TENNIS
University of Miami sophomore Todd Widom lost in the men’s singles semifinals Saturday at the Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the second of three national championships for collegiate tennis this season.
The Hurricanes standout fell to Illinois’ third-seeded Amer Delic 7-6 (2), 7-5.
Widom, a sophomore who is No. 13 in the Omni Hotels national singles rankings, had pulled out three straight three-set matches over players ranked in the top 30 to reach the semifinals. This was his first collegiate semifinal appearance.
Friday, Widom reached the semifinals thanks to an upset over No. 2 seed Jesse Witten of Kentucky 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in tonight’s quarterfinals. He opened the day with a 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1 second round win over Stanford’s David Martin. Those two results came after a first-round defeat of Zoltan Papp of Baylor in three sets. Widom won the first set 7-5 before falling 7-5 in the second set. He beat Papp 6-4 in the third set to advance in the tournament.
The last Miami player to play at this tournament was Mike Russell, who captured the 1997 title as a freshman
Widom’s record now stands at 8-3 on the season.
SWIMMING & DIVING
The University of Miami women’s swim team fell 131-112 to the University of Tennessee Friday night in Knoxville, despite a number of strong performances by the Hurricanes.
Christine Williams placed first for Miami in the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 24.07 and Dutch Olympian Manon Van Rooijen took another first place finish for the Hurricanes, winning the 100 free in 52.23.
Katalin Ferenzci won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:03.49 and the 400-relay team of Williams, Erin Johns, Megan Kinsella, and Van Rooijen placed first in 3:30.73.
Katie Beth Bryant took first place in both diving events, scoring 328.65 in the 1-meter event and 305.30 in the 3-meter.
The Hurricanes took first place in six of the 10 events featured at the dual meet, but were thwarted by the Volunteers’ depth.