Contact:             Doug Aiken
                           (714) 997-6900

Release Date:   November 20, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

Upcoming Events Calendar
 
Date
Day
Team
Opponent/Event
Site
Time
11/21 Fri. Men's Basketball Cal Maritime# Home 5:00 pm
Women's Basketball Whittier* Redlands 5:30 pm
11/22 Sat. Men's Basketball Pacific Union# Home 7:00 pm
Women's Basketball Redlands* Redlands 7:30 pm
11/24 Mon. Women's Basketball Pacific Union Home 3:00 pm
11/25 Tue. Women's Basketball Caltech Pasadena 7:00 pm
Men's Basketball Cal Lutheran Home 7:30 pm
11/26 Wed. Women's Basketball La Verne Home 5:00 pm
#Chapman Invitational
*Redlands Tournament
 

Winter Sports Previews

Men’s Basketball

They might be unproven, but Bokosky’s youngsters might be naïve enough to give the West Region a run for its money in 2003-04.

On the eve of the Panthers’ season opening game versus Cal Maritime in the Chapman Invitational, Chapman head coach Mike Bokosky is excited about the youth and enthusiasm his team brings to the table. A year ago, the Panthers had 10 new faces, including nine freshmen, but the Panthers bloomed late after a rough 5-7 start, needing 13 straight wins at season’s end to record their fourth consecutive year of 18 wins or better. In 2003, Chapman will again introduce nine new faces, including seven freshmen, but Bokosky thinks the chemistry of this year’s team might overcome the sluggish start that haunted his team last season.

“We only have one senior and two juniors,” says Bokosky, entering his 12th season as Panthers’ head coach ranking third in school history in wins (176) and winning percentage (.638). “These players have a lot in common with each other and they all like each other. And we are very athletic. There are no slo-pokes on this team”

Bokosky calls this group one of the best perimeter shooting teams he’s had in recent years, which is saying a lot considering the Panthers have made over 200 three-point field goals in each of the last two seasons – a mark no Bokosky-coached Chapman team had reached before 2001. This year’s team also seems to have the mental game well-mastered when compared to last year’s team.

“This group seems to has basketball savvy. They know when to drive and when not to,” says Bokosky. “The downside to our youthfulness is our inexperience. Sure, they’ll make mistakes like anyone, but the difference is these guys see the game around them instead of playing with blinders on.”

Paving the way for the younger shooters is junior guard Landon Lewis (Brea/Brea Olinda High), who ranked 15th in Division III in three-pointers per game (3.3) and led the team with 82 three-point buckets. He finished second on the team with a 14.4 points per game average and scored 20 or more in a game six times. He and – fittingly enough a sophomore – guard Zach Wheatley (Fountain Valley/Fountain Valley High) have been selected to serve as team captains on the young team.

Wheatley will assume the role of starting point guard in place of last season’s assist leader Greg Perrine (Costa Mesa/Newport Harbor High), who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the offseason. Wheatley is a prime example of Bokosky’s theory of putting his five best players on the court, despite the absence of a true point guard.

“Wheatley’s bright enough to be able to play multiple positions and his ball handling skills are adequate enough to get the job done. We have always been a team that tries to make the extra pass, so it doesn’t matter who does it as long as we get the ball in our shooters’ hands,” says Bokosky.

The addition of six-foot-five guard Chad Bigler (Santa Ana/Foothill High), who won a state championship and was an all-conference player at Saddleback College, will help solidify the starting five. Bokosky describes him as a player who “survives on being tough, as well as talented” and “a hard-worker who never takes a possession off.” Off the bench, Chapman returns a key “big man” who made many of his contributions during that 13-game winning streak late in the season, the team’s lone senior, Dwight Blair (Compton/Dominguez High). Blair led the team in rebounds (152) and rebounds per game (6.1) and finished third on the team in points per game (7.7), despite playing much of the season on a bad knee.

“With all of these freshman and sophomores I don’t think it’d be fair to set the expectations too high for this group,” says Bokosky. “Without looking past this season, I think we are a year away from being really, really good. I think we will show glimpses of that this year.”
 

Women’s Basketball

First-year head coaches have a tendency to do well at Chapman. Consider this:
1995: Janet Lloyd joins father, Lisle, as co-head coach of the Chapman softball team. Result: National championship. 2000: Craig Bennett assumes the head coaching position of Chapman's women's soccer team. Result: Sweet 16 appearance. 2003: Tom Tereschuk takes over Chapman baseball team that missed the playoffs the previous season. Result: National championship.

Enter Carol Jue, Chapman’s first-year women's basketball head coach with just one year of collegiate head coaching experience. Jue, who posted a 15-10 record and second-place SCIAC finish as interim head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in 2002, didn’t exactly inherit a Chapman basketball program with bare cupboards. The Panthers return four starters from a team that reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last March and has reached the playoffs in each of the past three seasons. That group of starters includes the nation’s sixth-leading point scorer last year and a center who will most likely finish her career as Chapman’s Division III career leader in rebounds.

“I didn’t realize, but I do feel some pressure to win,” says Jue, who was hired as the eighth head coach in Chapman history last July. “I’ve come from programs in the past where the focus was more on the development of the players. But the people around this program expect to win and expect to make the playoffs. The players hold themselves to a higher standard. When you tell them to sprint, they sprint.”

In seniors Mel Bongiorno (Stowe, VT/Rice Memorial High) and Caroline Jensen (San Diego/University High), the Panthers have two of the most complete players to wear the Chapman uniform in the last decade. Bongiorno, a two-time Verizon Academic All-District honoree, earned All-Region honors from both the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and D3Hoops.com last winter. Meanwhile, Jensen ranks among Chapman's all-time leaders in points, rebounds, field goal and free-throw percentage.

“They lead by example,” says Jue of her two seniors. “They make everyone around them better and they complement each other so well.”

If Chapman’s opponents try to shut down Bongiorno and/or Jensen, the Panthers have a handful of other weapons to play with. Junior guard Kelly Crampton (Livermore/Granada High) returned to practice this week at the end of the cross-country season and has already made an impact and impression on her new coach.

“She makes a world of difference to our team,” says Jue of the team’s third player to average double-digits in scoring in 2002-03. “I can remember scouting her and wondering what makes her good. Now I realize that she works so hard and fits into this system so well. She can be very deceiving and surprise a lot of coaches.”

The Panthers also return their starting point guard, junior Gayle Sonoda (Brea/Rosary High), who Jue regards as “refined” and calls the team’s “general”. Sonoda recorded 130 assists a year ago – just her first year as a full-time starter.

And never in Chapman's ten-year history in Division III have the Panthers had the size that they have this season. Assistant coach Coralin Glerum has referred this year’s recruiting class as the best in 10 years, and that includes freshman 6-1 center Sarah Brands (Lake Elsinore/Elsinore High) and junior 6-1 center Kamesha Nabors (Ontario/Rancho Cucamonga High). Their size will allow Jensen to play more minutes at forward. “We will look for a lot of mismatches and use that to our advantage,” says Jue.

What has already helped Jue become so acclimated with Chapman and the women's basketball program has been the guidance and partnership of Glerum, who after nine years alongside former head coach Mary Hegarty, has helped bridge the gap to a new era of Panther hoops.

“This wasn’t going to work if we couldn’t work together,” says Jue. “She is an excellent teacher/coach and we are making decisions together. I’m going to take advantage of her knowledge and max her out.”

At Chapman, coaches don’t come and go too often, but Jue can find comfort (or added pressure) in knowing that her successors in the department have experienced successful transitions. If history repeats, the Panthers may find themselves with their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament bid. And then some.
 

Last Week’s Results:

Football
 
Date Opponent Result Record
11/15 @ Azusa Pacific L, 7-32 3-7

Azusa Pacific 32, Chapman 7 – The Panthers 2003 season ended on a sour note, as the host Azusa Pacific Cougars scored the game’s first 26 points and cruised to a 32-7 defeat of Chapman. The Panthers were without quarterback Patrick Josten and two-way specialist Michael Carter, in addition to the late-season loss of leading wide receiver Lorenza Wilson. Freshman quarterback Dylan Hendy (Fountain Valley/Corona Del Mar High) played admirably in place of Josten, completing 12-of-26 passes for 75 yards.

Chapman’s lone touchdown came at the end of a 60-yard fourth quarter drive with freshman running back Chase Twedell (Long Beach/Valley Christian High) scampering for nine yards and his third touchdown of the season. Twedell finished his impressive rookie campaign as the team’s top runner, just short of 600 yards rushing. He also caught 13 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown in 10 games.

The Panthers played a disciplined game in their season finale, drawing just 34 yards in penalties – the second-lowest mark this season – and did not turnover the ball for the third time in the team’s final six games. Sophomore defensive back Randell Hill (Lake Forest/El Toro High), who currently ranks among the top pass defenders in the country (see below), intercepted his career-best fourth pass of the season late in the second quarter. The pass was also his seventh career pick.

NCAA Statistics Leaders
Four Panthers find themselves amidst the top-35 in NCAA Division III in statistical categories (through games of 11/15/03):
 
Passes Defended Per Game Randell Hill; 1.9 t-6th
Kick Return Yards Per Game A.J. Herrera; 26.9 20th
Punting Average Jesse Harmon; 38.8 20th
Solo Tackles Per Game Josh Oskins; 6.2 31st

Women’s Soccer
 
Date Opponent Result Record
11/15 vs. Puget Sound (WA)* L, 0-1 15-5
*NCAA Regionals (at Loras, IA)

Puget Sound 1, Chapman 0 – An early second half goal by NCAA Division’s third-ranked Loggers proved to be the game-winner as the Panthers were eliminated from the postseason tournament in a regional semifinal game in Dubuque, Iowa. Puget Sound carried the advantage in second half shots and put pressure on the Chapman defense throughout the half, taking six of their eight shots on frame. Four of sophomore defender Mallory Dominguez’s (San Pedro/Mary Star High) seven saves came in the final 45 minutes. The Loggers finally snapped the scoreless tie in the 51st minute. Puget Sound went on to defeat host Loras (IA) on Sunday to advance to the “Elite Eight” and earn the regional title. Chapman’s 15 team victories this season is the second-highest mark in school history.

Academic Honor – The Chapman women’s soccer team was one of 265 intercollegiate women’s teams (Divisions I, II, III and NAIA) to accumulate a team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher during the 2002-03 academic school year. The Panthers team mark of 3.36 ranked tied for 65th in the country among all the divisions.
 

Women’s Volleyball

NCAA Statistics Leaders
Chapman ranks ninth in Division III as a team with 23.93 digs per game, through the end of the regular season. It is the highest ranking the Panthers have had in this category this season.
 

Cross-Country
 
Date Event Top Performers Result
11/15 @ NCAA West Regionals* Women - 14th (6K)
57. Kelly Crampton 24:29.9
64. Brittany Goettesch 24:45.5
66. Frances Ross 24:53.6
Men (8K)
65. Peter Silverman 27:57.3
*at Lewis & Clark, OR

Three members of Chapman’s women’s cross-country team finished in the top-70 at a large meet for just the second time this season with less than 24 seconds separating them. Junior Kelly Crampton (Livermore/Granada High), who was the Panthers’ top finisher in each of the team’s nine races this season, posted a time of 24:29.9 in a race that was one kilometer longer than any of Chapman’s other women’s meets this season. Freshman Brittany Goettesch (La Mirada/Whittier Christian High) and sophomore Frances Ross (Kailua-Kona, HI/Hawaii Prep Academy) each posted times that would have likely been under 21 minutes in a 5K – a first for both this season. Freshman Peter Silverman (Washington D.C./Georgetown Day) recorded the second-best time of his season, 27:57.3, finishing sub-28 minutes for the second time this year.
 

Women’s Swimming
 
Date Event/Opponent Top Swimmers Result
11/14-15 @ Bay Area Invitational Kati Wise
50M Freestyle 1st; 0:25.62
50M Breaststroke 1st; 0:33.52
Briana Lyon
100M Individual Medley 1st; 1:07.61
Chapman
300M Breaststroke Relay 1st; 3:44.34