Pac-Tending 06-14-06

"How do you make the Rubik's Cube hit on all the marks?"

- Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love, speaking about the difficulties of juggling the fates and fortunes of all the athletic programs at ASU.

The Creek is awash in individual champions from last week's NCAA track and field championship that will bolster the conference's showing in the Director's Cup. Stanford has already clinched the Cup for the 12th consecutive year and all Pac-10 schools are in the Top 100 but Cup committee members will decide whether or not, in the future, they should keep the list at the Top 100 or expand the list to include all scoring done by all schools.

Meanwhile at NCAA HQ, the first list of high schools that were invalidated by the NCAA as no longer meeting the NCAA's initial-eligibility requirements was released last week – the list of 15 schools included four from Miami and three from Pennsylvania.

Washington

Juniors Ryan Brown won the 800 meters and Amy Lia won the 1500 meters at the NCAA Track and Field Championship.

WSU

Senior defensive lineman Mkristo Bruce was named to the Bronko Nagurski watch list.

Freshman discus thrower Matt Lamb and junior heptathlete Diana Pickler each finished third, in the discus and heptathlon, respectively, at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

Oregon

Junior Tommy Skipper won the pole vault and freshman Rebekah Noble won the 800 meters at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

Stanford

In men's hoops, director of basketball operations Nick Robinson was promoted to assistant coach after former assistant Tony Fuller left to become head coach at Brophy Prep in Phoenix.

In the NCAA super regional in baseball, the Cardinal were swept in two games by fellow conference member, Oregon State.

USC

In men's hoop, sophomore guard Gabe Pruitt has been ruled academically ineligible for the fall semester.

Senior Virginia Powell won the 100-meter hurdles and broke her own NCAA record in clocking a 12.48 time at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Fellow senior Jesse Williams won the high jump in a new school record of 7-7.25.

Oregon State

The Beavers swept fellow conference member Stanford in two games in baseball's NCAA super regional and advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, where they will open up play against Miami.

UCLA

Outfielder Chris Jensen and gymnast Kate Richardson were named as the school's medal winners by the conference.

Arizona

Junior decathlete Jake Arnold won the decathlon at the NCAA Track and Field Championship.

Arizona State

Victoria Jackson won the 10,000-meters and junior Jacquelyn Johnson won the heptathlon at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

In men's hoop, former Nevada assistant coach Dedrique Taylor and former Artesia High School [Los Angeles] head coach Scott Pera were added to the Sun Devils' staff.

California

Pieter Lehrer was added as an assistant coach in men's soccer.

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