Two Kinsmen club mem-bers suffered mishap in Gamma Sigma Phi’s Revo-lutionary War heroes Sing Song act this weekend. Ja-cob Groves plummeted 10

feet from the stage during Friday’s performance, and Jason Rasco took a hit to the face when one of the club’s air cannons went off unexpectedly before Saturday’s 2 p.m. show, breaking his jaw, knocking out six teeth and requiring

eight stitches during a trip to a local hospital.

Groves, junior market-ing major from Lubbock, fell off the right side of the stage while adjusting a cannon prop. Groves said he stepped on a cur-tain he thought was part

of the stage. The curtain was acting as a makeshift roof over a makeup room behind the stage.

“I took a different route to my prop and stepped through a curtain that looked level and fell to the ground,” Groves said.

“I landed on my butt, and on impact I bit my tongue. I was in a lot of pain for about 30 seconds.”

GSP director Colin Barnard, senior political science major from Wash-ington D.C., said he saw Groves fall.

“It was on the front of the stage that has a cur-tain below that separates the band and stage, it looks like there is a place to stand there, but it’s just air below,” Barnard said.

Optimistthe

Sunday, February 20, 2011

acuoptimist.com

1 section, 12 pages

weatherinside

page 6-7

websitephoto spreadFind out what members of class and club acts were doing behind the scenes in the Sing Song tent to prepare for performance.

page 5

newsThe AT&T Learning Studio is giving a sneak peek to students Thursday in preparation for its grand opening.

videosSee how the hosts and hostesses react and prepare for Friday’s show. Keep an eye out for other Sing Song related videos throuought the week. 82° 52°

Sun. Tues.Mon.

66° 38° 68° 49°

Sing it Out, page 9

Vol. 99, No. 38

Abilene Christian University

T he men of Gamma Sigma Phi won their ninth men’s Sing Song title in the last 10 years, while the

women of Ko Jo Kai secured their third title in the last four years and the sopho-more class captured the mixed voices title.

Kojie directors Rachael Webb, senior marketing ma-jor Beaumont, and Lauren Ash, junior exercise science major from Sugarland, said they were proud of their group of women and the ef-fort they put forth.

“We had a great group; the whole group worked hard,” Webb said. “I’m so excited, I’m really proud of the girls.”

The winning acts will donate their $1,000 prize to a charity of their choice as they did last year. The Kojies will donate their winnings to benefit ACU

student Samantha Bahl, who is battling cancer.

The winning sophomore act also has said it will donate its winnings to Bahl. Director Nick Tatum, sophomore fam-ily studies major from Lub-bock, had a special message for Bahl and her family after the performance.

“We’re praying that she’ll get better,” Tatum said. “We did this all for her.”

Sophomore performer Katherine Yarbrough, educa-tion major from Fort Worth, said she enjoyed her Sing Song experience and the chance to give back.

“It was the best part of the year; we put a ton of time into this,” she said. “Our No. 1 goal was to get the money to Samantha Bahl.”

The men of GSP have committed to donate their

Kinsmen perform despite Sing Song accidentsJeff Craig

Managing Editor

SING SONG

see CUP page 4

STAFF REPORT

quick factsJudges choose overall winners by a combined score of five categories:

Sweet taste of Victory

Overall Winners: Men’s Division: • 1st: Gamma Sigma Phi • 2nd: Galaxy• 3rd: Trojans Women’s Division: • 1st: Ko Jo Kai• 2nd: Sigma Theta Chi• 3rd: GATAMixed Division: • 1st: Sophomore Class• 2nd: Freshman Class• 3rd: Senior Class

Originality: Men’s Division: • 1st: Trojans• 2nd: Gamma Sigma Phi• 3rd: Galaxy Women’s Division: • 1st: Ko Jo Kai• 2nd: GATA• 2nd: Sigma Theta ChiMixed Division: • 1st: Graduate Class • 2nd: Sophomore Class• 3rd: Freshman Class

Appearance: Men’s Division: • 1st: Gamma Sigma Phi • 2nd: Galaxy• 3rd: Trojans Women’s Division: • 1st: Ko Jo Kai• 2nd: Sigma Theta Chi• 3rd: GATAMixed Division: • 1st: Graduate Class • 2nd: Sophomore Class• 2nd: Freshman Class

Audience Favorite: Men’s Division: • 1st: Gamma Sigma Phi • 2nd: Trojans• 3rd: Galaxy Women’s Division: • 1st: Sigma Theta Chi• 2nd: Ko Jo Kai• 3rd: Alpha Kai OmegaMixed Division: • 1st: Sophomore Class • 2nd: Senior Class• 3rd: Junior Class

Entertainment: Men’s Division: • 1st: Gamma Sigma Phi• 2nd: Trojans• 3rd: Galaxy Women’s Division: • 1st: Sigma Theta Chi• 2nd: Ko Jo Kai• 3rd: GATAMixed Division: • 1st: Sophomore Class • 2nd: Graduate Class• 2nd: Junior Class

Vocals: Men’s Division: • 1st: Gamma Sigma Phi • 2nd: Galaxy• 3rd: Trojans Women’s Division: • 1st: Ko Jo Kai• 2nd: GATA• 3rd: Sigma Theta ChiMixed Division: • 1st: Freshman Class • 2nd: Sophomore Class• 3rd: Senior Class

After two nights of competition, Ko Jo Kai, Gamma Sigma Phi and the Sophomore

Class take home Overall Winner trophies.

These guys are my brothers. A broken jaw and some lost teeth aren’t going to stop me from coming back and winning Sing Song.

JASON RASCO // junior criminal justice major from Abilene‘‘ ’’

see FALL page 4

JOZIE SANDS // Online Editor

Above: Carolina Williams, senior communication major from Frisco, celebrates Ko Jo Kai’s first -place Sing Song victory. Right: The men of Gamma Sigma Phi grasp the first-place trophy.

MITCHELL MCLEAN // Contributing Photographer

announcements

Sunday 22Tuesday

International Rescue Committee Students can work with refugees who recently moved to the United States, teaching English, helping with homework and mentor-ing. Volunteer times are flexible. Call Daina Jury-ka-Owen at 675-5643 ext. 16 to make an appoint-ment. For more informa-tion on the International Rescue Committee, visit www.theirc.org.

Meals on Wheels Volunteers are needed to deliver meals to seniors and adults with disabilities. Routes are avail-able 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Monday-Friday. Volunteers must be at least 18, with a valid driver’s license, auto insurance and a desire to serve. Training is provided. Students may be exempted from one Chapel per week if delivery time conflicts with Chapel. Contact Samantha Barker at 672-5050.

Betty Hardwick Center Volunteers are needed in several departments at the Betty Hardwick Center, specializing in mental health. Students can help mentally-and-physically challenged people play games, run track and go bowling. Students can volunteer from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Monday-Friday. Contact Angel Seca at 690-5235 for more information.

The Salvation Army Volunteers are needed at the 1726 Butternut St. Salvation Army to sort and price items and help with kitchen or yard work. Vol-unteers are welcome any time Monday-Saturday. Contact J.D. Alonzo at 677-1408, or visit www.satruck.com for more information on the program.

Breakfast on Beech Street Students can help set up, prepare and serve breakfast for the homeless at First Christian Church on Third Street and Beech Street. Serving time is 6:30-7:15 a.m. on Monday-Friday. Visit www.fccabilene.com for more information.

The Center for Con-temporary Arts needs a gallery assistant to help with exhibit setup and preparation. The work can be done any time from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Friday. Call 677-8389 or e-mail info@center-arts.com.

National Center for Chil-dren’s Illustrated Litera-ture Students can greet patrons, assist with art activities, sell books and welcome visitors from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. or 1-3 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. For more information, contact Debby Lillick at 673-4586, or visit www.nccil.org.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

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2Campus Day

“Viva Flamenco!” The Spanish Flamenco con-cert will feature Ronald Radford at 2 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Williams Performing Arts Center Recital Hall. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for regular admission.

Civil Rights Tour Stu-dents can receive aca-demic credit for Sum-mer Session I by joining the ACU Freedom Ride on May 15-21. The seven-day, 1,800-mile guided bus tour will visit significant sites of the American Civil Rights Movement. Reg-istration begins Feb. 23. For more information, contact Dr. Richard Beck at beckr@acu.edu, Dr. Jennifer Dillman at jennifer.dillman@acu.edu, Dr. David Dillman at dillmand@acu.edu or an academic adviser.

All-school Chapel The Chapel Office encour-ages students to par-ticipate in “Bring Your Professor to Chapel Day” and invite their professors to Chapel as a part of the campus-wide effort to attend Chapel every Monday.

ACU Connected Summit 2011 Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, Inc., and the Rocketboys will be at the ACU Connected

Summit at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 28, in Moody Coliseum. Admission is free for all students, faculty and staff with a current ACU ID card.

Online Summer Courses Registration opens Feb. 23 for online summer courses. Students can choose from 15 courses, and each course is three weeks long. For more information, visit www.acu.edu/summeronline.

Career Expo Current stu-dents and alumni have the opportunity to meet with employers from a variety of industries about poten-tial full-time positions and internship opportunities from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Feb. 24 at the Abilene Civic Center. The event offers résumé reviews and mock interviews. Professional attire is required.

A Walk Through Black History Students can celebrate Black His-tory month at the Walk Through Black History banquet at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the Williams Performing Arts Center foyer. There will be per-formances, and attire is semi-formal. All proceeds go to Da-Cipher Kids. Contact exj08a@acu.edu for more information.

Springboard Ideas Challenge The mini-business plan competi-tion offers students the opportunity to get their business up and running and the chance to win cash prizes. Students must register at www.acu.edu/springboard by March 4 to compete.

FCA The ACU chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meets at 9 p.m. every Thursday in the Campus Center Living Room.

ACUltimate The univer-sity’s ultimate frisbee club meets at 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Interested students can contact Kyle Thaxton at krt06d@acu.edu.

FilmFest Entry forms for the 2011 FilmFest can be found in McKin-zie Hall, Room 122, at www.acu.edu/filmfest or acufilmfest.tumblr.com.

12 p.m. Softball Southeastern Oklahoma Crossover tournament vs. University of Central Missouri

2 p.m. “Viva Flamenco!” concert featuring Ron Radford at the Williams Performing Arts Center Recital Hall

4 p.m. Softball Southeastern Oklahoma Crossover tournament vs. Newman University

Presidents’ Day

11 a.m. Chapel in Moody Coliseum

Casanova Week: Free Coldstone ice cream coupons

11 a.m. Chapel

1 p.m. Softball vs. Midwestern State University

2 p.m. Baseball at St. Edwards University

3 p.m. Softball vs. Midwestern State University

Casanova Week: Free Sharky’s coupons

11 a.m. Chapel in Moody Coliseum

6 p.m. Women’s basketball at Tarleton State University

8 p.m. Men’s basketball at Tarleton State

24

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about this pageThe Optimist maintains this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities. Groups may send announcements directly to optimist@jmcnetwork.com.

To ensure an item will appear on time, the announcement should be sent at least 10 days in advance. The Optimist may edit items for space and style.

Corrections and clarifications of published news articles will be printed on this page in a timely manner.

Page 3CAMPUS NEWSFebruary 20, 2011

Monks partners with ministry

Through the month of Feb-ruary, Monks coffee shop will be supporting the ACU student-formed non-prof-it organization, The Red Thread Movement, by sell-ing red bracelets in its shop.

Samantha Sutherland, sophomore advertising and public relations major from Brownwood and founder of the Red Thread Movement said Monks approached her about the possibility of set-ting up a display in the cof-fee shop for Valentine’s Day and the rest of the month.

“I love partnering with dif-ferent things, like Monks, and the bands that we partner with, and even schools and other non-profits. I think it’s really beneficial,” Sutherland said. “I really feel that with connections and with part-nerships, there are so many ways to mutually benefit.”

Erin James-Brown, a barista at Monks, said the staff at Monks had heard about The Red Thread Move-ment and determined that the non-profit shared many of the same beliefs Monks tries to promote.

“At the coffee shop, we only serve direct trade or-ganic coffee, but it’s a pri-ority for us to help those that need it,” James-Brown said. “It’s the mentality built into the idea of Monks. We want it to be a place that is a great place to hang out, but is also a place to give back, accomplishing two goals at one time. With that mental-ity in mind, we try to think of ways to recycle better, provide better for the envi-ronment and give back to the Abilene community.”

Sutherland said since The Red Thread Movement’s Chapel forum last semester, the organization has got-ten a lot of buzz, with more

volunteers, business oppor-tunities and publicity, which she feels was vital to starting the organization.

“I have a huge vision of what could happen in Ne-pal, Sutherland said. “We went there in January, and I think that raising mon-ey, just having a little bit more money each month, can have a huge impact. It can add another border unit to the whole system. It can open another safe house that can house 20 more girls. There are just so many things that could happen, in small steps, so it would be great to see that expand.”

“I think it’s a really ta-boo subject people want to ignore or pretend it doesn’t exist, because it’s pretty un-pleasant to think about,” James-Brown said. “It’s terri-ble, but just because it’s hard to talk about doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed.”

Red Thread bracelets cost $3. One dollar from each sale contributes to the cost of making the brace-lets, and the other two go directly toward a safe house in Nepal for women who have been victims of human trafficking.

Bailey NealPage Designer

LOCAL

contact Neal atbmn07a@acu.edu

Chapel forum discusses exploitation of child soldiers

For the third time in two years, Invisible Children will be a Chapel forum topic on Tuesday.

A group of roadies from the organization will join Tony Bazilo, who grew up in the Uganda war zone, in the telling of his story and the mission of Invisible Children.

Joleah Stiles, Invisible Children’s East Texas re-gional manager, said Ba-zilo will be attending only one of the 17 stops on the roadies’ tour this semes-

ter, and hearing his story is a treat.

“Getting the chance to hear Tony speak is really, re-ally rare,” Stiles said. “Meet-ing him and hearing his story to where he is now is astounding. People make it a priority to be there.”

Invisible Children is an organization dedicat-ed to combating the use of child soldiers in the northern area of Uganda. Their many chapters, na-tionwide, educate college students about the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that has been ab-

ducting children for the past 25 years.

Stiles said it’s time for col-lege students to get involved.

“We appreciate and be-lieve in the youth,” she said. “We believe that spreading the idea of global citizen-ship and humanitarianism is incredibly important with talking to college students. There is a lot of power in college students in that they leave school to be some of the most powerful people in the world.”

Mark Lewis, assistant dean for spiritual life and Chapel programs, said the

campus was glad to invite the organization back.

“In the midst of sharing their story, they provide tangible ways for students to get involved, and that’s something that is really important to us,” Lewis said. “You can make people aware of a situation, but if you don’t provide some way for them to respond, [the audience] will just leave sort of frustrated and won’t know what to do.”

This semester, the or-ganization has developed two outlets for those want-ing to get involved.

“The best way for people to get involved is through helping us with our new protection plan and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Stiles said. “It is a plan in a place where liter-ally no organizations are working because it’s too dangerous and too remote. It protects some of the most vulnerable people on the face of the earth, in all honesty, in one of the most forgotten humanitarianism crises of this time.”

Stiles also said students can get involved without even leaving the states.

“They can sign up for ‘Try,’ which is a reoccurring donation program, or they can sign up for ‘25,’ an in-ternational event where we ask people to be silent for 25 hours and to raise $25 for all of those initiatives.”

Two credits will be given to those who attend the Chapel forum. To learn more about Invisible Chil-dren and ways to get in-volved, visit its website, www.invisiblechildren.com.

Marissa FergusonStaff Reporter

CHAPEL

contact Ferguson atmlf10a@acu.edu

JOZIE SANDS // Online Editor

Dr. Royce and Pam Money attend a “topping out” ceremony, an event where construction workers placed a tree atop the highest point of the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center. This celebration occurs when workers have placed the last beam on a building underconstruction. The ceremony symbolizes having a safe and productive work site.

Tree Topper

I really feel that with connections and with partnerships, there are so many ways to mutually benefit.

SAMANTHA SUTHERLAND // founder of the Red Thread Movement‘‘ ’’

February 20, 2011CAMPUS NEWSPage 4

“He stepped in front of the cannon, and there was nothing there.”

Sing Song hostess Car-lee Cagle, senior musical theatre major from Arling-ton, was backstage getting ready for a duet when Groves fell.

“I was getting ready, and then – Oh my gosh – I saw a guy lying on the floor in his colonial soldier suit,” Cagle said. “He fell off the stage and was just lying there. We couldn’t freak out be-cause we had to keep do-ing our performance.”

Tom Craig, director of student productions, said extra measures were tak-en to ensure no more ac-cidents occured, and the production team staffed people on stage to help performers stay away from the edge.

“We have taken every precautionary measure you can imagine,” Craig said. “We’re going to be ramping it up even more now.”

Barnard said he went back to see Groves after their act and said Groves was lucid and talking. Groves resumed his role, working with the cannons

for Saturday’s show, when Rasco would experience fresh calamity.

One of the air cannons used in Friday’s show had to be replaced, Bar-nard said. But as Rasco, junior criminal science major from Abilene, was filling the new tank with compressed air, the can-non’s side split, causing the recoiling prop to hit Rasco’s face.

The incident left Rasco with a broken jaw, miss-ing six teeth and requiring eight stitches, and “there was a lot of blood,” Bar-nard said.

Despite the incidents, GSP managed to claim second place for origi-nality on Friday and first place for appearance during Saturday’s after-noon performance.

Barnard said he did not think very many people saw Groves fall, and so any effect on the club’s show was minimal.

“I know for the people close to his side, it was probably very distract-ing,” Barnard said. “He was so far off to the side, and he fell so quickly; I don’t think many people saw it.”

While Barnard had worried Rasco’s accident might shake the club’s performance, he said the club perservered admira-bly, singing one of its bet-ter shows.

“I had worried that it would be discourag-ing, but despite that, we came through,” Barnard said. “Jason’s ok. He’s do-ing great, and we’re ready to go.”

After the Saturday after-noon show, GSP replaced its air cannons with a more controllable prop.

“We’re trying some-thing different and much safer,” Barnard said.

Fall: Kinsman injured SING SONG

Continued from page 1

contact Staff atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

Cup: Kinsmen, Kojies win club act awardswinnings to the Osteogene-sis Imperfecta Foundation, a group that helps those who suffer from a genetic bone disorder often called brittle bone disease.

GSP director Colin Bar-nard, senior political sci-ence major from Washing-ton, D.C., said he felt relief and a sense of pride for all

of the work his group put into the performance.

“I’m speechless right now; this is the greatest I’ve felt since being in college,” Bar-nard said. “And being with friends is the best part.”

GSP performer Jason Rasco, junior criminal sci-ence major from Abilene, suffered a broken jaw during preparations for Saturday’s show. He sus-

tained the injury after an air-compressed cannon backfired during warm-ups. Rasco returned for the show after a trip to the hospital earlier in the day.

“I wasn’t going to put in all that effort and then not show up, Rasco said. “These guys are my brothers. A broken jaw and some lost teeth aren’t going to stop me from

coming back and winning Sing Song.”

Tom Craig, director of student productions, said he was pleased with the show and the diversity of clubs that won awards for their acts.

“Overall, it was great. There was more talent and more great acts and more numbers of people in-volved,” Craig said. “Awards were scattered like never be-

fore, which is a testament to the effort all groups put in.”

Sing Song 2011 featured 17 upstage acts, a record number. The Kojies, Kins-men and soon-to-be juniors

will look to defend their titles in 2012, when the theme will be “Wild at Heart.”

SING SONG

contact Staff atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

Continued from page 1

He was so far off to the side, and he fell so quickly; I don’t think many people saw it.

COLIN BARNARD // director of the GSP Sing Song act‘‘ ’’

Awards were scattered like never before, which is a testament to the effort all groups put in.

TOM CRAIG // director of student productions‘‘ ’’

Representatives from AT&T and the Abilene community are invited to join the ACU family in cel-ebrating the grand open-ing of the AT&T Learning Studio with a ribbon-cut-ting ceremony Feb. 28.

The 2:15 p.m. ribbon cutting will mark the offi-cial completion and open-ing of the much-anticipat-ed AT&T Learning Studio, located on the third floor of Brown Library.

Kyle Dickson, director of the digital media center, said he believes this is an energiz-ing time to be at ACU.

“I feel like this is a natural extension for ACU and the project we’ve been so involved in for the last several years,”

Dickson said. “We’re trying to create the tools that we’ll use to teach students and help in learning for the future.”

Before the ribbon cut-ting, students can get a sneak peak of the AT&T Learning Studio from 7-9 p.m. at the Red Carpet Premiere on Feb. 24. There will be food and prize give-aways.

Dickson said he wanted to make sure students were wel-comed into the space.

“The premiere will let them see what rooms, equipment and staff will be available to support them in creating messages with a global impact.”

The AT&T Learning Studio is equipped with high-end iMac computers, supporting software for web develop-ment, design and media cre-ation. The center includes a

main media lab, small group rooms and several studio rooms, with high-quality au-dio and video equipment for recording podcasts or prac-ticing for speeches and inter-views. Media specialists also will be at hand to answer all users’ technology questions.

Students also will have the opportunity to check-out au-dio and video equipment for personal use, in addition to campus projects.

“We recognize students are learning many things beyond the curriculum of the class,” Dickson said. “The Learning Studio is de-signed to help students in building confidence using digital media, so personal projects are welcomed.”

David McMichael, se-nior English major from Abilene, works in the Digi-

tal Media Center and said he is excited for the new third-floor renovation.

“The location is bet-ter,” McMichael said. “The new space upstairs is go-ing to look a lot better and will be inductive to creative thought processes. There’s much more space to utilize the technology.”

Students will have the opportunity to interact with the featured technology this spring, as the studio plans to house tutorial classes and focus groups.

“Partnering with AT&T is a big deal,” McMichael said. “Working with a big company like AT&T legiti-mizes what we’re trying to do here at ACU.”

The ribbon cutting cer-emony will take place in conjunction with the ACU

Connected Summit 2011 on Feb. 28. Conference visitors will have the op-portunity to tour the AT&T Learning studio and hear more about ACU’s push for educational innovation.

The AT&T Learning Studio will be open to the ACU community for daily use beginning March 2.

Page 5CAMPUS NEWSFebruary 20, 2011

Sing Song costumes support group themes

For Sing Song directors, the development and creation of imaginative costumes and distinctive sets is just as vital as coaching strong vocal performances.

A record 17 upstage acts performed at Sing Song 2011, with themes rang-ing from barnyard animals to pilots. Trojan’s director Matt Bowman, sophomore music education major from Brookhaven, Miss., said finding an original costume is key to commu-nicating a group’s theme.

“It’s always been said that the theme is what you make it,” Bowman said. “You have things like pigs and skunks that don’t sound that great at first, but can add so much. A costume can really make or break a theme.”

Bowman said the Trojans came up with their theme “No Strings Attached” through brainstorming sessions. They ultimately decided to use the character Pinocchio for their costumes, which consisted of red shorts, a yellow shirt, a black vest, a blue bow-tie and a red hat with a green feather.

“We were sitting around trying to come up with dif-ferent themes. We looked through old Sing Songs and random things,” Bow-man said “We wanted to come up with something not super-manly and fun for everyone.”

The men’s social club Pi Kappa competed in Sing Song for the first time since 2003 this year. Direc-

tor Luke Burnham, junior vocal music education major from Mesquite, said a well-done costume could make a good act great.

“I think costumes are real-ly important. They can really make the difference in the acts,” Burnham said. “They can also probably save your act if it’s not very good.”

Burnham’s group ad-opted the theme “Po-tatoes O’Brien.” They dressed as leprechauns, adorned in khaki shorts, a glittery emerald-greed shirt, a green hat and a green coat. Burnham said a good Sing Song costume is original and flashy.

“We tried to really look like a leprechaun,” Burn-ham said. “We figured shiny vests would add some pop and pizazz.”

The class acts also have to find a way to create uni-formity in their acts, apart from the natural bonds that class acts have. Ju-nior class director Julie Neill, junior advertising and public relations major from Irving, said she tried to keep her act’s costumes affordable. The junior act performed as cats.

“Since it’s a class act, we get money from Students’ Association, so we were on a tight budget, Neill said. “My friend and I designed a shirt together and that’s part of the costume, and we

pinned a sparkly cat stom-ach on it. We just wore black sweatpants and white socks on hands and feet. We tried to keep it pretty cheap.”

Neill said a good Sing Song costume should be flashy and eye catching. However, she said having good facial expressions is just as important.

Part of the costume is your Sing Song face,” Neill said. “Good facial expressions gives you en-ergy and makes your act more entertaining.”

For some groups, the costumes have special meaning. The International Students Association, Es-sence of Ebony and His-panos Unidos combined to create the IEH act. Each of the members dressed as crayons, emphasizing that individuals are truly fulfilled when they exhibit their “true colors.”

IEH director Rebekah Hernandez, junior psychol-ogy major from San Anto-nio, said the group’s cos-tumes tell a story.

“The theme is that it is only when you show your true colors that you come to life,” Hernandez said. “The crayons all start gray and change to color. That’s the special meaning be-hind our costumes.”

SING SONG

Jeff CraigManaging Editor A costume can really

make or break a theme.

MATT BOWMAN // Director of Trojan’s Sing Song Act‘‘ ’’

contact Craig atjrc07d@acu.edu

Christy LewisSenior Reporter

contact Lewis atcll09a@acu.edu

AT&T Learning Studio readies for ribbon cuttingCONSTRUCTION

Experts say, graduates must employ creativity in job search

Freshmen and seniors alike may need tips for polishing their resumes. The Federal Reserve chairman said jobs probably will be scarce for the next decade.

According to a BBC article published earlier this month, Ben Bernanke predicted it would take would take about 10 years to beat back the unem-ployment rate to the 5-6 percent seen before the recession at current eco-nomic growth rates.

Tim Johnston, assis-tant dean of the College of Business Administra-tion, said Bernanke was not introducing any new

ideas in his statements. Bernanke has always has cautioned that recovery would be slow.

“He wants us all to know that recent unemployment improvements should not be taken out of context,” Johnston said. “We would all like to see this problem go away, but the issues that created and exacerbated the problem will take some time to resolve.

Jozell Brister, associate professor of management, said unemployment recent-ly has dropped from a height of 9.8 percent to 9.0 percent, but the jobs added to the la-bor market are just enough to meet those entering it.

Brister said she was unsure unemployment ever would

reach 5.5 percent again, as that may not be a normal bal-ance of markets. But she said she’s more optimistic about American’s creativity and pro-ductivity than Bernanke is.

“I’m hoping it will come down to around 8 percent in a year,” Brister said. “I’m not sure it will do even that, but I just can’t believe it will be ten years.”

Unemployment is a re-sult mainly of the country’s heavy foreign debt, said Ian Shepherd, associate profes-sor of management.

“Rather than creating new products and new ser-vices, we’re paying off the old debt,” Shepherd said. “The more heavily we get in debt, the more we trade out the future of our kids.”

The money America owes goes to foreign coun-tries, causing a net loss of American spending power, Shepherd said. He said he worries that foreign coun-tries will stop lending to the United States if it con-tinues to spend more than it earns.

Shepherd said the best way to speed up economic recovery is to reduce the na-tional debt by cutting spend-ing. But Brister disagreed.

“In the long term, we have to do something about the deficit,” Brister said. “But I don’t see it as a good idea to dramatically reduce the deficit right now when we’re just coming out of the worst recession since the great depression.”

For now, students will certainly feel the impact of high unemployment, Shepherd said. Johnston said some businesses that used to hire recent gradu-ates have been unable to over the past few years. But that shouldn’t stop students from making as many contacts as possible.

“Networking has al-ways been critical to any job search, but this job market puts a premium on networking,” Johnston said. “You need insid-ers who can let you know about opportunities that are not being promoted.”

Bradon Owens, em-ployer relations manager, said it is taking gradu-ates from all universities

longer to find jobs, so it is important for students to persistently seek out employers before their senior year. Internship experience will increase students’ competitiveness as well.

Students may have to be flexible during the economy’s lean season.

“Graduates have had to adjust their expectations for their first out-of-college jobs, in some cases accept-ing things that aren’t their ideal job,” Owens said.

Students can find guid-ance and resources for building their careers at the Career Center, Owens said.

Christy LewisSenior Reporter

LOCAL

contact Lewis atcll09a@acu.edu

Page 6 Page 7February 20, 2011

Pages 4A & 5A

LiFe under the Big top

Sing Song participants eagerly await performances in the big white tent outside of Moody Coliseum

photos by JOZIE SANDS // Online Editor

Kevin Riley, junior exercise science major from San Antonio livens up the tent while waiting to perform Friday night.

Above: Ashley Ham, senior art major from Abilene, wears costumes from both of the acts in which she participates while she walks through the tent. Above Left: Duck costumes line the Alpha Kai Omega section of the tent.

Above: A group of GATA members huddle before returning to Moody Coliseum for the finale Friday night. Right: Evan Hernandez, senior social studies education major from San Antonio, dances

with other members of the Trojan act.

Left: Allison Fowler, junior English major from Amarillo, paints the famous Sing Song face on members of the junior act. Below: Arielle Moncure, sophomore advertising and public relations major from Leakwood, Kans., cringes as another member of GATA ties the ribbon that will secure her wig.

BarbarossaBy Matthew Woodrow

Sunday morning church service is a time filled with communion and connect-ing with God and with our fellow man. It’s a time to rest from the week, but sometimes we feel like we’re too busy to rest.

It’s com-mon knowledge that on days like Easter and Christmas, church at-tendance booms. But on the other side of the coin are days when the crowd thins considerably.

On Super Bowl Sun-day, the evening service is sparse or sometimes even canceled. The morning when the elders give the “State of the Congrega-tion” lesson, attention is lax. But I believe the one day a year it’s most diffi-cult for ACU students to get up in the morning is the day after Sing Song.

Preachers this morn-ing will look out from the pulpit and see one of two

things: The sec-tion where the college group normally sits completely emp-ty, or a sleeping college student next to their visit-ing parents, who rousted their child out of bed to attend service.

Last night’s show start-ed at 8:00, and after two-and-a-half hours of acts there were awards, clean-up and celebration.

I’m sure the members of Gamma Sigma Phi stayed up all night celebrating their victory, while the fun did not stop for Ko Jo Kai. And sophomores must have been on cloud nine. They probably went to bed after this paper was printed.

Meanwhile, other teams’ wishes were not granted and pipe dreams went unfullfilled. They are most likely wallowing in defeat and won’t feel like getting up this morning.

The busyness of Sing Song, in addition to the massive workloads placed on students by teachers compensating for Abilene’s transformation into an arctic

tundra two weeks ago, have made this past week one of the longest I, personally, ever have ever experienced.

I fought with people I respect and argued with roommates, friends and coworkers. My girlfriend and I even postponed Valentine’s Day to a more convenient time.

All of these things have filled my week with stress upon stress, but one thing helped: going to church on Wednesday night.

I didn’t feel like making the time to go. I attended mostly out of obligation. But the hour I was there was a time of relaxation and freedom from the worries of the day.

True, after that hour, it was directly back to the grindstone, but that time did help.

Jesus is called the “Prince of Peace,” “the rock of my strength,”

“a shelter in the time of storm.” All of those are ti-tles that help us carry on through our struggles.

I knew that this morn-ing I would be going to church with my girlfriend’s family. But now instead of feeling obligated to go, I’m looking forward to the re-freshment I will find there.

I’m taking my troubles to him.

And then maybe apolo-gizing to some of the peo-ple I referenced above for the way I acted this week.

I know that for many of you reading this, it will be too late to attend Sunday morn-ing services, or even Sunday night church. But maybe when you do, you can set aside some time to be thank-ful for getting through the past week, and spend a little time with your father.

Laura AcuffCopy Editor

Bailey GriffithCopy Editor

Morgan DavisCartoonist

As demonstrations rage on in Egypt, American young peo-ple should be inspired and motivated by the high level of civic activism demonstrat-ed by Egyptian youth.

Unemployment among young people in Egypt hit an astronomical 25 per-cent, according to The Economist, and adolescents became fed up with inac-tion from President Hosni Mubarak and his cabinet.

Youth across the nation took to the streets in re-sponse to what they believed to be lapses in democracy and incompetence in their government. They shouted

from the rooftops, calling for Mubarak’s resignation.

Their voices were heard.One activist group gain-

ing a voice across Egypt is the April 6 Youth Move-ment, a group that earned its name for supporting a work protest on that date, according to NPR.

The April 6 Youth Move-ment is not controlled by a headquarters or a board. The group actually is struc-tured around a staple of “youthdom” around the world: Facebook.

The group’s Facebook page has almost 100,000 members and claims they fo-

cus on three key tenets: De-mocracy, social justice and free and fair elections.

In the shadow of Egypt’s internal strife, a vital question must be asked: Would Amer-ica’s youth do the same?

Rather than imploring America’s young people to violent uprisings, we urge self-examination. Unfortu-nately, young people in the United States are far too ambivalent towards per-ceived injustices.

A 2010 Harvard study found that only 27 percent of people between ages 18 and 29 said they definitely would vote. The Chronicle of Higher

Education reported that just 20 percent of people under age 30 voted in the 2010-mid-term elections.

Young people in the United States must be-come more socially aware in their own nation and around the world. Civic activism starts at the bal-lot box, but it most cer-tainly does not end there.

America’s youth must make a concerted effort to become aware of the can-didates for whom they vote, the issues for which they stand and the processes by which decisions are made. It’s for our own good.

The Egyptian people recognized that they were not reaping the intended benefits of democracy, so they reacted.

The youth of any nation is a powerful voice, but only if it chooses to exercise its right to speak up. Unless Americans make the effort to educate themselves on those processes, we will continue to be a nation that disregards its youth vote.

And without that youth vote, we may well fall vic-tim to the same political stagnation plaguing de-mocracy in Egypt; we may find ourselves requiring the same degree of change and political revolution.

The only difference: We may not do anything about it.

OpinionPage 8 February 20, 2011

Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.

Signed columns, cartoons and letters are the opinions of their creators and may not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Optimist or the university.

The Optimist encourages reader response through letters to the editor but reserves the right to limit frequent contributors or to refuse to print

letters containing personal attacks, obscenity, defamation, erroneous information or invasion of privacy.

Please limit letters to 350 words or fewer. A name and phone number must be included for verification purposes. Phone numbers will not be published.

Address letters to: ACU Box 27892 Abilene, TX 79699

E-mail letters to: optimist@acu.edu

editorial and letter policy

By Morgan DavisThe Funny Funnies

Egyptian activism should inspire youthEDITORIAL

Memories linger, hangover clears

COLUMN

Your Average JozieBy Jozie Sands

Students may not wake up to find a tiger in their bathroom or their ma-tress on the roof, but they may greet the Sun-day after Sing Song still sport-ing crim-son cheeks and brightly colored tights. And that, my friends, is a Sing Song hangover.

Other symptoms in-clude spontaneous chore-ography, an af-finity for white gloves and conversing via rewritten chart toppers from the past three decades.

Some may suffer from the prolonged c o n d i t i o n , Sing Song Syndrome, in which victims find their faces permanently frozen in expressions of what appears to be painfully intense joy. This symp-tom often accompanies a compulsion to inject “jazz hands” into every-day gestures.

Loss of sleep, prolonged exposure to pep and a glit-ter overdose will leave even the most weathered Sing Song veterans fum-bling for an Advil and a cup of coffee as they try to kick the hangover and drag themselves to church after the Saturday night finale.

A production with the grandeur of Sing Song comes with a price, and it isn’t the $24 ticket that made ACU “the singing college” fifty-four years ago, when the campus was young and treeless. Sing Song is bought with the blood, sweat, tears and GPA points of the students who dedicate the first month of the se-

mester, and a portion of their sanity, to the great-est show on campus.

Although four years of Sing Song experience might not look good on a résumé, Sing Song memories can mark peak moments of the college experience. There isn’t anything better than an elementary school pro-gram on steroids to bring friends closer.

Students stay up late into the night putting the final touches on their homemade costumes and sets. And fi-nally, after many nights of practice with Tom Craig rocking the role of the music teacher, it’s time to perform.

Parents, grandpar-ents and siblings fill the coliseum to watch their twenty-something year-olds show off their newest knowledge, acquired at a high-dollar price at a pri-vate university, by singing exuberantly and executing perfectly choreographed arm movements with 50 of their peers. And no one knows why, but the parents are so proud of this accomplishment that they proceed to purchase the production DVD.

20 years from now, the lost sleep, blown GPA and struggle to stay awake dur-ing church will be forgot-ten. The only memories that will remain are the same memories of the en-ergetic, overgrown elemen-tary school program that has brought generations of ACU students together.

Love it or hate it, it’s Sing Song.

All of these things have filled my week with stress upon stress, but one thing helped: going to church on Wednesday night.

contact the Optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

the issueAfter weeks of protests in Egypt, President Mubarak has decided to step down from office.

our takeWhile American young shouldn’t riot in front of the White House, they should be more aware and involved in politics.

contact Sands atjgs07a@acu.edu

Church service soothes stressCOLUMN

contact Woodrow atmrw08a@acu.edu

Sands

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Although four years of Sing Song experience might not look good on a résumé, Sing Song memories can mark peak moments of the college experience.

Woodrow

Focus

Sing it out

February 20, 2011 Page 9

photos by JOZIE SANDS // Online Editor

Left: The women of Ko Jo Kai perform as popcorn in their act, “Once you Pop, the Fun Don’t Stop.” Below: Nathan Healy, sophomore exercise science major from Plano plays the role of a nervous suitor in the sophomore class act, “Shot Through the Heart.”

Top left: Jeff Cawyer, junior finance major from Carrollton, directs the men of Galaxy. Bottom left: Hosts perform “Footloose” with Sanctify. Above: Sing Song hostess Carlee Cagle, senior theater major from Arlington, sings and dances to “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.”

Six hosts and hostesses, 17 class and club acts and hundreds of student participants make this year’s Sing Song the biggest in its 55-year history.

February 20, 2011CAMPUS NEWSPage 10

Page 11 February 20, 2011FROM SPORTS

Final: Sang, others stay home In the men’s triple jump, Timothy Jones finished second, posting a jump of 14.01, a slim .39 meters be-hind the provisional mark of 14.4. On the women’s side of the event, Amanda Ouedraogo hit the pro-visional qualifying mark, jumping 11.99 meters.

Karla Hope provision-ally qualified for nation-als in the 400-meter race, posing a solid time of 56.76, good for fourth at the Nebraska meet.

Sydney Smith ran a 25.74 in the 200-meter dash, nar-

rowly missing the provi-sional mark by .04 seconds.

The decathletes were at a “last chance” meet in Lub-bock, but no one qualified there. At the meet, there were only six people competing. None of the ACU decathletes had gotten to post times yet because of the weather that caused their meet to be can-celed two weeks ago.

“It was a rough meet for all of us,” decathlete Caleb Gregory said. “We hadn’t had a chance to get quali-fying times yet, so this was our only chance to do so, which was a bummer that we had to wait so long.”

Amos Sang set an au-tomatic qualifying time of 14:05.82 in the 5,000-meter run in New York two weeks ago. Triple jumper Ramon Sparks chose to play it safe as well. He already had qualified for Nationals in the men’s long and triple jump, and Tyler Fleet hit a provisional qualifying mark of 57-11.75 in the weight

throw at the Texas Tech In-vitational two weeks ago.

The team now will pre-pare for the final meet of the indoor season, the NCAA Division II National Indoor Championships, March 10-12 in Albuquer-que, N.M.

TRACK AND FIELD

contact Shake atbxs09a@acu.edu

Continued from page 12

Wild: Crazy finish dooms ECU

field. Watson scored on a throwing error. The Wild-cats tacked on two more runs to their total in the fifth inning and added one run in the seventh.

ECU came back in the top of the ninth to tie the game, but the Wildcats prevailed in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off wild pitch, 6-5.

After the game, Cal-houn said the series sweep has his team headed in the right direction.

“We’re on the right track,” Calhoun said. “We have a lot of work to do, but it’s early, we’ll figure some things out.”

The next game for the Wildcats will be Tuesday in Austin.

BASEBALL

contact Craig atjrc07d@acu.edu

Continued from page 12

Shootout: Lack of consistency troubles Reeves

failing to score a run, de-spite loading the bases with no outs.

“We left 28 runners on base in two games. That’s

definitely something we need to work on,” Reeves said. “We have to bring runners in scoring position home. Our pitchers need to get ahead of the count. We need to play better de-

fense. But we’ll get better as the season goes on.”

On Saturday, the ’Cats defeated Southern Arkan-sas University 6-1, and Brittany Rexroat got the win. But the women fell

to University of Nebraska-Omaha later in the day 7-0, as Hall failed to win her second pitching matchup in as many days.

“We’ve had some ups and downs; we’ve had

some good games and bad games,” Nolan said. “But we’re really coming togeth-er as a team, and we have some great potential.”

Sunday, the Wildcats face Central Missouri and

Newman University to fin-ish the Shootout.

The next home game will be Tuesday at 1 p.m.

SOFTBALL

contact Smith atmds10a@acu.edu

Continued from page 12

Fan: Oaks act as AU symbol

know this is arguably the biggest college football ri-valry in America, but to do something like that is just wrong. Instead of fighting for his team, this man pub-licly disgraced Alabama and all it stands for.

Really man, what were you thinking?

He mentioned in his phone call that some Au-burn fans placed a Cam Newton jersey over a Paul “Bear” Bryant statue be-fore this year’s game, and that some students rolled Toomer’s corner after Bry-ant’s death in 1983. Whether or not that’s true, this man’s actions still are not justified, not even close. What would coach “Bear” Bryant say to you about your actions if he was still alive? From what I have heard about Coach Bryant, I don’t think he would approve.

The man will face felo-ny charges under criminal mischief in court some-day. However, regardless of what happens to the man, the damage has been done. It is a sad day for War

Eagle nation, but Auburn had the last laugh after winning this year’s Nation-al Championship trophy.

This just goes down as another terrible mark and reason for these two schools to hate each other. Although, Auburn will not be as good next season without Cam Newton, I would be pretty surprised if they didn’t beat Alabama next year.

Even if they are not better than Alabama next year, they definitely will have a score to settle on the field, which is what makes rivalries and col-lege football great.

COLUMN

contact Cantrell atjrc07f@acu.edu

Continued from page 12

What would coach “Bear” Bryant say to you about your actions if he were still alive?‘‘’’

I was very pleased with our meet. I knew it would be really important to post good times.

DESMOND JACKSON // junior sprinter for ACU track and field‘‘ ’’

STACY ACTON // Staff Photographer

Zach Sneed throws a pitch in Saturday’s game against ECU.

SportsStandings

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Team Div. Ovrl.

Tarleton St.MSUWTAMUASUUIWENMUTAMU-KACU

8-16-36-46-45-54-53-71-10

17-418-519-410-1216-69-128-149-14

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Team Div. Ovrl.

Tarleton St.WTAMU

ASUACU

MSUUIW

6-4

7-39-0

7-4

4-53-7

13-9

14-919-2

10-13

8-137-15

Briefs

n The volleyball pro-gram has announced plans for its first Volley-ball Alumni Weekend on April 16. An alumni match will take place after the completion of the 2011 Spring Vol-leyball Tournament.

n Tickets for the Lone Star Conference Bas-ketball Championship now are available for purchase. The tourna-ment will take place March 2-6 in Bartles-ville, Okla. Tickets cost $35 and can be purchased through the ACU Department of Athletics online at www.lonestarconference.org. Call 674-6853 for more ticket information.

n The men’s basketball team dropped a heart-breaker 79-77 to the Eastern New Mexico University Greyhounds. The ’Hounds nailed three three-pointers in the last minute to rally against the ’Cats in another tough loss this season for ACU. The Wildcats are 1-11 in the conference.

n The women’s basket-ball team won a close contest 67-64 against the Zias from Eastern New Mexico Univer-sity. Mack Lankford led the Wildcats with 25 points including six three-pointers. The Wildcats are now 8-4 in the conference and have almost clinched a playoff berth.

February 20, 2011Page 12

ENMU 2-7 4-17TAMU-K 1-9 3-19

n The men’s and women’s basketball teams will play at Tar-leton State University on Wednesday. The women’s game will start at 6 p.m., and the men will follow immedi-ately after.

n The softball team will play at home against Midwestern State Uni-versity in a two-game series on Tuesday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

n The baseball team will travel to Austin to take on St. Edwards University on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

n The men’s ten-nis team will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo. on Friday to play Metro State University and the Air Force Academy.

Upcoming

Walk-off sweeps TigersThe Wildcat baseball team swept a weekend series against East Central Uni-versity on Friday and Sat-urday at Crutcher Scott Field, outscoring the Ti-gers 13-8 for the series.

After dropping the first two games of the season against Texas A&M Kings-ville, Head Coach Britt Bonneau’s ’Cats rallied to win the next four.

“I thought we pitched real well in the series,” Bon-neau said. “We’re not there yet with our hitting, but this is a team that can hit, it’s just going to take some time to get disciplined.”

In the first game, ACU and ECU engaged in a tight pitcher’s duel until Wildcat slugger Will Calhoun ripped a two-out, two-run double to break a 1-1 tie. Junior pitcher Brent Bray picked up the win, giving up just two hits in two innings of relief work. The Wildcats took the contest 4-1.

In game two, the Wild-cats scored three runs in the first four innings and held on to edge out the Tigers 3-2. Senior pitcher Zach Sneed came within one out

of a complete game, toss-ing 6.2 innings of four-hit baseball. He struck out two Tigers to earn his first win of the season.

The Wildcat bats started the third game cold. Howev-

er, the Wildcats still scored the first run of the game. Designated hitter Cameron Watten drew a second in-ning walk, advanced on a balk, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a

J.R. Roland groundout. The ’Cats did not record a hit until the fifth inning.

The Tigers took a 2-1 lead with runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but the Wild-cats came right back when

shortstop Reed Watson cracked a single to right-center field. Right fielder Cameron Bankston followed with a bloop single to right

Jeff Craig Managing Editor

BASEBALL

STACY ACTON // Staff Photographer

The Wildcats swept the East Central University Tigers over the weekend at Crutcher Scott Field. Saturday night featured an exciting contest that was decided by an East Central wild pitch. The ’Cats took the win 6-5 to finish off the sweep.

see WILD page 11

Alabama fan takes rivalry to extremeJust a Bit OutsideRyan Cantrell

College rivalries are one of the greatest parts of sports. Rivalries escalate games to a higher level and lead to a

greater level of competi-tion. How-ever, some-times rivalries turn into ha-tred off the field and the

worst in people comes out.Thursday a man was

arrested in Alabama af-ter poisoning two trees on the Auburn University campus. These were not just any ordinary trees however, as they both are 130-year-old live oaks trees ,that have become a part of a huge Auburn tradi-tion. For generations, fans have thronged to Toomer’s Corner after victories and “rolled” these trees. Fans would throw toilet paper over the trees in celebra-tion of the victory.

After a football game between Alabama and Au-burn this season, a bitter Alabama fan drove to Au-burn’s campus and used a herbicide poison to kill the trees and end this tradi-tion. His actions succeed-ed, as both trees were poi-soned and have very little chance of living. The man was picked up and arrested Thursday after calling in to a radio show and boasting about his actions.

I am not a fan of either one of these school, but this action sickens me. I

COLUMN

Jackson qualifies for nationals

With the NCAA Division II Indoor National Cham-pionship meet a mere two-and-a-half weeks away, the ACU Track and Field team split up into four groups Friday in an attempt to try and get as many athletes either pro-visionally or automatical-ly qualified or to improve their already qualified times for better national standing for the impend-ing national meet.

And several athletes did just that on Friday.

Desmond Jackson stole the show for the ACU squad as he set the NCAA automatic qualifying mark in both of the events he ran: the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter dash.

Jackson finished first in the 60-meter dash, run-ning a 6.73, eclipsing the national automatic quali-fying time of 6.75. Paris Robertson ran it in 6.97. Jackson also ranked first in the 200-meter dash, post-ing a mark of 21.26, 0.03

seconds better than the national qualifying time of 21.23. Jackson already had qualified for nation-als in the 60-meter dash, but that was his first time to run the 200, and the re-sults speak for themselves.

“I was very pleased about our meet,” Jackson said. “I knew it would be really important to post good times going into na-tionals in three weeks for better positioning. That was my first time to run the 200, and I was very happy with my time. I had

a slight hamstring injury that I had been nursing, so I wasn’t really sure how it was going to affect me. I guess it turned out okay.”

Long distance run-ner Anais Belledant fin-ished in fourth place in the women’s 1-mile run but, more importantly, improved upon her per-sonal best of 5:00.84 that she ran in New York two weeks ago. With her time, she provisionally quali-fied for nationals.

Bryson Shake Assistant Sports Editor

TRACK AND FIELD

see FINAL page 11

DANIEL GOMEZ // Chief Photographer

Senior Ashley Calles waits for the pitch from her shortstop poistion. The Wildcats split a weekend series against blabbity blah.

SOFTBALL

Two days through the South Central Regional Shootout in Durant, Okla-homa, the ACU softball team has split their first four games, with two left to play on Sunday.

Friday, the ‘Cats defeat-ed Washburn 5-4 and lost to Henderson State 6-8.

In their first game of the Shootout, ACU took

a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning on a two RBI single by junior infielder Sarah Martinez. Sophomore Shelby Hall pitched the complete game, closing out the bot-tom of the inning to se-cure the Wildcat victory, denying the Lady Blues of their first win of 2011.

The ‘Cats left 15 run-ners on base, a statistics that easily could have left the team on the losing end,

had Martinez’s timely hit not brought home fresh-men Kaylee Crozier and Ashley Nolan. Senior Can-dice Miller and Nolan both batted 3-4, and the team record moved above .500 for the first time since the first game of the season.

“We’re really swinging the bats well,” said Head Coach Bobby Reeves. “Nolan hit 6 for 9 on Fri-day, and the team aver-aged .367 and .380 in

those two Friday games respectively.”

It was a different story for the Wildcats later on Friday afternoon during the game against Hender-son State. ACU stranded 13 runners on base and only struck out three State batters, falling to the Lady Reddies 6 runs to 8. The ‘Cats lost a huge oppor-tunity in the sixth inning,

Mark Smith Sports Reporter

see SHOOTOUT page 11

Cantrell

see FAN page 11

’Cats split opening four games