Tide programs prepare for busy weekend
March 20, 2008
To call it a busy weekend for Alabama athletics is understating things.
The Crimson Tide baseball team will play host to fourth-ranked Vanderbilt for its SEC home opener this weekend. Alabama is 9-10 with a five-loss losing streak. The Tide was swept at Kentucky last weekend and dropped a pair of midweek games to new Orleans at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Vandy is 13-4. Game times are Friday at 6:35, Saturday at 4:05 and Sunday at 2:06 for a game to be televised on CSS.
That’s hardly the only game in town, though.
Alabama’s gymnasts wrap up their regular season at 7:30 Friday night against Auburn at Coleman Coliseum.
The Tide gymnasts had a tough trip to the West Coast a couple weeks ago, but bounced back with a season-high score of 197.3 against Penn State last week.
Alalbama has earned 93 consecutive wins against Auburn since 1979. Last year’s victory, by less than half a point, came down to the final rotation.
The team has Senior Night ceremonies and will honor scholastic all-American Kaitlin White and two-time Olympic silver medalist and two-time NCAA champion Terin Humphrey.
Five Alabama swimmers are competing at the NCAA Championships in Columbus this weekend.
Agustina de Giovanni, Erin Sparks, Ida Persson, Vanessa Von der Heyde and Brooke Baldi will be competing in individual and relay races.
The Alabama golf team won its fifth tournament championship last Sunday and moved to No. 1 in this week’s Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. They already were No. 1 in the Golf World/Nike Coaches’ poll. Senior Michael Thompson (No. 7), junior Matthew Swan (15) and senior Mark Harrell (43) are all ranked in the top 50 for individuals by Golfweek.
Alabama softball player Jordan Praytor and Tide golfer Joseph Sykora were nominated by the school for the SEC’s prestigious Boyd McWhorter scholar-athletic post-graduate scholarship. The scholarship has been awarded by the SEC to the league’s top male and female athletes since 1986. The scholarship winners will be announced April 6, in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day.
Even basketball has some news. Alabama, which will be participating in the Maui Invitational this fall, will be in good company in Hawaii this Nov. 24-26. Six of the seven Division I teams who will play in the event, hosted by Division II Chaminade, have made the NCAA Tournament. Those teams are North Carolina, Texas, Notre Dame, Indiana, Oregon and St. Joseph’s. Last fall’s championship game of the Maui Invitational featured Duke against Marquette, two other NCAA Tournament teams.
Oh, yeah. Football starts back Monday. The Crimson Tide was off this week for spring break after getting in two of their allowed 15 practices.
