Track and Field Strong Again; McDonald's All-American Nominees -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Have Big Day at Bellarmine Invitational

While it is easy to think that the schools that aren't traditional powers in major team sports must not have top athletes in individual Olympic sports, that's often not the case. A great runner or thrower could come from anywhere. Louisville participated in the Bellarmine Invitational yesterday against athletes from EKU, WKU, NKU, Bellarmine, Midway, Spalding, and other small schools. The beauty of the Olympic events is that the mixed divisions don't matter. If you have a great throw, that will reflect whether you're in D1, D3, or NAIA. 

Louisville didn't have some of their biggest names participating this week, but they still had another good showing. The Cards picked up four wins, all on the women's side, and had a total of 10 podiums, with eight of those coming from the women's team. The big event of the day for Louisville was the triple jump. Anna Panenko and Sophia Day took first and second with a tied jump of 12.31m. That mark also put them in a tie for ninth in program history. Autumn Bell made it a podium sweep with a personal best 12.16m. 

Louisville had first and second in the women's weight throw as well, with Demaria King putting up a personal best in back-to-back meets. Carys Gossett took second. Maya Follmer had two wins for Louisville, setting a personal best in the 60m hurdles and tying a personal best in the high jump. Louisville's last women's podium was a second place for Lydia Stuart in the pole vault with, you guessed it, a personal best. Iliana Triantafyllou finished in fourth. 

Louisville will leave the friendly confines of the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center next week when they head to the Crossroads of America Invitational in Indianapolis. 

Mbugua Nominated as McD All-American

Louisville's incoming 2025 power forward, Grace Mbugua, was among the 805 boys and girls nominated for the McDonald's High School All-American Games. Mbugua, a 6'-5" senior from Danville Christian, is one of four girls from the state of Kentucky to be nominated. She is joined by Ciara Byars (George Rogers Clark), ZaKiya Johnson (Sacred Heart), and Leah Macy (Bethlehem). The official rosters of 24 will be announced at the end of the month. 

Mbugua climbed the ladder in the recruiting rankings last season as she posted the fifth best average scoring performance (26 ppg) in the state and led the state in rebounding (15.4). Officially, Mbugua finished second in the category, but the only player ahead of her (Abigail Brothers - 17.4) played only five games. Mbugua would have been chasing the state record for career rebounds (1,978) this season, as she entered with 1,527. However, she only returned from a knee repair surgery last week. In two games so far this season, she has 53 points and 28 rebounds. 

It would be great to see another future Cardinal in the game that has been a coming out party for so many in the past. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have four on board today as we trade Jared for Daryl. Our resident photographer will be out snapping pics of Louisville's fantastic Dirt Bowl-inspired uniforms at the men's game that starts at noon. We'll continue to sing the praises of Louisville's current win streak and look at some of the other news and notes of the week. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

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Until next time, Go Cards!

Case