While all eyes have been on the Cavalier baseball team that's hosting its first-ever Super Regionals this weekend, our athletes from across pretty much all of our spring sports have been receiving accolades galore. Today, I take a minute to acknowledge the successes we've found in outdoor track & field, rowing (duh), men's and women's golf, and men's tennis.
Freshman Robby Andrews and sophomore Lance Roller each earned All-America honors last week at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Oregon. These two are only Virginia's second and third All-Americans in the 800m, preceded by Paul Ereng, who won the event in 1989. Andrews came in second in the event to Oregon's Andrew Wheating, whom Andrews had beat for the indoor 800m title this past fall. Roller placed sixth.
Virginia Rowing was all over the national awards this season, after winning their first ever team national championship. First-team All America selections included Desiree Burns, Jennifer Cromwell and Katrin Reinert, while Helen Tompkins and coxswain Sidney Thorsten were honored on the second team. With five, UVa had more All-Americans than any other school. But the coaches weren't about to let their rowers get all the attention. Head coach Kevin Sauer was named National Coach of the Year, and associate head coach Steve Pritzker was named Assistant Coach of the Year. Sauer, if you remember, watched his V8 crew at the start, then ran through the woods to catch them at the finish line, sealing their national championship fate.
The women's golf team saw freshman Brittany Altomare named to Golfweek's third-team All America, while junior Calle Nielson received honorable mention honors. On the men's side, sophomore Ben Kohles was also named an honorable mention selection to the 2010 PING All-America team and is only the sixth Cavalier to be named an All-American.
Finally, the men's tennis team continued racking up the accolades this post-season. Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz, who are the reigning NCAA Doubles Champions, were each named to the doubles All-America team. Shabaz was also named to the singles All-America team, along with Sanam Singh. Shabaz becomes the fourth Cavalier to be named to both the singles and doubles All-America team in the same year, joining Brian Vahaly, Somdev Devvarman, and Dominic Inglot, all within this past decade. Singh finished the year ranked 17th nationally after reaching the round of 16. Seriously, how do you make the round of 16 – i.e., the top 16 players in the country – and still only finish the year 17th? Sports baffles me.
Congratulations to all of our Wahoos on their many accomplishments this season!