) has spent part of the season leading the nation in rushing, but he has settled into the No. 2 spot, with his average dropping a bit after getting 82 yards on 25 carries in Marshall’s 24-7 loss to West Virginia on Saturday.

WVU’s Noel Devine won the rushing matchup with 103 yards, but Marshall still averages about 14 more yards, 136.5 to 122.3.

Marshall has 819 yards for the 4-3 Thundering Herd, who host UAB on Saturday.

• Janell Jones (Crisp County) has only eight catches for Albany State this season, but the eighth was a big one.

The freshman hauled in the game-winning 14-yard touchdown pass in overtime to give the Rams a 32-29 win over upset-minded Clark Atlanta.