Women's NCAA Track and Field Qualifiers -- Baseball Done -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FOUR UOFL WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS WEEK

The 2018 NCAA Track and Field Championships begin Wednesday, June 6th, in Eugene, OR at Hayward Field. Four women student-athletes from the University of Louisville will participate in the finals. 21 Women's event in all will be contested. 

For the Cards, three participants will test the field on Thursday and one on Saturday. 
All times are Pacific. Here's a breakdown of the specifics: 


THURSDAY  1:30 PM  HAMMER THROW FINALS


Makenli Forrest will throw for UofL. She'll be in the first of two flights and is seeded sixth in that flight. Her best throw of the qualifying distances was 61.62m. The best throw of the participants was 71.26m. The top nine total finishers will qualify and then throw in the finals.  She has an outside chance of qualifying for the finals but adding 10m over her best might be more than the freshman might have in her. Hammer down, Makenli !!


THURSDAY  4:30 PM  POLE VAULT FINALS

Gabriela Leon, another freshman on the squad, is one of 24 trying to clear the bar. They're a little less formatted in this event. Qualifiers had to clear a seed mark of 4.18m. 

She's got as good a chance as anyone from what I can tell. They start the vaulters at 4.0m and if you clear it, they set the next mark at 4.15m. They go to 4.3m next, then 4.45m and finally 5.0m until just one remains. I'm not sure what they do in case of a tie. A vault off? 

Pole vaulting, I will admit, is one of my favorite field events to watch but one that I only tried once while in high school. It did not go well. The object is to go over the bar, not have it hit the top of your head when you go under it. 

THURSDAY  6:38 PM 10000M RUN

Dorcas Wasike, Louisville third freshman that qualified, will run in the one-heat final. She qualified with a time of 33:46. The top qualifying time out of the 24 was 32:14...so Dorcas will need to "pick up the pace" by a minutes and a half if she wants to challenge that.  Just to give you a general idea, 10,000 meters converts to about 6.2 miles. I'd never make it, unless it was in a golf cart. 

SATURDAY  5:25 PM 5000M RUN

Bailey Davis, a junior, competes in the finals of the 5000 meters (roughly 3.1 miles) in a single, 24 runner heat.  Her time of 16:15 got her in the last event of the NCAA Track and Field Championships...she'll need to improve about a minute to match the top qualifying time of 15:19. 

She's also a local product, having run for Louisville Assumption in high school.


Best of luck to these four and also to the Louisville men, who will have six participants in the finals! 


BASEBALL ELIMINATED IN REGIONALS


It was a good start for the Louisville baseball team on Sunday, with their second win of the regional over Kent State 12-6 to advance to play Texas Tech down in Lubbock, TX. The Cards had 15 hits against the Golden Flashes. 

They had to come back 55 minutes later and play Texas Tech in the nightcap, though...and the results weren't so good. The Cards fell 11-6 to the Red Raiders and end the season with a 45-19 record. 

Louisville fell behind early, Tech getting four first inning runs, and the Cards faced a 6-0 deficit after four innings. To their credit, Louisville never gave up and battled back to trail 9-6 after eight innings. The Red Raiders added two run in the top of the ninth, though, for the final score and the Cards went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth. 

A scary moment when Cardinal great Josh Stowers went down in center field after fielding a base hit. What appeared to be a serious groin injury had him writhing on the grass in obvious pain...but he was able to get to his feet eventually and walked off the field with assistance. Nothing serious is the report from the Louisville camp this morning. This was after he took a fastball to his hand a couple of innings before and had to shake that off before heading to first base. 

It is the first time since 2012 that Louisville has not advanced to the Super Regional. 


WNBA

A tough Sunday for the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics, but pretty good totals for the two UofL players in the league. 

Angel McCoughtry totaled 21 points and 10 grabs in 34 minutes for the Dream in a 78-71 loss to Phoenix in Atlanta. She drew the start and was the Mystics leading scorer. Atlanta goes to 2-3 with the loss. 

Myisha Hines-Allen ended up with 7 points and a rebound for Washington in 22 minutes...coming off the bench for the Mystics. It was a bad beat for her squad, though, falling 88-64 to the 5-0 Connecticut Sun. The Mystics are now 5-3 for the season....obviously missing the recent absence of Elena Della Donne, who was in street clothes, feeling the effects of Lyme's Disease.   


paulie
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