Weekend Briefs

The Arizona men's tennis is one a mission. Anything short of two victories this weekend will be unacceptable for the Wildcats (1-0 overall).

"We should definitely win both matches," senior Tom Haugland said. "It will be surprising if we lose to (either of) them."

The 17th-ranked Wildcats host Oregon today at Robson Tennis Center. The match will begin at 1:30 p.m. Tomorrow the team will travel a few miles to the Tucson Country Club to play Baylor at 1:30 p.m.

Although Arizona defeated Oregon 7-0 last season, the Ducks (2-1) are expected to be a stronger team this time around. Their last match was a 4-3 victory over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo on January 19.

"They are much improved (this season)," UA head coach Bill Wright said. "So it will be a good match."

Tomorrow's match is not a Pacific 10 Conference game because the Wildcats compete in the Six-Pac, a division that does not include the Oregon and Washington schools.

The Wildcats' match against Baylor (2-0) tomorrow afternoon should include a few surprises, because Arizona does not know anything about the Bears.

"I just don't know anything about them. They're a mystery team," Wright said. "I'm going to try to find out something (when) they play ASU on Friday."

The Bears are coming off a 7-0 win over Texas-Pan American on Saturday.

The Arizona men's and women's track teams are heading north to Flagstaff for an indoor meet against Northern Arizona and Arizona State this weekend.

The meet begins tomorrow at 9 a.m. at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome.

Last weekend the Wildcats hosted their annual All-Comers meet in Tucson, with the men winning eight individual titles and the women took home seven first place finishes.

Leading the way for the men were senior Dameon Ortiz in the 300-meter dash (34.00 seconds), freshman Micheil Jones in the 3,000m (8:27.46) and senior Bob Keino battled back from a recent illness to win the mile run (4:20.47).

Junior Amy Skieresz set a stadium record with a time of 4:56.34 in the mile. Other winners for the women included sophomore Colleen Rhemm in the 55m (7.21), junior Jamie Taylor in the 150m (18.21) and freshman Erin Aldrich won her first collegiate event with a leap of 18 feet, 2 inches in the long jump.

NAU and ASU started last weekend at the Flagstaff Invitational. NAU had only one first place finish on the men's side and only three on the women's. The Sun Devils men's team had two individual victories, but their women's team had none.

- Chris Jackson

The Arizona men's and women's swimming and diving teams play host to Loyola Marymount tomorrow in a dual meet to be held at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The event is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

The men plan to regroup after being swept last weekend by No. 3 Texas and No. 15 Florida, while the then fifth-ranked women are coming off an upset loss at the hands of the eighth-ranked Longhorns. The UA men are currently ranked 12th in the country in the latest Speedo America's college coaches poll, while the women dropped a spot to No. 6.

The Wildcats look for continued success from the highly touted quartet of Ashley Tappin, Liesl Kolbisen, Laurie Kline and Trina Jackson, who will once again compete in the 800-yard free relay. Last weekend, this group set a new school record time of 7 minutes 17.11 seconds, breaking the old record set back in 1994 by less than a second.

Admission is free to students.

- Scott Bricker

The 13th-ranked Arizona gymnastics team is on the road today and tomorrow in Columbia, Missouri, competing at the 17th Annual Cat Classic.

The competition includes No. 18 Penn State, No. 32 Pittsburgh and the host team, 37th-ranked Missouri. Last season the Wildcats won the meet, the sixth time they have done so in 16 trips, with last season's score a new Classic record of 194.275.

Leading the way for Arizona will be sophomore Heidi Hornbeek, who was named Pacific 10 Conference gymnast of the week for her performance last Friday. Hornbeek set a career-high in the beam (9.925) while helping the Wildcats upset ninth-ranked Oregon State and No. 13 Stanford last Friday. She has been hindered lately by the flu and a recurring back problem.

Arizona's previous victories in the Cat Classic came in 1987, '88, '89, '91 and '92. As a team they hold meet records in the bars (49.175 in '96) and the beam (48.325 in '96). Arizona also has 34 individual meet record-holders.