Spring Fling

Well, the Rugby boys won another National Championship - ho hum...

5 in a row, 24 in the last 27. Not too bad. And that is not even thinking about the century of domination before they started counting in 1981.

No team in history has ever had a run like this is college or professional sports, I would wager. It is hard to wrap your mind around it.

St. Mary's gave the Bears a test in the semi-final game, but they weathered through that, and beat the BYU cougars for the 4th time in the last 4 years in the title game. Talk about futile.

Enjoy it while you can. I am sure that each year it get's tougher. But the Bears always seem to get up for the championship run when it counts. They had family emergencies, relatives dying, 10 season-ending injuries, and they plowed on for the final victory. You have to respect those guys.

GO BEARS!! Go Rugby.



And how about those female Pole Vaulters - taking first, second, and third in the Peyton Jordan Cardinal Qualifier at Stanford. Katie Morgan vaulted 14 feet, 6.25 inches (besting my high school best 14-6 by a quarter inch). That is a Cal women's pole vault record - that is the second record she has broken this year at Cal.

In second was Allison Stokke (I bet you know who she is), and Veronica Stimson, both at 12 feet, 2.5 inches. i think I remember that Allison had a 12-6 jump earlier in the year.

Cal's men's pole vault leader, Donnie Appanitis also came in first place at 16-7.5, although the rest of the team was further down the pack, almost two feet shorter than Donnie at 14-8. for 6th place.

In any event, it is nice to see the best event in Tract and Field do well for the Bears.

Actually, overall the Bears did well. It would be interesting to see if Jahvid Best would have helped the team out this spring were he not injured. The fastest time over the weekend for the Cal sprinters in the 100 was 10.62, which was good for second place (Kellen Peterson). If I remember correctly, Jahvid had run a 10.39 last year. Having him on the tract would have given the Bears a first, third, 5th and 7th place finish. I think that would have been a pretty good relay team.


He also would have help significantly on the 200, with his 21.03 in high school certainly being the best time for Cal this year.

I hope he gets a chance to run next year. While it is difficult to balance spring football, track and school, I think for an athlete of Best caliber, it is the right move. Certainly his biggest asset is his speed. If he can train on the track as well as on the field, I think it helps.

Anyway...

GO BEARS!!