Ruggers roughed up at tourney

The No. 18 Arizona rugby team had a disappointing weekend at the inaugural Pac-10 Conference tournament at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, completing pool play at 1-3-1, to take home a ninth-place finish.

The 10 schools that make up the Pacific 10 Conference showcased several of the country's most talented players and All-Americans, but the No. 18 Wildcats left Los Angeles with a bad taste in their mouths.

The Wildcats lost their first game in the tournament on Saturday morning against host UCLA. The Bruins made amends for their loss last weekend against No. 5 Utah and beat Arizona 19-15.

Arizona tied unranked Oregon in their second game of the tournament, 15-15.

The Wildcats then suffered a major loss when No. 15 Washington State shut out Arizona 24-0.

Arizona dropped the fourth game of the tournament, in a 17-12 Stanford victory.

In Sunday's matchup, Arizona topped Southern California 19-10, to avoid finishing in last place in the inaugural tournament. The No. 2 California Golden Bears won the Pac-10 title with a 23-6 victory over the Cougars.

Information taken from a press release on www.americanrugbynews.com

Team shines in first meet of year

In the first meet of the season, the Arizona men's and women's track and field teams had quite a success as four women and three men earned NCAA indoor provisional qualifying marks at the Modrall Sperling Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday.

In the men's shot put, senior Sean Shields placed second with a throw of 18.53 meters.

Shields, along with junior Adam Kuehl, who finished third with a distance of 18.26m, and freshman Shawn Best with 18.03m, earned NCAA indoor provisional qualifying marks.

In the women's shot put, sophomore Megan Howard came in second overall with a toss of 16.05m, while senior Kelli Burton placed fourth overall with 15.84m.

Senior Sara Vigil placed second overall in the weight throw competition with a toss of 19.45m. All three women's tosses earned them NCAA indoor provisional qualifying marks.

Freshman pole vaulter Gabriella Duclos also got off to a great start at her first meet as she placed second in the pole vault competition with a mark of 3.95m. For her success, Duclos received an NCAA indoor provisional qualifying mark in the event. 

The Wildcats will split their next meet on Jan. 28 at Washington and at the Arizona/California Indoor Invitational in Flagstaff.

Information taken from a press release on www.arizonaathletics.com

Gymcats fall short at ASU

Although it posted its best score of the season, the No. 14 Arizona gymnastics team could not pull out a victory over No. 17 ASU in Tempe yesterday.

"We definitely got better," head coach Bill Ryden said. "The best thing about our sport is we don't go on wins and losses."

The Gymcats lost by the narrow margin of 195.300-195.150. They did however improve their season-high score by .800 and set several career best marks throughout the meet.

"To get a 195 on the road with this kind of young team will help us in the long run," Ryden said.

Sophomore Karin Wurm shined through the loss by tying or setting career highs in the uneven parallel bars, vault and balance beam.

"I was really motivated," she said. "We just got angry and went out there and attacked."

The Wildcats came out of the uneven parallel bars trailing 49.175-48.825. Junior Aubrey Taylor hit a new career high with a 9.900 and tied for first place in the event.

Wurm tied her career high with a 9.875 and sophomore Danielle Hicks earned a 9.750.

Wurm also matched her career high on the vault with a 9.825. She helped lead the Wildcats to score a 48.775 on their second rotation.

Freshmen Alexis Greene and Bree Workman helped pace the Gymcats with 9.755 and 9.750 respectively.

"Alexis is kind of a wildcard," Ryden said. "She has done really well handling the pressure competing in three events for us."

In the floor exercises, the team hit a 48.875. This season-best score was led by Wurm and Greene's 9.800 and senior Erin Muirhead's 9.775.

Ryden said he is not surprised that Wurm did so well today.

"She's been training well for four straight months," he said. "She was on a mission."

Going into the final rotation, the Gymcats were in trouble, having struggled on the balance beam throughout the season. Through career bests from Wurm (9.775), freshman Briana Bergeson (9.800) and junior Jamie Holton (9.700), the team established its best beam score of the season with a 48.675 while also pushing ASU to the limit.

Ryden said he thinks that repetition in practice and confidence is what helped his team finally excel in the beam for the first time this season.

"We did so many routines, we sort of pounded it into them trying to develop the confidence," he said. "I think they are getting confident and being more relaxed."

Information taken from a press release on www.arizonaathletics.com

Cats no longer undefeated

The No. 5 Arizona swimming and diving teams both posted two losses this weekend, tarnishing their undefeated records for the season.

The Wildcats' women (7-2, 4-2 Pacific 10 Conference) fell to both Stanford and California.

The women's team lost to No. 6 Cal (8-0, 4-0) Saturday 178-122 after falling to No. 3 Stanford (12-0, 3-0) Friday 137-106.

The Wildcat men (3-2, 2-2) fell to the No. 3 Cal men's team (5-0, 2-0) by a score of 202-98 Saturday. No. 2 Stanford (3-0, 3-0) beat Arizona 127-115 Friday.

Against the Golden Bears, it was a day of mostly second places for the Wildcat men, who posted nine second-place finishes. They took second place in the 200-yard medley relay, 1000y freestyle, 200y freestyle, 100y and 200y backstroke, 200y individual medley and 200y free relay.

Senior Lyndon Ferns was the only swimmer to take a first place from the Bears, in the 100y freestyle in a time of 44.33 and the 100y butterfly in 48.06.

The men had better luck in the diving well, where senior John Collier placed first in the 3-meter competition and took second place in the 1m.

The bright spot for the women's team came from the 200y freestyle relay team of sophomores Lacey Nymeyer and Courtney Cashion and freshmen Lindsey Kelley and Anna Turner, which swam an NCAA 'A' qualifying time of 1:32.69 against Cal.

Stanford proved to be as equal a battle as California.

The men took five first places from the

Cardinal in the swimming events besides one in a diving event.

The diving for the men proved to be slightly treacherous when sophomore diver Jeff Hagedon was injured during the meet after hitting the water, but he is expected to recover.

Collier took first in the 3m and second in the 1m.

Information taken from a press release on www.arizonaathletics.com