Christensen: Near-Spring Success
FacebookBy Todd Christensen
March 14, 2011
A week removed from the first day of Spring, the Mountain West Conference is excelling in a number of sports. The highest profile has been for the basketball tournament in Las Vegas, where San Diego State found that the third time was indeed the charm as they defeated BYU in the final game, not only accruing the automatic NCAA bid but a #2 seed in the tournament to boot.
And with a favorable draw in the West bracket in Anaheim, the Aztecs have a chance to make some noise and go quite far. BYU will travel to the Southeast bracket where they will be a #3 seed. Given the circumstances over the last two weeks, that seems just, but the loss of Brandon Davies may be too much for the Cougars to overcome in terms of making a deep run. That will make them that much more dependent upon "Jimmermania.” The Glen Falls, New York native had a spectacular tournament, averaging over 35 points per game - including that ridiculous 52 points against New Mexico in the semifinals.
UNLV, based upon their body of work throughout the season, garnered a #8 seed in the Southwest quadrant while Colorado State, New Mexico and Air Force will also be playing postseason basketball.
On the women’s side of the tourney, Utah had one of the great underdog runs of any team in the country. With a sub-.500 record in both Conference and overall play, the fifth place Lady Utes had very little reason for hope in Las Vegas for anything but an early plane ride home. Instead, they played their best basketball of the year and had an improbable run, highlighted by a semi-final victory over #1 seeded BYU with a buzzer-beater and an overtime victory over TCU.
In both cases, Michelle Plouffe played the hero, no mean feat for a freshman. Kudos to Anthony Levrets and his staff for garnering an unlikely automatic bid to the Big Dance.
This past weekend was the National Indoor Track and Field Championships for the NCAA, held in College Station, Texas. There wee a number of point scorers in their specialties including Whitney Gipson of TCU in the long jump, Ada Robinson of BYU in the high jump, Justin Tyner of Air Force in the 3000 and Victor Weirich of BYU in the pole vault. Jessica Young would have won the 60 meters if not for a collegiate record set in the event by Lakya Brookings of South Carolina. And Lacey Bleazard of BYU won her second NCAA Indoor title in the 800 meters; she won in 2009 and was second last year.
The big news of the meet was the BYU men. Miles Batty sprinted home with a sub 4:00 mile to take home a victory for the Cougars and then proceeded to anchor he winning Distance Medley relay team to a win and an arena record. Leif Arrhenius had a 65' 4" throw in the shot put for a gold medal. Along with Weirich's points in the pole vault the men finished an impressive third place in the team competition. With three nationally ranked javelin throwers, a stable of quality steeplechasers and Arrhenus' improvement in the discus and hammer throw, the sky is the limit for the potential of the team outdoors.
TCU is currently ranked #7 in the nation after beginning the season as the No. 1 team by one periodical. BYU is No. 2 in the nation in men’s volleyball, Utah has the sixth-ranked women’s gymnastics team in the country, San Diego State is No. 12 in men’s golf, UNLV No. 16 in men’s swimming and diving and Colorado State is No. 17 in women’s volleyball.
How are the Mountain West athletic teams doing on a national level? Just fine, thank you!
ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN
