Summers gets third in Hammer throw

Senior Jere' Summers finished third in the hammer throw Thursday at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR. She was one of three Cardinals to participate in the event. Junior D'Ana McCarty finished 10th and senior Lindsay Cook ended up 11th.
Both Summers and McCarty received All-American honors for their efforts, since they finished in the top ten.

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It's on. With Colorado leaving the Big 12 and joining the Pac 10, get ready for sizeable earthquakes in the conference alignments. Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Notre Dame are all candidates to fill out forwarding address cards in this rebuild of the college conference landscape.

The Colorado move makes sense from a geographical standpoint. No big stretch to go to Los Angeles or Phoenix for games than it was to hit Columbia, MO or Austin, TX.
The dollars were there, the invitation on the porch step and they took it.

The next moves could be quite interesting. The ripple effect of four or five teams going from their previous alignments to new pastures will affect all the BCS conferences.

I guess Ralphie the Buffalo will need to sport some shades for his L.A. visits and get ready for rainy Seattle down the road. I wonder if he and Bevo text each other?

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Friday Night Racing at Churchill Downs. Post time at 6 p.m. and it's disco theme night. If you go, expect big crowds and a lot of polyester. They're tossing in a happy hour as well from 4-6 p.m. with reduced prices on Budweiser products, frozen drinks and hot dogs.

I'm going to pass on the bell bottoms, flowered shirt and heels with the goldfish in them. It's gonna be 90 degrees out there and shorts, t-shirt and sandals will do just fine.

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Kentucky High School Girls' Softball Tournament begins today in Owensboro, KY. Sixteen teams will go thru the double elimination format over the next two days to determine the state champ. Local schools PRP and Mercy are involved, so best of luck to the Panthers and Jaguars! We'll have a full recap of the first day of action here at CARDINAL COUPLE tomorrow.

Cards represented in NCAA Track and Field Championships

(Thanks to Karen for the great picture of this cardinal couple)

Day One of the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, OR has come to a close and one UofL womens' participant has already made her mark. D'Ana McCarty finished ninth in the discus throw. She'll also take part in the hammer throw Thursday with Cardinal teammates Jere' Summers and Lindsey Cook.

Charachesica Lockhart will compete in the long jump for UofL Thursday also.

For the men, senior Andre Black took fourth place honors in the triple jump. Steeplechase star Matt Hughes will run in the 3,000 meter finals after winning his preliminary heat yesterday. Hughes has the nation's best time in the event with a smoking 8:34:37.

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Much excitement about RACHEL ALEXANDRA's entry in the Fluer De Lis Handicap race this Saturday at Churchill Downs. The 4 yr. old mare will face 4 challengers and is expected to go off at 2/5 odds. Rachel has been training beautifully for her race and will draw the services of Churchill favorite Calvin Borel as jockey.

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Churchill is presenting the first Friday night of racing this Spring Meet tomorrow.
These events were attended quite well last year...with over 30,000 in attendance for each night of racing. Seeing the Downs under the lights is a great experience if you've never been. There will be plenty of live entertainment, drink specials and good fields for the Friday night card. First post is 6 p.m.

Two more from UofL Women's Track in Championships

(A brief tribute to the brilliant actor Dennis Hopper, who passed away from prostate cancer. His roles in "Easy Rider", "Blue Velvet" and "Speed" will always be remembered as some of the best character portrayls in cinema. We had the distinct pleasure of seeing him at the Kentucky Derby several years ago and spent the rest of the afternoon making up subplot stories on how some of his best character roles would have behaved at the Run for the Roses.)

Rest ye well, Dennis.

Two more Cardinals have qualified for the NCAA Championships. D'Ana McCarty finished ninth in the discus during Day Two of the East Regionals and Characheicia Lockhard finished in the top twelve in the long jump to move to the next level.

Jere' Summers fouled on all of her discus attempts and will not advance.

Louisville will have four participants in the upcoming Championships.

-D'ana McCarty (Hammer, discus)
-Jere' Summers (Hammer)
-Lindsey Cook (Hammer)
-Characheicia Lockhart (Long Jump)

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The amamzing Angel McCoughtry unleashed 32 points on the L.A. Sparks Sunday to lead the Atlanta Dream to a 101-82 win. Our friend Sue has a great recap of the Dream's win on her site "They're Playing Basketball." You can access it over on the left hand side of our site under SITES WE RECOMMEND."

Atlanta is now 6-0 and according to McCoughtry:

"When we're playing off of our defense, we can't be beat."

A few points from McCoughtry don't hurt either.

What impact has McCoughtry had on the Dream since she arrived in the WNBA last year? Before Angel, Atlanta was the worst team in the WNBA. When she arrived...and she became a starter....they reached the playoffs. She made Chamique Holdsclaw expendable and eventually released.

Angel, obviously, hasn't done it all by herself. But...like her teammates at UofL realized when she showed up on the UofL campus as a freshman...her court actions make everyone else a little better and the team excellent.

As a former Lady Card who spent one season with her said:

"We've come to expect the unexpected out of her... anything she does isn't surprising. I'm lucky. I get a front row seat on the bench to watch her work."

Women's throwers "put the hammer down" in Regionals

Senior discus and hammer athelete Jere' Summers was one of three UofL women's track and field members to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Summers, D'Ana McCarty and Lindsey Cook all are headed to the Championships in the hammer event after first day action in the NCAA East Regional at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.

Summers was 3rd out of 48 entries in the hammer toss with just one qualifying throw in the event. Senior Lindsey Cook finished 5th and junior D'Ana McCarty secured 10th place for the Cards. The top 12 finishers made it to the championships.

Both Summers and McCarty will also participate in the discus on Day Two of the regionals. Given their domination of the recent Big East Championships, both should easily score well enough to participate in the championships in this event also.

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How about Angel McCoughtry! The Atlanta Dream are 5-0 in the WNBA Eastern Division and McCoughtry leads the league in scoring average with 21 points a game. They had to work late to take the latest one when they faced the Phoenix Mercury. Atlanta stormed out to a 65-46 halftime lead but then had to withstand a late 16-0 run by Phoenix. With the score 96-93 Atlanta, guard Diana Taursi missed a game tying 3 pointer at the buzzer for the Mercury and the Dream escaped with the win.

McCoughtry had 28 points to lead the Dream. They face the always tough Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday.

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A bit off our usual subject matter here, but CARDINAL COUPLE spent Saturday afternoon with several fans and former players from the Arkansas State football team over at Churchill Downs.

They are eagerly anticipating Charlie Strong bringing the Cards to Jonesboro, Arkansas in early October. With the group were a couple of former cheerleaders for ASU and a current assistant trainer for the athletic program.

They share a common thread with Cardinal fans. They absolutely love the city of Louisvile and they're not exactly enamored with Lexington nor UK. A lot of positive comments about the Downtown Arena construction and the Papa John Cardinal Stadium expansion.

A nice afternoon discussing college sports, watching the horses and enjoying the beautiful weather. Have a safe trip home, folks...but remember...Cardinal Football will arrive in Jonesboro in October and leave with a win.

Cards, Collins corral Bulls 5-0

(One last look at the 136th Kentucky Derby...a great shot from above the starting gate.)

Tori Collins pitched her second shoutout in as many days Sunday...blanking the USF Bulls in Tampa. Collins tossed a no-hitter for the first six innings of the game and finished allowing only two hits and striking out six. The win for Louisville (34-16, 13-6) cements a 3rd place standing in the Big East as they travel to UConn later this week to end the regular season.

For the Cards, another scenario of pouncing the opponent early. They started the top of the second with 4 straight singles by Colby Wherry, Jennifer Esteban, Alicja Wolny and Katelyn Mann to take a 1-0 lead, got another run on a dropped ball and used a Melissa Roth single to make it 3-0. The final run of the inning came when Vanessa James scored on a wild pitch.

The Cards tacked on an insurance run in the fifth when an Esteban single got home Mann who had earlier singled.

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Louisville lacrosse got a win on the road at Villanova on Sunday. Bergan Foley netted 7 goals and Katie Oliverio contributed 5 assists in the Cards 19-6 win over the Wildcats to end the season.

Louisville scored the first 4 goals of the game and never trailed the Wildcats. The Cards end the year with a 11-6 record and 4-4 in the Big East. The Cards lose only four seniors and have a strong nucleus returning next season with Oliverio, Foley, Liz Lovejoy, Emily Dashiell and Danielle Pawliw all returning for Kellie Young's squad.

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The UofL women's track and field team won their third straight Big East Championship in Cincinnati on Sunday. Jere Summers won the discus and hammer throws and was selected field MOP of the championship. The Cards finished 1-2-3 in the discus...D'Ana McCarty earning second spot and Lindsey Cook third. Theresa Lewis got third in the 100 meter hurdles and Chelsea Brown fourth in the 400 meter hurdles.

Written by Sonja
5/3/10