CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona senior catcher Mackenzie Vandergeest was traded from the Houston Thunder to the Arizona Heat, located in Tucson, earlier this week. Vandergeest was drafted by Houston last month to play in the National Pro Fast Pitch professional softball league, but is unable to sign a contract since she still has eligibility left with the Wildcats.

UA senior catcher Mackenzie Vandergeest won't have to move very far after the college softball season ends, as her rights were traded to the Tucson major league softball team.

Originally drafted by the Houston Thunder last month in the National Pro Fast Pitch draft, Vandergeest was traded to the Arizona Heat this week for the draft rights of Liz Bouck (DePaul), Amanda Jensen (Olivet Nazarene) and Rosette Rough (Long Island). Since she still has a year remaining at the UA, Vandergeest cannot sign a contract, but the other three can.

"We wanted her right away, but it took a little while," said Matt Tiggas, director of player personnel.

"The main thing is she wanted to stay here."

The Heat also drafted senior pitcher Wendy Allen and signed a handful of former Wildcats, including Allison McClutcheon, Lisha Ribellia, Leah Braatz and UA interim associate head coach Nancy Evans.

"We want to keep the U of A players here," Tiggas said.

The Heat have also made former UA player and assistant and current Pima Community College head coach Stacey Iveson their manager. The Aztecs beat the UA last semester in a fall tournament. The NPF is relaunching this year, with a partnership with Major League Baseball, in June. Can't spell USA without UA USA softball must really like Arizona, as a slew of UAplayers were just named to USA softball teams.

Former Wildcats Jennie Finch, Leah O'Brien-Amico and Lovie Jung will take a year away from Tucson to prepare for the Olympics and will be at Olympic head coach Mike Candrea's disposal at the games. Ex-Cat Nicole Giordano was named as an alternate.

The Olympic team's Tucson stop on their "Aiming for Athens" tour comes March 26, when they play the Wildcats.

Current Wildcat sophomore outfielder Autumn Champion, sophomore pitcher Alicia Hallowell and freshman outfielder Caitlin Lowe were named to the National Women's Elite team. The Elite team will play in the 2004 U.S. Champions Cup, the Canada Cup and other events.

Along with freshman shortstop Kristie Fox, Lowe played for the USA's Junior Olympic team, which won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships in October.

New season, same old ranking Arizona will begin the season where it ended the last.

The Wildcats are ranked No. 3 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Pre-Season Top 25 Collegiate Poll.

Every Pacific-10 Conference team is ranked.

UCLA is No. 1, California No. 2, Washington No. 5, Stanford No. 12, Oregon No. 13, Arizona State No. 19 and Oregon State No. 23. A few months ago, after compiling all the weekly polls in their eight-year history, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association deemed Arizona the best team during that span in their USA Today/NFCA All-Time Top 50 poll.

The Wildcats have been ranked in all 112 polls and have never finished lower than No. 5. Every other Pac-10 team was in the top 50, with the Bruins at No. 2, the Huskies No. 3, the Golden Bears No. 7, the Sun Devils No. 8, the Cardinal No. 10, the Beavers No. 15 and the Ducks No. 33.

Finch ties for 'Person of Year' You know you've made it big when ESPN.com's headline to its story about the Olympic team includes you.

"Jennie Finch among players selected to USA softball team," read the headline. And that was just one of Finch's national accolades of late. Finch was featured in ESPN The Magazine's "Next" issue a few weeks ago and tied for first in ESPN.com's 2003 Person of the Year Ranking with LeBron James. The next closest "person" was "Bennifer" (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez), followed by Paris Hilton, Randall Simon, Warren Sapp, Seabiscuit and Grady Little.