1995_02 The Daily Collegian February 1995

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8—^The Daily CoU«-gian     Friday, February 17, N95
Bulldogs busy
on schedule
By Douglas Stolhand
Sports Editor
^——-—    ^y
Almost all spring sports will
be in action this weekend as spring
sports at Fresno State get into ac¬
tion.     "
Perhaps the biggest match-up
of the weekend willbe the #11
Diamond 'Dcgs series against #3
Cal State Ft tllerton Titans. With a
- State,    California,    Loyola-
' Mar/mount and host San Diego
State.
.
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The #21 men's tennis team will
contmuemeirseasonwimamatch
at #7 USC today, while the #46
women's tennis will visit Wash¬
ington State. The men's team cmv
rently holds'a record of 2-2, the
women 2-5.
Golf will alsobeJn action as the
#20 ranked Bulldogs will partici-
record of 7-1 coming into it, thej pate in the HilolnvitationaL After
Ttogs-will hope that the strong a 12th place finish at the Ping/
pitching that has carriectrthem
through the first eight games will
continue. Kevin Gunther will get
the call for Friday night's game,
Brendan Behn going on Saturday
and freshman Brad Tucker, who
Arizona Invitational, the Ttogs
will face a large field that includes
#1 Stanford, Arizona, Arizona
State, Pacific, New Mexico and
UCLA.
Women's 'basketball will face
gotthewmtuesdayovertheSan  ,jheir toughest competition of the
.IoseStateSpartans,wiUpitchSun-    season as they will take on the#25
Todd Warshaw/Sports Information
Brandon r 'aeon and the 21st ranked Bulldogs tennis squad take their show on the road to face
the number »even ranked Trojans of USC in Los Angeles today.
day. Game times are 7:00 p-m.
today and 1:00p.m. Saturday and
Sunday.   ^
Softball will receive its first big
test of the season as it will travel to
the San Diego State Spring Clas¬
sic. This willbe the BuUdbgs' first
appearance in the Classic, and
after outscoring their opponents
37-3 lastweekend, the Ttogs are
6-0. The fieldat'the Classic will be
stiff competiiicWor the Ttogs as
they will face#4UCLA,#7Wash-
ington as well as las^-year's Col-
legeAVorld Series runner-up Cal
San Diego State Aztecs, in San
Diego tonight KFSR will broad¬
cast the game in which, the Bull¬
dogs will try to hand the Aztecs
their first WAC loss of the season
and end their 12 game winning
streak. Fresno State has not bea ten
the Aztecs since the 1991-1992
The men's basketball team is
also on the road. They will be in
Colorado Springs to take on the
Air Force Academy tomorrow1
night
The'Dogs are on a three game
State Northridge. Other oppo-* winning streak and can go one
nents scheduled for the Bulldogs game above the -500 mark for the
are Tennessee Tech, Long Beach    season with a win Saturday.
Athlete trades helmet and pads for life on the
\
By I^rian R. Fisher
StaffWriter   '  >
They say that one man's loss is
another man'sgain. That certainly
seems to be the case when wres¬
tler/ex-football player Darin
Preisendorf's name is mentioned.
In this case the man who
"gained" was* wrestling coach^
Dennis DeLiddo, who was in-
formedshortlyafterthe 1994 foot¬
ball season concluded, that
Preisendorf would be leaving the
gridiron and focusing his full at¬
tention toward the mat
Preisendorf Was recruited as a
student-athlete out of American
high school in Fremont, CA. And
while there were many schools
interested in his football ability or
his wrestling ability (in which he
compiled a 104-1 record and won
twostafe titles), only Oregon State
and Fresno State had both pro¬
grams and were willing to let him
compete in both sports. *"
But location and reputation
also played important factors in
his decision and as a consequence
lie chose Fresno.
'Tieallyna^nodesiretogoio
Oregon [State]/' the 6'-3" sopho-
moresaid. "Fresnohas great wres¬
tling and football reputations, as
do both coaches [DiLiddo and
head football coach Jim Sweeny].
And when I knew that the foot¬
ball coaching staff would allow
me the option to wrestle if
wanted, well, I knew this was a
great situation for me."
After redshirting, and then see¬
ing little playing time in his fresh¬
man season as a nose tackle,
Preisendorf began to consider
concentrating on the books and
wrestling and leaving football
behind. But Sweeny talked him
into coming back to Spring prac¬
tice (during which time he be¬
came ill with mono), and ulti¬
mately, another season.
And while his playing time
increased somewhat deep down
Preisendorf knew that he was
.ready to move on.
When tne season concluded,
Sweeny'asked .to meet with
Preisendorf to see what his deci¬
sion would be as far as playing
the following season. Words were
not minced as Sweeny was in¬
formed that he would have an¬
other scholarship to fill.
"Whe|» I came here I really [M
thought I wanted to play foot- %
ball,"-Preisendorf said. "I sup- l v
pose a part of me always will. But
when last season was over, I just
didn't see myself going back [to
DiLiddo, who currently has the
Uth ranked team in the country,
was understandably thrilled.
"While I felt forW football
progtanvl was happy to hear that 1^
L^nnwdu»dbeinme[wrestlingl j
roorh with us vvtien everyone else
was." said the coach of 14 years.
"Being in football jfeally cheats a
guy out of time, both mentally
and physically."
"I have never had a heavy¬
weight irt here on time. Lorenzo
[Neal, a former heavyweight
wrestler and football player for
StevT-R. Fujimoto/Sports InformaBon
IDarin Preisendorf has posted a 34-10 record.
both have been shortened due to
football, Preisendorf has posted a
34-10 record.''
Considering he still has two
years remaining, and providing
Fresno State who now plftys prc> he remains injury-free, he will
feasional football] was never in    most certainly become the Bull-
here until January. Ifs something
I have had to deal with, and it Mas
always been tough on the wres¬
tlers themselves, but Darin will
really benefit frctm being here from
the beginning [of next season]."
And it will be in teres ting to see
exactly how much.
In the last twoseasons, of which
dogs all-time winningest heavy¬
weight wrestler, surpassingNeal,
who was 58-16-4 in his four year
Preisendorf went ISA as a
freshman after taking over the
starting heavyweight duties in
mid-season from Zack Rix. He
men went on to win the WAC
•••     •
Wi
.  *v     I \l
• •  •     .   ' * x   )
championships, and he topped
off his remarkable rookie cam-
paignl^o^ialifyingfortileNCAA
meet
This season he is 21-6 with six
pinsandiscurrentlyc<ial4-match
winrangstreak. Of those six losses,
four came to wrestlers who are
ranked in the top 10 in ihe coun¬
try. - ;
Along with the success has
come the confidence not only in
himself, but also in the team. And
there's no better time to havelTX
than now, with the WAC tourna¬
ment just two weeks away.
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