Southern Utah University athletics participated in 12 events over the course of spring break. With the gymnastics and softball teams taking the only wins of the week, the Thunderbirds had a tough time performing.
Gymnastics
The Flippin’ Birds started their week with a home meet against Iowa State University. They beat the Cyclones 196.500-195.700. SUU’s impressive total gave them the No. 9 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation score of all time. Freshman Niya Randolph tied for the highest score of the night in any event after her 9.925 on the floor exercise.
They competed again on Friday, this time traveling to Provo to take on Brigham Young University. Neither team was at their best, and both fell under the 196 mark as BYU took the 195.650-195.175 victory. Randolph once again tied for the top score with 9.875 on the floor.
The Cougars and Thunderbirds will meet again on Monday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in Cedar City.
Softball
Southern Utah softball continued their hot start to the season with their 3-1 weekend at the University of California, Riverside Tournament. They played against UC Riverside and the University of Nevada twice each and fell to Nevada once while sweeping UC Riverside.
They opened play on Friday with a 4-0 loss to Nevada but followed with a 4-2 win over Riverside. After poor weather canceled play on Saturday, the Thunderbirds beat Nevada 3-2 and Riverside 8-1 on Sunday.
Karmyna Becerra and Laurie Cooke stood out for the Southern Utah offense. Becerra contributed seven hits on the weekend, including a home run in the final game of the tournament. She also had four runs batted in while coming around to score four times herself. Cooke had six hits and five runs scored.
Emily Delgado pitched two complete games. She allowed just two earned runs and six hits in each of them to earn her second and third wins of the season.
Men’s basketball
The men’s basketball team had their final homestand of the season, hosting both Abilene Christian University and Tarleton State University. On Thursday, they fell 77-68 to ACU and came just short of Tarleton State on Saturday 88-83.
Zion Young was the top scorer for Southern Utah in both games. He put up a total of 48 points, 23 of which came in the first half of the Tarleton State game. He made five three-point shots in that half alone.
Dominique Ford came in behind Young with 26 total points, including 16 on Saturday.
Women’s basketball
The women were in Texas for the week to take on both Abilene Christian and Tarleton State as well. They had a tough Thursday after falling 75-42 to ACU and battled to a 69-63 loss against Tarleton.
Daylani Ballena posted 27 total points, while Ava Uhrich and Shiho Isono were heavy contributors in the Tarleton State game with 17 and 13 points, respectively. It was Isono’s highest-scoring game of the season.
Women’s golf
Southern Utah took 20th out of 21 teams in the Grand Canyon University Invitational on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tied for 19th, Tanyatorn (Excel) Thalangkarn was the highest-placing Thunderbird with her -1 finish.
Author: Anden Garfield
Photographer: Anden Garfield
sports@suunews.net
