Sports
Sports News in Boulder, Colorado Includes CU Buffs, Rockies, Nuggets, Bronkos, Avs, cycling, running, skiingand anything else sports that hits our sports desk. Send sports press releases to sports@BoulderChannel1.com To advertise please call 303-447-8531
Buff Golfers are hungry for NCAA championship
May 15th
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Colorado men’s golf team is back in the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2009, as the Buffaloes are ready to go in the Central/Fayetteville Regional which begins here Thursday.
Colorado, ranked No. 58 in the nation (GolfStat; No. 67 Golfweek) is the No. 10 seed in the field is looking to advance to the NCAA Championship Finals for the first time since 2002.
The Buffs have been idle since May 1, when they finished 10th at the Pac-12 Championships in Los Angeles. CU was in position for a first division (top six) finish, but had a disastrous final day that dropped it from seventh into 10th.
“We really haven’t practiced since the Pac-12 Championship,” said head coach Roy Edwards. “That is by design. These guys are students first and they had their semester projects and finals until (last) Thursday. So they were all in with those responsibilities. Now they can clearly and fully focus on the task at hand.
“We’re absolutely hungry to get back out there,” he continued. “We had a really odd weather month leading up to the Pac-12 Championships and couldn’t get in the kind of practice we needed, yet we were still in decent position for an upper division finish. Most of the guys got a solid competition round in for U.S. Open Local Qualifying (Monday) to get the rust off. They’re anxious to get out there and prove that the final round (at Pac-12’s) was a blip on the season.”
The four Buffs who have played in all 12 tournaments (38 rounds) this season, seniors Jason Burstyn andDerek Fribbs, sophomore David Oraee and freshman Philip Juel-Berg along with junior Johnny Hayes will represent Colorado in the regional. Only Fribbs, as an individual last year, and Hayes, with his former school Towson State in 2010, have played in the postseason before.
For the Buffaloes to have a chance to advance to the Finals, which run May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, its No. 1 golfer this season, Burstyn, needs to rebound from an uncharacteristic poor performance at the Pac-12s, where he just wasn’t able to get anything going; he tied for 66th with a 33-over score of 313. Edwards expects him to back to his old self.
“He was a little off, and he’s no different than most in that he needs to keep learning to adapt to different situations,” Edwards said of his team’s stroke average leader (72.8). “He normally does that, and in this case, I think he’s ready to move on. History shows that the few times he has played poorly, he’s bounced back to play really well. I don’t think it will be any different this week.”
As for the team to have overall success, he pointed to what the Buffaloes did when they won the Air Force Falcon Invitational last September and the Bandon Dunes Championship in March.
“We have to minimize our mistakes, the focus has to be on being as smart as possible,” he noted. “We haven’t seen the course yet, but I understand it’s very difficult. It’s an event where you don’t care if you finish first or fifth. We need to be patient, make good decisions and overall manage our individual games. When we’ve done that, we’ve played our best, and if we can do that here, we have a great shot at advancing to the Finals.”
“If we are disciplined in our decisions at all times we have a great shot. The five teams who make the least number of controllable mistakes will advance. This has more to do about us doing our job than anything else.”
Arkansas is the host school, with The Blessings Golf Club serving as the host course; BGC has a 7,251-yard, par-72 layout (37-35 configuration) that was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. It opened in 2004, and its rating (79.1) and slope (153) makes it one of the most difficult courses in the U.S., as its topography is characterized by hilly terrain creating numerous sidehill lies, dramatic elevation changes, forced carries over ravines and valleys, and large, undulating Bent grass greens, with Clear Creek in play on several holes. The fairways/roughs are Zoysia.
Colorado will tee off at 8:10 a.m. (MDT) on Thursday off the No. 10 tee, with the Buffs paired with Indiana (No. 11 seed) and UNC-Wilmington (No. 12). The field will be re-paired according to score after the first and second rounds, with all tee times between 8:20 and 10:20 a.m. for the second round (Friday) and between 7:50 and 9:50 a.m. for the final round (Saturday).
The top five teams and top two individuals who are not members of those squads will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals, which are scheduled for May 28-June 2 in Atlanta, Ga.
David Plati
Associate AD/Sports Information
University of Colorado Buffaloes
357 UCB / Fieldhouse Annex #50
Boulder, CO 80309-0357
303/492-5626 (office)
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
CU men snag a “sleeper” high school basketball player for next year
May 14th
CU capitalizes on San Antonia b-ball pipeline
BOULDER – University of Colorado men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle and his coaching staff announced Monday they have signed George King, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound forward from San Antonio, Texas to a National Letter of Intent. King will be a freshman at CU beginning of the 2013 fall semester.
King will be one of four true-freshmen on the Buffaloes team that will also feature a pair of redshirt-freshmen. He joins fellow freshmen Tre’Shaun Fletcher, Jaron Hopkins, and Dustin Thomas. The incoming class also features redshirt-freshmen Wesley Gordon and Chris Jenkins, both sat out this past season.
“He can rebound, block shots, shoot and defend,” Boyle said of CU’s latest addition to the roster.
Boyle also said CU was “kind of late to the party” in recruiting King, who conceded he was a “late bloomer” and didn’t start attracting major attention until late in his senior season and went through the April signing period unsigned.
During his senior year, King averaged 16.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in leading the Brennan Bears to a 39-3 record and an appearance in the 4A state semifinals. He shot 60 percent from the field and was named both TABC All-State and District 28-4A MVP. As a senior he recorded 25 double-doubles and had two 20-20 games with 23 points and 20 rebounds against Warren (Nov. 12) and 20 points and 20 rebounds against Lanier (Jan. 29) including 12 rebounds in one quarter.
King was an all-area selection as a junior.
“They believe in me and I believe in them,” King told Rivals.com on signing with the Buffaloes. “I’ve only been to Colorado a handful of times and it was my first time in Boulder,” he said. “I knew I liked it as soon as I stepped foot in Boulder. It has a beautiful campus, really nice people.”
“They have a really good coaching staff, the players and I really clicked. I got up and down with the guys and got a good feeling. (The coaches) like that I’m good sized, I’m skilled, that I can shoot and that I have a lot of potential.”
CU returns two seniors (Ben Mills, Kevin Nelson) on the 2013-2014 roster; along with three juniors (Askia Booker, Spencer Dinwiddie, Beau Gamble); and four sophomores (Xavier Johnson, Josh Scott, Eli Stalzer, Xavier Talton).
By the end of the summer, the Buffs will have graduated three student-athletes (Jeremy Adams, Sabatino Chen, Shane Harris-Tunks). Andre Roberson, who had one more year of eligibility remaining, declared for the NBA Draft on April 28. His sister, Arielle Roberson was nationally ranked as a freshman, will be a sophomore on CU’s women’s basketball team next season.
CU sports media release
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
CU v-baller Taylor Simpson chosen for national team
May 7th
Simpson Named To USA A2 National Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Taylor Simpson, a junior-to-be on the University of Colorado volleyball team, has been selected to the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Senior A2 Program that will train and compete this summer.
“We are very excited that Taylor was selected for this wonderful opportunity,” coach Liz Kritza said. “Taylor is a very gifted athlete and a welcomed addition to our program here at CU. The experience she will gain from being on the USA team will no doubt benefit her development and I am sure she will represent us well.”
The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Senior A2 program is available to athletes with collegiate eligibility remaining for the 2013 season. This program is scheduled to take place in Dallas from June 25 to July 4 in conjunction with the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships. The roster contains 48 athletes from 29 different universities. Simpson is the first CU athlete to be chosen for the team since Ashley Nu’u in 2005.
“I am really excited and honored to have been chosen for this, and look forward to a competitive and productive training and playing session with the A2 team,” Simpson said.
The A2 program coaching staff will include Andy Banachowski, Mike Hebert, Ruth Nelson and Bill Neville who will serve as team head coaches. Assistant coaches with the A2 program are Ashley Allen, Terry Condon, Linda Hampton and Marci Sanders. Technical coordinators/assistant coaches for the A2 program are Kevin Hitt, Nicki Holmes, Eugene Tichenor and Jay Van Vark.
During the six-day training period from June 25-30, the 48 athletes will be divided into four equal teams that will compete in pool play against the other A2 program teams and the top four Premier Volleyball League (PVL) teams. After pool play, the four A2 program teams and PVL teams will split into their own divisions to determine the medalist teams in the competition.
The athletes were selected via the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team Open Tryouts held Feb. 22-24 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The tryout attracted a record 240 participants, 33 more than the previous best mark set in 2012. Athletes selected to both the A2 program and the U.S. Women’s Junior National Volleyball Team (WJNT) could only participate in the WJNT program with the 2013 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Junior World Championship as the priority event.
Simpson, who joined the CU volleyball program in January, is not a stranger to USA Volleyball as she was a member of the 2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Team that finished second in Singapore. She led the team at the tournament and recorded 11 kills, six blocks and an ace in the final match of the tournament.
Simpson, an outside hitter, joined this Buffs this past January after stints at Nebraska and Missouri. In 2011, Simpson was a freshman for the Huskers and played in 12 matches before she was sidelined with a season-ending injury. As a sophomore in 2012, she played in 14 matches for the Tigers and started in eight of those contests. Simpson recorded 118 kills and hit .167 during the year and also added 50 digs and 30 blocks. She had 12 kills and 13 digs against Virginia Tech (August 26) and led the Tigers with 11 kills against Appalachian State (Sept. 1).
Simpson had a much decorated career at Doherty High School. As a senior, she garnered numerous awards, which included being named the Colorado 5A Player of the Year and earning the Sportswomen of Colorado high school volleyball award. Simpson was named the No. 9 player in the country by Prepvolleyball.com and was named to Volleyball Magazine’s Fab-50. Simpson played in the Under Armour All-American game for the red team and was also named to the AVCA High School All-American first team, as well as an ESPN RISE All-American honorable mention selection. Simpson was also tabbed as a Preseason All-American by MaxPreps. She also recorded 471 kills, 60 blocks, 312 digs and 21 aces as a senior.
During Simpson’s senior and junior years, she was named to the All-Colorado Team, PrepVolleyball.com’s High School All-American Team, First Team All-Colorado 5A and helped her team finish third at the state championships both seasons.
As a junior, Simpson was named to the MaxPreps All-American Team and PrepVolleyball’s Top-50 Juniors list. She was also honored as the Colorado 5A Player of the Year. That season she notched 446 kills, 46 blocks, 30 aces and 289 digs.
During her three seasons at DHS, Simpson was named first team All-Colorado Springs Metro League and first team All-4A/5A Area. As a sophomore, she helped DHS to a fifth-place finish at the state championship and was named to the All-Colorado 5A second team.
– Colorado Volleyball –
Linda Sprouse
Assistant Sports Information Director
Volleyball/Cross Country/Track & Field
University of Colorado
