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.