The All State

By Trent Singer – tsinger@my.apsu.edu

NASHVILLE – In an exciting start to the Ohio Valley Conference women’s tournament, the Lady Govs defeated the Morehead State Eagles, 84-83, in double overtime on Wednesday, Feb. 29, to advance to tomorrow’s game against the No. 3 seed Murray State Racers at noon in Municipal Auditorium.

Senior Whitney Hanley ended the game with a career-high 38 points, despite scoring only six in the first half.

“I honestly don’t know if I have words to describe the game we just played,” said head coach Carrie Daniels. “We had to fight just to be here and be one of the eight, and I think they have continued through. That was an unbelievable basketball game.”

Although the Lady Govs pulled out the dramatic victory, the team struggled to capitalize in the first half, trailing the Eagles, 29-37.

From beyond the arc, the Lady Govs finished the first half shooting 14%, hitting 1-of-7, while Junior Kaitlyn Hill led the team in scoring with nine points.

The Lady Govs came back in the second half hoping to cut their eight-point deficit, but Morehead State would not budge.

With 9:41 left in the second half, Morehead State led by as many as 15 points, but the Lady Govs slowly cut the lead down as Hanley began to shine.

“Whitney Hanley put this team on her back and said ‘Let’s go,’” Daniels said. “I think she definitely showed she is not ready for her career to be over in that Austin Peay uniform.”

In the game’s final four minutes, the Lady Govs began an 11-2 run that included four points from freshman Kristen Stainback, two from junior Leslie Martinez and five from Hanley.

Perhaps the most impressive of her five points came from the free-throw line, where Hanley entered the game ranked 10^th nationally in percentage.

With five seconds left, Hanley hit both free throws to tie the score at 61 and send the game into overtime.

“I didn’t really think about the score,” said Hanley. “I just relaxed and shot it.”

In overtime, both teams continued to fight back and forth, as the Lady Govs took their first lead of the game with just under three minutes remaining.

With a 74-71 lead and 16 seconds remaining, Morehead State’s Linda Dixon responded by hitting a key three-pointer to send the game into its second overtime.

In the second overtime, the two teams continued to stay within two points of each other, but after freshman Nicole Olszewski hit the biggest free throw of her brief Lady Govs career, the Eagles failed to convert a driving lay-up as time expired, sending the Lady Govs to tomorrow’s contest against Murray State.

“You want to be playing your best ball this time of year,” Daniels said. “We’ve never, at any point we’ve been down by that type of margin, hung our heads and given up.”

In their first meeting against Morehead State, the Lady Govs lost 67-74, despite coming back and outscoring the Eagles, 44-31 in the second half.

The two teams met for a second time two weeks ago on Saturday, Feb. 18, when the Lady Govs took the Eagles into overtime, winning 88-81.

“You have to dig deep,” Martinez said. “Regardless if you’re frustrated, you just have to try to stay at a certain level the whole time.”

After a slow first half, Hanley scored 32 points, 18 of which came in the overtime periods.

The Lady Govs will now prepare to take on the Murray State Racers, a team they’ve beaten twice this year. Tip-off will begin at noon tomorrow, March 1, in Municipal Auditorium.

“It’s tournament time,” Daniels said. “We have to focus on our game tomorrow at noon and be as prepared as we can be.”

» By PHILIP SPARN – psparn@my.apsu.edu

Tennessee voters, along with voters from nine other states, will select their preferred candidate for the 2012 presidential elections on what is known as “Super Tuesday” on March 6.

While many APSU students will be focused on spring break, the nation will have its eyes on these 10 Super Tuesday primary and caucus states, which include Tennessee, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Vermont and Virginia.

Super Tuesday voters will choose which presidential candidate they want nominated at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this summer.

“This process allows the voters to give their input on who they want to vote for in November,” said assistant Political Science professor Andrew Steinfeldt.

Since Tennessee holds an open primary, any registered voter can either vote in the Republican or Democratic primary, according to Vickie Koelman, Montgomery County’s administrator of elections.

Those who will be voting for the Republican nominee can choose between Texas congressman Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania congressman Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Michael Jenkins, junior Political Science major, believes it will be a close race between Santorum, Romney and Gingrich here in Tennessee.

“Every candidate has a possibility of winning at least one state on Super Tuesday,” Jenkins said. “Every state counts and a win in Tennessee will be vital for any of the Republican candidates trying to gain support in the south.”

Although incumbent President Barack Obama is uncontested in this year’s Democratic primary, voters can still show their support for the president by voting for him on the Democrat Presidential Preference ballot, according to Koelman.

Koelman also pointed out voters can write-in a candidate of their choice, if they are unhappy with the available options offered by either party.

While the early voting period has already passed, the polls will be open on Super Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., March 6, according to the Montgomery County Election Commission.

Koelman said she hopes everyone in the community, especially students, will participate in the upcoming presidential primary election. She also hopes everyone will also participate in every upcoming election, regardless of what office is being voted on.

“If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about any of the candidates,” Jenkins said.

Koelman said if students need help figuring out where to vote, to call the Montgomery County Election Commission’s office or your county’s election commission and they will direct you to your local precinct. TAS

» By TRENT SINGER – tsinger@my.apsu.edu

NASHVILLE – The Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships took place this weekend, Feb. 24-25, in the Gentry Center at Tennessee State, where APSU’s women’s team placed seventh and Eastern Illinois swept for the fourth consecutive year.

Tanesha Campbell started the ceremonies off right by winning the shot put on Friday.

The senior from Northwest High School was named first-team All-OVC and was the only Lady Govs athlete to place in the first and second tier.
Several other Lady Govs athletes gave solid efforts to contribute to the team’s 62.5 points.

Sophomore Xiamar Richards broke a school record set in 2007 by running the 5,000 meter run in 17:53.05.

Despite the record-breaking run, Richards finished in third place among 5,000 meter runners.

Junior Chantelle Grey finished in third place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.44. Junior Cenitra Hudson also finished third in the triple jump with 11.92m.

Eastern Illinois finished in first place in both men’s and women’s track and field, earning 196 points for the men and 149.5 for the women.

The team will now prepare for the Coastal Carolina Invitational in Conway, South Carolina, March 9-10, before travelling to Nashville to compete against several schools in a meet hosted by Vanderbilt University, March 24-25. TAS

» Trynica daniels – tdaniels8@my.apsu.edu

By the time young adults begin college, many have already been in relationships and experienced the nasty phenomenon of a breakup. Breakups can occur for a number of reasons, but one of the most devastating reasons for a breakup — one that crushes self-esteem and destroys trust — is infidelity.

Traditionally, cheating involves something like having two girlfriends at the same time or having sex with one man even though you are engaged to another.

But in the age of technology, some profess cheating can happen while someone is sitting down in a chair, tapping keystrokes and looking at a screen.

“Sexting and Internet photos and the kinds of things we’ve been hearing about on the news are definitely infidelity,” reported family therapist Dr. Lindle Mintle to CBN News. “Whenever you betray the covenant of marriage by going outside the marriage to fulfill a sexual need without your partner, that’s infidelity.”

Specialists in this touchy gray area have established one very simple guideline with which to monitor behavior online. If you would feel guilty sending it with your significant other beside you, or you feel like you need to keep your Internet activity secret from him or her because you think they would feel betrayed, then it’s cheating, plain and simple.

The majority of Americans consider emotional betrayal to be equivalent and no less despicable than the physical act of cheating. A poll conducted by ABC News reported 64 percent of adults believe if a person in a serious relationship participates in suggestive conversations on the Internet, they are being unfaithful.

It’s easy to accidentally cross this blurry line when typing away on the Internet. Generally, the Internet promotes a feeling of anonymity, which leads to feeling your actions on the Internet are harmless. But innocuous flirting with some stranger on the Internet can easily escalate into full-blown infidelity, as the flirter begins to speak more and more often with the digital object of his or her desires and perhaps forms an emotional connection, or even begins to fantasize about being with this other person.

Easily-accessed websites, opportunities to privately browse or clear history and a lack of understanding there is any wrongdoing being done contributes to this slippery slope that is unfortunately all too easy to fall prey to.

It’s important to remember with the click of a mouse, you can lose a relationship you’ve been building for years, and with a few offhand keystrokes, you can break the heart of the person who means the world to you.

However, relationships can sometimes be strengthened after adversity if the two parties can come clean with each other, acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them.

Internet cheating is the same as any other kind of cheating, and requires the same careful avoidance or, if the deed has already been done, the same counseling and healing. TAS

» By CONOR SCRUTON – cscruton@my.apsu.edu

With Clarksville seeing some warmer weather, last week I decided to find a place to celebrate our upcoming spring break.

Sweet Berry is a self-serve frozen yogurt shop very close to campus at 1715 D Wilma Rudolph Blvd. Like a lot of small businesses in Clarksville, Sweet Berry is deeply rooted in APSU; the founder, owner, and logo designer all have connections to the school.

I was by no means a stranger when I walked into Sweet Berry last week. My sister, a self-proclaimed Sweet Berry addict and APSU senior, had been excited about taking me to the frozen yogurt shop for months when she found out I was moving to Clarksville.

Her excitement hadn’t been misplaced, either; from the moment you walk in, Sweet Berry does everything right in terms of atmosphere and service. I’ve never encountered anything less than a warm welcome from the workers, and the restaurant itself is quaint without being too overdone. The choices in actual frozen yogurt are just standard, for the most part — vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, etc. — but there’s a really wide range of toppings you can add basically for free.

That’s one thing that really appeals to me about Sweet Berry; it’s self-serve, and the price is based on the weight rather than what kind of frozen yogurt you get. It’s really useful when you’re just dropping in for a warm afternoon’s snack, as I usually am. Rather than jumping through mathematical hoops in your head trying to calculate the prices of different flavors and amounts, at Sweet Berry you get only as much as you want and pay a proportional price.

As far as the frozen yogurt itself, I was genuinely impressed when I first tried it last year. Any frozen yogurt option will do, but I particularly recommend strawberry with cheesecake chunks. Once again, the wide range of topping options does a lot for Sweet Berry where some places would charge you extra.

On the whole, eating at Sweet Berry feels less like stopping at a restaurant and more like enjoying some frozen yogurt in your own kitchen. They’re open from 2-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and noon-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It’s a great shop for families and college students alike, and as it gets hotter outside, you’ll definitely see me stopping by for a quick, cool treat. TAS

» By CONOR SCRUTON – cscruton@my.apsu.edu

Everyone, whether traveling or just lying on the couch, is getting pumped for spring break. It seems the furthest thing from students’ minds is safety.

While spring break is meant to give students a chance to let off steam, traveling can be dangerous. When having fun over break, safety should be the number one priority.

Here are some tips to make sure everyone’s break is a safe and fun one.

It is important to have contacts back home anytime one takes a trip. The first thing travelers should do when planning a trip is leave contact information with several people, parents preferably being the primary contacts.

It may seem like leaving information with parents defeats the purpose of spring break, but they will be the first to notice their children didn’t contact them as expected.

Some items that should be left include an itinerary and, if leaving the country, a copy of a passport. Be sure to choose another trusted adult as well, and make contact on a daily basis. Another tip for traveling abroad is researching the destination. Some cultures are very different from Americans’, and offending locals can end badly.

It is also important to be conscious of political and social issues in the area that could affect the trip. Also, be sure to register the trip with the U.S. Department of State, as this allows the government to contact any travelers that feel endangered.

The Department of State is a good general reference and can be accessed online at travel.state.gov.

It is also very important to learn the laws of the travel location. Being an American citizen does not save travelers from a foreign country’s justice system. Keep this in mind when consuming alcohol.

The next safety tip goes all the way back to elementary school: the buddy system. “We’re going to London over spring break,” said freshman Daniel Pitts. “We’re using the buddy system to stay safe, but also just to make sure we don’t get lost.”

Most students understand this system, but special care should be taken when alcohol is involved. One buddy should agree to stay sober and make sure the other does not get into trouble. The next night, buddies can switch roles so everyone has a good time, but stays safe as well.

That last, and most important, safety tip is to have an emergency plan. Learn the phone numbers of the local authorities, and carry emergency contact information at all times. Hotels can also be used as contact numbers in case of an emergency.

Now that you know the basics, it is up to you to keep you and your friends safe over break. Don’t let dangerous situations ruin your fun because you didn’t protect yourself. TAS