Wildcat Wrap: Recapping a busy week for Arizona Athletics

Our thoughts are with former UA football coach Dick Tomey, who is battling lung cancer

It’s Monday, so it is time to recap all that happened in the world of Arizona Athletics last week.

Let us know in the comment section if we missed anything!

Softball

• All-American Alyssa Palomino is transitioning back to the outfield after a year at first base.
• The move isn’t surprising as Missouri transfer Rylee Pierce is set to take over at first. Pierce was second-team All-SEC last season.
• Fastpitch News ranked Arizona seventh in its preseason poll. Florida State, the defending national champs, were ranked first. Arizona hosts FSU on March 8-10.

Women’s Basketball

• Arizona faced two Top-10 teams this weekend and, predictably, it did not go well. The Wildcats were routed by Oregon State on Friday, then blown out by Oregon on Sunday.
• The bright side is Cate Reese, who had been struggling against Pac-12 competition, averaged 17 points per game on the road trip.
• The Wildcats are now 13-5 overall and 3-4 in the Pac-12. The SoCal schools come to town this weekend, with USC starting things off on Friday and UCLA on Sunday. Neither are particularly good.
• Australian guard Tara Manumaleuga joined the Wildcats last week and has been practicing with the team.

Hockey

• UA Wildcat Hockey got two important wins over the week that keeps them tied with Central Oklahoma for first in the WCHL. The ‘Cats beat Oklahoma 5-2 on Thursday night, and then split a two-game series with Central Oklahoma. UA lost the first game 5-2, then got a 1-0 win on Saturday night.
• UA is ranked ninth in the latest American Colligate Hockey Association rankings.
• Arizona hosts Utah at the Tucson Convention Center Utah over the weekend.

Track and Field

• Arizona finished in the Top 5 in 25 events at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa over the weekend. Jennie Baragar-Petrash finished the 3K in the final day of competition with a time of 20.24, a personal record for her. James Smith took fifth in the 400-meter dash with time of 48.58. He was the top freshman in the event.
• The team will be split-up this weekend. A group of Wildcats will be in Seattle for the University of Washington Invitational, and the others will be in Lubbock, Texas for the Texas Tech Invitational.

That’ll do from Iowa!

Here are Coach Harvey’s thoughts on the final day of the Larry Wieczorek Invitational⤵️⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ZzZ8LQxztM

— Arizona Track & Field (@ArizonaTrack) January 20, 2019

Swimming and Diving

• Ten commits signed to swim for UA this week. Head coach Augie Busch expressed excitement about this incoming class and noted the women signees will provide depth at every event. ”This was a fun recruiting season and I am very excited about this year’s class of signees,” he said.

Gymnastics

• The GymCats lost 196.525-195.650 to the No. 20 Washington GymDawgs, but are showing improvement. UA hosts Cal on Saturday.

Men’s tennis

• The Wildcats won their first dual match against UC Riverside on Sunday, 6-1. Later, UA beat Grand Canyon, 5-2. Through two matches, the Wildcats have an 11-1 singles record and are 4-2 in doubles play. All the results can be found here.

Women’s tennis

• The Wildcats went 3-3 at the Fullerton Invitational. Csenge Furak and Sophia Thomas won their singles matches against two players from the University of the Pacific, and the pairing of Gitte Heynemans and Taylor Tamblyn beat a duo from Santa Clara.
• Tamblyn, a senior, was put on scholarship earlier in the week. The reveal took place at the first-ever Red-Blue match, which included players from both the men’s and women’s teams:

We had such a great time at the first ever Red-Blue Match, but no one had a better night than Taylor Tamblyn who is now ON SCHOLARSHIP‼️‼️

Congrats Taylor! You deserve it!#BearDown pic.twitter.com/qOa7Urm79t

— Arizona Women's Tennis (@ArizonaWTennis) January 18, 2019

Football

• Four former UA football players played in the NFL showcase games over the weekend. Shawn Poindexter played in the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Florida, while Shun Brown, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Layth Friekh were at the NFLPA Collegiate Game in Pasadena, California.
• Poindexter finished the game with four catches, 71 yards and a 23-yard TD catch. No stats were available for the NFLPA Game.
• New police reports take a vivid look at four sexual misconduct complaints and one harassment complaint against UA players during a five-year span that began in 2012.
• Colin Schooler was named to ESPN’s “too early college football 2019 All-American team”.
• Legendary UA football coach Dick Tomey, 80, is receiving treatment for lung cancer, per reports this week. Our thoughts are with him and his family.
• Running back Anthony Mariscal announced that he is transferring from the UA.
• Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl for the third straight year, winning 37-31 in overtime against Kansas City. Gronk made a couple key catches down the stretch.

Men’s Basketball

• Arizona split its homestand against the Oregon schools, losing to Oregon 59-54 on Thursday and beating Oregon State 82-71 on Saturday. The Wildcats are now 14-5 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-12 heading into this week’s road trip to Los Angeles.
• Chase Jeter left Saturday’s game four minutes into the first half after suffering a gruesome back injury, but Sean Miller said the big man is “OK” and hopes Jeter can play Thursday at USC. Go here for more on that.
• Justin Coleman scored his 1,000th career points against OSU, but the milestone held more meaning than just numbers. Coleman said postgame that his aunt died in November and her birthday was the day of the OSU game. He said his performance was dedicated to her.
• We have our ups and downs from both the Ducks and Beavers games, and our overall takeaways from the weekend.
• Five-star guard MarJon Beauchamp, a 2020 five-star combo guard, is considering taking a visit to UA.
• The biggest news of the week came when Monday when it was reported that Emmanuel Akot was transferring from the UA.
• CBS’s Bracketology expert Jerry Palm has Arizona as one of the first four out teams in the NCAA Tournament.

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