Gehret in USA Championships, Moscato playing for Team Canada

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THURSDAY FROM THE NEWSROOM AT CARDINAL COUPLE

-Rachel Gehret goes for the gold in Eugene

-Carmelina Moscato chases Women's World Cup

-Churchill Downs closed today, plans to re-open Friday

We hope that everyone got through the rough storms that pounded the Louisville area last night. Scary stuff and that weird almost glowing pinkish purple sky was freaky...

University of Louisville track and field athlete Rachel Gehret has had her highs and lows in four years on the campus...after all, she's a high jumper...but her biggest high could be in store this week in Eugene, Oregon...as she competes in the 2011 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Gehret finished first in the
BIG EAST Championships

Gehret will be one of nineteen competitors Friday in the high jump event. She had a successful senior year at Louisville...garnering first team All-America honors and finishing fifth at the NCAA Outdoor track and Field Championships. She also won the high jump at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships.

ESPN 2 will show highlights from Friday's action from 11 p.m.to 1 a.m. Friday night.

Good luck Rachel and "stay away from the bar!"

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Former UofL women's soccer assistant coach Carmelina Moscato has been selected to participate on the Team Canada soccer team at the FIFA Women's World Cup. Moscato coached with the Cards until the end of the 2008 season when she left the program to pursue a career playing soccer. She had a successful collegiate career at Penn State from 2002-2005, leading the Nittany Lions to the Final Four her senior year.

A midfielder, Moscato and her teammates will open play against Germany in Berlin on Sunday, June 26th. They'll compete in Group A competition and hope to advance to the title game July 17th. in Frankfurt.

Current UofL head soccer coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes had this to say about Moscato:

"We certainly want to wish Carm good luck as the Women's World Cup is quickly approaching. She was a tremendous coach who was very dedicated to the players' development and passionate about coaching and teaching. Her goal after leaving here was to make the Canadian National Team and play in the World Cup and we're thrilled that her dream has come true. Although we were sad to see her leave her program, we were excited for her as she fully dedicated herself to becoming a pro and making the Team Canada roster. I'm extremely proud of her and we'll certainly be watching and cheering her on."

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Racing at Churchill Downs has been cancelled for Thursday because of the storms that damaged nine backside barns and forced the relocation of around 200 horses stabled at Churchill. As track sportsman John Asher commented:

"It's one hell of a mess back here. Fortunately, no two legged or four legged beings were damaged in the storm."

A decision has been made about Friday night's scheduled Downs After Dark racing and it will go on as scheduled. There was no live racing Wednesday when the storms rolled through the area around 8 p.m. but a poker tournament and simulcasting being held inside the facility was suspended when power was lost.

(Thanks to Gretchen for the picture...)

CARDINAL COUPLE Co-Owner Paul Sykes was in the area when the storms hit and watched in amazement as utility and telephone poles "just tumbled to the ground like they were pins getting knocked over by bowling balls." A confirmed tornado touched down at the corner of Central and Floyd, damaging Levee Lift Equipment Supply.
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Angel flying high in EuroLeague

THIRSTY THURSDAY AT CARDINAL COUPLE:
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-Angel flies high

in Hungary.
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-McCarty gets BIG EAST honors.
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-Pitino, Cards stifle USF in 2nd half.
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-We're #1.
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-UofL Card Game up and running again!!
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(Photos from Euroleague.com)
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Angel McCoughtry is touring Euro hoops this winter for her MKB EuroLeasing team and the results have been outstanding for the former Lady Card. In 13 games this year, MKB is 12-1 and Angel is the leading scorer with a 20 point effort per game. Not that we'd expect anything different for the best player in Louisville women's basketball history...but when you consider she's basically been going non stop for a year on the court now between the WNBA, Team USA competition, European league and even her own basketball camp this summer for young ladies in Louisville...it's a pretty remarkable feat. Maybe there's (2) Angel's out there...
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Against Lotos recently, McCoughtry filled the rim with 32 points in a 88-76 win. She is one of two USA residents on the squad, the other being former MTSU and current WNBA standout Amber Holt. Keep up the good work, #35. Maybe someday we'll get a WNBA franchise here in Louisville (what else are they going to use the YUM Center for in June-Sept?) and Cardinal fans would have the chance to see you shake 'em off the dribble and pull up and bury the mid-range jumper again...
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D'Ana McCarty has been named the BIG EAST Female Field Athlete of the Week off her performance in the Southern Illinois Fast Start Invitational. McCarty won the weight toss with a hurl of 72-10.5. It's the longest throw in the nation this year by over nine inches and the second longest throw ever by D'Ana. Look out for her on campus if a snowball fight breaks out.
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Also tossing well for the Cards is sophomore shotputter Khadija Abdullah, who won the event at the Southern Illinois meet. Both McCarty and Abdullah qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with their throws.
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Slow start for the Pitino coached Cards last night but they roared out fast in the final twenty minutes and held San Francisco to just 10 second half points in the 66-35 romp in the KFC YUM Center. Louisville jumped out to an early lead in the first half but saw USF methodically cut into it and tied the game at the end of the first half. The Cards came out hot in the second half, though...and cooled off the Dons to remain undefeated on the season.
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We ran into former Cardinal great Darrell Griffith at halftime...'Grif' still looks like he could hit the hardwood and light someone up for double figures. Same old Griffith, always a big smile and a handshake for those he runs into.
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Guess who leads the NCAA in women's home basketball attendance? That's right, your University of Louisville Lady Cards!! Louisville is averaging 12,770 per game so far in their five home games. The numbers...boosted by appearances from in-state rival UK and nationally ranked Tennessee... are very impressive. And, Louisville women's basketball is a bargain if you're looking for a fun way to spend a few hours with the family. You might even see the CARDINAL COUPLE staff there and wouldn't that be just awesome!!
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You'll get your chance to help keep the Cards up there this Saturday when they face Dayton at 5 p.m. The men play at noon that day against UNLV, so it'll be a busy day of activities at the KFC YUM Center. CARDINAL COUPLE will be spending the whole day down there watching balls bounce and we'll have a full post game report on Walz's women's efforts.
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Our buddy Charlie Springer's site, UofL Card Game, recently received an attack from spammers across the water. Knocked him off line for a day or so...but he is back up and running again. It's a problem we have...as bloggers and web site owners. Hackers are vicious and will stifle and paralyze a site for no apparent reason. Some 'phishers' recently snuck into CARDINAL COUPLE and dumped a few "smut offer" replies in the comments section of a couple of column.

Charlie runs a good site and keeps it clean, informative and up-to-date. He didn't deserve this stuff. We're glad he's back up and running...we got our blogging and reporting starts over at CARD GAME and are eternally grateful for the wise council, editorial tutelage and sound advice he patiently provided us when we were just cubs...

You can access CARD GAME from here...just go to the left side of our sites and it is listed in the Sites We Recommend. Click and go. It's a good time over there.

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.