Sports

Not only is Katie Yamamura the first UC Davis freshman to break the 39-point barrier in the all-around, she is also the first Aggie to pass that mark more than once. After winning the floor exercise (9.750) and placing second both on balance beam (9.600) and in the all-around (38.575) in her college debut, Yamamura was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week for the first time. She received the same accolades three more times throughout the season – Feb. 9, Mar. 16 and 23.

Junior wrestler Barrett Abel had a strong junior season on the mat as he finished No. 14 in the country and won the Aggies’ first individual Pac-10 title since 2007 at the 149-pound slot. This feat cashed Abel’s ticket to his second straight national championship tournament.

In a season marred by injuries, the men’s basketball team had to adapt to new lineups throughout the season. One thing that never changed was center Dominic Calegari.

Players that give maximum effort on every play are rare, but the men’s basketball team has one in Joe Harden. Harden, the Notre Dame transfer from Acampo, Calif., put together another solid season offensively, coming in third on the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor.

Heidi Heintz has made quite an impression. In her first season on the court for UC Davis, the Spokane, Wash. local led the team with a .486 field goal percentage and a .856 free-throw percentage while placing second in points (10.8) and rebounds (4.5) per game.

Tanya Ho has made major contributions to the UC Davis gymnastics team in her four-year career. The senior out of Elk Grove, Calif. has won a total of nine Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week honors since her freshman campaign. She has also captured 13 All-MPSF nods, including vault and all-around for four straight years. Last year she was even named the conference Gymnast of the Year.

Last year, when UC Davis came up short to UC Santa Barbara at the 2009 Big West Conference Championships, something clicked in Scott Weltz’s head. “We realized we were a really good team,” Weltz said. “This year, coach [Pete] Motekaitis was telling us that it was in our hands to win championships.”

When the men’s basketball team needed an offensive spark, they turned to Julian Welch. The 6’3″ guard from Elk Grove, Calif. consistently showed an ability to break down opposing defenses off the dribble while also punishing teams with his long-range shooting.

Who to watch: As a freshman, Michelle Espiritu started in 34 of the 45 games in which she played.

Who to watch: Coming off singles and doubles wins last Wednesday, Herzyl Legaspi did not earn any marks against Portland.

Going into the weekend, the Aggies knew that they had their work cut out for them. They were right. In a three game series against Cal State Fullerton, UC Davis failed to pick up a win and was outscored 46-13. “It was one of those series where we just couldn’t put it together,” said coach Rex Peters [cq]. “When we hit well enough to win, we couldn’t pitch. When we pitched well enough to win, we couldn’t hit.”

I’ve always enjoyed sports. I also consider myself to be somewhat athletic (that is, kind of good at a bunch of sports, but not really good at any specific one). Upon the realization I probably wasn’t going to play sports at a high level anymore (actually, I later played one year of club volleyball for UC Davis), I decided that writing about sports would allow me to maintain the connection.