Finally, the drought is over. The Arizona men's swim team won the 2008 NCAA Championship over the weekend in Federal Way, Wash., the first UA men's championship since the 1997 basketball team went all the way. It comes just a week after the women counterpart won an NCAA Championship in Ohio.
But unlike the women's squad, the men's team features a bit of an international flair. Of the team's 25 members, seven of them (28 percent) hail from foreign countries. The team's two standout performers were both Olympians in 2004 - for other countries. Senior Albert Subirats comes from Venezuela, whom he participated in the Olympics for in Athens, Greece, and then there is senior Darian Townsend, who was a gold medalist in the 400-meter relay in the 2004 Olympics for South Africa. Subirats and Townsend made up the leaders of the Wildcats' 13 NCAA representatives in Washington this past weekend.
Joining the list of foreigners on the National Champion swim roster are South African sophomore Jean Basson, English freshman Robert Iddiols, Brazilian junior Nicolas Nilo, and Canadian sophomores Joel Greenshields and Jake Tapp. Nilo and Greenshields both played key parts in the championship. Greenshields was on the last leg of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay, while Nilo finished third in the 100 freestyle. Among the other internationals, Subirats won the 100 butterfly and Townsend won the 200 individual medley on Friday.
Nilo told the Arizona Daily Wildcat over the weekend: "I came from Brazil and I had no idea what 'a team' meant. My freshman year I was kind of confused and I was learning a little bit about everything. Now I think I finally got the definition of the word 'team,' and this is it."
Check the Border Beat website as early as Wednesday for a feature story on the international swimmers and all their recent endeavors.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
'America's Pastime' expands to communist country
Tomorrow Major League Baseball will make its first-ever attempt to expand its horizons to another foreign country. This time, though, MLB will send two teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres to the communist country of China.
The two teams will depart from their respective Spring Training sites, the Padres in Peoria, Ariz. and the Dodgers in Dodgertown, Fla., tomorrow to embark on a one-week trip. The trip is more than about baseball, though. It's about public relations, and expanding the sport to a country that otherwise only cares about basketball.
The two teams will visit the Great Wall and sign autographs there for fans as well as at shopping centers. They will also hold youth clinics in an effort to teach young kids the ins and outs of baseball.
Then, on Sunday, or Monday, by China's time code, the two teams will play two exhibition games in Beijing at the Wukesong Baseball Field, which holds approximately 12,000 fans. The stadium will also host the 2008 Olympic baseball tournament this August.
But after that, the stadium will be bulldozed to the ground in order to make way for high-rises like a hotel or condominium in a typical Chinese effort that makes sure commerce comes first in a country with the highest population in the world.
There is also a basketball arena close to Wukesong Baseball Field, but it won't be bulldozed, as the sport is the country's biggest, particularly due to the Yao Ming following, the 7-foot-6 Chinese basketball player who joined the NBA's Houston Rockets in 2002.
It is estimated that 300 million Chinese people play basketball across the world, and that fewer than 500 kids under the age of 18 in China play competitive baseball.
Major League Baseball is adamantly trying to expand its borders, and some even think that somewhere down the road the league will be expanded past just the U.S. and Canada. But for now, the Padres and Dodgers will do their best just to get some attendance. At a typical game at Wukesong stadium, teams are lucky to reel in more than just a few hundred fans a game.
The two teams will depart from their respective Spring Training sites, the Padres in Peoria, Ariz. and the Dodgers in Dodgertown, Fla., tomorrow to embark on a one-week trip. The trip is more than about baseball, though. It's about public relations, and expanding the sport to a country that otherwise only cares about basketball.
The two teams will visit the Great Wall and sign autographs there for fans as well as at shopping centers. They will also hold youth clinics in an effort to teach young kids the ins and outs of baseball.
Then, on Sunday, or Monday, by China's time code, the two teams will play two exhibition games in Beijing at the Wukesong Baseball Field, which holds approximately 12,000 fans. The stadium will also host the 2008 Olympic baseball tournament this August.
But after that, the stadium will be bulldozed to the ground in order to make way for high-rises like a hotel or condominium in a typical Chinese effort that makes sure commerce comes first in a country with the highest population in the world.
There is also a basketball arena close to Wukesong Baseball Field, but it won't be bulldozed, as the sport is the country's biggest, particularly due to the Yao Ming following, the 7-foot-6 Chinese basketball player who joined the NBA's Houston Rockets in 2002.
It is estimated that 300 million Chinese people play basketball across the world, and that fewer than 500 kids under the age of 18 in China play competitive baseball.
Major League Baseball is adamantly trying to expand its borders, and some even think that somewhere down the road the league will be expanded past just the U.S. and Canada. But for now, the Padres and Dodgers will do their best just to get some attendance. At a typical game at Wukesong stadium, teams are lucky to reel in more than just a few hundred fans a game.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Former Wildcat Ochoa turning heads in LPGA tour
Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa is turning into the female equivalent of Tiger Woods. After dominating this past weekend's LGPA tournament, winning by 11 strokes over another former Wildcat, Annika Sorenstam, the former Arizona Wildcat is being noticed for more than just her efforts on the women's side of the golf world. An article posted by Fox Sports examines the possibility that Woods may finally have a challenger in the golf world, and it may be Ochoa.
Ochoa grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, started golfing at the age of five, and won her first state event at the age of six, first national event by age seven and had won 22 events by her junior year of high school, winning five consecutive Junior World Golf Championships. In 2000, she enrolled at the University of Arizona, and was the national player of the year for her first two years of college.
Now, the equivalent to Ochoa on the Arizona women's golf team is Alejanda Llaneza, who I will be writing about this week for Border Beat.
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