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.

OU Rugby Squad Begins Season

An OU rugby player carries the ball at the Al Velie Rugby Complex, while his teammates try and clear a path for him.

The Rugby team at the University of Oklahoma began their season last Saturday in Witchita, Kan., against Kansas State.

The Rugby Club was founded her at OU in 1974 by John Woods, Tim Wilson, and Al Velie. Since then the tradition filled club has had much success and has produced many All-American.

Rugby is a sport here at OU that goes relatively unnoticed by the student body. When asked about what they thought about or knew about rugby this is what they said.

"I think of bestly men, tackling eachother, but I don't really know much about it as a whole," Blake Brumley, University of Oklahoma sophomore.

"I honestly couldn't tell you a thing about rugby other than the it's kind of like football without the pads," Alona Nelson,University of Oklahoma sophomore said.

The purpose of rugby is to score points by running, punting, passing or kicking the ball across the endline. All passes must be made badwards though, which rules out the forward pass which is used in American football.

Scoring is simple. A try is worth five, a conversion is worth two, and a pentalty goal is worth three.

The Sooners started off the season with a win on the rode against the Wildcats. Kansas seemed to be in control early on in the game, but the Sooners eventaully came through winnign by a score of 53-12. The team has one more game against Tulsa, before they begin College Premiere League play.

Their first CPL game will be on March 5th at Texas A&M.

The rugby team will have weekly games up until the playoffs in May and will have games here in Norman as well as across the country.

As far as facilites are concerned, Oklahoma Rugby boast some of the best facilites in the nation. The Sooners have the Tarzan Pitch at the Al Velie Rugby Complex, while also having access to the state of the art Everest Indoor Training Center.

The team is looking to have a very successful season and plans to be very competitive in the College Premiere League.

OU Lacrosse Starts Season Strong

The OU lacrosse team huddles together during a timeout this weekend during a game against Harding University. The Sooners season kicked off this with two game this weekend against TCU and Harding.

This weekend the Sooners took the field in Norman as the 2011 season started.

The OU lacrosse team started off the season with two wins this weekend. Beating TCU on Saturday 14-13 and Harding 14-6 Sunday afternoon.

The fact that this was opening weekend and judging by the number off people in attendance it is no wonder why they players feel like many people do not know who they are.

"We don't compare to most of the other sports here, a lot of people don't even know what lacrosse it," Tom Barnhart a freshman lacrosse player said.

Freshman player Cameron Alvaraz says he describes it to people who have no idea what it is like, "hockey on grass, with the same positions as soccer, and set plays like basketball."

The Sooner lacrosse team has about 25 players, who pay $300 a year for their own equiptment and other team related things since they are a club team.

They play in the Lone Star Alliance Conference, and play 10 regular season games. They usually play about one to two games a week along with three practices.

"It's a big time committment, usually taking up about 10 hours a week," Barnhart said.

There are no scholarships available for the players and they have to pay for their own equiptment, but that does not bother Alvarez. "I decided to keep playing in college because it's a good way to stay in shape and I love the sport."

The players are optimistic about this year after their 2-0 start. "We have high hopes for this season, it should be a good year," Barnhart said.

The OU Equestrian Club

The equestrian club at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the smaller club teams here at the university as well as one of the least well known.

Equestrianism refers to the different skills that are used while riding a horse. These different skills are what the Sooner riders practice to perfect for each of their shows.

The club currently has about 15 active members. They compete during both the spring and the fall semesters, in about 10-12 shows each semester. These competitions test riders on their horse riding ability through different events.

Each of the events have their own different way of being scored, either by judges, time, or by how many points that are accumulated each round.

At these shows they comptete against other colleges and universities. Which gives the students an opportunity to go against some very skilled riders.

The equestrian club used to be associated with the OU polo team, until the university disbanded the polo team in the fall of 2008, while the equestrian team stayed together.

Courtney Burggren, equestrian club president encourages any student who is interested in horses to come and check out the club.

"OU Equestrian is a way to allow students with an interest in horses and equine activities to learn more and have the chance to compete a college level, no matter what level or experience they may have," Burggren said.