Golf
The Hurricanes had a very successful first outing of 2020 in Orlando at the UCF Challenge. As of the end of Round 2 on Monday out of 16 schools, UM stood atop the overall leaderboard, with a team score of nine below par. Monday’s round was especially kind to the Canes, where they went -8 on the afternoon after going just -1 on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the Canes slipped to third place on Tuesday, shooting -5 on the day and -14 for the tournament.
But senior Renate Grimstad held on for the individual win, shooting -14 across all three rounds and winning by seven strokes. Kristyna Frydlova finished tied for 12th overall and second among Hurricanes with a -3 score.
Anna Backman (+3), Franziska Sliper (+3), Morgan Pankow (+9) and Daniella Barrett (+8) and Macarena Aguilera (+13) rounded Miami’s players in the event.
The team head to New Orleans for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate on Feb. 16-18.
Men’s Tennis
The men’s tennis team fell short 4-2 in Fort Myers, Fla. on Sunday against No. 23 Mississippi State.
Dane Dunlap and Bojan Jankulovski led their doubles match 5-3 before they were stopped because Mississippi State took the other two doubles matches and respective doubles point, with Franco Aubone/Benjamin Hannestad falling 6-4 and Francisco Bastias/Adria Soriano Barrera losing by the same score.
Bastias landed the largest margin of victory by any player on either team when he prevailed 6-0, 6-1 in the No. 4 singles match over MSU’s Davide Tortora, while William Grattan-Smith was victorious over Isaac Becroft in the No. 6 match, 6-3, 6-3.
But singles losses by Hannestad (6-2, 7-5), Dunlap (6-2, 6-3) and Aubone (6-0, 1-6, 6-3) would do Miami in, falling to 4-2 on the season as a team.
They’ll face South Alabama at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on Friday.
Track and Field
It was a weekend of individual triumphs for the Canes at the Texas Tech Invitational in Lubbock, Texas.
Junior Kevin Arreaga set a program record with a 21.82 meter mark in the men’s weight throw. Friday, junior Kayla Johnson followed suit with an all-time UM mark of 1:27.65 in the women’s 600 meter run and senior McKinly Brown logged a 1:18.91 time in the men’s 600 meter run, also a Miami record.
Several Hurricane athletes went on to set personal bests Saturday, starting with Celine Thompson’s third-place finish in the women’s high jump at 1.75 meters. Freshman Jacious Sears’ 23.91 performance in the women’s 200 meter was also a personal-record, while junior Jeffrey Uzzell recorded a personal-best on the men’s side of the same event, finishing with a time of 22.04 seconds.
Junior Jeffery Williams logged a personal-best of 16.46 meter in the men’s shot put, while fellow junior Emma Langlois set a personal-best with a time of 10:37.73 in the women’s 3000 meter.
The group will next head to Clemson on Feb. 14-15 for the Tiger Paw Invitational.
Basketball
Both the men’s and women’s team suffered losses this weekend. The men’s team, without starting guards Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty, relied on freshman guards Isaiah Wong and Harlond Beverly, but the team could not overcome Pitt and fell 62-57. The women’s team, also still without star forward Beatrice Mompremier, suffered a lopsided 69-45 defeat against Virginia Tech. The men’s team is back in action on Wednesday against NC State at the Watsco Center while the women have a week off before they host Duke on Sunday.