Despite my headline, this weekend was awful. Let’s see I had my wallet stolen, my roommate’s car window was broken in, and my puppy has taken it upon himself to chew literally anything within eyesight. But despite the mayhem I think I would have to mark this long weekend up as a success. Not just because we didn’t have class, but also because of the dynamite performance of the U of A cross country team. In the George Kyte Classic hosted by Northern Arizona on Saturday our men’s team took 3rd place while the women’s team took number one with thirty seven points. Of the 5 scoring female runners 3 were freshmen including 2 in the top ten. Haley Stenquist, also a freshman, was the top finishing Arizona runner placing second with a time of 17:25.3 Somehow she managed to run half the race with only one shoe and I may be a little confused but shoes are somewhat essential to a runner right? It’s only the beginning of the season and we’re already seeing big things from Stenquist. Top finisher for the men’s team, Kenji Bierig, also a freshman, took 14th.
The Arizona cross country team has a long, yet promising, season ahead but is going to have to share the spotlight this weekend with the lady wildcats volleyball team. In the Wildcat Classic, hosted by our very own, U of A swept the competition ending the tournament with a 3-0 record. The tournament took place this weekend and played host to teams, Presbyterian, Cal State Fullerton, and Eastern Washington. It was the seniors in this tournament who really shown through. Outside hitter and senior Marketa Hanzlova, was voted to the All-Tournament team alongside middle blocker and fellow senior, Curtsy Jackson. Jackson was also voted MVP by a unanimous decision. She ended the tournament with 28 kills and 2 blocks while Hanzlova chalked up an impressive 20 kills and 35 digs. The lady cats will continue the season in a hopefully continuing, impressive fashion at the Evansville Dunn Hospitality Invitational in Indianapolis. The first math will be Friday the 9th versus the University of Illinois in Chicago.
While the lady athletes of our school have been showing out on the trails and in the gym, your football team opened up the season with an impressive second half on the field. With a 41-10 defeat against the NAU lumberjacks hopes are high as we go into an extremely competitive part of schedule. Seniors, Nick Foles and Juron Criner proved themselves as the leaders of our young team. In the game last Saturday Foles threw for 412 yards including 5 touchdown passes. Criner assisted with six catches for a total of 151 yards. Although the game started out rocky with a missed 36 yard attempt kick by kicker Jaime Salazaar and NAU quarterback Jaime Grossart throwing for 145 yards in the first half alone, it was looking dreary for the cats when the lumberjacks finished the second quarter surprisingly trailing by only 4 points. Yet T Wade, with a remarkable interception was able to reignite the cats to victory. Foles threw 3 of his 5 touchdown passes in the second half and the Arizona defense was able to hold NAU to only 25 yards in the 3rd quarter as well as 0 points in the entire 2nd half. Not to be a pessimist but the cats are going to have to avoid lulls for an entire game against our upcoming opponents Oklahoma state. Fans remember a bitter ending to the 2010 season against nationally ranked 9th place OSU in the Alamo Bowl with a crushing defeat of 10-36. A few OSU weapons to prepare for will be running back Joseph Randle, their red zone consistency, and a defense to challenge any offensive line, especially our exceptionally young one. Yet this is a new season and hopes are high as the Wildcat athletics all around seemingly came out on top. The young football team members aren’t the only ones looking to Foles and Criner to lead them to victory this Thursday in Big-12 territory. As a school let’s wash that taste of defeat out of our mouths and really start the season off with a bang.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Arizona chapter.