The visiting Wildcats' domination Saturday night followed the Friday night dinner at the McCabes' house. UA senior Andi McCabe's family hosted the Arizona gymnastics team (5-1, 1-1 Pacific 10 Conference) for a meal before the returning senior competed in front of her family.
The result was absolute control over host Illinois-Chicago (0-8). For the first time on the road, the Arizona gymnastics team tallied a score of 49 or better in every event to sweep the Flames, 196.525-194.450.
The score was a product of Arizona raising the difficulty in practice this week, according to head coach Bill Ryden. Arizona tallied its second-best road performance in school history.
"In a lot of ways, being on the road is easier because it brings the team together," Ryden said. "You don't have the distractions, and it allows you to focus on the one reason why you're there."
Arizona focused on laying down the high scores in every event. The Wildcats' mark of 49.325 on the beam, led by freshman Aubrey Taylor (9.925) earning her first event title in her second appearance, is the second highest in Arizona history.
"We've been training really hard and everyone's looking really good with their schemes and everything, and we're more consistent than before," Taylor said before the trip.
Junior Katie Johnson took second place on beam (9.900), and her 9.900 on the floor earned her a third floor title in four meets.
Although she did not compete in the all-around for the first time in 27 meets, junior Monica Bisordi (9.875) secured her first bars title of the season.
Arizona gymnastics returns to Tucson and the Pac-10 Friday against California (6-1, 2-1).
- Ross Hammonds
Women win, men fall to Longhorns in swim and dive
Arizona women's swimming and diving team celebrated their last home meet of the season on Friday and Saturday with a 194-156 upset over No. 5 Texas.
The men's team fell short against the second-ranked men's Longhorn squad, losing 174-164.
The women's team opened the meet well by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:33.87. They went on to win the next four events, giving the team an early lead it would not give up.
The women's team received a strong effort from junior Emily Mason, who handily won the 1,650-yard freestyle event with a time of 16:46.83. Junior Jessica Hayes took the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.58), senior Jessica Wagner won the 100-yard backstroke (1:02.36) and freshman Whitney Myers won the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.73) for Arizona.
Things didn't look as good on the men's side, as they headed into Saturday's action trailing by 50 points to the Longhorns.
Sophomore Tyler DeBerry took first place for the men's 1,650-yard freestyle event with a time of 15:48.53. Sophomores Lyndon Ferns and Simon Burnett swam a tight race against each other in the 200-yard freestyle, but Ferns edged out his teammate by .03 seconds as he posted a time of 1:39.22. Ferns also blazed in the 50-yard freestyle, taking first place with a time of 20.32 seconds. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in the event.
Sophomore Dave Rollins provided the men's team with a boost in points as he won the 100-yard breaststroke (57.11) as well as the 200-yard individual medley (1:52.69).
The diving squads for both the UA men and women performed well, as senior Daniella Bemme (276.37) and freshman Mary Yarrison (305.70) each won the 1-meter and 3-meter platform events, respectively. Bemme also finished second on the 3-meter platform at 275.48.
On the men's side, senior Josh Anderson was first in the 3-meter event with 247.17 points. Senior Alex Vollelunga (289.50) and senior John Collier (298.42) were runners-up in the 1-meter and 3-meter events, respectively.
The Wildcats will travel to Tempe Saturday, Feb. 14, to take on the Sun Devils for their final action before the Pac-10 Championships Feb. 26-28.
- Cody David
UA ruggers routed by Cal
The California Golden Bears overcame an early first-half deficit Saturday to avoid a desert upset, routing Arizona 60-3 in a non-conference men's rugby game at Estevan Park.
With pestering winds disturbing their air game, the Bears kept the ball low and ran right past the Wildcats, snapping Arizona's four-game winning streak.
The Wildcats showed enthusiasm from the opening kick, scoring on a field goal by junior center Josh May on the game's first advance. The score remained 3-0 for more than 10 minutes, until Bears flyhalf Kyle Khasigian ran in a try to give California the lead. Fullback Andrew Blair completed the conversion to make the score 7-3.
From there, Cal blew away Arizona's dreams of an upset.
Forward Mike MacDonald and wing Dorian Peracci each scored tries for the Bears late in the first half, giving the team a 27-3 lead at the break. A comeback quickly fell short early for the Wildcats, who surrendered two more tries moments into the second half, including another by MacDonald.
Blair scored next for California, converting his own try to push the lead to 45.
"It's only our second game, but I think we improved from our first outing," Bears head coach Jack Clark said. "There are two types of teams: those that are improving and those that are getting worse. If we're getting better, that's good."
Arizona had trouble containing the Bears' ground attack all game, missing numerous tackles and committing a bevy of penalties.
"Cal has a superior program," said Arizona head coach Dave Sitton. "As any good program will, they took advantage of every one of our technical errors."
Though disappointed by Saturday's defeat, the Wildcats are already focused on facing UC-Santa Barbara in Tucson this weekend.
"We were an underdog today by a clear amount, and now we're even more fired up," said junior center Justin Kunz. "We want to come out and win next week."
- Tom Knauer
Mixed bag for men's, women's tennis
Battling weather conditions, the No. 3 doubles team and the No. 15 singles player in the nation, the Wildcat men's tennis team lost 5-2 to No. 22 Rice on Friday, making them 1-6 all-time against Rice. On Saturday, the Wildcats bounced back to defeat No. 37 Fresno State 4-3, raising their record to 2-1.
"We used the Rice game as a motivation factor," sophomore Daniel Andrus said. "We couldn't lose two in a row, so everyone just stepped up and came out fired up."
The Wildcat women's tennis team started their season at home, winning two of three matches against Northern Arizona and San Diego, while losing to Oklahoma. The Wildcats started their season Friday, defeating NAU 7-0 without losing a single set. On Saturday, Arizona lost in a close match to No. 35 Oklahoma 4-3, but defeated San Diego 6-1.
UA junior Diane Hollands beat Christina Klokinis of NAU 6-3, 6-1 and junior Maja Mlakar routed Ashley Dille, 6-0, 6-3. Together, they defeated Klokinis and Dille, 8-0 in doubles play.
In the Oklahoma game, Hollands lost 6-3, 7-5 to the No. 3 ranked player in the country, Anda Perianu
"Diane always gives 100 percent," said third year coach Vicky Maes. "She's the leader of the team in terms of her attitude and how she approaches every match. She's very professional in how she prepares and I know she had high expectations for this match."
The Arizona men beat Fresno State (3-2) thanks to its less noted singles players and its dominance in doubles play.
The Wildcats won all three doubles matches, with junior Paul Warkentin and sophomore Daniel Andrus defeating Greg Shearer and Stefan Suta 8-5 to lead the way.
"Paul and I had to win so we were feeding off each other," Andrus said.
In singles play, sophomore Roger Matalonga, Andrus and Warkentin all won their matches, as Warkentin clinched the match with his 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 over Jure Kekez.
Senior Whi Kim returned to action and paired with senior Tom Lloyd for Arizona. The tandem beat Robert Searle and Ben Harknett, 9-7.
The UA women won all three doubles matches against USD, as well as five of the six singles matches.
The UA men will host Sacramento State on Friday, while the Wildcat women take on New Mexico in Tucson on Thursday, Feb. 12.
- Roman Veytsman
Men's, women's track earn split
The UA men's and women's track and field teams earned a split with sounding wins over Northern Arizona, but were edged by Arizona State this weekend.
The Sun Devils led the women's scoring with 133.5 points, followed by the Wildcats with 108 and the Lumberjacks with 84 points. On the men's side, ASU claimed the win with 121 points, while Arizona finished with 103, and NAU had 84 points.
Sophomore Angel Perkins led a charge for the UA women in the sprints, leading a trio of Wildcats to the top three spots in the 55-meter dash. Perkins won the event in 6.94 seconds, just off the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 6.93. She was closely followed by fellow sophomore Marquita Taylor's second-place finish in 7.08 seconds. Freshman Nikki Martin rounded out the top three in 7.18 seconds. Taylor claimed a win of her own in the 200 meters, finishing in 25.24 seconds.
On the men's side, sophomore Robert Cheseret won the 800 meters title with a time of 1:51.83. The Wildcats picked up another win in the 3,000 meters, where senior Kyle Goklish led the way and finished with a time of 8:55.15. He was closely followed by freshman Jeremy Johnson, who finished second. The distance medley relay team dominated the race from the start, winning in 10:11.00. Cheseret led the way, followed by Tim Ramirez, Aaron Powell and Jin Kaikoku.
The men's and women's squads will set their sights on the Falcon Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Saturday. The meet is a quadrangular meet featuring the Air Force Academy, Colorado and Colorado State.
- Staff and wire reports