Students Eager For Intramural Golf

This upcoming Friday is the university's annual spring intramural golf tournament.

Registration for the tournament opened on April, 19. The entry fee is $29 per player, and is open to all University of Oklahoma students. The tournament will take place at Westwood Golf Course, which is in Norman.

USGA Rules of Golf will apply during this tournament.

"I've been playing golf my whole life pretty much, it's what I love to do," said Matt Lang, business sophomore.

When asked about how familiar with the rules he was, Lang said, "These are the same rules I've played most of my life, and I also work at a golf course so I am very familiar with these rules."

Players are not just eager to play, they also seem determined to win.

"Since the weather has warmed up I have been going out at playing at least two to three times a week," said Alona Nelson, broadcast sophomore.

Nelson is not the only one who has been preparing for this tournament, "Whenever I don't have anything to do, I'm usually out hitting balls somewhere or trying to squeeze in a quick round," said Lang.

Some of the people who are playing have played against each other before and are looking forward to the chance to go against one another. "I know a few other guys who have signed up to play," said Lang. "It will be fun to get out there with them and see whose the best."

In the end, students are looking at this as a fun event to participate in at the end of the semester.

"With finals coming up, this is kind of a fun way to end the semester and the year before burying my head into the books," said Lang.

Rowing Team Looks To Finish Season Strong

The Sooner's rowing team has had a successfull month of April to close out their regular season.

For the first time in the program's young history, the Sooners finally cracked into the Top 20 National Rankings.

Starting out the month with a trip to San Diego, the Sooners were looking to face a few of the top teams in the nation. "Going up agaiant teams like Stanford and UCLA I felt like we had a good chance to compete with them," Courtney Nevin, HES sophomore said.

The Sooner's did indeed knock off No. 4 Stanford and No. 11 UCLA over the weekend.

The second trip this month for the Sooners was to Ann Arbor, Mich. to face Indiana and Michigan. Oklahoma defeated Indiana, but came up short against the home school Michigan.

Along with the team's success, 24 rowers were named to the inaugural Big 12 Academic At Large team. The team recognizes student-athletes who participate in sports outside Big 12 competition and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better.

"Having so many of us make it doesn't really suprise me, we have so many study hours each week, and tutors to help us out it's hard not to do well in your classes," Elise Pool, communication sophomore said.

The Sooners will close out the month at the Big 12 Championships at Lake Wyandotte, Kan.

"I think we have a good chance to win a conference title and I feel like we will be one of the favorites coming in win it all," Nevin said.

Players Excited for Intramural Softball Season

The school year is coming to an end, but there is still one of the more popluar intramural sports left to be played.

The inramural year will close out with the softball season. Softball is very popular on campus, among both guys and girls. There is such an interest in softball that there are six different leagues for it.

There is a men's, women's,coed, residential hall, sorority, and fraternity league.

League play will began later on this week. All games are going to be played at the multiple softball fields that are right off of Jenkins Ave.

After the regular season, each league will conduct a single-elimination style tournament.

Students appear to be greatly anticipating the return of the softball season.

"I enjoy playing the other sports, but softball is what I look forward to each year," said Justin Dale, English sophomore.

"Me and a few of my friends have been out practicing the past couple of days, championships don't win themselves," said Dale.

OU Rugby near end of season

The OU rugby team is nearing the end of their regular season. This is the teams first year competing as a member of the USA Collegiate Premiere League.

The team has struggled to find the win column this season have only won one game. This past weekend the team took on the Volunteers of the University of Tennessee at home, but were unable to come up with a victory in front of the home crowd, losing 32-22.

"It's been a rough season," said Justin Swaney, HES Junior. "You always want to win those close games,especially when you're at home."

The Sooners only have three games left before the post-season beging. With two of those being on the road.

Oklahoma needs to win their remaining games if they wish to qualify for the playoffs.

"We have dug ourselves into a kind of a hole, but if we want to make the playoffs we need to win out," Swaney said. "Making the post-season has been our goal all year, it's what we have been working for."

The final home game will be April 30 against Life. This is also the last game of the season.

"It's always a good thing to end the season with a couple of wins and some momentum, and being able to win at home will make it even sweeter," Swaney said.

OU Lacrosse looks for strong finish

The end of the regular season is coming for the University of Oklahoma's lacrosse team, but they still have a few games left t play.

Looking back the Sooners posted a 3-1 record in March, with their only loss coming against the division leading SMU Mustangs. That loss was also the teams first loss of the season.

That next day though the team bounced back to defeat Bedlam rival Oklahoma State, 15-1.

Next on the schedule for the Oklahoma Sooners was southbound trip to face the Baylor Bears in Waco and the Austin College Roos in Frisco last weekend. The Sooners left Waco with a close, 8-7 win and then went on to beat Austin College the next day, 13-3.

This past Saturday the Sooners traveled to Lubbock to take on Big 12 rivals Texas Tech. The Red Raiders handed the Sooners their second loss of the season. It was also their first lost to a fellow Big 12 team, after previously posting a 2-0 record against conference foes.

Next week will close out the regular the Sooners. Next Saturday the team will travel to Lawrence, KS to take on the Jayhawks of Kansas. Then on Sunday, the team will return home to Norman to play their final regular season game of the season against the Mean Green of North Texas.

Students Look To Intramural Sports For Fun and Relief

Intramural sports at the University of Oklahoma provides students not involed with Division I or club sports an opprotunity to compete and be active.

All Norman campus who are enrolled are eligible to participate in the 40 different sporting events that are offered throughout the fall and spring semesters.

Some of the sports offered are well known such has flag football, volleyball, basketball, softball, and tennis. To the lesser known pickleball, horsheshoes, and badminton.

Intramural sports are a fun way for students to be active and compete against one another while taking their minds of school work and classes for a few hours

The spring semester is time for two of the more popular intramural sports. Those being basketball and softball. Basketball has just ended while softball looks to begin its season after the break.

While students love to win and compete, they also have other motives behind taking part in these team sports.

"I play because I love basketball, it also helps get my mind off of stuff," Tyler Aljoe, junior public relations major said.

"I've played baseball my whole life, I want to keep it going by playing softball," Justin Dale, sophomore english major said. "And it is helps with getting my mind off of school for a few hours a week."

Students also like the level of competition that they play against, along with the organized structes of the events.

"It's different than a pickup game, it has the scoreboard going and referees so it's more like a real game," Aljoe said.

"Some teams are better than others, but overall the teams are pretty even," Dale said.

Aljoe said he was a little upset that basketball season is now over, "I looked forward to the games every week, I even left class early a few times to make it to the games on time," Aljoe said.

When it comes to softball the players are ready to hit the field and get this season started.

"Yeah I'm looking forward to it, I'm in it to win it," Dale said.

OU Rowing Set To Begin Spring Season

The University of Oklahoma is the lastest school in the nation to add a women's rowing team. The team is entering into its third year.

The rowing squad, led by head coach Leeane Craine, will begin its spring season this weekend in Oklahoma City. The Sooners will compete in the OU Invitational against three other schools. This is the only time the Sooners will be rowing at home this spring.

Being so new at the university and such and uncommon sport, some people may be confused about what exactly the rowing team is, and what they do.

This is what Amber Coyne, junior rower has to say to anyone who does not really know about the sport.

http://gcj.ou.edu/JMC3003-Griffin/leach/definition.mp3

Teams compete three days over a weekend, and the school whose top three boats do the best during the three days are the winners. There are eight rowers in each boat.

In the fall each race is 5000 meters, while in the they are spring 2000 meters, which usually takes around seven minutes to complete.

http://gcj.ou.edu/JMC3003-Griffin/leach/dying.mp3

This year the Sooners have 80 crew members, 32 varsity, and about half are walk-ons. The team has 20 scholarships a year to award the top rowers.

Many members of the team have had no prior rowing experience prior to coming to college. Most played sports in high school, and still have the desire to compete at a high level. The rowing team gives them just that chance.

http://gcj.ou.edu/JMC3003-Griffin/leach/experience.mp3

"Rowing was a great way to stay in shape for me after I graduated from high school," Braxton Banning, former rower said.

"I didn't know a lot about it going in but once I started going it wasn't hard to pick up, and after a few practices, I was hooked," Banning said.

After finishing second last year in the Big 12 in just their second year, the Sooners have high expectations for this upcoming season.

http://gcj.ou.edu/JMC3003-Griffin/leach.expectations.mp3

"I think last year the team really suprised some people, and this year we are look to turn some more heads,"Amber Coyne said.

The team will be gunning for Texas the top team in the conference, who has had a rowing program since 1998.

"The team to beat in our minds is Texas, we want that Big 12 championship." Coyne said.