-
Cougar baseball drew the largest crowd to Bailey-Brayton Field since 2015 to watch Wazzu (9-17, 1-10 Pac-12) take on Utah (17-9-1, 4-4 Pac-12) in the second of a three-game series. By the time the final out was recorded, fans left the stadium less than pleased as Utah hammered WSU 10-3. For the second game in a row, Cougar pitching surrendered 10-runs, nine of which were earned.
First baseman Jack Smith was the lone bright spot for Wazzu, going 4-for-4 at the plate. Keith Jones II hit a moonshot to right field in the eighth inning for a two-run homer. The rest of the Cougs managed just five scattered hits.
The Cougs will get a chance to salvage one game of the series when they host the Utes for the series finale Sunday at 1:05 pm. Once again, Pac-12 Networks will provide a live stream of the game you can watch either on their app or online at PAC-12.com. Hopefully, WSU can begin a streak of wins before the season becomes a total loss. Wazzu needs to put together a nine-game winning streak just to get back to .500 in conference play.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/4/2/baseball-cougars-drop-saturday-contest-to-utah.aspx -
Washington State men's and women's track and field team continued a successful season and recorded eight event wins while posting 16 top-three finishes as multiple Cougs turned in record-setting performances at the Hayward Premiere in Eugene, Oregon.
Both freshman Micaela De Mello and junior Aislinn Overby set Hayward Premiere meet records and won their respective events. De Mello showed off her speed by winning the women's 100m hurdle event with her meet record time of 13.30. Overby leaped to first place with her season-best and meet record mark of 1.78m in the women's high jump.
Freshman Nana Gyedu broke her own WSU women's freshman shot put record with a mark of 15.16m, .14 meters better than her pervious mark of 15.02m, which she threw earlier this season at the Baldy Castillo Invitational. Her performance at Hayward Field is the fifth-best women's shot put throw in Cougar history. Gyedu placed fourth overall in the event.
"It was great to see so many Cougs taking victory laps around Hayward field," track and field head Coach Wayne Phipps said. "We came away with two awesome meet records by Aislinn Overby and Micaela De Mello; and a freshman school record by Nana Gyedu."
Graduate student Colton Johnsen made his 2022 outdoor debut and won the men's 5000m race. Johnsen showed great closing ability by leading the pack over the last 800m to finish with a time of 13:49.53.
Staying on the track, junior Mackenzie Fletcher and sophomore Neema Kimtai both won their events. Fletcher took first place in the women's 400m hurdles with a time of 1:00.67. Kimtai won the women's 800m crossing the finish line at the 2:07.24 mark, which is the 10th-fastest women's 800m in WSU history.
The Wazzu women's 4x400m relay team consisting of juniors Jasneet Najjar, Elise Unruh-Thomas, and Elena Willems, and freshman Renee Yang also got in on the action by winning their race with a time of 3:45.38.
Senior Jacob Englar was back to his winning ways by claiming the top spot in the men's pole vault by clearing a height of 5.15m. Freshman Valentina Barrios Bornacelli won the women's javelin event with a throw of 50.28m and recorded her first win as a Cougar.
"I thought our team competed very well in all event areas: and it was very beneficial to compete in the stadium at which both Pac-12's and NCAA's will be held," Phipps said.
Additionally, three other Cougs recorded WSU all-time top-10 marks. Junior Skyler Walton (11.72) ran the sixth-fastest WSU women's 100m dash. Sophomore Caroline Jerotich (10:25.38) and senior Pia Richards (10:31.73) recorded the seventh and 10th fastest 3000m steeplechase times in WSU history. -
Washington State Cougar football held the first scrimmage of spring practice Saturday afternoon with both sides of the ball having success on the afternoon at Gesa Field.
Early on it was all defense, holding the offense to a three-and-out on three of its first four possessions, including an interception by defensive back Jordan Lee on the second series. Not an illustrious start for sophomore Cam Ward at quarterback.
The offense found its rhythm on its fifth drive as redshirt freshman quarterback Victor Gabalis connected with redshirt junior C.J. Moore on a quick slant at the goal line for the first touchdown of the day. Two possessions later, freshman quarterback Emmett Brown capped an 80-yard drive with a 10-yard pass to redshirt freshman receiver Orion Peters. We need to do a little research on Brown as he is so new to the roster WSU hasn't posted a bio on him. We do know that he's a freshman out of San Marcos HS and stands 5'10" and weighs 190. The drive started with freshman running back Djouvensky Schlenbaker exploding for a 61-yard run between the tackles on his first carry. We can tell you that the performance by Schlenbaker shouldn't be a surprise to folks who know him. By the time he graduated from Squalicum HS he amassed over 4,000 career rushing yards to set a school record. He was ranked the No. 41 running back in the nation last season and a three-star prospect as well as the No. 13 overall high school prospect in the state of Washington. Scrimmage yardage certainly isn't conference play yardage, but Schlenbaker is off to a nice start to his Wazzu football career.
As the scrimmage continued, the defense then took over, holding the offense on its next three possessions, highlighted by redshirt-freshman linebacker Micah Lopez's interception of a Chris Irvin pass in the middle of the field.
Cam Ward rebounded from a slow start to have scoring strikes on back-to-back possessions, the first a 20-yard pass to junior Lincoln Victor followed by a 30-yard pass to Drake Owen. Gabalis added his second touchdown pass of the day, finding redshirt sophomore Donovan Ollie on a 5-yard score. Irvin capped the scrimmage with a 20-yard pass to freshman Bode Brewer, sending the sidelines racing to the end zone to celebrate.
On the day, WSU accounted for 560 yards of total offense, 410 through the air and 150 on the ground. Ward finished his day completing 14-of-21 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Victor ended his day with five receptions for 69 yards and the score, while Peters also had five catches for 39 yards, along with the touchdown. Schlenbaker finished his day with 70 yards on five carries. Projected RB starter Nakia Watson had a solid performance with 28-yards on five carries.
The Cougar defense, in addition to the two interceptions, added nine sacks on the afternoon, two by redshirt-freshman Raam Stevenson.
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
