San Diego College Review / Rick Hazeltine : Coach’s Milestone Win Gives Boost to USIU Hockey

No one can say Brad Buetow’s 200th victory as a college hockey coach came against a pushover.

Buetow’s team, United States International University, beat the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks recently. North Dakota was ranked No. 1 in the nation and had not lost in the Winter Sports Arena in two years.

The USIU players presented Buetow with a bucket of ice, which was poured on the coach after the victory.

“That was worth it,” Buetow said. “Our credibility has really jumped.”

USIU is 10-6-1 after opening the season with 12 games on the road. Last season, the Gulls were 20-13, ranked 19th in the country and the first champion of the Great West Hockey Conference.

USIU will finish a five-game home stand playing Connecticut next Tuesday and Wednesday and the University of Regina (Canada) Jan. 1-2.

“Right now, I didn’t think we’d be 10-6-1,” Buetow said. “It’s just the start of it. Last year we had a good year, but I don’t know if down deep they believed they could beat a top team. Now they do.”

Buetow’s milestone also helped USIU in the quest for its first NCAA Tournament berth. For the first time, the NCAA will invite the top independent team to the tournament. The Gulls were ranked No. 14 in the latest coaches’ poll, the highest ranking of any independent.

Although USIU is affiliated with a three-member conference, the teams are considered independents.

With 6:58 remaining in the first half of San Diego State’s women’s basketball game Sunday against the University of San Diego, the Aztecs’ Shelda Arceneaux passed to Jessica Haynes, who scored on a layup.

The assist--Arceneaux’s first of the game but 279th of her career--made her the all-time Aztec leader. Guard Laura Dion had 278 assists from 1978 to 1980.

Arceneaux, a senior forward who played at Alta Loma High School, is fifth on the all-time Aztec career scoring list and second in rebounding.

UC San Diego has a national reputation when it comes to its academics. So it seems natural for the school to carry this over to its athletic program. UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson invited about a dozen Division III members of the American Assn. of Universities to compete in the first La Jolla Classic men’s and women’s basketball tournament Jan. 2-3. The tournament has been nicknamed the “Brain Bowl.”

UCSD will play Carnegie-Mellon and Clark College of Massachusetts will play the University of Rochester in the first round. The women’s championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the men’s at 8.

Two former Francis Parker High School players have been named NCAA Division III All-Americans. Janet Hughes of national champion UC San Diego and Amy Smith of Colorado College were named to the second team. Smith was a second-team All-American last season as a sophomore.

Jeri Wigley, a graduate of La Jolla Country Day School now playing at Idaho State, was named to the Northwest Region and Mountain West Conference All-Academic team. Wigley, a sophomore with a 3.52 grade-point average in biology, helped lead Idaho State to the conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.