FORMER RICE SWIM COACH SUES 14 STUDENT-ATHLETES

HOUSTON (AP) — A former Rice University swimming coach is suing 14
student-athletes she claims bad-mouthed her out of a job in revenge for her
reporting their misbehavior to the school.

"There is not another single reported case in the world of a coach suing
the athletes who criticized the coach,'' attorney Rusty Hardin, hired by
the school to represent the students, said in today's editions of the
Houston Chronicle.

Kris Wingenroth, 45, coached men's and women's swimming teams at Rice for
15 years until last summer, when her contract was not renewed. She was
named coach of the year in the Southwest Conference five times.

Her suit, filed in December, seeks unspecified damages for claims including
defamation, conspiracy to interfere with her contract and intentional
infliction of emotional distress.

Ms. Wingenroth claims the students began trying to force her out after she
reported to university officials in March 1995 that several swimmers had
used illegal drugs at a party.

University officials met with the students but did not punish them, the
lawsuit says. Soon afterward, swimmer Carrell Covington allegedly told Ms.
Wingenroth she would make it her "mission'' to get the coach fired.

Hardin declined to comment on specific allegations, but said the suit was
"replete with inaccuracies'' designed to embarrass the students and to
intimidate their parents into settling.

"Rice's position is the students have to feel free to express their
opinions,'' Hardin said. "If they can't do that, then the whole idea of a
university as a place to freely exchange ideas will go down the tubes.''