DBD 3.27.09 Best of CGB Results

Gold medalist Nathan Adrian is now NCAA Champion! This guy is GOOD!

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS – The California men’s swimming team got a superb performance from sophomore Olympian Nathan Adrian, who captured the 2009 NCAA title in the 50-yard freestyle with an American record time of 18.71, during the first day of the 2009 NCAA Men’s Swimming Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas. The Golden Bears, under the direction of second year head coach David Durden, were also the national runners-up in the 400 medley relay and placed third in the 200 free relay in Day One of the NCAA meet Thursday. After six events, Cal sits in fifth place with 103 points, trailing only Texas (171), Auburn (141), Stanford (130) and Florida (107).

Adrian gave the Bears their first national title in the 50 free since 2000 Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin won the 50-meter freestyle at the 2000 NCAA championships. Adrian edged out James Feigen of Texas, who swam a time of 18.84, and Matt Targett of Auburn who recorded a mark of 18.87. Adrian won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a member of the United States 400 free relay, competing in the prelims.

The Cal 400 medley relay team of senior backstroker David Russell, sophomore breaststroker Damir Dugonjic, butterflyer Graeme Moore and Adrian swam a new school record time of 3:01.69, but narrowly missed a national championship as they were edged out by Auburn’s 3:01.39.

In the 200 free relay, the team of Adrian, Moore, sophomore Josh Daniels and senior Bennett Clark trailed Auburn (1:14.08) and Stanford (1:14.22), yet set a new school record with a time of 1:15.13. The 2009 Bears topped the old record of 1:15.78 set by Duje Draganja, Rolandas Gimbutis, Jonas Tilly and Milorad Cavic in 2005.

Track athlete takes 3rd on decathalon:

Sophomore Kyle Mills-Bunje took third in the decathlon in the UC Davis Multi Meet on Thursday at the Woody Wilson Track. Mills-Bunje set a new personal best in the event with a final score of 6,778 points at the conclusion of the two-day event. Current Cal volunteer assistant coach, Mark Jellison, won the event with 7,274 points.

Mills-Bunje finished first in the pole vault, notching a personal-best mark of 15-3 (4.65m). He also took third in the javelin with a score of 158-09 (48.39m).

Jellison, competing unattached currently took first with Fresno State’s Matt Bushnell in second with 6,828 points.

The Bears will also compete this week in the Stanford Invitational from March 27-28.

Baseball hosts Wazzuuuuuuuuuuuu:

Fri., March 27 vs. Washington State Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 2:30 p.m.
Sat., March 28 vs. Washington State Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 12:00 p.m.
Sun., March 29 vs. Washington State Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 1:00 p.m.

BEAR NOTES: Cal (13-8, 2-1) competes in its second Pac-10 series of the season this week, hosting Washington State March 27-29, at Evans Diamond. The Golden Bears have improved their home record to 7-5 after defeating Bay Area rival Stanford two-of-three games (W 7-6, L 6-5 in 12 inn., W 11-4) March 21-23 to open league play, and topping Santa Clara, 9-6, on Wednesday. Sophomore first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha, the March 3 Pac-10 Player of the Week, continues his torrid pace, batting a team-leading .398 (33-for-83, 2nd in Pac-10) and is first in the conference in total bases (61) and home runs (eight), and is third in the league in hits (33), RBI (26) and slugging percentage (.735). Canha has now hit safely in 20 of the Bears’ 21 games. Sophomore shortstop Brian Guinn is second on the team with a .394 average (28-for-71, 3rd in Pac-10) with three doubles, two triples and 13 RBI. Guinn is currently on a career-best nine-game hitting streak. Junior center fielder Brett Jackson, a first-team preseason All-American in Baseball America, has also hit safely in 20 of the Bears’ 21 games and leads the Pac-10 with 34 hits. Jackson is batting .378 (34-for-90, 5th in Pac-10) with eight doubles (5th in Pac-10), a triple, four home runs and 15 RBI. Cal leads the league with a .317 team batting average with a conference-high 240 hits, 28 home runs and 389 total bases. On the mound, the Bears have a league-best nine saves, with freshman right-hander Erik Johnson recording four saves (2nd in Pac-10). Cal’s No. 1 starter is freshman right-hander Matt Flemer, who is 2-0 with a 4.84 ERA and a save, and has 27 strikeouts in 22.1 innings. Flemer’s first outing was Feb. 25 at Santa Clara, pitching 6.2 innings with four hits, two runs, no walks and 13 strikeouts. Another top pitcher has been junior left-handed reliever Michael Bugary, who is 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA (4th in Pac-10) and a team-high 35 strikeouts (6th in Pac-10) in 22.0 innings. Nine of Cal’s opponents this season were 2008 NCAA Regional participants. The Bears’ 2009 schedule is considered the nation’s third toughest by Boyd’s World.

Womens tennis to take on LA Schools:

at No. 10 USC
Friday, March 27 – 1:30 p.m.
David X. Marks Tennis Stadium | Los Angeles, Calif.

at No. 9 UCLA
Saturday, March 28 – Noon
Los Angeles Tennis Center | Los Angeles, Calif.

Complete March 26 California Women’s Tennis Release in PDF Format Get Acrobat Reader

THIS WEEK: The No. 8-ranked California women’s tennis team (11-3, 2-0 Pac-10) will tangle with the top teams in the Pac-10 as it resumes conference play on the road at No. 10 USC (13-2, 1-0 Pac-10) and No. 9 UCLA (13-3, 1-0 Pac-10) this week in Los Angeles. The Golden Bears will face the Women of Troy on Friday, March 27 at 1:30 p.m. at the David X. Marks Tennis Stadium before taking on the Bruins in a rematch of last year’s NCAA championship match on Saturday, March 28 at noon at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Live scores and video will be available for each match at www.usctrojans.com and www.uclabruins.com.

LAST WEEK: The Bears suffered their first defeat at home this season as they split matches. Cal defeated No. 42-ranked Denver, 5-2, to spoil former Cal standout Amy Jensen’s homecoming as a head coach before narrowly falling to No. 18-ranked Fresno State by a 4-3 count. No. 22-ranked senior Bojana Bobusic ran her singles winning streak to eight matches as she claimed Pac-10 women’s tennis player of the week honors; the third time for Cal this season. She improved to 27-7 overall and notched an impressive 13-1 mark in dual matches with her three-set win over Fresno State’s Tinesta Rowe. No. 21-ranked sophomore Marina Cossou returned from a layoff due to injury to play in two doubles matches and one singles match. With Cossou back with fellow senior Claire Ilcinkas and sophomore Mari Andersson nursing the flu, Bobusic teamed up with freshman Jana Juricova for their first matches together since the fall and went 2-0 including an 8-5 win over the top-ranked team of Anastasia Petukhova and Renata Kucerkova of Fresno State. The Bears claimed the doubles point for the 10th time this season against the Bulldogs.

PS Honk

PS New word. Instead of totes, let’s try toads. Now, The Maharg’s totes google image search will be powerless against us!

PPS Nobody tell him.

PPPS This will be def toads awesome!

Needs more Swedish Chef.

I realized now is toads the time to pull of that big bank heist, the police are all motorcading

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/1544/basketballshoulderthrow.gif

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/03/23

immature but funny.

Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer talks about the Pac-10 in the tournament and Cal’s chances against UConn:

I think a lot of the story of the tournament is that all year long we, on the west coast, hear about how good the east coast is. And looking at the ACC, they have one team in it, Maryland. And they had five teams lose. I talked to Joanne Boyle this morning. And teams are surprised, Virginia was surprised at how good Cal is. They’d better learn how to say "Devanei," and not call her "Devonee" or something back there. They’re good! Ashley Walker is a terrific player. Or Arizona State, Briann January, going out and beating Florida State. We were given no home courts. The Pac-10 had no home courts. And we’ve got three teams there [in the Sweet 16]. And all year long people have kind of pooh-poohed the Pac-10, or raved about the Big East. And here San Diego State beat DePaul, Notre Dame goes down on their home court, Gonzaga is a five point game. We play basketball out here. And I’m excited that the rest of the country is getting to see.

Q. Do you give Cal a chance against UConn?

A. I definitely do. They’ll have to play really well, but I’ve seen them play really well. They had Oklahoma down 26 points at halftime. Ashley Walker is not afraid of anybody. Alexis Gray-Lawson is capable of going off. We know that. A lot of times . . . when you play in your own conference, it’s like playing in your family. You know people’s tendencies. But [in the tournament] people are not going to know, necessarily – you don’t have time to study, study, study, all these tapes. Obviously Connecticut is the prohibitive favorite. But they haven’t given them the trophy yet. I think there are certain things Cal will have to do, just like there are certain things we have to do. Arizona State will have certain things they have to do. But it would be fun to see an all-Pac-10 Regional Final.

Q. Will Joanne [Boyle] call you to pick your brain?

A. I’ve talked to Joanne about UConn.

Q. Did you tell her how to beat UConn?

A. Well, we talked about our game. I don’t know that I know how to do it [beat UConn]. I have my own ideas about what we would do. Yeah, we talked about it. Mostly it was congratulating her on a great season and wishing her and her team good luck.

We all remember that ESPN made Cal play a football game at Maryland last year at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. And we all know the result. Now ESPN is putting the Cal women’s game against UConn at 9:00 a.m. As if Cal didn’t have enough to worry about in playing the best team in the country! At least I was glad to see that the women arrived in Trenton yesterday, which gives them three days to adjust to the time change before Sunday morning’s game. As I recall, the football team only arrived the day before the Maryland game.