Track sends 13 to Sacramento for NCAA championships

After both the men's and women's track teams finished ninth at the first ever NCAA West Regional, the squads will send a combined 13 athletes to NCAA championships, eight of which earned automatic bids during the regional competition.

Eight Wildcats earned automatic bids to the NCAA championships - beginning today and continuing through Sunday at Sacramento State - thanks to top five finishes at the NCAA West Regional last month at Stanford, Calif. The women's 4-by-100 meter relay team of Sharifa Jones, Angel Perkins, Marquita Taylor and Seynabou Ndiaye finished second at the Regional with a time of 45.12 seconds, earning a spot in the NCAA Championships. Ndiaye also took third in the women's 100 meters with a personal record of11.57 seconds, earning an individual spot in the championships.

In the last 300 meters of the 5,000-meter event, junior Beth Hoge made a push to take fifth and junior Amy Linnen finished fifth with her highest outdoor pole vault of the season, 13 and 6 1/4 (4.12m). For the men, junior Jeff Hunter ran a 13.96 in the 110 meter hurdles to finish fourth, punching his ticket to the championships, and sophomore Sean Shields took second in the shot put, with his best throw of the outdoor season, 63 and 5 1/2 (m).

After battling fatigue in the 5,000 meters at the Regional and finishing seventh, freshman Robert Cheseret earned a wild-card berth into the championships. Senior Rich Legarra finished fifth at the Regional in the hammer and later earned a wild-card berth in the discus. Sophomore Sharifa Jones, thanks to a season best time of 13.36 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles at the Pac-10 Championships, and junior Connie Jerz in the pole vault earned wild cards for the women. Also for the women, junior thrower Ilona Rutjes and senior thrower Julie DeMarni earned wild cards to the championships in the javelin.

Baseball knocked out of NCAA tournament in two games

In its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1999, the UA baseball team was eliminated after dropping its first two games, closing the year out with six straight losses

Thanks to an opening 13-5 loss to No. 3 seed Notre Dame (45-18) and then a 5-2 loss to San Diego (31-30), the second-seeded Wildcats (35-23) were knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the double elimination Cal-State Fullerton regional on May 31. The Wildcats were seeking their first post-season victory since 1993.

In the tilt with the Fighting Irish, UA junior pitcher Richie Gardner (9-3) surrendered seven runs in the second inning. Against the Toreros, the Wildcats stranded six runners and were picked off twice. An error in the seventh cost the team two runs when the ball rolled through the legs of sophomore shortstop John Hardy, sealing the win for USD. Arizona lost its final home game to Oregon State, followed by a three game sweep at Arizona State and the setbacks against Notre Dame and San Diego.

Sophomore outfielder Jeff Van Houten, who was the only Wildcat named to the All Regional team, closed the season batting, .413 the first Arizona player since 1991 to hit over .400. Van Houten was named third team Collegiate Baseball All-America and junior Brian Anderson was named second team USA Today/Sports Weekly All-America in addition to Brad Boyer, Trevor Crowe, Derek Decater and Nick Hundley who were named Collegiate Baseball freshman All Americans.

In the major league amateur draft, Gardner was picked in the sixth-round by the Cincinnati Reds, Rierson was drafted in the 50th round by the San Diego Padres, junior pitcher Joe Little was drafted in the 26th round by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Anderson was selected 15th overall in the first round by the Chicago White Sox.

Among the high schoolers that signed National Letters of Intents to be Wildcats that were drafted, Delmon Young of Camarillo, Calif., was picked first overall by the D-Rays and Jeff Allison 16th overall by the Florida Marlins. Arizona gridiron star halfback Clarence Farmer, the 2001 Pac-10 rushing champ, was selected in the 49th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Farmer, a senior to be on the football field, played baseball in high school and played in three games for the Bat 'Cats in 2002.

Men's golf falls to 17th at NCAA championships

The men's golf team dropped to 17th in the final round of the NCAA championships, its worst finish since 1999. Arizona shot a 23 over par 311 in the final round, its worst of the season, to close the championships two weeks ago, at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with a +77. It was just the second time all season that the Wildcats didn't finish in the top ten. Senior Ricky Barnes finished sixth at four over par, and was the first Wildcat to finish his career with four consecutive top-20 finishes at the NCAA championships. He was also the only UA golfer to break par at the championships.

Junior Chris Nallen was the only other Arizona golfer to finish in the top half of the field, shooting 15-over to tie for 35th place. Barnes and Nallen were named PING All-Americans by the Golf Coaches Association of America, the only pair of teammates to appear on the first team. Nallen was also on of eight selected to represent the United States in the 2003 Palmer Cup, the college version of the Ryder Cup, in July.

Blasberg leads women's golf to seventh at NCAA Championships

Powered by freshman Erica Blasberg's third place finish, the women's golf team finished seventh at the NCAA championships and in doing so matched the best team round with a two over par on the final day. In the final round, Arizona moved up from 10th and shot 290 to tie for the best team round of the four-day tournament at Purdue's Kampen Golf Course late last month. The Wildcats, who shot a +65 at the championship, were just one shot away from a top five finish, as UCLA and Oklahoma State tied at +64. After the first two rounds, Arizona was 11th, but in the last two days the Wildcats strung together the best two round total over the final 36 holes. Also, Blasberg was the only golfer to shoot two subpar rounds and only one of two to shoot in the 60s as she did on the last day with three-under par score of 69.

Seniors Anne Lee and Laura Myerscough finished 40th and 47th, respectively, and freshman Cassandra Kirkland took 55th place. The team's finish is the Wildcats' eighth consecutive top-10 NCAA Championships finish.

Blasberg also earned a number of postseason accolades, most notably being named one of four finalists for the women's golf Honda Sports award. Blasberg, the nation's top ranked golfer at the end of the year according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, also won the Pacific-10 Conference Player- and Freshman-of-the-Year honors, the 2003 Golfstat Cup for the player with the lowest season scoring average, the 2003 NGCA Division I Softspikes Freshman of the Year and first team All-American. Blasberg's All-America recognition is the 45th time an Arizona golfer has earned such honors and continues a streak of having at least one Wildcat first-team All-American in each of the last eight seasons.

Also, UA golfers have won the Golfstat Cup the last four seasons and five times since it was started in 1996, Marisa Baena in 1999, Jenna Daniels in 2000 and Lorena Ochoa in 2001 and 2002.

Head Soccer coach and football wide receivers coach resign

The off-season makeover continued this month for Arizona football team, which lost its second wide receivers coach of the off-season when Mike Borich, who was on the job for less than three months resigned. The soccer team followed suit this week, as well, losing its second coach since January when head coach Cathy Klein resigned.

Head football coach John Mackovic, who many expected would lose his job last November after a near mutiny by much of his team, will have to find yet another assistant coach after Borich resigned Monday, the sixth to depart so far this off season. Borich, who cited personal reasons for his departure but praised Mackovic, would have inherited a young receiving core which lost its leading wide out, Bobby Wade who had 93 catches. The next closet last year was senior-to-be Andrae Thurman with 61. Fall camp for the football team, which is coming off a 4-8 record, starts Aug. 5 though fall preparations for the coaching staff begin in mid July.

Klein resigned last week, citing a desire to pursue a career as an athletic administrator. Klein leaves coaching with a 14-39-1 record in three seasons at Arizona to seek a doctorate in sports administration; she has applied to New Mexico. Klein is perhaps best known for her hard-nosed approach to coaching, as in 2000 she kicked off the team's leading scorer Chrissy Sanford after Sanford violated the team's "three strike rule."

After being late to a work out, Sanford missed two more because she had to bail her boyfriend out of a Mexican jail following Spring Break. Klein told the Arizona Daily Star that she was not forced out after team backlash in the spring. In January, assistant Casey Mann - a favorite among Wildcat players - left the program. The soccer program, the UA's youngest sport, has never had a winning record since its inception in 1994, though in each year of Klein's tenure, the team's record has improved. In 2002, the team had 19 freshmen and sophomores out of its 23 roster players.

Borich's resignation takes effect July 31 and Klein's, July 2.