College Roundup: Providence’s McMahon repeats at Penn Relays

By John Manley

Providence senior Marie McMahon from Ennistymon, Co. Clare, won the women’s 5,000-meter run in the College Championship Division at the Penn Relays for the second year in a row at the weekend.

McMahon stopped the clock in 15 minutes, 51.41 seconds, an improvements of 5 seconds over last year’s time. Freshman Stephanie O’Reilly, from Wicklow, contested the women’s 3,000 meters in the College Division and ran fourth in 9:59.09. Among the men, Providence sophomore Keith Kelly, from Drogheda, ran the 5,000-meter College Division race, finishing 19th in 14:30.96.

TENNIS Harvard’s John Doran will be lost to his college team for a brief spell. The sophomore from Dublin has been granted a leave to represent the Republic against Hungary in Davis Cup competition in that Eastern European nation. He left on a winning note, as the Crimson, ranked 16th nationally, defeated Yale, 5-2, and Brown, 7-0, last weekend. Doran played a third singles match against Yale’s Scott Carleton, winning 7-5, 6-4. He moved up to the second slot to meet Brown’s P. Cheung, whom he beat, 6-4, 6-2. Doubles play found him teamed with James Blake, and the pair ran off victories against Yale’s Jon Beardsley and David Benyet, 8-3, and Brown’s Iyer and Kohli, 8-2. Harvard’s Joe Green, also a sophomore from Dublin, split a pair of singles matches. He lost to Yale’s Greg Royce at sixth singles, 6-4, 6-2, but rebounded when boosted to fourth singles against Brown’s A. MacFarlane, whom he defeated, 6-3, 6-0.

Robert Collins left his match at third singles a winner, but his Rice teammates weren’t as fortunate and the Owls were bounced from the Western Athletic Conference championship tournament in the first round by Brigham Young, 4-2. Collins’s victim was Jason Hardin by a 6-2, 6-3 score. Hardin took a measure of revenge when he teamed with Jeff Harbach to down Collins and Sasha Silver, 8-5, in third doubles play. Rice bounced back to win the consolation bracket over Utah, 4-2. Collins defeated Phil Rodriguez, 6-2, 6-4, in singles action, and joined Silver to knock off Paul McPherson and Ryan Snow, 8-5. Rice now awaits the decision of the NCAA Selection Committee, which will determine if the owls receive a bid to the Region VI tournament, beginning on May 15.

The sophomore jinx seems to have victimized California’s Claire Curran this year. The Dubliner teamed with Amanda Augustus to win the Pacific-10 doubles championship last year, but the calendar has advanced several pages and this year’s version of the story has a different ending. Curran and teammate Jenny Lee were granted a bye in the first round, then were defeated by Arizona State’s Faye Devena and Kerry Giardino, 6-4, 7-6 (5), in the second round. Curran, who is ranked 59th nationally in women’s singles, faced UCLA’s Kelly Rudolph, and was bounced from the tourney, 6-1, 6-4. A chance for redemption awaits the Bears in two weeks in the regionals.

GOLF Toledo’s Tim Rice had another fine tournament, placing in a tie for 12th in the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State’s Scarlett Course in Columbus. Rice came home in 4-over-par 220 (75-74-71) for 54 holes, which was 10 shots off Tee McCabe’s winning 210. Teammate Ricky Elliott tied for 31st at 10-over 226 (74-74-78). Toledo finished fourth in the team standings. Rice, who is from Rosbrien, Co. Limerick, and Elliott, from Portrush, Co. Antrim, are both sophomores.

East Tennessee State won the Southern Conference championship by one stroke over Wofford at the Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg, S.C. ETSU’s Eamonn Brady, a junior from Dublin, tied for 9th place with a 54-hole total of 5-over 221 (77-70-74). Wofford’s Rion Moore was the medalist at 212.

It took Mississippi State’s Sue Phillips a little while to get the hang of the Riverchase Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. The Dublin sophomore opened with a 91 in the Southeastern Conference championship tournament. Improvement followed as evidenced by rounds of 85 and 82. Phillips’s final score of 258 placed her in 58th place. The Lady Bulldogs finished seventh among teams.