West Chester

West Chester senior Eric Olinick notched a 2-over-par 72 Tuesday to win the Slippery Rock Invitational. Senior Matt Maurer, son of head coach Mark Maurer, fired a 79 for West Chester's next-best score. The Golden Rams placed sixth in the 12-team tournament. Olinick followed his victory Tuesday with a 12th-place finish in the Indiana (Pa.) Invitational Wednesday. He fired a 4 over 75 at the Indiana Country Club. The Golden Rams finished 12th in the 14-team event. Shanahan grads produce.

A year ago, West Chester struggled to a 4-6-1 football season, its first losing record since 1979. The Rams needed a leader. It appears they've found one in Mike Mitros. In guiding West Chester to a 2-0 mark, Mitros, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Monsignor Bonner High, has completed 60 percent of his passes (27 of 45) for 287 yards and five touchdowns. "Mike's got that intangible. He wins," West Chester coach Rick Daniels said at yesterday's weekly football luncheon at Villanova.

West Chester University President Madeleine Wing Adler said that the school's relationship with the borough has improved. "We have a wonderful relationship with the community," Adler said. "That wasn't always the case. " Certainly, the issue of "town-gown" (borough-campus) relations is nothing new in this borough, where many of the 11,578 students live in off-campus apartments and fraternity houses. But Adler's defense comes at a time when the strain over the university's coexistence with borough residents has again risen to the forefront.

For the second time in six years, West Chester came to the brink but stopped short of eliminating borough trash pickup and engaging private trash haulers. Even though the Borough Council would have to receive bids from private trash haulers to determine if the switch would save money, the members voted the proposal down, 4-2, at Wednesday's meeting. Voting to receive bids were President W. Barry Wright and chairman of the public works committee Steven K. Handzel. Council member H. Kenneth Hagerty was absent.

Shortly after practice last Thursday afternoon, Dave MacDonald pondered the task that would begin in about 24 hours. The West Chester Golden Rams would be hosting Cheyney at Farrell Stadium. Though Cheyney had finally halted its 36-game losing streak earlier this season, the Wolves would have to be regarded as big underdogs against a powerhouse program like West Chester. MacDonald wouldn't hear it. "When we played them last year, we were coming off a big win," he said, referring to a 21-20 upset of Delaware.

Coach Rick Daniels has had what he called "a topsy-turvy, roller-coaster year" in West Chester's first seven games. Life shouldn't get any easier for him tomorrow. The Golden Rams, ranked 14th nationally in NCAA Division II, will travel to Millersville in a game that will have an impact on both the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division race and the Division II playoffs. The Rams (6-1 overall, 4-0 conference) are the East's only unbeaten team. They are ranked fourth in the Northeast Region, behind Ferris State, New Haven and Indiana (Pa.)

The West Chester University's women's softball team is off to its best start in four years despite a doubleheader loss to La Salle on Thursday that dropped the team's record to 3-5. Coach Sonya Wilmoth says she likes what she sees and attributes much of it to several newcomers. "The last four years have been a struggle," said Wilmoth, whose team went 8-21 last season. "Some freshmen and other first-year players have really helped us. The seniors have seen some rough years, so it's good to get some new blood.

Jack London's The Call of the Wild is the perfect answer to a wintry eve when the wind howls and the mercury plummets. Listeners can shiver with Buck - half St. Bernard, half shepherd - as he meets and conquers the frozen north country of the Klondike. In a Dercum Press release (three hours, $14.95), Samuel W.M. Griffin gives a lively and expressive reading of this adventure classic, written in 1903 during the Gold Rush. Discovery of the precious metal led men to the north, and they needed dogs to survive.

West Chester won its first-ever Division II College World Series baseball game, edging Francis Marion, 3-2, yesterday in Montgomery, Ala., to stay alive in the consolation round. The Golden Rams (39-19) set a school record for victories in a season after substitute sophomore second baseman Kyle Bechter, a Pennsbury High graduate, speared a line drive in the bottom of the 10th inning to end the game. In the top of the 10th, Bechter's take-out slide at second base broke up a double play and allowed Mark Gilliford to score the winning run. West Chester plays tomorrow night at 7:30 against Montevallo, which edged the Golden Rams, 3-2, in 12 innings Saturday.

The West Chester University men's basketball team has been hot lately, and no one has been hotter than junior forward T.J. Zanin. The 6-foot-4 Marple Newtown graduate scored 26 points in an 84-76 overtime win over East Stroudsburg on Feb. 5. He followed that with a career-high 29-point effort in a 62-51 victory over Millersville on Saturday. The win over Millersville was the Golden Rams' fourth straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference victory. It left West Chester one win away from clinching the school's first PSAC playoff spot since the 1993-94 season.