National Sports Festival : New Partnership of Fowler and Weinberg Is Starting to Pay Dividends

On Page 1 of every coaches’ collection of cliches is the old standby: “Practice makes perfect.”

However, the adage didn’t hold water Saturday afternoon at the LSU Natatorium when Laura Fowler and Ruth Weinberg, partners for less than three weeks, teamed to win the gold medal in synchronized swimming with a composite score of 175.650.

The duet is not ready to replace Olympians Tracie Ruiz and Candy Costie as the world’s premier water ballerinas. Weinberg of Mercer Island, Wash., and Stanford, and Fowler of Santa Clara and Arizona, admit they aren’t even in the same end of the pool.

But the poise and polish the pair exhibited in beating runners-up Christy Foster of Kirkland, Wash., and Tracy Fearnow of Richmond, Va., was surprising since they only began practicing the intricate hand and leg maneuvers after the senior nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

In a sport where a year is considered normal preparation time, the feat would be similar to a symphony orchestra sitting down with an unfamiliar piece of music and playing it flawlessly.

“My partner made a national team that went to Hawaii,” Fowler said. “So on the bus to the airport in Fort Lauderdale, I asked Ruth if she wanted to do a duet at juniors.

“We really had only four days of real practice. But when you create a routine, that’s the hard part. Lori and I were already so far along that we had the moves worked out. So, I showed Ruth on dry land and then it was a little easier in the water.

“But with so little time for practice, it really is kind of amazing. Because so many things can go wrong. Sometimes you get so far off, you come back up from under the water and just look at the coach and shrug your shoulders.”

Saturday, they were nearly in sync, missing little wiggles, but no major flaws.

“At one point I was so nervous, I thought I forgot the routine,” Weinberg said. “But Laura covered for me. We are a long way from Candy and Tracie. I mean they were perfect swimmers. Technically, their showmanship, they were head and shoulders above the competition.

“We’ve got a long way to go. If the coaches keep us together, we might be a good pair. We worked well today. This is difficult, because the slightest mistake can really jar you and throw you off. Fortunately, the only mistakes we made were little ones.”

Brian Babcock, winner of the all-around competition, proved it was no fluke Saturday night, winning three gold medals and two bronze in the individual competition at the LSU Assembly Center. Coupled with a gold medal as the top individual in Thursday’s all-around and a silver for a second-place finish by his North team, Babcock’s total of seven medals tied the Festival record held by another gymnast, Scott Johnson, set in 1983.

Babcock, from Garden City, Kan., won gold in the pommel horse, the parallel bars, and the horizontal bar Saturday.

Charles Lakes, formerly of Monroe High and a senior at the University of Illinois, won five medals.

Brian Ginsberg, of UCLA, made a quick recovery from a “broken hand” and won the still rings competition. Due to a misunderstanding, it was reported in Saturday’s Times that the sophomore gymnast had broken his hand surfing in Israel during the Maccabiah Games.

Actually, Ginsberg had suffered a broken blood vessel in his hand, which nonetheless severely curtailed his practice time.

Saturday, however, he was impressive, winning his event with a total score of 19.350, and taking a second in the floor exercise and a third in the vault.

In the most dramatic final at the Festival to date, the East held on to edge the South to win the gold medal in men’s field hockey.

After two 35-minute halves and two 7 1/2-minute overtimes, the teams were tied, 2-2. That forced a strokeoff--in which five players from each squad are designated to shoot from the seven-yard line with only the goalie in their path.

Still tied after the first 10 shots, the process was repeated. Only this time, three South players failed to connect, allowing the East to escape with a 6-5 victory.

The South is somewhat of a misnomer since all 15 team members are from California, including Tommy Jacobs of Simi Valley, whose last shot hit the post.

Jeremy McGuire of Camarillo and David Wisner of Westlake Village each scored a second-half goal to rally the South. The South also missed two penalty shots in the second half, largely due to the efforts of East goalie Steve Wagner of Mount Laurel, N.J.

“This really feels good, this was a victory of hard work,” said East Coach Peter De Leeuw of Zevenaar, the Netherlands. “Our goalie, Wagner did a great job of blocking those crucial shots on the strokeoff. “I thought that we were in good shape early in the first half with a 2-0 lead, but the momentum was changing and in the second half, they got back into the match and could have won it. I must admit it was scary, but our players held their poise and stuck with it. This was a tribute to Eastern field hockey.”

The West men rolled into the gold medal round in water polo with a 6-0 record, the last a 9-6 victory over the South Saturday night.

Doug Kimball, a 6-8 swimmer from Orange, and Scott Thornton of Los Angeles each scored two third-period goals to rally the West from a 4-2 deficit.

The two teams will meet again tonight for the gold medal.

A cooling rain and a crackling thunderstorm lashed Sports Festival VI Saturday night, sending field hockey and soccer players scurrying for cover.

Inside, however, it was business as usual for wrestlers, ice hockey players, weightlifters and water polo players, who carried on in air-conditioned comfort.

The heat and humidity have been brutal, on humans and animals alike.

Saturday afternoon, Mike, LSU’s Bengal Tiger, who is housed in a cage on campus, was flat on his back, oblivious to the squeals of children who wanted to see him growl or stalk his domain.

Kelly Garrison of Altus, Okla., won the women’s all-around gymnastics competition Friday night with a score of 37.60, edging Joyce Wilburn of Paterson, N.J., who took second with 37.55.

Garrison, however, was not thrilled by her performance, falling in three events.

“I fell on a trick that I never fall on,” she said. “I mean never. If it was my layout that was giving me problems all week, I could understand that. But that happens. I lost my concentration for a little bit. It struck me as sort of funny, I mean not funny, but the trick I fell on, it was like a joke.

“I fell on bars, then I fell on beam and then this. I let out a little scream of disgust.”

Only one team is undefeated heading into tonight’s gold medal soccer play--the South women. It’s not too surprising since the team, which will take on the West, is coached by Anson Dorrance of the University of North Carolina.

Dorrance’s squad features seven of his past and present players, a group that has won four straight NCAA titles and has not lost in 44 matches, winning 43 and tying once.

The West men, who meet the North in the other gold medal match, will be without Olympian Jeff Hooker of Walnut, Calif., who went home to attend his sister’s wedding.

The Festival closes its 12-day run tonight with a semblance of symmetry, featuring final competition in 12 events.

Attendance has been disappointing at most venues with sellouts reported in diving, synchronized swimming and taekwondo.