Christ College Women Earn a Turnaround

In its first five years in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics, the women’s basketball team at Christ College Irvine hasn’t commanded a great deal of respect.

In fact, the team annually finishes near the bottom in the Golden State Athletic Conference and NAIA District 3 play, and after posting a 4-23 record last season, the outlook was not too promising for the Eagles this season.

But the Eagles apparently had their own ideas. Midway through the season, Christ has a 10-4 record and its winning percentage of .714 is the best among District 3 teams.

The Eagles have already won more games than in any previous season, their best previous record having been 7-23.

Coach Kent Schlichtemeier attributes the team’s rapid improvement to the development of a few sophomores and the addition of several outstanding newcomers.

“We did a better job of recruiting this year and brought in more experience and just a better all-around type of athlete,” he said.

The top addition has been Gitte Mejer, a 6-2 freshman from Aarhus, Denmark, who has averaged 14.1 points and 8.9 rebounds. The team has also added top transfers Nancy Geisler, a junior forward from Highline Community College in Seattle, and sophomore point guard Stacy Kirch from the University of Wyoming.

In 13 years as a coach, the last three with the Eagles, Schlichtemeier says this is the hardest-working squad he has coached.

“They’re just very hungry to turn this program around,” he says. “We’ve been down near the bottom for a long time and we’re tired of being in that position.”

He said the early success of the women’s team has required an adjustment at the school, which has been suffering from growing pains in most sports.

“It’s kind of interesting at the school because we’re not sure how to respond to a winning team,” Schlichtemeier said. “But we’re starting to see a lot more community support and I think a lot of people are waiting to see if we’re for real.”

He admits it may be too early to answer that question but he says the team’s confidence is starting to build.

“As we win each game, we get more support and the girls are getting more enthusiasm,” he said.

At the start of the season, Schlichtemeier said the goal for the Eagles was simply to reach the district playoffs for the first time.

“Everyone’s dream, of course, is to make the national tournament,” he said. “But our goal was just to make the playoffs. We realize we have to do that before we can do anything else.”

With all of his players returning next season, Schlichtemeier figures the team may still be a season away from reaching the NAIA national tournament.

But he isn’t selling the Eagles short.

” . . . With the way we’ve been playing, if we make the playoffs, who knows?” he said. “We’re just real happy to be 10-4 and we just want to see how far we can take it.”

At the start of conference play, several teams appeared to be prime contenders for the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title.

But two weeks into the schedule, it is apparent that all roads to the CCAA title will pass through Bakersfield.

By winning its first four conference games, Cal State Bakersfield has assumed sole possession of first place and put itself in good position to repeat as champion.

The Roadrunners, who are 13-4 overall, recorded one of their most impressive victories in a 68-53 victory over UC Riverside last Saturday in Bakersfield. Riverside entered the game ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division II and had not scored fewer than 80 points this season.

Bakersfield’s fast start should come as little surprise. After all, the Roadrunners finished second in Division II last season and have been a perennial CCAA title contender.

Still, with the departure of several top players from last season, one of them guard Wade Green, the Division II tournament’s most valuable player, the Roadrunners opened the season by dropping three of their first four games.

“You never know how a team is going to respond when you lose some great players and at first it was a struggle to get along,” Coach Pat Douglass said. “At the beginning of the year we just were not a very good team.”

But Douglass says he has seen steady improvement.

Two of the key players have been forward Beau Redstone and guard Fred Eckles--integral figures in last season’s success. The Roadrunners also made an important addition to their roster before conference play began with the transfer of 6-9 center Russell Jarvis from Boston University.

Jarvis, prep player of the year in Massachusetts in 1987, has averaged 13.8 points in his first four games with the Roadrunners. Before being released from Boston earlier in the season, he was averaging 14.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in six games.

“The team was starting to get better each week,” Douglass said. “So when you add a 6-9 post player, that has helped us even more.”

It is also an unexpected luxury for the coach, who has grown accustomed to trying to succeed despite a small front line.

“It’s a fluke that he’s here,” Douglass said of Jarvis. “One of our local (football) players from our JC football team knows him and they were good friends. He told (Jarvis) he knew of a good place and (Jarvis) came here.”

With the addition of Jarvis, Bakersfield appears to have moved a notch ahead in the conference title race, although Douglass doesn’t want to peer too far ahead.

“I think we’re playing well but we’ve only played one-third of the league race so we still have a ways to go,” he said. “I think you’ve got to get through eight games before you can say that we’re the favorite.”

College Division Notes

Junior defensive back Nate Kirtman of Pomona-Pitzer has been named to the Champion USA NCAA Division III All-American football team selected by school sports information directors. Kirtman made the second team as a punter and the third team as a kick returner. He was second in Division III with a 39.5-yard punting average and first in kickoff returns with a 36.5 average. Lineman Peter Tucker of Occidental and fullback Curt Landreth of Redlands were given honorable mention.

Cal State San Bernardino has been ranked No. 8 in the NCAA Division III in a preseason poll by Collegiate Baseball magazine. The Coyotes finished fourth in the division last year. . . . UC Riverside is ranked No. 4 in the latest NCAA Division II men’s basketball poll. The Highlanders are 15-2.