U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : South Gets Into Final Unbeaten

The South men’s basketball team didn’t have to take the court Monday to clinch a spot in the U.S. Olympic Festival final, while the hockey players are grabbing the spotlight even before they take the ice.

By the time the South got onto the Smith Center floor at Chapel Hill, it was assured a spot in the final because the West defeated the North, 109-103, in an afternoon shootout. But later the South kept its perfect record intact with a 77-76 victory over the East.

The North, despite its loss Monday, also made the final on a tiebreaker. The North, West and East all were 1-2.

J.R. Reid, playing on his home floor, hit a free throw with 22 seconds left for the winning margin for the South. Otherwise, Reid, who hit five free throws in the closing 3:52, was stymied by a collapsing defense. The North Carolina sophomore finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds.

Tom Lewis scored 22 points for the West, and Karl James added 17 as both the West and North teams disregarded set offenses and shot at the earliest opportunity.

In the women’s games, the West won, 64-50, over the North behind 13 points and 12 rebounds from Pauline Jordan, and will play the South, which got 14 points from Carla Green in an 85-66 win over the East.

Tracy Compton of Santa Maria, Calif., pitched a no-hitter, allowing just one walk in facing the minimum 21 batters as the East beat the West, 1-0, in women’s softball.

Compton struck out 11. She walked Elise King leading off the third inning and King was forced at second on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Barb Jordan. But Jordan was thrown out stealing.

The East got its run in the first as designated hitter Gina Vecchione of Yonkers, N.Y., doubled and Pat Dufficy of Westerly, R.I., doubled her home.

The eighth Festival, which is on a pace to set a ticket sales record, saw much of the focus shifted to hockey, in which the core of the 1988 Olympic team will be selected from the games in Greensboro. The round-robin hockey tournament begins today.

“We will have some real outstanding hockey in the Festival,” said Art Berglund, the general manager for the Olympic hockey team. “We have real talented players who know what their objective is here and what they are striving for.”

Said Olympic Coach Dave Peterson: “The players are very serious about this competition, more than any other Festival. By their tone, temperament and actions, you know it. They know it’s not the same consequences here as in other Festivals.”

Eighty hockey players will vie for approximately 30 spots at the Olympic team’s training camp next month in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“It’s a great experience to play against the 80 top players in amateur hockey in the U.S.,” said Craig Janney, a 19-year-old center at Boston College who is considered a near-certainty to make the team. “Because it’s an Olympic year, you have to be in shape and ready to play serious hockey, more serious than ever.”

Ticket sales for the Festival, the first to be held on a regional basis, with events in five North Carolina cities, reached $2.35 million, Hill Carrow, president and executive director of the Festival said.

“I would never have expected us to be at this point,” Carrow said. “We have gone beyond all expectations.”

The record for ticket sales at a Festival was set in Houston last year. This year’s event was only $50,000 shy of the mark with one week remaining.

The ticket sales have produced attendance records for basketball and figure skating, and a halfway total attendance of 186,072. All 20,140 seats have been sold for the final program of women’s gymnastics next Sunday, the highest total ever for a gymnastics event in the United States.

Jessie Grieco, the 13-year-old from Emerson, N.J., who became the youngest cyclist ever to win two Festival gold medals during the weekend, was second in Monday’s time trial behind Christi Fugman of Schnecksville, Pa.

“I didn’t feel very good after about the first mile,” Grieco said. “I just didn’t feel like I was moving as well as I had done the last two days.”

Steve Alschuler of Skokie, Ill., won the men’s time trial, covering the 6.2 miles in 14 minutes 3.17 seconds.

Two cyclists were hospitalized after a spill in Sunday’s women’s race. Nancy Nicklas of Irvine, Calif., suffered two broken ribs when struck by another cyclist. Amy Walker of Santa Rosa, Calif., was treated for heat exhaustion.