Sports

Diving, track pick up the slack

Coogs' Corner

Ernest Salas

With all the championships and first-place finishes going on, youid think we had good athletic programs at UH. Well guess what? While the football and menis basketball teams havenit made headlines lately, others have been winning.

Swimming and Diving

Senior Yulia Pakhalina broke the schoolis record for most individual titles when she won both the one- and three-meter diving events at the NCAA Diving Championships in Auburn, Ala., on Thursday and Friday. She also earned NCAA Diver of the Year honors while diving head coach Jane Figueiredo was named NCAA Diving Coach of the Year.

Pakhalina's career at UH may be over, but redshirt freshman Azul Almazan may keep the program on the map for the next few years. Almazan didnit advance to the finals of the three-meter or platform diving events, but she made waves throughout the 2002-03 season.

Track and Field

Those track athletes are fast ­ darn fast.

The menis and womenis teams began the outdoor season with one of the best performances in school history. The Cougars won three relays and eight individual events at the Texas Southern Relays on Friday and Saturday. So why were the TSU Relays held at Rice? Itis a question only the smart kids on University Boulevard can answer.

The Cougars won the relays in the womenis 4-by-100-meter, the womenis 4-by-400-meter and the menis 4-by-100-meter.

Sophomore Milton Manson won the menis 110-meter hurdles; sophomore Andrew Carruthers took first place in the menis 400-meter hurdles; freshman Sesar Figueroa, finished first in the 1,500-meter run; sophomore Daniel Patton won the menis pole vault; freshman Derek Randall was first in the menis shot put; and sophomore Tinisha Wesley placed first in the discus and womenis shot put.

Can it get better for the Cougars? Theyill put their best feet forward at the Tom Tellez Invitational on Saturday at the Lewis/Tellez Track Complex.

Baseball

Maybe a 48-17 season spoiled fans, but it seemed like the baseball team would never get on track. Then junior pitcher Brad Sullivan turned on the switch and started zipping the ball past opposing batters as if the 2002 season had never ended.

A three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Bearcats and suddenly things are looking better for the Cougars. Theyire not ranked yet, but at 11-13, they have every reason to believe theyive turned the corner. Sullivan and company take the show on the road to the paradise that is Huntsville to play Sam Houston State today.

And the rest

Junior pitchers Jenny Johnson and Jamie Falco already have more than 20 wins and were taking some of the attention away from the baseball team. But then the Sips came along. The Longhorns blanked UH 3-0 on Thursday. The Cougars will look to put the ugly memory of burnt orange uniforms behind them when they play Alabama A&M on Thursday.

In other news, Tennis hosts Tulsa on Wednesday, Golf travels to Tucson, Ariz., and Football continues its spring practice schedule today.

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