Around the League: Teams secure ranks, receive honors as tournaments draw near
Five women’s teams and six men’s teams from the Pac-12 will open championship tennis tournament play this weekend. (Kathy Chen/Daily Bruin)
By Tanner Walters
May 11, 2016 12:36 a.m.
While Bruin athletes continue competing in Westwood, here’s a look at some of the biggest news from the rest of the Pac-12.
Tennis tournaments to start this weekend
A total of 11 Pac-12 tennis squads, five from the women’s side and six on the men’s, will open championship tournament play this weekend. Four schools have representatives in both tournaments, while the Arizona State women and both the Oregon and Washington men are the lone teams from their respective schools.
California, Stanford, UCLA and USC each have men’s and women’s teams opening competition in the coming days. The highest overall seeds in the conference went to the Golden Bear women at No. 1 and the Bruin men at No. 3. Only Cal and Stanford will host the opening round of the women’s tournament, while UCLA, USC and Cal will host on the men’s side.
All-Century rowers
The Pac-12 named its All-Century rowing teams for both the men and women Tuesday. The two 25-athlete teams had representatives from across the league, but Washington and Cal stood out, with 18 and 14 total players, respectively.
Ky Ebright, the 35-year coach for the Golden Bears, was named the Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Coach of the Century. Ebright coached three Olympic champion crews between 1928 and 1948.
Washington’s Jan Harville was honored as the Women’s Rowing Coach of the Century. Coaching for 15 years, Harville was a nine-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year and won a trio of NCAA championships with the Huskies.
In addition to honoring specific players and coaches, the Pac-12 also awarded the men’s Varsity Eight of the Century title to the 1936 Washington squad. The Husky team won both the national championship and the gold at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany.
Locked in the top spots
Nobody has gotten out to much of a lead in the Pac-12 baseball standings this year, with nine teams within three games of each other at the top of the pack. Even a quintet of teams sitting below .500 in conference play are just on the outskirts of contention.
With just weeks remaining in the 2016 regular season, Washington and Utah remain tied with identical Pac-12 records of 13-8. Arizona, at 14-10, remains a half game behind.
The last time any of those three teams won the Pac-12 was 2012, when the Wildcats tied the Bruins for a share of the league title. The Huskies last won in 1998 and the Utes have never won.
UCLA, the defending Pac-12 champion, is one of the five teams with a 10-11 record in conference play and remain three games behind.
