Given some of the pitfalls that befell them in 1999, the Golden Gaels baseball team might be willing to accept greater stability in exchange for playing fewer slugfests. Last season, the highlights (or lowlights) of a tumultuous 7-9 campaign came either when the Gaels had to play home games on the road because of a municipal strike, or lost a tripleheader against Carleton that was played in cojones-shriveling cold more generally associated with a NFL playoff game in Buffalo.

After revamping their coaching staff and revitalizing their second team, the Gaels men’s rugby team is hoping to conquer the OUA championship hump this season. One of the most storied teams in the history of Queen’s athletics, winning seven of the last 11 OUA championships, the squad has come up short by their standards the last three seasons, losing twice in the finals and once in the semi-finals.

Out of fear of a pending scandal, the Chinese Olympic team announced Wednesday that the 170 expected to participate in the 2000 Summer Games will be reduced. The announcement came shortly after an international rowing official confirmed that seven of the 17 members of China’s rowing team were axed from the team for irregular blood levels. The decision was deemed by analysts to be proof that the country is screening its athletes at the risk of another drug scandal — at the world championships in 1998, a female swimmer from China was caught with the human drug hormone.

The Gaels swim team, class of the Eastern division since the provincial athletic association split into three regions five years ago, should again dominate the traditionally weak division. Once at provincials, they will be in tough against McMaster and Toronto, who finished 1-2 in both the men’s and women’s divisions at last year’s OUA Championships in Guelph.