Mustang Daily 5-23

MUSTANG DAILY | Thursday, May 23

These boots were made for more than walkingARTS, pg. 4

Piecing together the life of Mihail Dincu

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high 70˚Flow 46˚F

Frias leads track and field in NCAA prelims.

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Opinions/Editorial..............7Classifieds/Comics...........8Sports...........................9-10

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SPORTS, pg. 8 Tomorrow’s Weather:

sunny partially cloudy cloudy foggy windy light rain rain thinderstorm snow hail sleet

I had a notebook full of questions for Devon Lotito, the freshman wonder who stole the show during Cal Poly’s disappointing 2013 season, installing a glimmer of hope in the Cal Poly wres-tling program.

I was early, so Dincu, donning a Cal Poly athletics polo, arrived before the wrestlers hit the mats.

As he limped toward me, I could tell he was older, with a head of thin, white hair and wrinkles on his face surrounding a pair of piercing green eyes.

I told him I worked for Mustang Daily and was waiting to interview Lotito.

He spoke in broken English with a foreign accent I couldn’t place, but re-sponded with the four clearest words I’ve ever heard him say.

“You should interview me.”

After some back and forth communica-tion, Dincu and I finally sat down for an interview in February.

It lasted exactly one hour.I said fewer than 50 words.What I learned in those 60 minutes was

that Dincu’s life is a jigsaw puzzle.The pieces come in thick envelopes,

plastic bags, frayed photos and old newspaper articles, countless stories and moments.

To give the simplest introduction, Dincu is a Romanian massage therapist and an employee of Cal Poly athletics.

He now resides in San Luis Obispo, but Dincu has been everywhere from Eastern Europe to Southern Alabama, and every-where in between. He’s been a personal athletic therapist to Canadian Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson and a masseur to the San Antonio Spurs.

Dincu’s past is elaborate and mysterious to say the least.

But the key to unraveling that past has been Dincu’s voicemails.

He calls on a regular basis — to let me know his schedule, to add on to his quotes from the interview, or just to check in.

He called me 11 times in the month of April alone, which led to a crowded in-box, but those voicemails say more about Dincu than anything else.

3/13/13: Voicemail seven of 11

Jacob, talk to me, brother. What’s hap-pening? Last night, (baseball) played San Jose. I warmed them up, then I went for a kick at The Pit. Go back watch, 5-2, San

Jose. I went to their dugout and started to encourage Cal Poly, we won 6-5. You ask, what’s so special with me? I remember last year, the same thing. It was 7-2, they fin-ished 9-8. How can I explain if you don’t talk to me? Are you doing any progress on your homework, that famous paper? Bye.

Around Cal Poly, Dincu is known as “Super Mike.”

It’s a fun nickname, and a testament to Dincu’s supernatural abilities as a masseur, but the fact of the matter is: He might be a legitimate good luck charm.

In 1975, Dincu took his talents to FC Steaua Buchuresti, the Romanian army soccer team. It hadn’t won th Liga I — the top league in Romania — and the Cupa Romániei in the same season since 1953, but with Dincu Steaua Bu-churesti won both in 1976.

know how easy it is to die,” he said.

For Mihail Dincu, each step is a

reminder.A stroke left him a

half-broken man 13 years ago, with a

consequent limp that hinders Dincu’s walk

to this day.It was one of the

first things I noticed when we crossed paths in January.

On a Wednesday afternoon, I stood

outside the Recreation Center wrestling

room, approximately 15 minutes before the

start of practice.

BY: JACOB LAUING [email protected]

“I

IAN BILLINGS / MUSTANG DAILY

‘keep punching’

For the rest of the story, see DINCU, pg. 9

A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE: Dincu (right) is a Romanian massage therapist and an employee of Cal Poly. But during his lifetime, Dincu has been a masseur for the Romanian Army soccer team (below in 1976) and the San Antonio Spurs (lower right).

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MDnews 2 Thursday, May 23, 2013

Student suggestions spark library rennovationsWhen students complain about Robert E. Kennedy Library, the staff listens and responds.

This spring and summer, the library will undergo some smaller and larger projects in efforts to not only be the best library in the California State University system, but in the nation, university librarian Anna Gold said.

“We are looking at how we use the whole building to achieve goals for students and faculty,” Gold said. “We really feel we can redefine what a col-lege library is and how it works in an academic community.”

Kennedy’s new definition of a college library is to provide a place where Cal Poly students can implement “Learn by Do-ing” with adequate technologi-cal support, director of library information technology Dale Kohler said.

“Yes, we still have books, and love books, and the books aren’t going away,” he said. “We are just adding digital re-sources. We’re really focused on students and student needs. Our motto is ‘You asked, and we listened.’ We are being re-sponsive to what students are asking for.”

Funding from the California State Lottery Act and one-time money from salary savings of li-brary employees have generated funds for the projects, which are all based on student and faculty requests. The most demanded addition is electrical outlets,

Kohler said. During the past three years, Kennedy has lined its windows with another 1,675 electrical outlets, costing ap-proximately $8,000.

“We’ve been rimming win-dows with an outlet every foot,” he said. “It’s getting harder and harder to do because fewer and fewer spaces are available to cheaply add outlets.”

Other electronic accommoda-tions are a mobile charging sta-tion that allows users to secure cell phones in lockers while juic-ing up, rather than sitting out in the open, Kohler said. Also, the second-floor computer lab (216B) will transform into an active learning classroom/lab over the summer.

“It will be a really cool mul-timedia room devoted to flipped instruction model,” he said. “Faculty members doing cutting-edge teaching will like that space.”

Non-digital renovations are to remove the clear, glass half-wall at the entrance and add more space for students to en-ter the library. Students have also complained about not having enough space in the li-brary, especially during finals week, and this is an ongoing problem the library seeks to solve, Kohler said. The Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology on the third floor will be expanded as well.

What some students might not know is that the library

already offers a mobile web-site that allows users to find open computers on any floor in the library, reserve “fish bowl” rooms on the second floor through a few easy clicks and view PolyConnect Lab equipment availability, such as iPads, projectors, Kindles and video cameras, Kohler said.

Agribusiness senior Kayla Hayden studies in the library multiple times a week and hates walking from computer lab to computer lab looking for an open computer, she said. She was not aware of the mo-bile site and will start to use it on her iPhone, she said.

“I didn’t know they were that high tech,” she said. “Hell yeah, I’ll check it, definitely.”

What is unique to the library is its Student Library Advisory Council (SLAC), a student group of representatives from each college and large groups on campus, such as Associated

Students, Inc., Interfraternity Council and University Hous-ing, SLAC chair and political science senior Tucker Brofft said.

“We try to bring in a lot of different ideas for the group that will help library,” he said. “The library also brings us things they are working on and asks SLAC to put perspec-tive in and ask students if these are issues students want the li-brary to work on.”

SLAC obtains library sugges-tions through casual discus-sions with students and an on-line survey emailed out to 10 percent of the student body, or 3,000 students. The turnout is always huge, Brofft said, with 1,000 students replying.

“All the responses mean that these are the issues that students want taken care of,” he said. “The library really cares about what we think and has put in high level people who know

things about the library and can give us the results we need.”

Students with concerns in-volving the library are also welcome to attend the weekly SLAC meetings, or can email a SLAC representative at any time, Brofft said.

SLAC is actually a group co-created by university librarian Anna Gold and associate uni-versity librarian Sarah Cohen as a way to get more student in-volvement in decision making, Brofft said.

The student group is a part of “Learn by Doing” and work-ing together to solve problems, Gold said. The library wants to be a place that students and fac-ulty have a stake in, she said.

“Fundamentally, libraries are about empowering people,” she said. “We want students to walk in and feel they can do cool things. We want to be as good as a library as Cal Poly is as a university.”

ALEXANDRIA [email protected]

NHA HA / MUSTANG DAILY

One of the proposed renovations to the library is to remove the clear, glass half-wall at the entrance of the building to add more space for students to enter.

Our motto is ‘You asked, and we listened.’ We are being

responsive to what students are asking for.

DALE KOHLERDIRECTOR OF LIBRARY

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

CP to host city council candidates

Students have a chance to talk with two of the candidates vy-ing for a seat on the San Luis Obispo City Council on cam-pus Thursday.

Paul Brown and Carlyn Chris-tianson, two of five candidates, will be in the San Luis Lounge in the Julian A. McPhee Univer-sity Union from noon to 1 p.m. to talk to students.

The event, coordinated by the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Student Government Advocacy Committee, is meant to serve as an opportu-nity for collaboration between students and the city, ASI sec-retary of community relations Joi Sullivan said.

“The whole purpose of the event is to start a relationship with whoever wins the elec-tion,” Sullivan said, “and to in-crease collaboration between students and the city.”

The event will begin with time for one-on-one conversa-tions with the candidates before Brown and Christianson take a few minutes to introduce them-selves. The hour will finish up with approximately 20 minutes dedicated to an open Q&A ses-sion, Sullivan said.

ASI will provide handouts that summarize the back-ground of student issues with the city, such as neighborhood relationships between stu-dents and long-time residents.

Sullivan said the Q&A time is open to any questions, and they hope to hear from the candidates about issues stu-dents might not be aware of yet — such as how the city will

react to the proposed addi-tional freshman housing proj-ect on campus.

Brown, who graduated from Cal Poly with a degree in agricul-tural science, said his experience as a former student, a local busi-ness owner and now a longtime resident will help him bridge the gap between more permanent residents and students.

“There’s always a divide be-tween the student population in SLO and the more perma-nent residents,” Brown said. “I can see things from both sides, and I can meet with both sides and find middle ground.”

Brown moved out of town for a few years after graduation, but returned not long after to open his own business — Mo|Tav — which he owned for 15 years be-fore selling it in 2009.

Brown also previously served on the city council from 2004 to 2008.

Christianson has prior expe-rience with the city as well. She has served as the planning com-missioner for both the city of San Luis Obispo for the past six

years and for the county for five.She moved to San Luis Obispo

with her family in 1989 in part because of the “energy” that Cal Poly brings to the community.

Christianson said she hoped to spend time Thursday talk-ing about housing options for students as well as neighbor-hood wellness issues.

“I hope that I can get a chance to not only meet the student leaders and find out what their concerns are, but begin a working relationship,” Christianson said.

Brown and Christianson are two of five candidates running in the special election for the city council seat vacated by Andrew Carter.

After Carter stepped down in February to take a different job, the council voted unanimously to hold a special vote-by-mail election, rather than appointing someone to take Carter’s seat for the remaining two years.

Ballots were sent out on May 20 and voters must return them to the City Clerk’s Office on Palm Street by June 18.

HOLLY [email protected]

CARLYN CHRISTIANSON (LEFT) AND PAUL BROWN (RIGHT)

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MDnews 3Thursday, May 23, 2013

FBI kills man during questioning of Boston bombing, murders

RICHARD A. SERRANOHENRY PIERSON CURTISAMY PAVUKOrlando Sentinel

The Central Florida man who was shot and killed by an FBI agent early Wednesday was being questioned about a 2011 triple-slaying in Mas-sachusetts and about his re-lationship with the Boston Marathon bombings suspects, federal law enforcement offi-cials told the Tribune Wash-ington Bureau.

The FBI told the Orlando Sentinel that an FBI agent — along with two Massachusetts State Police troopers and oth-er law enforcement personnel — were interviewing 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev when a violent confrontation was ini-tiated by Todashev.

Federal law enforcement sources said Todashev — who knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev through mixed martial arts in Bos-

ton — “primarily” was being asked about a Sept. 11, 2011, triple murder in Waltham, Mass., because officials believe he and Tsarnaev may have had a role in cutting the throats of three men and sprinkling marijuana over the bodies.

The law enforcement officials also said that they had ques-tions about Todashev’s relation-ship with Tsarnaev, and the fact that the two had spoken shortly before the Marathon bombing. Todashev reportedly lunged at the FBI agent with a knife dur-ing the interview.

“During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries,” FBI Spe-cial Agent Dave Couvertier, a spokesman for the Orlando region, said in an email state-ment. “As this incident is un-der review, we have no further details at this time.”

Todashev was shot in a con-do in the Windhover com-munity, a quiet residential

area near Universal Studios. Todashev’s home address is in Kissimmee, Fla.; it’s not clear why he was at the Orlando apartment or why he was be-ing questioned there.

An FBI post-shooting in-cident review team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and is expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours, Couvertier said.

Near the scene of the shooting Wednesday morning, Khusen Taramov, a 22-year-old who described himself as a friend of Todashev, told several televi-sion outlets that his friend was being investigated in relation to the Boston bombings.

Taramov said Todashev had lived in Boston, did MMA fight-ing with Tamerlan Tsarnaev,

and that Todashev had last talked to Tamerlan Tsarnaev about a month ago by phone.

Since the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing attack, Taramov said, the FBI have been questioning Todashev, and have also talked to him.

Taramov spent almost all of the last week with Todashev because, he said, his friend was scared and tired after weeks of nearly constantly being followed and occasion-ally questioned by FBI agents.

“I was with him every min-ute. I knew what was going on in his head,” he said of To-dashev’s fear of being linked to the Boston bombing. “To me, it’s a setup. This is what he was afraid of. They had nothing against him. He was innocent.”

They had nothing against him. He was innocent.

KHUSEN TARAMOVFRIEND OF TODASHEV

An FBI agent shot and killed Ibragim Todashev (above) during questioning after Todashev allegedly became violent.

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

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MDarts 4 Thursday, May 23, 2013

The cars halt at the stop sign between Grand Avenue and Perimeter Road, idling as clumps of students pass by on the way to class. Shoes hit the pavement as the students

cross, soles hitting the alternating white stripes. Converse. Vans. Combat boots. Rainbows. Moccasins.

And something else. Something unconventional. Red cowboy boots with teal stitching, fringe hanging off the sides. Adorned with yellow flowers, bejeweled with multicolor rhinestones. Not your typical, everyday footwear — even for an agriculture student.

These boots could only belong to agricultural communication senior Quincy Freeman. In fact, they are part of her upcoming fall line, which has yet to hit stores.

Freeman has married her love of rodeo and passion for fash-ion by designing her own brand of cowboy boots and apparel.

Cal Poly student. Fashion designer. Rodeo team captain. Busi-ness woman. Freeman wears many different hats, but her favor-ite is a custom cowgirl hat, complete with her signature red rose.

QUINCY’S COWGIRL BACKGROUND

A self-proclaimed authentic cowgirl, Freeman is no stranger to the ranching and rodeo world. Her mom is from one

of the first ranching families in Nevada, and her dad is from a ranching family in Oregon.

Freeman started rodeo in high school and fell in love with the sport. In fact, one of the reasons she came to Cal Poly was for the rodeo team. Her dad and uncles all attended Cal Poly and were on the team, so it has become a tradition, she said.

“She takes her family’s roots in the rodeo and cattle communi-ties very seriously, and she makes a point to carry on her fam-ily’s heritage through her designs,” agricultural communication senior and Freeman’s friend Malorie Bankhead said.

Freeman has been team captain of the women’s rodeo team for two years and has qualified for the College National Finals for Rodeo. With the sport running through her veins, it’s no surprise Freeman views the people in rodeo like family.

“It is a small world, really, and wherever you go, you can make ties with people you know in common,” Freeman said.

Freeman met some of her closest friends competing because they shared her love of the sport and the animals involved.

“They are some of the most kind people and selfless people,” she said. “Always putting their animals before themselves.”

But this cowgirl isn’t afraid to ride in style — a quality she at-tributes to strong female figures in her life.

“I always loved clothes and dressing up,” she said. “I kind of get that from my nona and mom. They were always kind of fashion icons growing up for me.”

Not only did they inspire her fashion sense, but were also role models who lived the Western lifestyle.

“Growing up, I always looked to my nona and mom because they were a perfect example of what a cowgirl is,” Freeman said.

What exactly is Freeman’s definition of a cowgirl?“A cowgirl is someone who is tough, as strong as any cowboy,”

she said. “She can rope and ride like a man, but is also feminine and isn’t afraid to wear lipstick and rope a steer.”

She can rope,design andride withstyle

BY KELLY [email protected]

Mustang Daily is now accepting applications for:

To apply, send your desired position and résumé to

[email protected]

• Section editors• Copy editors• Multimedia reporters/editors

• Graphic Designers• Photographers• Reporters

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MDarts 5Thursday, May 23, 2013

Freeman embraces both sides of the cowgirl attitude through competing in rodeo competions and design-ing. Ever since she started painting her own belts and horse tacks for competitions in high school, she’s been all about designing rodeo apparel and supplies.

“I sort of combined my two passions,” Freeman said. “I wasn’t really thinking about a design career or future, I was thinking about what girls in high school think about.”

HER JOURNEY WITH ARIAT

Freeman’s design ability was discovered by an Ariat representative who was doing trend research at

the national high school rodeo finals in Farmington, N.M. Ariat is an American manufacturer that spe-cializes in boots and equestrian supplies. Founded in 1993, Ariat has now expanded to an international market and is a favorite with country music stars, including Josh Turner and Blake Shelton.

With Freeman’s signature black cowgirl hat adorned with a fresh red rose, lipstick, jewelry and a custom, hand-painted belt, she stood out from the other competitors in their nondescript leather.

Freeman’s roommate and friend since high school, animal science senior Alanna Sing, will testify to Freeman’s innate fashion sense.

“She is the sweetest person I know, who has an eye for fashion and loves to stand out from the crowd,” Sing said. “She is a trendsetter, not only in fashion, but also in her character and how she lives her life.”

After sending Ariat some sample belt designs, the company flew her up to Union City for a meeting about her potential as a designer.

“I didn’t know really what they were thinking, so I took my little handmade portfolio I slapped together — I didn’t even know how to make one on the computer yet,” Freeman said.

Ariat offered her a contract at the head of her fresh-man year. Now, Freeman is at work on her fifth line of boots and rodeo apparel. Freeman’s talent lies in her ability to mix fashion and function together.

“Girls before didn’t have competition cowboy boots that had roses or spearhead on the toe,” Freeman said.

Her designs are now in Western wear apparel stores and high-end fashion stores around the country.

HER DESIGN PROCESS

While her purpose in creating fashionable rodeo clothing has not changed, the ways in which

she designs have developed in these past four years.She started out by hand drawing everything with

paint on leather and paper samples. The company would then vectorize the images on a computer so the designs could be translated into something Ariat could mass produce.

Now, Freeman has learned to use Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop to transpose her ideas and inspirations from her head to the computer screen.

“What is so crazy about Ariat is that they have the resources to do anything I imagine,” she said. “I have been given a really great opportunity.”

The process to go from screen to market is a long one. Ariat works on an 18-month timeline, from initial concept and design to lining store shelves.

“In the fashion industry, it is kind of hard because you have to know what is going to be ‘in’ 18 months from now, so that is a challenge,” she said.

Freeman begins by designing at Cal Poly. She sends the InDesign files to Ariat for tweaking, sometimes modifying the colors she uses so that they are easier to replicate. Then Freeman sees and accepts the first mock-up of her work. Freeman also attends the product launch and marketplace where vendors and wholesalers can buy her boots for their stores.

“You know, I am sitting in school in San Luis, draw-ing up my sketches in InDesign, and it doesn’t really hit me until 18 months later when I am in the show-room and there’s my boot with the ‘Q’ on it,” she said

The Quincy Freeman brand logo, a simple “Q,” is located on all the boots she has designed. It is the same brand she uses for her cattle and horses.

“There are people that have been working in the industry for 50 years and they don’t get their name on anything — they are silent designers,” she said. “It’s cool that I get to have my name and my logo on all my boots.”

FOUR YEARS, FOUR LINES

Through the four different lines she has created so far, Freeman’s design aesthetic has contin-

ued to develop.“I sort of reinvent myself a little bit each time,”

Freeman said.Her first line was reminiscent of the tattoo-

inspired Ed Hardy look. It had a more young and youthful vibe to it, she said. The second line was all about strong women, with designs including a Spanish señorita, a Native American woman and an all-American cowgirl.

“It was my tribute to the women of the West,” Freeman said. “I think a lot of times the cowboys and men are often looked up to and glorified. I think the women are most often overlooked.”

There has been one constant, however, in every line Freeman has designed: bright and vibrant colors.

“She comes up with an idea that will stand out and that people will love, then combines various ideas to create a unique design,” Sing said. “For instance, she has combined her Spanish heritage in the form of sarape pattern with bright red roses and crystals to add sparkle.”

Freeman sees her boots around school and during rodeo competitions. Some of these are friends, but others are complete strangers. Freeman attended a Cuesta College class this past fall and ran into her design in an unexpected place.

“I went to the bathroom and in the stall right next to me there was a girl wearing my boots. I got out before she did and was washing my hands waiting for her to get out because I wanted to see who she was,” Freeman said with a laugh.

see COWGIRL, pg. 6COURTESY PHOTO

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MDarts 6 Thursday, May 23, 2013

Student’s ‘highly imagined’ poem takes Academy of American Poets contest

And when Freeman’s friends see her boots at a rodeo com-petition, they make sure to tell Freeman about it and maybe even send her a picture of them.

“I don’t own any of her pieces yet, but when I travel and see someone wearing something that Quincy designed, I always stop them to tell them that Quincy is a friend of mine and that her design looks great on them,” Bankhead said.

Her fun patterns and colors appeal to a wide range of girls, even rodeo celebrities. Trevor Brazile’s wife, Shana, will be a spokesperson for Freeman’s boots as she is starting to get more involved with the sport of rodeo. Bra-zile is known as the richest cowboy in the sport of rodeo with nine all-around world titles under his belt.

“I always looked up to the rodeo stars and now I know the majority of them and a few of them even wear my boots,” Freeman said.

SCHOOL VS. DESIGN

With business responsi-bilities, school work,

designing and rodeo, some students might not believe she has the time to do everything. Freeman says it’s all because of time management planning and through the patient under-standing of her professors.

Freeman takes mostly 12-unit quarters because of her hectic schedule, which includes designing, traveling to promote her boots and competing on the rodeo team.

“Just last week, I was at a fashion show in Texas to pro-mote my boots, and I had to reschedule a test so that I could attend,” Freeman said.

Originally, Freeman wanted to major in art and design, but her parents encouraged her to major in something they believed was more business oriented. Agri-cultural communication gave her the background to balance her designing with the business tasks expected of her, agricul-tural communication professor and Freeman’s academic adviser Scott Vernon said.

“She is able to understand her communication channels — how she is able to promote and market her line, her brand,” Vernon said. “She has devel-oped her own brand in the marketplace and that takes tal-ent and technical skills as well.”

Vernon’s thoughts on Quincy’s future are bright.

“I think you will continue to hear from Quincy even after she graduates,” Vernon said. “There is no ego involved, she is just enjoying what she is doing and that really resonates with her market.”

While Quincy is finishing up her fifth line and concentrating on graduating in winter quar-ter next year, she is not quite sure what the future holds for her. Some possibilities include continuing to design through Ariat, product management, marketing or even starting her own business.

One thing is for certain, she wants to stay in the Western fashion industry.

“I just never thought you could make a career out of something you loved so much,” Freeman said.

COWGIRLcontinued from page 5

The soft glow of the moon and a porch light illuminated Madeleine Mori’s fingers as they tap-danced over the worn keys of her mother’s vintage typewriter.

For two hours on a warm, breezy November night, Mori remained seated at her boyfriend’s oval, wooden outdoor desk, sipping Earl Grey tea and speed-writing the poem that would go on to win the 2013 Academy of American Poets contest.

“There’s something about a typewriter that’s very static and momentaneous,” said Mori, who began the poem on the typewriter and switched to her laptop to fin-ish it off. “I had this obsessive im-age of the vision I wanted to con-vey and, at that point, it was about finding the words to express it.”

Mori’s award-winning poem, “Ten Cents,” is a tribute to Ameri-can folk singer Karen Dalton.

Out of more than 204 pages of poetry submitted, Los Angeles-based poet and contest judge Su-zanne Lummis chose “Ten Cents” as the winning poem, earning Mori $100.

“Ten Cents” portrays the difficult choice an artist must make to sever ties with a traditional lifestyle in order to pursue his or her passion.

“It’s about being young and hav-ing these inclinations and simul-taneous directions you’re being pulled in,” Mori said.

Mori, a junior, understands being pulled in different directions. Her major, wine and viticulture, was chosen “on a whim.” Mori really wants to pursue poetry — not just as an outlet but as an occupation.

Mori also feels a pull between cultures.

“A lot of my poetry is about deep-rooted American nostalgia, but I’m half Japanese, and so I’ve always had that pull,” she said.

Contest director and English

professor Kevin Clark calls Mori’s award-winning poem “well-pol-ished, highly imagined and subtle.”

“Her poems are anchored in the real world, but there are two real worlds: the outer real world and the inner,” Clark said. “And the inner real world, the kind of psychological dream state that we often inhabit, is a place that she feels comfortable exploring in her work.”

Mori says this way of writing is practically innate and natural for her.

“I’ve always been very obsessed with dream analogies and symbol-ism, and I get a lot of inspirations from my dreams, which are often very vivid,” she said. “I don’t try to write that way, but I’m sure that floats into my consciousness.”

Mori almost lost consciousness, though, when she found out she won the Academy of American Poets contest.

“I was stunned,” she said. “I got an email from (Clark) with no punctuation, something like ‘Can you please come to my office I have something that might be interest-ing to you.’”

Once she arrived at his office, Clark presented her with the good news, stuck out his hand for a shake. Mori stood aghast, almost forgetting to shake his out-stretched hand.

“Both Cate (Harkins) and Eli (Williams) were in my class, and I know the level of poets they are, so I was very astonished that I beat them out somehow,” Mori said, referring to the students who re-ceived honorable mentions.

“Cate has the ability to create these dark, otherworldly textures, and Eli is such a master of wit and turning normal situations into profound moments,” Mori said.

English senior Harkins’ honor-able mention poem “Dirty Laun-dry” delves into the mind of a woman who is so poor that she only has enough money for one

load of laundry.“Now Cate ... Cate is a writer who

knows how to create atmosphere,” Clark said. “And she renders that atmosphere through a kind of filigree of words, so that she tells these small stories with deeply resonate implications in them, and they’re fascinating.”

Williams, an English junior, re-ceived the other honorable men-tion for “Cut & Dry,” a poem ripe with sexual tension. “Cut & Dry” details one man’s temptation for adultery while getting his hair cut by a seductive stylist.

Williams described the inspi-ration for the poem: “One day, I went to get a haircut and the wom-an cutting my hair finished and asked, ‘Is there anything else I can do for you?’”

“The poem is definitely very psychological and sexual in na-ture,” he said. “I tried to use the language of sex to portray the scene, so it’s chalk full of innu-endo that I thought would be funny and relatable to an audi-ence of my peers while still mak-ing them think.”

Clark says Williams is able to balance social observation and comedy while revealing facets of human nature.

“What’s so interesting about him — this is not easy to do — he can write poems that on the surface are comically entertaining but, be-neath the surface, have serious ap-plication to our lives,” Clark said.

Overall, the caliber of poetry-writing students was nearly unpar-alleled this year, Clark said.

“This is by far the most poetry we’ve had submitted,” Clark said. “I got to say, I think we’re in a cycle of good Cal Poly poets at the moment, and I don’t think there’s any particular reason why that happened, but it just kind of took off. There is an unusually high number of students who are very, very fine poets at Cal Poly right now.”

ARYN [email protected]

The path down to the riverweaved with the rotting moss driveways,the still breath in the air of the ’57 Chevroletwith withered thistle and rosehipmarried to its chassis.

Some never left the dry creek town, old, proudlimbs waving back and forth,their porches leaning downhill,rocking back and forth ceaselessly,into the open earth.

The iron rich red of the soilcould cake bare feet like butter,fallen tree limbs could grope,snake holes could triplike the telephone linesif you didn’t know how to step.

In a bag, she brought a mason jarof mixed wine, a loose lick of tire swing rope she’d been working to unravel,the graying map of Tennessee.This time I’ll go to Nashville,wrestle off this ten cent life.

She strained her toes under the spyglass filmof the muddied waterand thought herself one lone cattail, a wild mess of golden seedraging through towns, projecting free prayers.

But how far would her highway stretchwhen a neighbor emptied water from his buckshot brass gutters and the bed grasses lunged with the mounting river to coil and pull at her ankle?

TEN CENTS by Madeleine Morifor Karen Dalton

7

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Thursday, May 23, 2013 Volume LXXVII, Number 113

©2013 Mustang Daily

“Sometimes I just come over here and stroke this

wood.”

MD op/ed 7Thursday, May 23, 2013

JOHN KASSChicago Tribune

Tornadoes: the eerie silenceDoes a killer tornado really sound like a freight train?

“I don’t remember what it sounded like, honestly. It was like a freight train, but I don’t remember much about it,” said Rhonda Crosswhite, the Oklahoma grade school teacher who covered students with her body when her town was hit by that deadly twister the other day.

“One of my little boys just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me,’” she recalled.

Some two dozen — and possibly more — died in Oklahoma. And 33 died when tornadoes hit Oak Lawn, Ill., on April 21, 1967, when I was a boy.

People who survive a tornado say it sounds like a freight train. But calling it a freight train is just a way to explain the unfathomable power to those who haven’t experienced it. It’s not a freight train, not re-ally. It’s a way of being polite. You just call it that be-cause it’s easier than arguing.

If you survive a tornado, it’s as if you speak two different languages, a pre-tornado language and the one that comes af-terward. And so, the phrase “like a freight train” serves as a point of reference between altered states.

Years ago I heard it, when I was a boy in Oak Lawn.

It was just after 5 p.m. when somebody at the Little Red Schoolhouse nature center in the Cook County for-est preserves to the west reported a funnel cloud touching down.

We didn’t know about that then. We didn’t know it would be measured as a devastating F-4 tornado.

A series of tornadoes would hit the southwest suburbs that day, what meteorologists call a “fam-ily,” the worst one dropping out of the sky to the west of us in Palos Hills, then rush-ing through Oak Lawn and Hometown and Evergreen Park, then on through the South Side of Chicago.

Just then, a little after 5, it was still, a weird quiet outside. Then suddenly moms were running out into the tiny front yards, running from one edge of the grass to the other, the wind whipping their dresses as they called their children.

I can’t tell you what we kids were do-ing. Were we at the swing set where phi-losophy was discussed, talking with oth-er kids about “limbo,” the place where the Catholic kids insisted that unbap-tized souls go to await eternity?

Or were we playing guns with our best friends, the Knaff boys, chasing and shooting our cap pistols, falling to the ground, compelled by the rules to wait to a count of 25 before we could stand?

I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is of the quiet around us, as if there was no oxy-gen in the air, only a vacuum. The sky was pea green, like split pea soup. Then it was black. Garbage can lids flew past the houses. More mothers ran in the yards, screaming for their kids to get inside.

Our mom had been on the north side of Oak Lawn at our uncle’s house, on the side of town that would be devastated in minutes, while our side of town was spared.

She screeched the car up the driveway, hit the brakes, hit the horn and yelled for us to run into the house. Then she crammed a table into a basement closet. We called it the “Scout Closet” because she was a den mother and that’s where she kept

her Cub Scout supplies.My younger brothers Peter and Nick huddled with

me under that table. We had a radio, an old scratchy transistor, giving storm warnings. The four of us crouched in there, in the closet under the stairs, mak-ing signs of the cross in the dark.

What we could hear outside was something like a freight train, yes, but only if it had been a freight train made of demons, legions of them howling, each screaming wordlessly, “I will kill you. I will kill you.”

That’s what it sounded like to me.But for those closer to 95th Street, hiding at Oak

Lawn High School or the homes to the west, it cer-tainly must have sounded worse. Especially for those trapped in the rush-hour traffic along Southwest Highway, watching other cars being flung into the air

like blades of grass from a mower.Some 16 people were killed in a block or two there,

plucked out of traffic, before the killer tornado head-ed to the east and toward the city.

Perhaps I’m remembering it all wrong now, per-haps it wasn’t as loud as I remember, perhaps there were no demons calling. But there was the feeling of nature as evil, nature with a mind, predatory, nature intent on hunting us down.

So each time there is a tornado story in the news, I’m helpless. Pete and Nick are stuck on tornado stories too. I don’t even have to ask them. I know. And if you were there on the Southwest Side in 1967, when the sky turned from green to black, then you know too.

The next day it was cold outside. In days to come, we’d ride our bikes over to see homes destroyed, people in the streets, the Illinois National Guard de-ployed to stop the looters.

And since then, I’ve learned two things: I can’t live in a house without a basement. And tor-

nadoes don’t sound like freight trains. We just say they do.

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

877

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MDsports 9Thursday, May 23, 2013

SUDOKU ANSWERS

all-time top 10 list in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 at his school — a feat that is rarely achieved.

Because of that, his award is one of the most prestigious to earn at Buena, Dowler said. It isn’t handed out every year because it requires recipients to break school records just like Frias did in his time there.

“By that time, I had been coach-ing for 12 years and it was one of my favorite seasons ever,” Dowler said. “It was a joy to work with him all four years, but that year was particularly fun.”

Frias’ decision to attend Cal Poly had as much to do with the peren-nial championship nature of the cross country and the track and field teams as it did with Dowl-er’s influence on his mindset. He didn’t have an athletic scholarship entering his freshman year at Cal Poly, but, after talking to Conover, Frias realized the potential to be a top runner was there.

“Our class was so deep, and coach Conover had already recruited so many top guys in the state,” Frias said. “I contacted him and he said he was interested and that, ‘If you progress and hit certain times, you’re going to get more and more

scholarship money every year.’”Frias was lightly recruited

throughout California and was even offered money to go to other schools, such as UC Santa Barbara, but ultimately chose the Mustangs.

And now, after a breakout season in his redshirt junior campaign, Frias has firmly proved that he be-longs on the trails and the track at Cal Poly along with his now-par-tial scholarship.

Coming off back-to-back cham-pionship runs and qualifying with a time of 29:33 in the 10,000 at the Stanford Invitational on March 29, Frias will take to the track again Thursday in the NCAA West Pre-liminary Round in Austin, Texas. A top-12 finish gives him a spot in the NCAA Division I Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships held June 5-8 in Eugene, Ore.

Fellow junior distance runner Sean Davidson, along with six other athletes from the men’s track squad and Laura Hollander on the women’s side, will join Frias in Texas.

“I told him and the rest of the guys that there’s no pressure on him,” Conover said. “Just go out and com-pete, have fun with it and see what happens. The expectations are really on some other people to get the top spots, so go out do your best to see how high you can finish.”

FRIAScontinued from page 10

During that first season with the club, he also met Iosif Vigu, a midfielder who rarely played because of his old age.

Dincu massaged Vigu on a regular basis, and was “giving energy to him.”

In 1977, the 34-year-old Vigu placed fifth in the Romanian Footballer of the Year rankings.

“Very rare,” Dincu said. “Probably some paranormal thing. In this society, which is so rational, it sounds supersti-tious. I can’t explain this.”

Dincu’s magic ways have not subsided.

In November of 2007, Dincu crossed paths with Cal Poly alumnus and renowned mixed martial arts fighter, Chuck “The

Iceman” Liddell — by accident, according to Dincu.

Liddell was warming up on the exercise bike one day, when the former Cal Poly wrestler got a muscle cramp.

Naturally, Super Mike worked his magic.

“He was losing all his previ-ous fights,” Dincu said. “(Lid-dell) said, ‘I want you.’”

Prior to meeting Dincu, Lid-dell was crowned as the UFC light heavyweight champion in 2005, and defended that title in four consecutive fights.

But The Iceman went cold in 2007, losing his title in May and failing to recapture the crown in September.

So in December, Dincu joined Liddell’s entourage and accompanied him to UFC 79, a light heavyweight matchup against Wanderlei Silva at the

Mandala Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Liddell’s crew consisted mostly of fighters, people who Dincu had no business being with.

“But (Liddell was) probably superstitious,” Dincu said. “He thought I am good for him.”

Liddell was right.He defeated Silva by unani-

mous decision, and the match-up was voted 2007’s Fight of the Year at the first annual World Mixed Martial Arts Awards.

“I can feel it, something magic in me,” Dincu said. “I was blessed. It happens all the time. I can tell you any situation of that.”

2/24/13 Voicemail four of 11

I don’t know why he did not come to the changing room like I told you, because I don’t have

a cellular telephone. I am busy. I am one, and they are so many. So, you got the message.

Dincu is as punctual as a man can be.

His irritated-toned voicemail came after a Cal Poly baseball game, where I arranged for a co-worker of mine to meet Dincu and pick up some old photos he had — some more pieces to the puzzle.

Obviously the connection wasn’t made, and Dincu wasn’t happy.

“I hate to wait for somebody,” he said. “I’m so precise. I told these guys, you’ve got to be five minutes early, then you are on time. If you are on fixed time, then you are late.”

The first time I met Dincu was the one and only time I arrived at a location before him. A lot of that comes from the strict, communist nature of his home country, and his four years in the army. Even when he jokes, Dincu is all about order, punc-tuality and discipline.

Two Cal Poly wrestlers in-terrupted my interview with Dincu when they knocked on the door.

“Take care of your guys, I have an interview,” Dincu said to them.

They were obviously a little intimidated, based on the tone of their voice as they said “sorry.”

Before they could finish say-ing it, Dincu said, “your sorry is too late … make me mad.”

He leaned to me and said, “Do you want me to beat these guys up?”

He was joking … but I’m not sure what would’ve happened if I had said yes.

“People don’t have time to know you,” Dincu said. “They judge you, they put a suit on you, they label you. Poor, rich, smart, beautiful or ugly.”

And while he is punctual, Dincu is also no stranger to hard work.

An average winter day for Dincu starts at 7 a.m., when he wakes up and joins the Cal Poly soccer team for its morn-ing practice.

Following an 11:30 a.m. swim, Dincu is at Baggett Stadium by 1 p.m., helping the Cal Poly baseball team prepare for practice.

By 3:15 p.m., Dincu is at the Recreation Center for wrestling practice.

“People did not care as much I care,” he said. “An-other guy told me, ‘I work 30-40 years for this school.’

Yeah, you probably eat bread from this school, but did you make the difference in the people’s life? Did you spend time with them? Did you make them to improve them-selves? Did you help them heal themselves?”

At 6 p.m., Dincu makes some time for his own physical fitness.

He works out and helps oth-er athletes at The Pit, a fitness and martial arts gym in San Luis Obispo.

On Thursdays, Dincu sells oranges at San Luis Obispo’s Farmers’ Market.

“I spend hours like nobody else,” Dincu said. “All the doors are open if you work hard. There’s no substitution for perspiration.”

4/15/13 Voicemail nine of 11

Hey Jacob, did you see what hap-pened today in Boston? Moth-erfuckers! Cowards! They put bombs … Write an article about these cowards. Motherfuckers …

Dincu is anything but cowardly.After all, he’s overcome adver-

sity in essentially every stage of his life.

Starting from childhood, it seems like the odds have always been stacked against Dincu.

“I had a bad start in Roma-nia,” Dincu said. “Dysfunc-tional family. I was in a board-ing home since I was 3 until I become 14.”

And when Dincu applied for immigration to Canada in 1979, he was fluent in five languages, but still had to learn English.

“It was so hard,” Dincu said. “I was watching TV nonstop, more than 12 hours a day.”

As an immigrant, he took English classes at George Brown College in Toronto and worked at local gyms in the area, fully immersing himself in the native language.

“I was doing massage for $5 or something just to learn English,” Dincu said. “I explained myself with my hands. People looked down to me ... then they realized I’m a pro.”

But Dincu’s biggest test in life came in 2000.

Twenty-six years prior, Dincu had a concussion play-ing a pickup game of soccer in Romania.

As a result, an artery in the back of his neck slowly closed over time, blocking off blood flow to the brain.

Dincu then suffered a stroke

on Nov. 23, 2000. He happened to be visiting Romania at the time, when a strong headache escalated, and Dincu soon found himself in the hospital, para-lyzed in the face and left side.

The recovery was grueling.Dincu spent hours each day

trying to regain the strength in his left side, hobbling around one crutch.

He was slow. It took Dincu 20 minutes to walk the length of a football field.

“I was crying,” Dincu said. “Tried to find a place to kill myself but I said, ‘Well, my mother won’t have money to bury me.’”

So Dincu rose to the chal-lenge of living with a limp, the same hindered walk that I saw when Dincu first approached me on that January afternoon.

Like so many other times in his life, Dincu was tested when he had the stroke, and will con-tinue to be tested for as long as he walks.

“I was many times in the shithouse, but I get out,” Din-cu said. “Now, I’m not afraid of nothing. It’s hard to live the way you like to live. You gotta keep punching.”

Even today, after four months of interviews, more than 10 voicemails and 20 phone calls, the pieces still don’t fit together.

Dincu’s been too many places, touched too many lives and ac-complished too many incred-ible feats to assemble it all, par-ticularly when English is one of five other languages he speaks.

What I do know about Dincu is that during the course of our time together, the more and more he called, the less and less we spoke about the story on these pages.

His voicemails went from scheduling interviews to, “Jacob, how are you, are you in love?” and, simply, “Happy Passover. Have a good soup tonight.”

But still, all the missed calls from Dincu speak to his charac-ter, and are a constant reminder of the first time I met him.

He’s made opportunities for himself his entire life, so it’s no surprise that instead of a jour-nalist asking him for a story, he turned the tables and made it happen himself.

He has one of the most com-plex life stories of any man.

And I know that if I ever have doubts, any questions, or just need some stimulating con-versation, I can call him up, because he loves to talk, and he loves to share his story.

DINCUcontinued from page 1

IAN BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY

As junior runner Chris Frias toed the line for last weekend’s 10,000-meter run at the Big West Conference Champion-ships in Northridge, there was one thing on his mind.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but I was feeling like dog shit,” Frias said with a smile and a laugh, re-membering his thoughts. “We all kind of were, but we just didn’t want to say it.”

But for a long distance run-ner, that feeling is par for the course. And battling mid-80 degree temperatures for the 10 p.m. race on Friday, Frias went out and put together a stel-lar performance, winning the 10-kilometer race in 30 min-utes, 46 seconds and capturing his first-ever Big West Confer-ence title in track and field.

But it was Saturday’s 5,000 that Frias says he’d like to hang his hat on. He knew he had a shot at a podium finish enter-ing the race, but another tight battle between him and fellow Cal Poly teammates ended the same way the 10,000 did: a win and another conference cham-pionship for Frias.

“I took the lead with three laps to go and I didn’t really know if I was going to regret that later on,” Frias said. “But my teammate Blake (Ahrold) passed me up with 300 meters to go, he just started taking off and I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to hang on with him. Luckily, I stuck with it and was able to out-kick him.”

Frias out-kicked everyone on the weekend — including the rest of his team, which fin-ished right behind him in both events. The Mustangs finished first and second in the 10,000 and swept all three podium spots the next day in the 5,000 to continue their dominance in the distance events this season.

“It was very impressive for him to complete the double,” director of track and field/cross country Mark Conover said. “He really had good leg speed at the end of both races.

After this year, Frias is no stranger to conference titles. He also won the Big West crown in cross country in the fall, finishing with a time of 24:10 on the 8K championship course and helped the Cal Poly men’s team to its 12th Big West title in the past 15 years.

“He’s brought a great value to the whole team this year,” Conover said. “We took the top three spots in cross coun-try, so all the guys are used to running with Chris in the workouts. We did the same in all of (last weekend’s) races too. It’s just like they do in training. (Running together up front) is something all the guys are fa-miliar with.”

Like many runners, Frias found he had a knack for long distance when he joined the cross country team his freshman year at Buena High School in Ventura. Admittedly, he was just looking for a way

to stay in shape for basketball season, but as his prep career rolled on, the three-sport ath-lete realized that at 5-foot-7, his chances of playing ball at the next level were slim to none.

Distance running, though, was a different story.

With personal records of 4:17 in the 1,600 and 9:13 in the 3,200 by the end of his se-nior year, Frias said he knew running at a higher level could be an option for him. The only question was: What level could he reach?

For his former coach at Bue-na and closest mentor, Wendy Dowler, it was obvious he could succeed at a West Coast distance powerhouse such as Cal Poly.

“Some people love to run, some love to race, but Chris really studied his sport,” Dowler said. “That was a little bit of a difference between him and other people.”

Another difference? Not many people have an award named after them either.

The cross country team coaching staff at Buena in-stituted the perpetual Chris Frias Award after he pieced together one of the greatest senior seasons Dowler has ever seen. Frias finished his final stint at Buena by se-curing a spot in the record books as a member of the

10

Taking the leadSTORY BY STEPHAN TEODOSESCU

PHOTOS BY IAN BILLINGS

Some people love to run, some love to race, but Chris

really studied his sport.

WENDY DOWLERFRIAS’ FORMER COACH

MDsports 10

see FRIAS, pg. 9

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