Alabama Women's Golf Captures SEC Championship
2016 SEC Champion Alabama Women's Golf
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
For the third time is six years the University of Alabama women's golf team is the champion of the Southeastern Conference. The Bama ladies shot a 7-under par 281 yesterday to capture the 2016 SEC Women's Golf Championship at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. The Tide's two previous titles came in 2010 and 2013.
The Crimson Tide finished at 5-under par overall, posting scores of 286-292-281/859 for the victory. Florida was second at even par and Arkansas finished the tournament at third at 18-over par. The 2016 title marks the eighth consecutive top five finish for Bama in SEC Championship play dating back to 2009.
Tide women's golf head coach Mic Potter said, "This is a group of girls, at the beginning of the year, we weren’t sure what we had. Cheyenne (Knight), as a freshman, had a good junior career but
hadn’t played like she has here. And to be as dominant as she has as a
freshman has made a big difference. At the beginning the year, who knew?
But the more we play, the better they get. I had faith they could come
out here and shoot a low score. But Florida’s a good team and they can,
too. All you can do is do your best."
Knight led the Crimson Tide with a 3-under par 69 final round and finished third in the individual race. She had a three-day total of 212. Senior Emma Talley finished the tournament in fourth place overall, just one stroke behind Knight, with a 213 score. Sophomore Lakareber Abe was just two shots behind Talley to finish at 215. Senior Janie Jackson finished in a tie for 13th at 4-over par. Sophomore Nicole Morales tied for 27th with an 8-over par.
Crimson Tide Golf --- Cheyenne Knight
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
Crimson Tide Golf --- Emma Talley
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
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Tide Baseball Clinches Series With Johnny Reb
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Alabama Defeats Ole Miss 7-2
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Alabama baseball captured the weekend series with eighth-ranked Ole Miss yesterday by beating the Rebs 7-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 6,354 at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa. This marks the sixth series victory of the season for the Crimson Tide, improving Bama's record to 22-14 overall and 8-7 in the Southeastern Conference.
Crimson Tide head baseball coach Mitch Gaspard said, "Winning a series always starts on the mound. We got three quality starts this weekend, and I thought the team did a
really nice job responding after getting beat on Friday night. Nick
(Eicholtz) was able to go out and give us another really good start from
the mound. We missed a few opportunities early that I thought we could
have scored a couple more, but the offense came through there in the
fifth inning with the six-run inning. It was a big series for us."
Eicholtz (3-1) took his third win of the season in his fourth start. He pitched 6.0 innings of baseball last night allowing only one run on six hits, walking two and striking out three. Dylan Duarte was called on to complete the remaining 3.0 innings, allowing one run on three hits and three strikeouts, earning him his second save of the season.
Cobie Vance led the Bama batters finishing 3-for-5 and one run scored. Both Connor Short and Chandler Avant had two hits, with Avant adding a double as well as a team-high tying two RBIs and one run scored.
Gaspard commented, "Obviously, you're at the halfway point. We've really established ourselves on the mound now. I think at this point, we've got a chance to really be good and pitch it good throughout the rest of the season. We've got a confident group down there. We've just got to continue to improve on the offensive end and continue to take those steps, and we can fight through this thing for the back half of the season."
Next for the Tide will be the Troy Trojans tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. CT. Then the next day, Wednesday the 20th, the Tide will host South Alabama, again at 6:30 p.m. CT.
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4 Tide Gymnasts Earn 8 All-America Honors
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
The Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics team can now boast eight All-America honors for the 2016 team. Four Alabama gymnasts have been honored, bringing the total of honors to the program overall to 320 by 70 different gymnasts.
Earning first team honors is the 2016 NCAA vault champion, Katie Bailey. She earned first-team honors on the vault and the uneven bars, marking the third consecutive year that the junior from Kernersville, North Carolina came away from the national championships as an uneven bars All-American. She now has five All-America honors through the first three years of her career.
Sophomore Mackenzie Brannan has picked up three All-America honors herself, taking first-team honors in the all-around and vault and second team on the uneven bars. A floor exercise All-American as a freshman, Brannan now has four career All-America honors.
Earning two All-American honors is sophomore Kiana Winston, earning first team on the floor exercise and second team on the balance beam.
Three-time NCAA Elite 90 Award-winner Lauren Beers, the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average at the NCAA Championships, closed out her senior season by earning second-team honors on the vault, bringing her career total to seven.
2016 Alabama Gymnastics All-Americans
Four gymnasts, eight honors - five first team, three second team
Mackenzie Brannan - All-Around (1st), Vault (1st), Uneven Bars (2nd)
Katie Bailey - Vault (1st), Uneven Bars (1st)
Lauren Beers - Vault (2nd),
Kiana Winston - Floor Exercise (1st), Balance Beam (2nd)
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USC Wide Receiver Looking Forward To Playing Bama
Not only did the University of Alabama play its spring football game this past Saturday, but so did the Crimson Tide's opening fall opponent, the USC Trojans. When next these two teams take to the field it will be against each other at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Saturday, September 3rd.
USC is expected to be improved, though the early odds are that the Tide wins the game. But USC's JuJu Smith-Schuster isn't afraid of the Crimson Tide, and is, in fact, looking forward to the contest.
In an interview with the Pac-12 Network, Smith Schuster said, "I'm very excited! You know, Alabama’s a great team, and I think my guys are going to be ready when it comes September 3rd.
Our preparation is going to get us where we need to be at, and we’re just going to make history."
USC is going to need a great game when game-time comes. The Alabama Crimson Tide defense is again expected to be one of the best in the nation. Smith-Schuster is one of the best wide receivers in college football, and will be trying to crack that great Bama defense. As a sophomore Smith-Schuster caught 89 passes for 1,454 yards and 10 touchdowns.
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ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit Ranks Alabama's Quarterbacks
ESPN Football Analyst Kirk Herbstreit
Everyone that didn't attend Alabama's annual A-Day Spring Football Game this past Saturday certainly watched it, or DVRed it to watch later. Kirk Herbstreit was on hand, in fact on the field, as the Crimson team fell to the White team 7-3. Following the game Herbstreit was asked to rank the Alabama quarterbacks.
On Twitter, this was Herbstreit's response:
18, 8, 2, 12. That's my opinion. https://t.co/zXwEVuCgpQ
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) April 16, 2016
Since Twitter's tweets are limited to 140 characters, Herbstreit merely tweeted jersey numbers. So, for those not familiar with the numbers the players wear, here's the order he selected: Cooper Bateman was his first choice, followed in order by Blake Barnett, Jalen Hurts and David Cornwell.
Remember, Herbstreit's ranking of Crimson Tide's quarterbacks are based solely on what he witnessed on Saturday and his having played the position himself while at Ohio State.
So, taking his list in order this is how the quarterbacks performed on Saturday. Remember, two quarterbacks faced the number one defense and two faced the backups. Herbstreit took all the factors and their performance into consideration.
Bateman:
Cooper Bateman (Crimson team) completed nine of 24 pass attemps and had one interception on Saturday for a total of 86 yards.
Barnett:
Blake Barnett (White team) passed for a total of 112 yards in the A-Day Game completing nine of 16 passes.
Hurts:
Jalen Hurts led all quarterbacks statistically this past Saturday. He played on the White team and faced the second team defense. He had a game-high 120 yards and one touchdown completing 11 of 15 passes.
Cornwell:
David Cornwell (Crimson team) picked up a total of 50 yards during Saturday's game. He completed five of 13 passes on the day.
