There is a groovy rock song by The Police which came out in the early '80s called "Too Much Information." As I was working on stories about a college gymnastics meet between Utah and Florida in Gainesville, Fla., a crucial soccer game in Turkey between league-leader BursaSpor and DenizliSpor (Turkey is my late father's country) and a seven-game winning-streak by the Charlotte Checkers minor league hockey team, it became obvious that I was a bit overwhelmed.
So, today, I will combine the key info for the state of college gymnastics, Turkish soccer and ECHL minor league hockey into one post.
We'll try to keep it (relatively) simple!:
TURKISH SOCCER: BursaSpor (pictured here) won its home game in Bursa, Turkey, over DenizliSpor last week by a 2-1 to gain further ground over Istanbul powerhouses GalataSaray, Fenerbahce and Beshiktash in the league standings. BursaSpor remains in first place this week despite being upset by Istanbul BB 2-1 this weekend.
In BursaSpor's game with DenizliSpor, the goals for the winning Green Crocs were scored by Ozan Ipek and Sercan Yildirim. The lone goal for DenizliSpor came from Darryl Roberts, a Trinidad and Tobago national player, who interestingly enough played soccer at Liberty Baptist University in Lynchburg, Va., which was founded by the late fundamentalist minister Jerry Falwell.
In addition to Ipek and Yildirim, the Green Crocs have been helped by the solid play of Bulgarian goal-keeper Dimitar Ivankov, Serbian defender Ivan Ergic and Romanian mid-fielder Giani Stelian Kirita.
But, the Turkish soccer world is perhaps most discussing Fenerbahce's 1-0 win over arch rival Galatasaray by a 1-0 margin earlier today. Besiktash also won its game with EskisehirSpor 3-2.
COLLEGE GYMNASTICS: In Salt Lake City, Utah, in front of a record crowd of 15,030 spectators the currently eleventh-ranked U The University of Utah Utes (pictured here), one of the strongest women's gymnastics programs in the NCAA, defeated their rivals The Brigham Young Cougars by a 147.4-146.65 margin. The scores were the highest for the Cougars this year.
It was senior night at the Huntsman Center, and Utes' gymnasts Daria Bijak, a film major from Germany who was escorted by her boyfriend and mom, Annie DiLuzio, who would go on to score a 9.9975 on floor, Jamie Deetscreek, who also performed well on floor with a 9.95 and Beth Rizzo, who returned to the lineup from injuries to perform a 9.8 on floor. Bijak won bars with a 9.925.
BYU senior Megan Donehue said the high turnout was not a distraction for the Cougars as she told the school's sports information office that it actually added to the excitement of the meet. Donehue tied teammate Natalie Eyre for the Cougars' best score on bars with a 9.875. Another outstanding performance came from Cougar Danielle Goldman who scored a 9.825 on vault.
For those watching the meet in SLC or on the internet, one of the highlights had to be the techo-pop floor routine from Cougar gymnast Madeline Johnson, who scored a 9.8 on the balance beam.
Prior to the home meet, the Utes traveled to Gainesville, Fla., on March 19 to face the then fifth-ranked Florida Gators, who were holding their own Senior Night to recognize the likes of fan-favorite Amanda Castillo who won bars with a 9.995 during her final home meet. The Gators won the meet by a 197.55-196.50 margin. Though the Utes did not win the meet, Bijak had an outstanding night as she scored a 39.225 on the all-around, tying her second best career score.
Salt Lake City is home of the host venues for the NCAA regional meets. The pairings will be announced on Monday.
I am hoping to post more entries about a VERY busy weekend in NCAA gymnastics later this week.
ECHL Hockey- Another Salt Lake City team looking towards the post-season are the Utah Grizzlies, with star player Ryan Kinasewich, who are trying to catch up with the Western Division-leading Idaho Steelheads (from Boise) who have the ECHL's best goal-tender in Richard Bachman.
But, here in the southeast, the focus has been on the streaking Charlotte Checkers, a team that had won seven consecutive games before falling on home ice to the Florida Everblades 4-3 on Friday night. But, the Checkers turned things around on Saturday with a 4-2 home win over the Reading Royals (from Reading, Pa.).
Checkers' star player Andrew Carroll scored the game-winning goal in front of 12,044 fans, which was the largest crowd of the season for the team.
The Checkers (pictured here) have also been helped by goalie Ryan Muncie, who had won six straight home games and newly-acquired rookie forward Brock Bradford, who was a star player at Boston College.
The team's next home is against the Gwinnett Gladiators from Georgia at 7:30 p.m. on March 30. As of last week, the Checkers were chasing the South Carolina Stingrays from Charleston for the lead in the southern division of the ECHL.
FINAL NOTE_ Well, that's a wrap! I think I covered everything except NASCAR (an entry about the Final Four is on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire"), a sport I don't really follow which is ironic because I live 35 miles away from a major speedway. But, my cousin Erroll Gokbudak can't enough of the sport, and he lives in Chicago?!
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