A fine young man by the name of Mos once uttered a great phrase. This man, who happens to have the peculiar surname of “Def,” once intoned into his microphone, “Y’all better buy my rookie card now … cuz after this (expletive), the price ain’t coming down.”
Mos Def never spoke truer words than regarding the state of Georgetown athletics in the past week.
First, last Saturday in Stanford, as Mike Montgomery went through yet another failed suicide attempt and cursed the fact that Brevin Knight plays for the Cavaliers and Juan Dixon doesn’t yet, Georgetown first-year runner Franklyn Sanchez eclipsed the 31-year old record in the 5000 meter, held by Oregon stalwart Steve “Preffy” Prefontaine.
Prefontaine is probably best known for being the only college runner to have a bad TV movie made about him and will still be known for this, but our boy now owns the record, clocking with a time of 13:38:39 at the Stanford Track and Field Invitational. To paraphrase another East Coast rapper, the dearly departed Biggie Smalls, Sanchez has been “blowing up like the world trade” this season. He earned All-America at the 2000 NCAA Cross Country Championships and helped us win the Mid-Atlantic Championships too.
Sanchez’s accomplishments weren’t the only hilltoppers to make athletic fans wish they had been buying rookie cards, however. Oh, no. Don’t think that.
Up on Kehoe, where Witmer runs laps in his hooded sweatshirt, doing his best Rocky imitation but usually failing, two Women’s Lacrosse stars are blossoming this season for the No. 5 ranked Hoyas. Despite a recent loss to Duke (who doesn’t lose to Duke these days?), the Women’s Lacrosse team is still racking up awards and honors, as seniors Sheehan “I win everything” Stanwick and Caitlin McLean shared the honor of Big East Players of the Week for the week ending April 1st.
Both were All-America selections last season, and have been invaluable in leading the Hoyas to their current national ranking.
Dave Urick and his crew, commonly known as the Men’s Lacrosse team, were the No. 3 team in the nation following a nice rout of Duke over on Harbin Field. It was one of the most packed sporting events that “Da Scoop” has seen in its five months of existence, and we ain’t just talking about the Chiara Fan Club in the bleachers. No, everyone came out for that game. But unfortunately, the boys with the sticks got derailed this week by Navy, in an ugly 11-4 game punctuated by Navy scoring nine straight goals in the second half.
Despite the loss and the expected drop in national ranking, the sophomores of the Georgetown Men’s Lacrosse program (most of them Harbin 2 alums) have been flowing “hotta, hotta” during this season, most notably Trevor Walker who had a hat trick against Duke and recorded a goal against Navy as well. I’ve played PlayStation against Walker, and let me tell you, he’s good at that, too. Another sophomore superlative success story (now that’s alliterative) is Mike Hammer, who is one of the team’s leading goal scorers.
I don’t know how Baseball did, because they play at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, which is something we really don’t like here at “da Scoop.” The rumor is that they lost a 3-2 lead to George Mason in the 10th on a blooper past the drawn-in infield. However, Pat Salvitti, the sophomore hurler from the boondocks of Pennsylvania, is going to be taking the mound in South Bend, Ind. next week against the hated Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The game will occur during our Easter Break, so if you live anywhere near there, go see Salvitti pitch. His circle change puts Maddux to shame.
