ICHITANWHET WednesdayOct. 18, 2006

The Student Voice of Midwestern State University

INS

IDE

Tales of terror in the Falls

Residents in the Falls should beware of ghostly scares. page 6

Lady Mustangs trample competition

Lady Mustangs beat Paul Quinn with three sets in 45 minutes. page 8

‘The Grudge 2’

The awaited sequel is a no-go for horror fans. pages 5

FALLS FRIGHTS

The street lights shower down on the sidewalks, just enough illumina-tion to see the tiny

cracks in the cement. Beyond the dimmed glow a crooked walkway leads to a ramshackle building many would not dare enter.

Some say the build-ing groans at night. Others swear that human screams seep through the splintered boards. A few say

SUNKYU YOO-NORRIS | THE WICHITAN

KRYSTLE CAREYMANAGING EDITOR

Spooky tales in the Falls make for a frightful good time

Crime rate in MSU housing on the rise According to the 2005 Clery Crime Statistics, offenses on and around Midwestern State Univer-sity have dropped significantly over the past year. Every October, the MSU Po-lice Department releases the Clery Crime Report in compliance with the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990. The report covers all activity reported to the police department and referred to the housing department dating from the previous October. It covers not only activity on the MSU campus but also surrounding public prop-erty and property leased by the uni-versity. The 2005 report shows one inci-dent of forcible sexual offense oc-curring on campus this year. No sexual offenses occurred in 2004; however, other reports of on-cam-pus incidents such as burglary and arrests for drug and alcohol viola-tions have dropped since 2004. Activities off-campus appear to have raised in numbers, however

these statistics can be misleading when dealing directly with MSU students. The non-campus statistics cover any property leased by MSU and include the apartment com-plexes that the university leases to house students. These reports cover any activity at these properties, so it is unclear just by the reports if the incidents actually involve MSU stu-dents. While the number of reported incidents such as burglary and ag-gravated assault on non-campus property has risen since 2004, the number of arrests due to alcohol and drug violations have dropped. Although reported incidents have dropped, the number of cam-pus-wide violations that have been handled by the housing department have raised significantly over the last year. In 2004, the number of alcohol violations referred to the housing department was 43. In one year that number has jumped to 63. The number of drug violations has jumped from 16 in 2004 to 35 in 2005. Referrals to the housing depart-

New standards raise universityʼs stature

MSU should no longer be con-sidered a “fall-back university” but a respected national university, MSU President Jesse Rogers told the student senate Tuesday night. Rogers, in his state of the univer-sity address before the student gov-ernment body, said new admission standards imposed by MSU this year meant that 300 incoming freshman applicants had to be turned down. Rogers said that raising admission standards served to heighten the im-age of the university Although enrollment is down this fall, the university has the larg-est sophomore, junior and senior classes in its history, the former chemistry professor said.

“Raising our standards is defi-nitely getting MSU noticed,” Rog-ers said. This year the university was in-ducted into COPLAC, the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. The select public institutions that make up COPLAC are distinguished by a central mission to promote liberal arts education and have separate free-standing identity and accredi-tation. He said MSU fit the criteria be-cause of its commitment to provide superior liberal arts and science ed-ucation to undergraduates, as well as being recognized for cultural and intellectual diversity, qualities inte-gral to the education of all students. “We provide a private school environment at a public university

New art exhibit sure to please

Take Me To The River, an art ex-hibition, shored up within the walls of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art for nearly a month now, bring-ing together a diversity of cultures through the vision of 19 artists.

“It was the biggest opening ever,” said Cohn Drennan, director of the MSU Museum.

Drennan, a true appreciator of art, walked around the showroom, describing the artwork with excite-ment in his voice as he explained the background that led to this daz-zling river exhibition.

The artists included John H. Brown, Jr. (U.S.), David Carlson (U.S.), Y. David Chung (Korea), Richard L. Dana (U.S.), Sherman Fleming (U.S.), Ashraf Fo (Egypt), Abrie Fourie (South Africa), B.C. Gilbert (U.S.), Mansoora H (Paki-stan), Suguru Hiriaide (Japan), Judy Jashinsky (U.S.), Maggie Michael (U.S.), Randall Packer (U.S.), Ivana Panizzi (Brazil), Josh Ruiz (Peru), Ruza Spak (Germany), Betsy Stew-art (U.S.), Andres E. Tremols (U.S.) and Liz Yarosz Ash (U.S.).

Seven of the artists were unable to make the opening reception, but Drennan was surprised and pleased that 12 of the artists did.

Originally, 12 artists brought their artwork together to create the TMTTR exhibit in 2001, he said. They were banding together under one vision. It was a unity between the diversified cultures spanning across the globe. It was a dream that led to a deeper understanding of unity through the diversity of the different cultures.

Mansoora, the brains behind the creation of the TMTTR, chose the river concept because of its posi-tive and life-affirming connotations with all walks of life. The life-giv-ing waters also play a historical role with commerce and exchange be-tween nations. The river bridges the distance between religions, politics and philosophies.

Since the exhibits inception, each area that the TMTTR visits, local artists have been invited to join the project as permanent members.

Liz Yarosz-Ash was one of two MSU professors invited to join the exhibition for the September show-ing. Her featured piece, a nude fe-

male swimming in the water, was formed by a collage of smaller pic-tures to create one large picture re-sembling ripples of water found in a river.

Yarosz-Ash described her art-work as the goddess of love and beauty who discovers the eternal path that leads back to the source of her existence. Venus welcomes the water to wrap her with serenity.

“The artwork that Liz has on display here at this TMTTR exhibi-tion,” Drennan said, “was specifi-cally created for this show.”

In one of the darker rooms of the museum, Suguru Hiriaide, assistant professor of art at MSU, worked on one of two pieces that he has on dis-play.

Pachinko Valley was giving him technical troubles.

The motor on his metal sculpture had mysteriously stopped working. He was going to have to order an-other motor for the exhibit.

“Good thing that I live close,” the native of Japan joked.

He said that his other piece “Se-renity,” represents the concept be-

JESSICA COODY

FOR THE WICHITAN

See Haunts page 4

CHRISTIAN MCPHATE

OPINIONS EDITOR

See Art page 4

See Crime page 4

MSU scares Craven

off Writer/director Wes Cra-ven has cancelled his speech. Craven was scheduled to appear at the Artist Lecture series on Oct. 23 at 7:00 p.m. He cannot attend due to film-ing in Morocco. Craven created the famous “Nightmare on Elm Street” series of movies, “Vampire in Brooklyn,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “People Under the Stairs,” “Music of the Heart” and the “Scream” series. He also has written a novel. The Artist Lecture Series hopes to reschedule him for the spring semester but no dates have been set.

Museum director Cohn Dren-nan stands next to ‘Serenity’ by Suguru Hiriaide.

HERSHEL

SELF

THE WICHITAN

See Stature page 4

AMBRA NEALY

FOR THE WICHITAN

Halloween is coming up and haunted houses are a main attraction through the month of October. Several MSU fraternities host a haunted house at-traction, and you too might be thinking of dress-ing up an old building ghoulish style and charging admission. But before you do, it is wise to think of the safety factors and possible legal problems you might encounter with patrons if youʼre not care-ful.

The most important thing to remember is to design your fright location for the worst possible situation. The hazards of a possible fire can be devastating. Some helpful fire-prevention tips in-clude the following:

• All wood or lumber used in the haunted house should be covered with sheet rock or painted with a flame retardant paint.

• Place smoke detectors throughout the haunt.• Avoid flammable styrofoam, plastic and foam

rubber• Prohibit the use of an open flame near the

house. This includes cigarettes and candles.• Use electrical strops with circuit breakers.

Think of how you will get people out of the haunted house if there is an emergency. Non-flam-mable plastic signs are available at most hardware stores. Hang lit exit signs at the entrance and exit doors of the house. Make sure these doors are open or unlocked at all times.

Many amusement park haunted houses have pol-icies that require employees acting like monsters not to touch patrons of their attraction so injuries are less prevalent.

We live in an age that encourages suing anyone who might give you money. So you wonʼt find yourself in a courthouse, the smart thing to do is remember not to grab patrons when they come through the haunted halls. Jumping out and growl-ing is just as creepy. Remember to carry flashlights as well when youʼre getting situated before the house opens to the public simply to know where youʼre jumping.

Some haunted houses have rules for their patrons and it would be smart to write them and post them in front of the attraction so as to ensure safety. An example of these types of rules include the follow-ing:

• No running through the haunted house• No touching the props or set pieces• No grabbing, hitting or pushing the actors• Stay with the tour guide at all times

Halloween is a fun holiday for children and adults alike. To ensure the greatest amount of en-joyment this haunted season, remember that safety is essential.

VIEWPOINTS Oct. 18, 2006

THE WICHITAN Finalist2004 Associated Collegiate Press

Pacemaker AwardSweepstakes Winner 2006 Texas Intercollegiate

Press Association

THE WICHITAN Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Carrie Sullivan Managing Editor Krystle Carey Entertainment Editor Jason Kimbro Sports Editor Josh Mujica Opinions Editor Christian McPhate Photo Editor Adrian McCandless

ReportersMatt HulmeRichard CarterChristian McPhateLaTia Banks Tiffany Mercer

PhotographersT.J. HornbeckHershel Self

Graphic ArtistSunKyu Yoo-Norris

Advertising ManagerJosh Leal

CartoonistDavid Stephenson

AdviserRandy Pruitt

Staff Editorial

Copyright © 2006. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Asso-ciation. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. First copy of the paper is free of charge; additional copies are $1. The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before in-tended publication. Letters should be brief and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address for verification purposes. The editor retains the right to edit letters.

3410 Taft Blvd. Box 14 • Wichita Falls, Texas 76308News Desk (940) 397-4704 • Advertising Desk (940) 397-4705

Fax (940) 397-4025 • E-mail WICHITAN@mwsu.eduWeb site: http://www.mwsu.edu/~wichitan

Haunted safety

Broken memories of death in OctoberT e n

years ago today, I buried a friend.

T e n years ago today, as my friend Daniel was d r i v i n g me home

from the c e m e t e r y

in Fletcher, Okla., it hit me that I would never see her smile again.

Memory is a funny thing. I remember Oct. 14, 1996 as if it

were yesterday. At the same time, I have forgot-

ten so much. I donʼt remember the weather that day. To me, it will always be dark and gray. The sun may have been shining. I donʼt re-call. It doesnʼt matter.

I will never be able to grasp all that she has missed over the last de-cade. She missed getting her driv-erʼs license. She missed her gradua-

tion. She missed her little brotherʼs. She missed mine. Her 18th birthday and her chance to find Mr. Right.

And the lessons that go with find-ing all the Mr. Wrongs.

The world itself is a different place. She wasnʼt here to experi-ence the emotions of 9/11. The word “terrorist” was never in her vocabulary. She has missed out on 10 years of technological advances and Hollywood gossip.

Father Time has kept going. Heʼll keep going. He doesnʼt care that she isnʼt here to keep up with him.

I remember time standing still that October day. I donʼt remember the preaching or the praying or the words that were said during her fu-neral.

All I remember are the songs that played, and the gentle sobbing of over 800 grieving souls.

I remember people releasing red and white balloons into the sky as she was lowered into the harsh Oc-tober ground. I remember I couldnʼt let go of mine.

I still havenʼt let it go.I remember watching her father

grasp her petite pink casket as he wept for his baby girl. I remember being amazed that his arms almost reached all the way around the box. I remember thinking about how much she loved being hugged by him. I remember this as their last hug.

I donʼt remember anyoneʼs faces from the grave site. I just remember her family.

I recall getting a run in my dark pantyhose. I remember not caring.

I remember walking back to the car through what felt like a mile of headstones, only to realize that we had left our headlights on and our battery was dead. I remember cursing under my breath, utterly ex-hausted by the thought of another thing being dead.

And I remember being pissed that with two cables and another vehicle our battery magically came back to life. I remember thinking I would give anything to be able to do that for her.

I recall stopping on the way home to eat at Pizza Hut. My friends tried to behave as they always would, be-ing goofy and risking humility for a laugh. I remember them trying to be silly.

I donʼt remember cracking a smile. I donʼt remember getting home or the days immediately af-ter.

But more importantly, I do re-member the days and weeks and months before. I remember the way her house always smelled so good. I remember her flare for dramatics. I remember her braces. I remember how she couldnʼt wait to get them off. I remember the phone conver-sations, the notes in the lockers and the hours of practicing cheers before cheerleading tryouts. I remember the crushes and the heartaches and enemies and the friends. I remem-ber her laugh. I remember her eyes. I remember her spirit.

And no one, including Father Time, can ever take that away from me.

Haunted house incites memories of Satan I am scared of a random c o l l e c -tion of t h i n g s : fat guys w i t h s k i n n y g i r l -friends, religious z e a l o t s w i t h

funding, cottage cheese and rotting clown corpses to name a few. The thing that probably scares me the most, though, would have to be my cousinʼs old house back in Olney. This building supplied many freakish occurences and though I am not particularly fond of express-ing an over-abundant interest in the supernatural, I feel I must give an account of: THE SECOND TO THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, OR RIGHT, DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE! Actually, if you look at it from the right then it would probably be

the second to the first house on the right but then the title would have just been a little TOO ridiculous. Anyway, it all started the eve-ning my brother spent the night in this domicile of doom. He slept on a waterbed that sat beside the refrig-erator. I know what youʼre probaby thinking, a waterbed beside the fridge? Yeah, we be redneck folk. My brother had a terrible night-mare about a demon coming from behind the large appliance with wickedly long, curvy horns and hooved feet. Weʼre not talking Puck here folks, were talking about a truly demonic figure. Now a dream is a dream, even if itʼs a nightmare, or something and that usually wouldnʼt be a big deal, but when he awoke from this hor-rific vision, our cousin was sitting next to him with a drawing pad and some colored pencils, drawing an exact picture of the same demon. The episode turned from freaky to downright, well, even more freaky the day we were all sitting in the living room watching one of our favorite nighttime dramas from the

90s, “Sweating Bullets.” Brandy, my cousin, poked me on the arm and told me to look in the adjacent room where the waterbed and the fridge resided. A shadow of a tall manly figure was up against the wall. We looked at each other and pro-ceeded to walk into that room to see who was in there. Nobody was to be found. When we looked at the wall again, the shadow remained and then walked away, back to the fridge. We ran to my house down the street. Reports of floating items, such as bullets and rolls of tape, began to arise from various individuals in the home. At one point I was there all by myself and the doorbell began to ring. Oddly enough the front door was wide open, I could see outside, and nobody was there. Even strang-er, the doorbell hadnʼt worked in that house for years. One day we discovered that the home was built on the site of an old graveyard from back in the 30s. After doing some research, we

also discovered that when they moved the graveyard, they only moved the headstones, not the bod-ies. We decided to stay there one more night for the hell of it, even though our midget neighbor told us the house was clean after she squirt-ed the front porch with some Dawn dishwashing liquid and chanted some versus from Harry Potter, even though the books have not been written yet. My brother, Jody, was almost sucked into the closet by some weird sausage-like tongue, a toy clown attacked my cousin Brandy and I fell into a non-existant pool full of rotting corpses from the 30s. Okay, okay, I know what youʼre saying, that is if you have any knowledge of classic horror cinema from the 70s and 80s. I got the last half of the story from Poltergeist. Well, I have space to fill here folks and the real parts of the sto-ry, though somewhat embellished themselves, was not quite exciting enough. Anywho, hope you all have a fun and freaky Halloween! May Satan bless thee well! BOO!

JESSICA COODY

FOR THE WICHITAN

JASON KIMBRO

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

THE WICHITANOct. 18, 2006 3OP-ED

NOW HIRING!BABES B.Y.O.B.

•Seeking: Wait staff, Hostess and Entertainers

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•EXCELLENT TIPS!!Call Randy after 5 p.m. at:

940-761-2583

Ghost of a girl haunts cemeteryM o u n -

tain ranges of thun-derclouds c o v e r e d the hori-zon, hov-ering over the earth like a re-p r e s s i v e s h r o u d . Traveling down a

cratered dirt road (like most of the dirt roads snaking across the byways of North Texas), I was listening to the soothing sounds of Beethoven while searching for an infamous fig-ure of Montaguian lore—the ghost of Briar Creek Cemetery.

In a book by Olyve Hallmark Ab-bott, “Ghost in the Texas Cemetery Tales,” a lost spirit was stricken with insomnia and rumored to appear within the branches of an ancient oak tree at cemetery.

Well, I, the ever-persistent gadfly, had to find out the reason behind the ghost s̓ insomniacal desire to float around trees in the middle of the night.

Why not float around the country-side and scare the meth heads who litter the countryside like a cancer-ous overgrowth?

As a torrent of rain poured out of the sky, the windshield wipers of my car scraped across the glass in a rap-id motion, screeching out the protest of a much-needed change. A couple of miles of vibrations later, I ended up losing control of my car because of the wet roads and wandering mind. I gripped the wheel and tried to steer my car the best way that I knew how.

With my eyes closed. I slid into a small driveway of wet

grass and sat there for a minute or two, trying to calm my rapid beating heart. I looked around and noticed that my headlights were illuminating a large iron sign with the inscription: “Briar Creak Cemetery.”

A waterfall of rain was falling

out of the dark sky, bombarding my windshield with an overflow of wa-ter. I looked through the river of rain as it flowed down the glass, trying to figure out my best course of action.

With my flashlight, notepad, pen and keen sense of wit, I stepped out of the comfort of my car and pulled my hat down low. I just wished I had a camera.

As the rain fell from the heavens and soaked through my jacket, my mind began to travel down those confusing highways of creativ-ity, random thought and educational conformity. Images of the numerous ghost stories that my mother made sure to inform me of every Hallow-een entered my mind.

“The ghosts, well, theyʼre not mean,” she said. “Well, as long as you donʼt upset them.”

Fortunate for me, I seemed to have a knack for upsetting people.

Now, Iʼm not superstitious, but it was Friday 13, a night of infamy made more infamous by the Holly-wood installments of a certain zom-bie who haunted a camp ground, the alleyways of New York City, a small town and a spaceship lost in depths of space.

In addition, I was entering a cem-etery where a ghost, who seemed to have a problem sleeping and a knack for climbing trees, supposedly ap-pears at the stroke of midnight.

Deep down, a part of me hoped to see the ghost, but the rational side of my brain—just hoped, she would stay the hell away.

A streak of lightening flashed across the cloudy sky, illuminating a large ancient oak tree. The prehis-toric giant reached for the heavens like a black rose blossoming to the night. Giant old limbs encompassed the dark and cloudy atmosphere. A huge knot grew out of the side of the bark like a tumor. Twisted branches extended down like crooked wood-en fingers clawing for the earth, dig-ging up the graves of the forgotten.

As I made my way through the sheet of rain and old tombstones, the glow of the lightening bolts illumi-

nated the two halves of the ancient tree.

Yes, this seemed like the perfect place to wait.

After 10 minutes of waiting un-der the oppressive tree and taking a mound of notes, I noticed a scat-tering of old tombstones surround-ing my position. I felt like I was in the middle of a mini-Stonehenge. I checked my watch. It was almost the witching hour and still no sign of the insomniac ghost. The ticking of my watched mixed with slow rhythm of thunder that roared across the night. I was drenched from the mini-tsu-nami and ready to call it a night.

Maybe she finished her unfin-ished business, maybe she finally was tired of hanging around and de-cided to go haunt the meth heads of the country, or maybe she was just a legend after—

A ghostly light appeared off in the distance near an adjacent tree, interrupting my contemplations. As the rain showered down all around and through the image on the far end of the cemetery, the translucent fig-ure began to flicker off and on like a thousand lightening bugs trapped in a child-like form.

I stood there for a second or two, rubbing the water out of my eyes. Was this she? Did the ghost of Briar Creek finally decide to show her in-satiable need? Or was it just a fig-ment of my imagination? Too much caffeine and not enough sleep?

Who knows? All I know is that the rational side of my brain had kicked into overdrive and my legs were moving before my brain could react. I reached my car with my soaked notepad in hand, jumped inside and fired up the engine. I slammed the car into reverse before stopping and rethinking my choice.

I mean, after all, she would be a wellspring of information on the lonely roads of the afterlife.

But as I sat there in the comfort of my car, watched her float up into the tree, and swing her sparkling legs in the air, I realized that some things were better left unanswered.

Rockers thrive in fictional world Often

times, it s̓ the person who hates s o m e -thing the most who s e c r e t l y loves it. That said I have a se-

cret to tell. Iʼve kept it a secret for

a while, and now I absolutely have to get it off my chest. But this just between me and you, okay? Secretly, somewhere deep down inside, a tiny, microscopic, for all intents and purposes miniscule part of me kinda sorta (but only just a little bit!) likes the band Panic! at the Disco. I know. I know! Now that it s̓ off my chest, I should feel better, but I donʼt. Mostly I reckon I just feel confused. I think I started disliking the band before I actually listened to any of their songs. They were the band all the cool kids liked and constantly talked about. And by constantly talked about, I mean all the cool kids were up in my face about how much Iʼd like them, constantly. “Have you heard about them? Have you downloaded any of their stuff yet? Donʼt you think theyʼre the best band on earth? Am I annoy-ing you yet with my non-stop bad-gering and incessant pestering that wonʼt stop until you buy the album and, like, think and talk about them every waking moment the way me and everyone else does?” Iʼm more inclined not to do cer-tain things just because everybody else is doing them. Anti-social? Nah, not so much. Iʼm just deliber-ately uncooperative by nature. But the buzz on the band started up right when they were signed to a record label. Were these cool kids telling me to get into the band because they liked the music, or were they just blindly following creepy Pete Wentz ̓ or-ders? Strangely, what should have been a strike against the cool kids or Wentz became in my mind a strike against Panic! at the Disco. There were other strikes as well as they quickly became the new It

band. Everybody was talking about them and clamoring to take their photographs. Not only were they overrated, but now they were over-exposed. Singer Brendon Urie cannot sing. He s̓ too much for my ears. Song ti-tles that are actually sentences arenʼt cute anymore. I donʼt even know if they ever were in the first place. Also, it s̓ one thing to get dressed up when they perform, but it s̓ anoth-er entirely to live in such a bizarrely exaggerated world. The makeup, the costumes, and the Moulin Rouge or-gies... it s̓ all too, too much. It s̓ as if theyʼre playing cari-catures of the band they wish they were. Rockstars are allowed to live in alternate realities, I suppose, but this is just ridiculous. The band also, as a whole, seems to liken itself as the leader of an angsty congregation of the downtrodden and broken-hearted. Excuse me, but a big What? on that one. The guys are mostly in their late teens — the oldest band member is only 20 years old! With one album under their belt, not only are they too green to be pa-rading around as the Fourth Estate of the music scene — I donʼt trust them — theyʼre all too young to be writing about stuff like this. But... they are really young. Thereʼll be enough time for them to grow and mature and realize their first album was a horrendous mis-take. To be honest, I donʼt know any of the band members person-ally. How can I hate a group of kids I donʼt even know? All they did was play some instruments together. Theyʼre definitely more talented than I am in that respect. They tour a lot, so theyʼre prob-ably way more driven and energetic than I am, too. I shouldnʼt even hate the cool kids who were too eager about them emerging as a top 10 art-ist. Theyʼre just excited about their band being successful, which I also do. None of them, the band or their fans, are bad people at heart. Then there s̓ the interview with the band in the most recent issue of Spin magazine. The feature, by Nick Catucci, really shows the band as they are: just a group of young guys trying to make it in a tough industry, never mind a tough world. “A lot of people either really loved our band or completely hated us before our

record was even written,” guitarist/songwriter Ryan Ross was quoted as saying. And that breaks my heart, because I know I was one of those people. There s̓ also, in the article, talk of fans who only want the frontman s̓ signature, which will more than likely be a factor in future band hos-tilities. But after I read the story I was left rooting for them. Do I like their music? Well, Iʼm not too proud to admit Iʼm learning how to stand Urie s̓ voice, if that counts. But that doesnʼt mean I donʼt want to see good people come into their own, have their cake and eat it, too. Iʼve realized the problems lies within myself. Iʼm the person in a group who always stands back and tries to take the entire situation in — and that means spending too much time on the bad. Iʼm the one who s̓ always bursting bubbles. A lot of other people who do this like to call themselves “realistic,” but I wonder if it also has to do with being bitter, pessimistic, or just flat-out cruel. Weʼre nitpickers and dream killers. We donʼt just do ourselves harm when we act like that; we crush other people, too. Somehow weʼve grown up expecting the worst or weʼve come to realize the world re-ally isnʼt a happy place. While it can be good, sometimes, to expect the worst in order to pre-pare yourself, you shouldnʼt live your life that way. True, the world isnʼt a happy place, but it takes more courage to look for the good and not worry about any possible fallout. It takes more courage to consciously say you wonʼt let yourself become jaded. But remember, all this is just between you and me. I donʼt know what I would do if any of this ever got out.

CHRISTIAN MCPHATE

OPINIONS EDITOR

KONNIE SEWELL

STAFF REPORTER

Campus VoicesQ: What should the new MSU mascot be named?

“The Mustang should be named Herbert. It sticks with you because itʼs so original. People will remeber it, like the way they remember Bevo.”

– Lindsey Paddack, 19, sophomore, education major

“We should name it Sunwatcher. Itʼs related to the previous mascot, but itʼs not controversial, so weʼd still have a link to our heritage.”

– Andrew Coleman, 19, freshman, computer science major

“Monty. We should name it after Monty, the head guy in the weight room. Heʼs big and intimidating. Monty sounds like a good western name, too.”

– Klint Newton, 23, senior, general business major

“Mad Max! Itʼs got the Mʼs so it rolls off the tongue good. Itʼd be fun to yell out at games and would get everyone pumped up.”

– Xzarché Stegall, 21, sophomore, criminal justice major

NewsTHE WICHITANOct. 18, 20064

TIFFANY MERCER

STAFF REPORTER

With just two weeks left un-til Halloween, procrastinators are frantically looking for their perfect costume. The good news is there is an easy and cheap solution. The theatre department is having a costume sale Oct. 28 from 9 a.m. until noon on the Mainstage in the Fain Fine Arts Building. The department is selling off costume stock and items that were purchased for shows but will not be used or again, or that can easily be replaced at a minimal cost. Buyers will also have the opportunity to purchase items that were construct-ed for productions and shows. Professor and costume designer Elizabeth Lewandowski said items

for sale are also appropriate for every day clothing, as well as cos-tumes. Items include dresses, suites, shirts, shoes, hats and purses. “We hold this sale to thin our stock – get rid of things that are cluttering up our limited storage,” Lewandowski said. Profits from the sale go back into the costume studio for purchase of shelving, storage bins and other needed items. The department has held the sale three previous times. Lewandows-ki said each time they successfully thinned their storage and made money to help keep the costume studio running. The last saleʼs earn-ings reached $1,800. Items left over from the sale are donated to the honorary theatre fra-ternity, Alpha Psi Omega, for their annual garage sale.

Theatre stages costume sale

Artists find liquid inspiration

they have peered into the dusty win-dows to see figures lurking in the shadows. This seems to always be the set-ting of many ghost stories. A creepy, abandoned building that everyone is scared of. It could be anywhere. Every town has its ghost stories. Wichita Falls is no exception. Spooky tales surface every Hal-loween. And like ghosts, they never die. One scary place is the North Tex-as State Hospital. Located at 6515 Lake Rd., it is rumored to house a few ghostly tales. According to some of these sto-ries, lights in the administration building go on and off. There have also been reports of moans and wails coming from the third floor along with rattling chains and open-ing and closing doors. Employees, it has been told, see vague shapes at the ends of the hallway at dinner-time. One ghostly figure has also been seen in the Tolstoy building, which

is on the grounds, by a hospital em-ployee. Jory Newsom, MSU early educa-tion major and State Hospital em-ployee, said one woman reported seeing the figure of a black man wearing khaki, roaming the halls one night. “She swore up and down that she saw the man,” Newsom said with wide eyes. Another vision involves a nurse who wears a white dress with an old nurse’s cap in the “M” Building. Sightings of such a woman made the rounds among hospital employ-ees, Newsom said. “A nurse died in that building, but I’m not sure what happened,” she said. It is rumored that this mysterious nurse roams the halls, checking on patients. It’s been said that security guards, who come to the building some-times, feel a hand on their shoulder, but when they turned to look, no one is there. The building Newsom works in is

next door to this building. She said people have mentioned that they can hear noises there; however, she has never experienced this herself. Newsom said the building was once used for forensics. The building is now used only for storage and is inhabited by mostly owls. In some ancient folklore, owls have been connected to witchcraft. Is there a connection between the bird visitors and the unexplained paranormal activity in the hospital? The answer is left to individual interpretation. Another well-known haunt in the Falls is the old White Sanitarium at the corner of California and Olen Roads. The Spanish-style, two-level building is rumored to be inhabited by some ghostly spirits. The building, built in 1926 under the direction of Frank S. White, was not occupied very long due to flood damage in 1939. Some say they can hear voices and screaming coming from the

building. Others have mentioned feeling cold drafts and the sensation of being watched. Although the building was a site for many curious haunt seekers for quite some time, Gilbert Rios bought the building in 2002, with plans to remodel the place. One haunted place that has also been a very popular place for cu-rious teenagers to visit is Witch’s Gate, which is said to be visible off Highway 287 between Wichita Falls and Henrietta. The stone shell of the home with no roof is the only evidence left after the house burned down years ago. Robbers looking for some valu-able possessions burglarized the home in 1975 when it was occupied by two brothers. One brother was killed, while the other survived. Some say you can hear whispers and footsteps on the premises, and the basement is extremely clean although no one has lived there. It is thought to be the spirit of the de-ceased brother keeping an eye on

their possessions. The gate to enter the property is three miles south of the home. A back road leads to the house. According to the Texas Ghost Hunters Web site, the property has been bought by a man who has built a home over the old stone house. Although this may be true, the Web site says the actual Witch’s Gate is a small cave that is haunted somewhere in the area. With such ghost stories lurking throughout the area, one must won-der whether these tales have any truth to them. Though there may be skeptics and believers alike, no one can truly explain the reasoning for these para-normal happenings. So while you are tucked into your bed at night and all is calm, remem-ber, somewhere in your town there may be a decrepit building with a dark figure lurking in its shadows. Maybe next time you will be the lucky one to experience a ghoulish haunting.

Haunts______________________________________________________________________________________________continued from page 1

hind the idea of a Chinese water torture device where small drops of water fall onto the victimʼs head in a slow, repetitive rate.

Hiriaide explained he de-signed his art to imitate the torture technique.

A stone head rests upon a metallic dais suspended within the middle of a metal frame. From above, water trickles through a cone-shaped tube and strikes the head like raindrops dripping off tree leaves.

“Essentially it (water) is only a small thing,” he said. “But if it continues, it be-comes annoying and pain-ful.”

Drennan said the artists worked with more than 250 Wichita Falls Independent School District students and teachers. Together, they de-signed and developed site-specific installations for the exhibit and promoted dialogue on cross-cultural is-sues.

The students were given wooden boats to create a work of art that encompassed their cultures, beliefs and back-grounds, he said.

Two hundred and fifty heritage boats are on display in the mu-

seum. The boats reveal painted images of diverse backgrounds from as far away as the deserts of the Middle East to the tranquil tropics of the Caribbean.

Drennan said the artists picked their favorite student boat art and put them in a glass case in the center of the room.

“The best thing to do is to

spend some time with the art,” Drennan said.

The exhibit will run until Dec. 2. Admission is free.

HERSHEL SELF | THE WICHITAN

‘Venus II’ by Liz Yarosz Ash hangs in the Wichita Falls Museum of Art.

Art___from page 1

ment and reports made to the police department are two different mat-ters. If a student who is of age has alcohol on campus, it is not neces-sarily a violation of the law. It is, however, a violation of housing reg-ulations, and this is where MSUʼs housing department steps in. Housing Director Danny Red-dick said that campuses across the state of Texas have seen a rise in drug and alcohol violations over the past two or three years. “If you compare us to other schools in Texas, we are on the low end of the number of violations,” Reddick stated. And there could be an explana-tion to MSUʼs rise in numbers. “Pierce hall was closed for the 2004-2005 school year,” Raegan Foster, Assistant Director of Hous-ing, stated. Reddick agreed that having less students in housing could explain the lower numbers of violations for the previous year. “We went from 760 students to 1,100 students [in student housing] since the 2004-2005 school year,” Reddick said. Reddick also explained that alco-hol and drug violations are mainly reported to the housing department in two ways, either by resident ad-visors or complaint calls. When the housing department is called, the manner in which the incident is handled depends on the severity of the situation. “We like to handle as much as we can internally. We donʼt want stu-dents to have a record, especially if it is a first offense,” Reddick said. The MSU police station is called to intervene in cases such as large parties or when intoxicated students try to leave campus by vehicle. “It is more a safety issue than it is us trying to get them in trouble,” Foster said. MSU Police Chief Michael Hagy agreed with Reddick and Foster about the involvement of the po-lice. “If housing can handle it, we donʼt get involved,” Hagy said. Chief Hagy says that the 2005 Crime Report bodes well for the campus. “The crime report numbers indi-cate that students at MSU are very safe,” Hagy stated. The 2005 Clery Crime Report is available to the public via inter-net at www.police.mwsu.edu. Copies of the report are also avail-able at the MSU police station.

Crime___________con-tinued from page 1

rate,” Rogers said. As the scope of MSU changes, its reputation will only strengthen, he pointed out. The opening of the Dillard College of Business is only the beginning of the renovation. In the spring, the Jim McCoy School of Mechanical Engineering will be taking up residence in the Fowler building. The Bolin Science Hall will be revamped. The interior of D. L. Ligon Coliseum will un-dergo repairs and remodeling. Fu-ture plans are in the works for the Fain Fine Arts building, including a

concert hall and new band hall. Rogers said helping prepare stu-dents for life after graduation is the universityʼs strongest suit. “The best and most ethical way to do this is to start with our freshmen and sophomore pass rates, as well as the universityʼs graduation rate,” he said. “In implementing higher academic standards for incoming freshmen we ensure that they will be able to meet the demands of this university, keeping them here and ultimately graduating them.”

Stature________________continued from page 1

Entertainment THE WICHITANOct. 18, 2006 5

Entertainment Value: DArtistic Crap: FPlot/Script: FPerformances: FOverall GPA: 0.25

MSU Career Fair

The Career Management Center will be hosting the fall University Career Fair on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Clark Student Center, Comanche Suites.

At this time, 72 employers are registered for the event. To view a list of the regis-tered participants, go to www.mwsu.edu/career and click on “MSU Career Fair.”

Students, please bring plenty of resumes and dress professionally (think suit).

The employers will be vis-iting with you about full-time opportunities and internships so be ready to answer ques-tions about yourself and bring questions to ask them.

Any questions concerning this event should be directed to Courtenay Sealock, em-ployer relations coordinator, at 397-4407.

Art ExhibitThe West End Studio at

the Kemp Center for the Arts will feature From My Wall to Yours, but multi-talented art-ist, Judith Braddy from Oct. 18 through Dec. 2.

This artist has had over 34 years of public and private teaching experience in art and drama. She is also one of the favorite instructors at the Kemp Center for the Arts teaching, both adults and children.

Her show will include wa-tercolors, acrylics, textured acrylics and photos of her re-cent murals. Her work is for sale at reasonable prices.

The exhibit can be viewed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. week-days and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Admission to the Kemp Center for the Arts is free.

Dance Marathon

The deadline to register to compete in the fi rst ever Homecoming dance mara-thon is on Oct. 23 in the of-fi ce of student activities in the Clark Student Center.

The dance marathon will be held on Oct. 27 from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. and students will compete for prizes and the title of Dance Champion.

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Every week my mailbox is liter-ally stuffed with invitations for cool things to do around the globe.

For example, had I been in Lis-bon last weekend, there were no less than four parties, three gallery openings, two concerts (Colleen and Goldfrapp) and one supermodel birthday party.

We won’t even go into what was going on in Reykjavik or Brasilia.

But last weekend was the Falls, and that meant there were exactly fi ve cool things to do locally.

1) Tawni and the Shade live at the Iron Horse Pub. Effectively, this area quartet is the former Hazy Shade with a much prettier singer who possesses one very impressive vocal range. Playing anything from Pat Benatar to Audioslave with some Evanescence to spice things up, this six-month-old band devel-ops dramatically with each show (and they were plenty good to begin with). They have my favorite rock-ing rhythm section in town with a

more than capable guitarist and a singer who just lays into her vocals. The band’s next show is New Year’s Eve with Queen for a Day. It could be the local live happening of the year.

2) Watching Detroit destroy Oak-land. Admittedly I was not at all a Tiger fan until these upstarts ruined

the Yankees “Mission 27” season. After that, as they say in the trade, everything was gravy. Watching Detroit walk into Oakland, take two, then return to home to take the next two suggests there may be a little destiny going on here. Maybe this means (hint: George) that good teams should not buy old decrepit talent that’s already worn out by October and end up folding like a proverbial lawn chair. Does any-one know what ARod’s problem is? He’s really not that old, yet.

3) Short Films of David Lynch DVD. With the new Lynch fi lm pre-miering in New York several weeks ago, it was time to check out a re-cently released DVD that collects a number of surreal shorts from the “Twin Peaks” director. The DVD cover screams English painter Fran-ces Bacon, an artist who was infl u-enced by silent fi lm. It’s no shock that former painter Lynch admits to an extreme infl uence from the painter.

Especially fascinating (with just the right degree of horror) is the fi nal piece, a 55-second clip titled

“Lumiere” fi lmed in one take with the old-fashioned camera. This zombie, sci-fi , alien invasion piece will likely haunt viewers for years to come.

4) Susan Gibson at the Kemp Center. There were no “wide open spaces” at the Kemp last Friday

night when the Wimberly singer songwriter played two dynamic, warm and personalized 45 minute sets.

A charismatic and talented per-former, Gibson had the audience in the palm of her hand with her funny and insightful stories that she told before each of her songs. Gibson was also entirely gracious about meeting and hanging out with her guests. Yes, Virginia, talented peo-ple actually do come to the Falls to play live.

5) Watching it rain. Sure, there were too many dullards out there singing in some sing-songy refrain: ‘rain rain go away, come again some other day.” But I was abso-lutely stoked. Sunday afternoon, I grabbed the umbrella, the iPod with the newest Susumu Yokota CD just downloaded from iTunes and hit the Sikes Lake walking path. There was no one there, because rain has such a melting effect on a lot of people, and it turned out to be a very cool and relaxed walk fi lled with nice scenes, a little wind and some re-freshing precipitation.

Cult Director David Lynch

RICHARD CARTER

WICHITAN DANCE CRITIC

Five fun things for Wichitan weekends

Tiger’s star Craig Monroe

The youth of our community did me proud this weekend. When “The Grudge 2” ended a slew of teenagers rampaged out of the the-ater complaining and wanting their money back.

While sitting through this atroc-ity of horror I kept thinking that this audience full of fi fteen-year-olds were probably enjoying this moron-ic piece of crap, but I was proven wrong.

On that note I must say that “The Grudge 2” is the inverted pinnacle of what has gone wrong with horror fi lms in the past six years, starting with the only decent movie of its type, “The Sixth Sense.”

PG-13 horror is the worse thing to happen to Hollywood since Dolph Lundgren. This weeks fi lm is defi nitely the most rancid of this crap factory’s turds.

Here’s the gist:We start out in a very confusing

manner. What is probably the most entertaining scene of the movie, we see a bickering couple during breakfast.

The wife is frying bacon for the husband as he complains about her inability to cook correctly. He then shifts the focus of the conversation toward his paranoias of her cheating on him. As she fi nishes placing the bacon onto his plate, she proceeds to pour the still-sizzling bacon grease onto his head then beats him with the skillet. The title of the movie appears.

Now jump to Tokyo, Japan and their international school.

Two snotty girls named Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misa-ko Uno) plan on terrorizing the new student Allison (Arielle Kebbel).

Their plans consists of taking poor unsuspecting Allison to the most haunted house in all of Japan, which is of course the one from the fi rst “Grudge.”

Of course they take her there and she confronts the evil Kayako (Takako Fuji) and all three girls run out of the house screaming.

Now we are zipped back in time, three years earlier where Karen Da-vis’ (Sarah Michelle Gellar) story left off.

Even though she pretty much dies at the end of the fi rst movie, the producers decided to resurrect the girl and kill her again, but no before her sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) shows up to fi nd out exactly what has happened.

Karen goes irate and has to be sedated. She eventually escapes her bed just to be chased down by Kayako and thrown off the roof of the hospital.

Aubrey witnesses her sister’s death and decides to investigate the house that her sister warned her not to go into. Stupid movies must call on stupid people to do very stupid things.

Now we are zipped again, back to the present but wait! We aren’t in Japan. We are in Chicago Illinois. What the hell is that all about? We fi nd a young family moving into a new apartment. The young boy of the family, Jake (Matthew Knight) is not too fond of his new stepmoth-er Trish (Jennifer Beals).

Jake notices his neighbors taking someone with a hoodie on into their home, and from then on out they fi nd themselves being haunted in a blatant rip-off (I would say homage but this movie is, as I said, horrible) of “The Shining.”

The audience is taken from one story to another, two of which are directly connected within and be-

yond the horrors of Kayako and her creepy little son, and another only connected to the gruesome two-some.

The movie attempts to go beyond the original concept of why these two haunt the house by throwing in some Asian voodoo of sorts and confusing the audience even more.

Even some apocalyptic tinges are added in an attempt to make things seem even creepier. This is all lost though due to the below-par scares compared to the fi rst “Grudge” and the constant parody reminders of “Scary Movie 4.”

Nothing is quite as scary as see-ing Cloris Leachman receive a urine sponge bath.

This brings us to the fun part of these reviews, my critiques and boy do I have a lot to say about this one.

What is probably the worst fi lm of the year (Razzies all around folks) “The Grudge 2) provides lit-tle in the four categories represented in our lovely little graphic provided each week by SunKyu Yoo-Norris.

Very little fun is had in this fi lm beyond the funny opening scene (which probably wasn’t supposed to be funny), and some deranged Japanese man on a bus playing peek a boo.

Another watch-watcher, this fi lm bores and annoys most who watch it. More movie theaters should pro-vide money-back guarantees due to fi lms such as these.

This fi lm is about as artsy-fartsy as the term “artsy-fartsy.” The house even seemed to lack the creepy at-mosphere it had in the fi rst fi lm.

Performances aren‘t worth men-tioning other than Amber Tamblyn’s laughable portrayals of sadness dur-ing her chippy scenes with Eason (Edison Chen) a Chinese photo-journalist that probably should have been a love interest. That piece of meat on the bone was unfortunately left behind.

About the only solid performance

was that of Takako Fuji as the men-acing Kayako, which is pretty sad considering all she had to do is be white, wet, and scary-looking which comes natural to the best of us.

Now comes the biggest pickle with this debacle of a fi lm, the sto-ry and plot. As convoluted as any movie should get, the director must have forgot that he was making a PG-13 horror fi lm.

Not know for their depths in in-telligence and supposedly popular for their abilities to make horror more subtle, director Takashi Shi-mizu, who also directed the fi rst and its original Japanese version, appar-ently has lost all sense of movie-making talent.

With his lack of directing and Stephen Susco’s inept writing, “The Grudge 2” will make us all hold a grudge against Hollywood (didn’t I say that about the fi rst one?).

So now I sit here and ponder the existence of some fi lms.

Last week I gave a movie the highest grade I possibly can and this week I am giving the lowest grade I have ever given, which was formerly held by a fi lm from earlier

this semester known as “Flyboys.”One should defi nitely avoid this

fi lm at all costs. I don’t care if your wife or husband threatens to divorce you, if your children would all die, if Jesus demanded you, if the world would end, or if you would miss out on a date with someone like me, do not waste a breath of your dear pre-cious life with this fi lm.

I am fairly certain that on my trip to hell that if there was a mid-air fl ight, it would be “The Grudge 2.”

I can no longer stand the utter pi-leage of fecal matter coming out of Hollywood anymore. There aren’t enough Scorseses, Nolans, Coens, Singers (as in Bryan Singer, folks), or even Spielbergs to keep it going on any level above toiletry.

This fi lm was delayed due to some script rewrites, and I cannot imagine the waste that was consid-ered before.

I just hope that the writers out there with scripts not meeting the “high standards” of Hollywood are chapping their asses on the John Wayne toilet paper they turn in, and sometimes get greenlighted. Adios!

JASON KIMBRO

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Sarah Michelle Gellar tries to recover from “The Grudge 2”

‘Grudge 2’ combines waste disposal and Hollywood

THE WICHITANOct. 18, 20066 Feature

GOAT MAN’S BRIDGE

Gilbertʼs Creek has a bridge out past the golf course

between Burkburnett and Sheppard Air Force Base.

It is nicknamed Goat Manʼs Bridge. There is rumored to be a man who is half human

and half goat. People say when itʼs really quiet you can hear him, and if you

park your car in the middle of the bridge, it will not

start. They also say you can hear children screaming. A few miles behind the bridge

is a church. Some say it is not just any church, but a satanic church. A lot of

strange things happened out at that bridge. You can ask anyone from Burk and they can tell you right where it

is. But donʼt go alone!

DRUNKEN TOM

Outside of the Falls there is a place in between the

North Texas State Hospital and Southwest Parkway, where a young college-bound man, Drunk Tom, was walking along the

Holliday Creek reservoir. Drunken Tom had been

drinking heavily that night and either tripped or was pushed into the reservoir. It is said if you go there at night and stand in the

exact spot where he died, you will hear a whiskey

bottle breaking against the concrete, and you will see something in the corner of your eye, which immedi-

ately disappears.

FUNLAND MANSION

Above the Funland (amuse-ment park) grounds, there

is a large mansion on a hill. In the late 1970s or early

1980s, the family that lived there was brutally mur-

dered. Apparently, the man of the house customized his basement to be soundproof and made it into a shooting range. One day, he forced his entire family to go into the basement and shot them

with arrows and tortured them in other bizarre ways.

He wrote a suicide note and then shot himself in the

head.

LUCY PARK CEMETERY

In the Lucy Park Cemetery in Wichita Falls there is a

statue called “Little Sister.” The statue is of a young

woman who is said to have died on her wedding night. She is rumored to have died from falling down the stairs.

The statue is said to be haunted by the ghostly

bride. It is said that visitors who go to the cemetery at

midnight can see her statue cry. However, to see the

statue cry, you must be truly sorry for the bride.

PINKY’S CAVE

In Wichita Falls there is an old drainage pipe some call Pinkyʼs Cave. A young boy and his mother were drowned in the drain and swept away under the city until they were dumped where the water lets out. The two openings to this

cave have been blocked off to prevent further drown-ing, but the entrances are notoriously haunted. Be advised that a resident

has reported this area is now a local gang hang-out and probably not the safest place to visit. The

location of Pinkyʼs Cave is Kell West Boulevard and Monroe Street, just right past Taft. It used to have “Pinkyʼs Cave” spray-

painted on it, but it doesnʼt appear to be there anymore.

SCREAMING SHEILA BRIDGE

Somewhere near Burkbur-nett, there is a little bridge

out in the middle of no-where. In the 1920s, when the oil boom hit, several

small “tent towns” popped up. The oilrigs and people traveling to and from work

used this small, wooden bridge. A woman caught cheating on her husband was bound, beaten and

taunted by her husband and his friends. After tortur-

ing her, they set her on fire and burnt a hole through

the bridge, allowing her to fall to the water below. The bridge still stands, hole and all, and is rumored to be a

very spooky area.

Graphics by SunKyu Yoo-Norris&

Stories found by Krystle Carey

Stories attained from www.texasghosthunters.com

RecreationalSports

Menʼs Flag Football10/10

KA̓ s TIE SIGMA NU7-7

TKE DEF. OD PHI14-13

PHI SIG DEF. KAPPA SIG14-0

MANIAC DEF. FREE AGENTS21-8

PRIME TIME DEF. TRUSTYNEIGHBORS

6-0

Womenʼs Flag Football10/12

SIGMA KAPPA DEF. BADDEST CHICKS

2-0CHI O DEF. GAMMA PHI

27-010/9 games resceduled for 10/30

Sports THE WICHITANOct. 18, 2006 7

58613

1400 Borton LaneWichita Falls, TX 76305

Lively music anddown home

preaching andteachings.

Sunday School 9:30 A.M.Morning Worship 10:45 A.M.

Bible Study Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M.

“The Church That Reminds You of Home”

New Jerusalem Baptist ChurchRev. Angus Thompson,

Pastor

We Welcome OurNew Neighbors

Tarleton State ruthlessly handed the No. 24 Mustangs their second consecutive loss Saturday night; dropping 28 unanswered points in a 38-17 thrashing at Memorial Sta-dium. Despite pouring rain showers, Texans wide receiver Dustin Pleas-ant hauled in slick touchdown pass-es of 6, 9, 44, and 42 yards from quarterback Richard Bartel. Pleas-ant finished with a game-high six catches for 114 yards, while Bartel completed 18-of-31 passes for 268 yards. The Tarleton rout started soon after Mustang quarterback Rahsaan Bell hit Darrius Richard for a 30-yard touchdown with 2:02 remain-ing in the second quarter. Trailing 17-10 in the closing seconds, Tar-leton marched 55 yards down the field from the Texan 45-yard line; capped off by a 9-yard Pleasant score to knot the game up at half-time. It would signal the beginning of the end for MSU (5-2, 1-2 LSC South), as Tarleton (3-3, 2-0 LSC South) tamed the Mustangs for the remainder of the contest; limiting an offense that averaged 471 yards a game to 288 total yards in a second

half shutout. Bell was 21-of-31 passing for 216 yards and a score for the Mus-tangs, while Ross Harrison, who did not play last week, made his return with 55 yards rushing on seven car-ries and a touchdown. Harrison tied current Indianapo-lis Colt and former Mustang run-ning back Dominic Rhodes for first place on the career rushing touch-down list with 27 scores. He also surpassed the 2,300 career yards rushing plateau and is 238 yards shy from passing Rhodes on the all-time rushing list. Mustang kickoff return man Tre-maine Forrest climbed up the record books Saturday as well, accumulat-ing 1,001 career yards in kickoff returns. Forrest is second all-time to former MSU receiver and current San Francisco 49er Bryan Gilmore. Gilmore holds the record with 1,171 yards on 54 returns. Head Coach Bill Maskill is now 0-3 in his career against Tarleton State and must now prepare for Texas A&M-Kingsville on the road Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Kristian Foster was the only source of offense for MSU in the first quarter, nailing a 30-yard field goal in the opening drive, as the Texan defense put the clamps down immediately. Erick Smith anchored a defense

that allowed 72 yards rushing on the night. The Mustangs entered the game averaging 220 yards, but were locked down and limited to a 2.8 yards per rush average. Smith registered 10 tackles and forced a fumble to lead the Texans stiff de-fense, while Trey Lewis added five tackles and an interception. Already entering the second half with momentum on their side, Tarleton again unleashed Pleasant to the vulnerable secondary in the third quarter. TSU took a 24-17 lead at the 11:34 mark when Bartel con-nected on a deep 44-yard bomb to Pleasant. The duo was not finished either. One TSU possession later, Pleas-ant raced into the secondary and brought in a 42-yard touchdown to take a commanding 31-17 score. Michael Sampson then put the Mus-tangs down for good in the top of the fourth, breaking loose on the left side of the offensive line for a 24-yard touchdown and 38-17 final. Sampson finished with 167 yards rushing and a score on 32 carries. Devon Campbell and Lance Gardner led the MSU defense with 11 tackles each; Campbell also had three pass deflections. Justin Wil-liams and Dezmond Sherrer fol-lowed with six tackles a piece in the losing effort.

IGGY CRUZSTAFF REPORTER

Texans lasso Mustangs, 38-17

HERSHEL SELF | THE WICHITAN

MSU’s Lance Gardner, 34, leads a stampede of Mustangs as they heed a Tarletan State player on Saturday night at Me-morial Stadium. Midwestern fell to the Texans, 38-17.

MSU TIMEOUT

Name: Megan Hanlon Sport: Soccer Position: Outside Mid/Forward Number: 6 Class: Freshman Major: Education Hometown: Plano

1. What is playing in your CD player right now?

“A mixed alternative CD with The Fray and Snow

Patrol on it. ”

2. If you could play an-other sport in college, what

would it be?“Ping pong.”

3. What is your toughest class this semester?

“Psychology because itʼs new and Iʼm learning new

things”

4. What soccer player do you model your game

after? “MSUʼs Danny Kastelic.”

: )

5. What is anon-athletic talent you

have? “Iʼm good at sleeping!”

6. What do you eatbefore a game?

“Whatever is in thecafeteria, and I always

have a strawberry banana smoothie.”

7. Why did you choose MSU?

“It was just the closest to home than all the other

schools that recruited me. Other schools are inTennessee and South

Carolina.”

8. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

“Hopefully back in Plano teaching and coaching

soccer.

9. What is your favorite pastime?

“I like to hang out with friends and shop at the

mall.”

10. What is the best thing about MSU Womenʼs

Soccer? “All of the girls are nice

and fun to be with. We are really close!”

The MSU menʼs soccer team de-feated St. Edwardʼs University 2-0 Friday, Oct. 13, in Austin. The Mustangsʼ defense dominat-ed and shut out the Hilltoppers, lead by goal keeper Jeremy Turner. Turner recorded his fourth straight shut out of the season. He saved three of the six shots he came up against. On the offense, the Mustangs re-ceived goals from Scott Magliaro and Brandon Swartzendruber. This was Magliaroʼs second goal of the season and came with 27 minutes left in the game. Swartzendruberʼs goal, his twelfth of the season, came with just three minutes to play. High off the win in Austin, the

Mustangs traveled to San Antonio Sunday to face off against Incarnate Word (ranked 11th in NSCAA/Adi-das Division II top 25), a big match for the team. MSU, moving up six spots to rank 16th in the poll, won the match against Incarnate Word 3-1. With this win MSU is now 13-2-1. The second half of the game be-longed to MSU, with the men scor-ing three goals on seven shots. Daniel Brown took the lead, scoring his third goal of the season, and then later Brent Beavan picked up his first goal of the year. Tyler Murphy picked up his third goal of the year on a pass from Bea-van. Incarnate Word, now 11-2-2, scored their only goal 18 minutes into the first half of the game.

Turner especially gave a tight performance during the game, sav-ing three of the 10 shots he faced. Two of those saves came during the second half. He is now 7-1. This win against UIW is impor-tant in part because it marks the first time the Mustangs have ever won at UIW in the regular season under coach Doug Elder. Next up for the menʼs soccer team is traveling to face off against Missouri Southern Friday. Also this past week, two play-ers — Swartzendruber and Turner — were rewarded for their efforts with the Southwest Soccer Confer-ence Players of the Week, awarded by the conference office. Turner was named Defensive Player of the Week and Swartzendruber was named Offensive Player of the Week.

KONNIE SEWELLSTAFF REPORTER

Mustangs buck off St. Edwardʼs

Iʼve been trying to fig-ure out why more people in America donʼt like soccer. Well, actu-ally, Iʼm sure a lot of them like soccer. But not the way they like football. Football, schmootball. Iʼve always liked soccer. Ever since I was little I was drawn to it. I donʼt know why, exactly. I used to draw doodles of kids playing soc-cer on my papers when I was in el-ementary school. Sometimes when recess rolled around Iʼd get tired of girl talk and Barbie games. Iʼd wander over to

the boys and ask them what they were doing — it wasnʼt soccer, whatever it was, and wasnʼt a game for girls, either. My first World Cup experience was when I was 5-years-old. I donʼt remember much about it. The next World Cup occurred when I was 9-years-old, and I couldnʼt have been happier. Soccer all day long? Most of the countries of the world com-peting? It was enormous and amaz-ing and I was so happy that sum-mer. Early on I developed a love for teams from Latin America, Argenti-na in particular. But there was never really anyone who shared my love of the game in my immediate circle of family and friends. Sundays at my house were (and still are) Cowboys day. And yeah, Iʼm happy when the Cowboys win but Iʼm not torn up inside the way my mom and grandfather are when they lose.

Footballʼs always bored me. Thereʼs three seconds of action for every 10 minutes of measuring and going over the game play. In soccer, a goal can happen so quickly, at any time. You have to keep your eyes glued to the screen or the field. Even if itʼs a game where no one scores or it ends in a tie, thatʼs okay. I still feel like I got something out of it. Football, not so much. Thatʼs why I like tennis, too — things can happen so quickly. Youʼve got to really pay attention. And in hockey, another favor-ite sport of mine, you never know whatʼs going to happen. Is a fight going to break out? (No, I donʼt ac-tually wish for fights to happen.) Is he going to find a way to score? Is he going to get out of that huddle the enemies sicked on him? But then someone related to me, nicely but very bluntly, during the 2006 World Cup this summer (where

no one at my internship would take me seriously when I asked about fi-nal scores, who out shot who, and whether Buffon had kicked some more ass that day), that soccer is a “niche” sport in America ... just like tennis and swimming and pretty much every other sport I do happen to like and watch. How is it that sports huge in the rest of the world are just “niche” sports here? And what is a poor girl like myself to do when the only sports she really likes are “niche” sports? One of the ESPNs might play something ... at three in the morn-ing, when Iʼm dead asleep. Iʼm usually too busy during the day to watch a game or a match they might actually happen to show, while my parents and grandfather cooly relax on Sunday evenings to settle down with the Cowboys. People pack the stadiums for high school and college football games,

but they stay home for other sport-ing events. Whereʼs the support? A good friend of mine traveled to Portugal for the second summer in a row. She wrote me several times to tell me about all the crazy fan spirit (crazy in a good way) and game-watching parties she went to during the World Cup. Another friend was actually right in Germany, where the games were held. I canʼt quite articulate the exact shade of green I was when I heard about all this, but I reckon it was a very unbecoming shade. Yet another friend of mine lives in Belgium, and she and everyone she knows keeps up with the most recent tennis scores. Americans are always so proud to be different. And most of the time, Iʼm proud to be different too. But this is the only instance where I wish weʼd be more like the rest of the world for a change.

KONNIE SEWELLSTAFF REPORTER

Soccer fan encourages Americans to get their kicks

The MSU womenʼs soccer team defeated the Northeastern State (Okla.) Lady Reds 4-2 Friday, Oct. 13. The first goal of the game be-longed to Northeastern. This goal came just 37 seconds into the game. MSUʼs Kari Bristow responded with a shot from the top of the box. This tied the game 1-1. NSU scored again, for what would be their second and last time. Then, MSUʼs Katy Lukert tied the game with less than one minute left in the first half. This was her fourth goal of the season and was on a shot from 10 yards out.

During the gameʼs second half, MSU scored two more times with goals from Megan Bibilone and Ashley Hornisher. These was Hor-nisherʼs second goal of the season. Goal keeper Heather Primavera saved three of the four shots she faced, helping to preserve MSUʼs win. The women were supposed to play a match against East Central (Okla.) Sunday, but the game was postponed; heavy rain made the field unplayable. But the game was rescheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 17, where MSU shut out the Tigers 3-0. This was a key Lone Star Con-ference game for the women to win and they are now 8-6-1, 4-2-1.

In the first half, Bibilone picked up her fifth goal of the season off a through ball from Lukert. In the second half, Kari Bristow scored her third goal of the year. The final goal of the game was Michelle Harrisʼ, on her first goal of the year. It was from a pass off Lukert. Primavera saved six of the nine shots she faced and got her fifth shut out of the season. Her record improved to 7-5-1. Next up for the MSU womenʼs soccer team is hosting Southwest-ern Oklahoma State Friday at 7 p.m. Their final home game of the year will be Sunday at 6 p.m. against Conference leader Central Oklahoma.

KONNIE SEWELLSTAFF REPORTER

The Midwestern State Univer-sity doubles team of Brett Emerson and Zach Dillard were the national runners up in the NCAA Division II menʼs doubles division of the ITA Small College National Tennis Championships on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University. Emerson, a senior from Canberra, Australia, and Dillard, a junior from Wichita Falls/Rider were the number two seeds in the tournament. They advanced to the final by beating Chris Smith and Jake Sauls-bury of Northwest Missouri State 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday in the quarter-finals. The pair then defeated Nikolas Overkemping and Joerg Ekkenga of Valdosta State in the semifinals Fri-day morning 7-5, 6-4. But Friday evening, the duo went three sets with Dennis Riegraf and Julien Carsuzza of Lynn (Fla.), but fell 7-5, 4-6, 10-6. Riegraf/Carsuzza also knocked off the top seeds in the tournament, Teddy Mebounow and Marius Broek of Northwood (Mich.) in the semis. Emerson and Dillard were ITA All-Americans last season after leading MSU to the national quar-

terfinals in the NCAA Champion-ships. The duo won the number one doubles at the Lone Star Confer-ence Individual Championships last weekend and earned their way to the ITA by taking the doubles title at the Wilson/ITA Central Regional in Abilene this fall.

FOR THE WICHITAN

Womenʼs soccer beats NSUDuo places Lady Mustangs dominate in postponed game

SportsTHE WICHITANOct. 18, 20068

Thurs.7 p.m.

Womenʼs Volleyball v.sTexas A&M-Commerce

at Commerce

Fri. 7 p.m.

Womenʼs Soccer v.s.Southwestern Oklahoma

at Wichita Falls

7 p.m.Menʼs Soccer v.s.

Missouri Southern atJoplin, MO.

Sat.Womenʼs Cross Country

in the Lone StarConference

Championshipsat Stephenville

2 p.m.Womenʼs Volleyball v.s. Southeastern Oklahoma

at Durant, Okla.

2 p.m.Rugby v.s. TCU at

Wichita Falls

7 p.m.Football v.s. Texas A&M-Kingsville at

Kingsville

Sun.1 p.m.

Menʼs Soccer v.s. Northeastern State at

Tahlequah, Okla.

6 p.m.Womenʼs Soccer v.s. Central Oklahoma at

Wichita Falls

Tues.7 p.m.

Womenʼs Volleyball v.s. Texas Womanʼs at

Denton

Next Up

Forty-five minutes is all the Lady Mustangs needed Monday night on Stockton Court; spiking Paul Quinn College 30-9, 30-10, 30-9 in non-conference action. The win snaps a five-game skid for MSU (12-13), while PQC drops to 3-15 on the season. The Lady Mustangs will hit the road Thursday to resume Lone Star Conference play against Texas A&M-Commerce. The match is set for 7 p.m.

Krissa Johnson and Jessica Ran-som led the volleyball team with nine kills each. Johnson, who ranks third in the LSC in blocks, also notched three service aces while hitting .571. Rachel Gilmore added eight kills and Allison Schreiber served up 22 assists for the Lady Mustangs in the win. The game was a breeze from the start, as MSU jumped all over the small intercollegiate school. Al-ready short on depth, seven Tiger players logged minutes against the Lady Mustangʼs 13. Misti Lovett led PQC with six kills and six digs, while Dominique

White and Latisha Hickmon added four kills. The Lady Mustangs finished with a solid .506 attack percentage com-pared to a miserable -.143 percent-age from the Tigers. The volleyball team also hosted a game in D.L Ligon Coliseum Sat-urday, falling to Central Oklahoma 3-2. Johnson again led the charge with 14 kills, while Lacey Lanier and Ransom chipped in 13 kills a piece. Schreiber finished with 53 assists and Gilmore had eight kills and blocks in the losing effort.

IGGY CRUZSTAFF REPORTER

Lady Mustangs stomp Paul Quinn

HERSHEL SELFSS | THE WICHITAN

MSU’s Allison Schreiber, 21,

sets up teammate Sesley

Graves, 4, on a play against

Paul Quinn College Tuesday

night in D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

The Lady Mustangs handled

the Lady Tigers in three sets

snapping a five-game losing

streak. MSU will travel to

take on Texas A&M-Com-

merce Thursday night at 7

p.m.

Not since the 2003-2004 season has the Texas Christian University Rugby Team visited MSU. In that season TCU owned MSU and went 3-0, defeating us twice in the regular season and again in the Collegiate Division III Champion-ship Game. MSU still has a sour taste in their mouth from being swept by their renewed division rival. They get their chance for redemption this Saturday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. at the intramural fields. This is MSUʼs first Collegiate Division II Western Division match of the season. They are looking forward to getting a fresh start in conference play after losing three weeks ago in a friendly match against San Angelo State.

JAMES PIERCESTAFF REPORTER

MSU v.s. TCURugby looks for support