UVa Finishes Ninth At NCAA Championships

The Virginia men's swimming team placed ninth with 133 points Saturday at the 2009 NCAA Championships, the program's highest finish. The three-day event was held at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on Texas A&M's campus. Virginia's best showing at NCAA meet before this year was a 10th-place finish in 2003.

Senior Ryan Hurley, swimming in his fourth and final NCAA Championships, won the consolation finals of the 200 breaststroke in 1:53.93. That time broke former NCAA champion Ed Moses' conference and school record time of 1:53.99, the winning time of the 2000 NCAA Championships.

Sophomores Matt McLean and John Snawerdt both earned honorable mention All-America honors for their performances in the 1650 freestyle. McLean placed 12th overall in 14:51.44 while Snawerdt was 14th in 14:53.42. It was the second All-America nod for Snawerdt in the event after an eighth-place finish a year ago as a freshman. Sophomore Scot Robison also picked up honorable mention All-America accolades after finishing 14th in the 100 freestyle.Robison had two All-America performances after a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle on Friday. The 400 freestyle relay team of Robison, Peter Geissinger, John Azar and McLean capped the meet with an 11th-place finish, clocking a time of 2:53.29. The Cavalier foursome captured honorable mention All-America honors.

The men's performance capped a strong season for Mark Bernardino's programs. The Virginia women's swimming team finished in 12th place, the highest since 2002 when the Cavaliers also placed 12th overall.

Compiled from Virginia Athletics Media Relations news releases

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

In a literal and figurative sense, UVa hosted several big juniors last Friday. Fork Union Military Academy (VA) offensive tackle Mark Shuman, one of the top overall prospects in the state of Virginia's 2010 class, planned to attend UVa's spring practice last Friday.

Virginia has an uphill battle in the race for the 6-6, 270-pound offensive tackle, who currently favors Virginia Tech over the Cavaliers and 14 other Division 1A programs that have offered. Shuman admits that the Cavs have "made up ground," especially since assistant Latrell Scott joined the coaching staff, but we'll see if the latest visit had any impact on the talented junior's decision.

Besides Tech and Virginia, Shuman, the son of FUMA postgraduate head coach John Shuman, also expressed high interest in Georgia and North Carolina in a Sabre EDGE update posted last Friday.

Today, be sure to check out an update on 6-7, 345-pound Linganore (Frederick, MD) offensive tackle Robby Havenstein. Havenstein was also on hand for Virginia's spring practice last Friday. He reflected on the experience and discusses where he may be on Virginia's recruiting radar.

An all-state performer in 2008, Havenstein currently holds official offers from Kansas State, Maryland, N.C. State, Penn State, Stanford and West Virginia.

Other offensive linemen on Virginia's 2010 class radar early on include St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia, PA) star Seth Betancourt, Deep Run (Glen Allen, VA) standout Conner Davis and Lake Braddock (Burke, VA) star Khamrone Kolb. All three players have been offered and all three attended one of Virginia's two February junior days.

Of the offensive linemen UVa has offered, the Cavaliers appear to be in the best position right now with Davis, a 6-5, 270-pound standout. In recent conversations, Davis has been very high on Virginia and Virginia Tech, but right now I'd give the edge to the Cavs. The Wildcats standout, who may decide this summer, expects to visit UVa again next month for a spring practice.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please check out the Sabre Edge Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

UVa Recruits Await New Coach
Last November, two high school seniors - 6-8 forward Tristan Spurlock and 5-11 point guard Jontel Evans - signed letters of intent with the University of Virginia. Now, the talented duo waits with the rest of the Cavalier nation to find out who will take over the reigns as head men's basketball coach.

Offer Profile: Woodberry Forest S Ed Reynolds
Woodberry Forest (VA) safety Ed Reynolds II, a rising senior Woodberry head coach Clint Alexander calls a "special player," has received official offers from Stanford and Virginia and is drawing serious interest from Auburn, Boston College, Connecticut, Duke, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina and Rutgers. Reynolds' father played linebacker for the University of Virginia in the early '80s, but will that be a big factor with the 6-3, 195-pound prospect?

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• Deep Run Star Bides Time
• Offer Profile: 2-Sport Star Ty Linton
• Top DE High on the Hoos
• Mark Shuman Talks Recruiting
• New Jersey Safety Holds UVa Offer

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NFL Hopefuls - Antonio Appleby

Virginia linebacker Antonio Appleby is one of several Hoos hoping to hear their named called during April's NFL Draft. The Mile High Report has an up-close look at Appleby and how he might fit in with the Broncos:

This is one of the few late round ILBs that I think has the potential to actually start for Denver. He has terrific size at 6-4, 243, and he played in a primarily 3-4 alignment in college, starting for three years, so the experience is there. He is stout at the point of attack,an excellent wrap-up tackler, though he can sometimes try too hard for the big hit. Against the run he is every bit as effective as Maualuga in the 1st round, but he lacks Rey's explosive first step and pent up power. Appleby's closing speed leaves something to be desired, but he is an experienced and effective blitzer, who knows how to use his hands to stay clean, and doesn't lose a lot of momentum shooting the gap. Tight hips and only marginal feet make him a liability in coverage however, and he doesn't have the quickness to stay with WRs or even most TEs. But this late in the draft his run-plugging ability is a rarity, and he could provide immediate two down help.

Read the full rundown from the Mile High Report here. Have you seen reports about any other UVa players preparing for the NFL Draft? Send us the links!

Blog Banter: 7OT?!?! Glad I Was There!

From The Good Ol' Blog

And you thought the coaching search had a lot of plot twists.

Virginia and Maryland dueled for nearly four hours in men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon and there were enough storyline shifts and momentum turns to make any soap director jealous. In the end, the Cavaliers won the 7-overtime thriller 10-9 thanks to some high heat from Brian Carroll on a left-handed game-winning shot. The game is the longest in Division I men's lacrosse history; UVa previously played a 4OT game with John's Hopkins in 2001.

Here are a few of the memorable moments ...

Maryland scores almost immediately in the first overtime only to see the goal waved off because the officials awarded the Terps a timeout. Both teams had said to the referee after regulation that if they won the face-off and got the ball into the box, then they wanted to call a timeout (a common practice in these situations and something we saw duplicated throughout the overtimes Saturday). As chance would have it, Maryland created a quality shot opportunity in seconds so the sideline didn't call timeout immediately but the referee anticipated that the timeout call was coming. The result was a waved-off goal without a charged timeout.

Virginia had to fight off three separate Extra Man Opportunities in the overtimes, including one where goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman (22 saves) was the guilty party (he cross-checked a Maryland player in order to prevent an almost certain sudden death goal). Enter back-up keeper Mark Wade to play in goal for penalty-killing mode. Wade, who had 13 career saves entering the game, turned away a low rocket to keep the Cavaliers in it. The Klockner crowd ... Read the full post on The Good Ol' Blog!.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• Virginia Outlasts Maryland 10-9 in 7-Overtime Thriller: Midfielder Brian Carroll's goal one minute into the seventh overtime lifted the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers to a 10-9 come-from-behind win over Maryland in the longest game in NCAA men's division I lacrosse history. The win in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener is the Cavaliers' 11th in a row to open the season.
• Cavaliers Fall in Final Seconds to No. 5 Duke: Senior All-American Jenny Hauser's career-high six-goal effort was erased in the final seconds of the No. 10 Virginia women's lacrosse teams contest against No. 5 Duke in Klöckner Stadium on Saturday, as Sarah Bullard fired the game-winning goal into the back of the net with 11.3 seconds remaining on the clock to secure the Blue Devils' a 13-12 victory.
• Men's Tennis Scores Road Win at Florida State: The No. 1 Virginia men's tennis team remained undefeated on the season with a 4-3 victory over No. 15 Florida State Sunday in Tallahassee. The Cavaliers improve to 22-0 overall and 7-0 in the ACC with the victory, while the Seminoles suffered their first conference loss of the year (15-6, 5-1 ACC).
• Women's Tennis Falls to No. 5 Miami: The No. 22 Virginia women's tennis team suffered its fourth loss to a top-25 team in the past two weeks, falling to No. 5 Miami 6-1 Sunday at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar's Head Sports Club. The loss drops the Cavaliers' record to 10-6 overall and 3-4 in the ACC.
• No. 6 Rowing Wins Two Races On Final Day of Pac-10 Challenge: The sixth-ranked Virginia rowing team won two races against No. 4 Stanford Sunday on the final day of the Pac-10 Challenge at Redwood Shores. UVa's Second Varsity Eight and Novice Eight were victorious against the Cardinal.
• No. 5 UNC Uses Walkoff HBP to Down No. 8 Baseball, 6-5: The No. 8 Virginia baseball team rallied to tie its game with No. 5 North Carolina on a two-run ninth-inning home run by Dan Grovatt, but the Tar Heels came right back in the bottom of the inning and scored when Ryan Graepel was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to take a 6-5 win over the Cavaliers Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. By virtue of their second one-run win of the series, the Tar Heels take the three-game series, two games to one. UVa has now dropped four games in conference play, with three of the four coming by one run and the fourth by two runs.
• Virginia Tech Downs Cavaliers 5-2: The Virginia softball team (19-9, 2-4 ACC) was defeated by Virginia Tech (12-17, 3-3 ACC) 5-2 to conclude the series Sunday at The Park. The Hokies took the series after the two teams split a doubleheader on Saturday.
• Garcia Wins Steeplechase, Regionally Qualifies: The Virginia track and field team tacked on three more NCAA Regional qualifiers on Saturday at the Raleigh Relays, while the Cavaliers were also victorious in three events. Junior Stephanie Garcia won the 3000m steeplechase in an NCAA Regional qualifying time of 10:23.68 to lead the squad on the day, while Virginia's men's and women's 4x800m relay teams each claimed first-place finishes in their respective races. The men teamed for a finish of 7:28.26, while the women crossed the line in 8:52.69.
• Four Cavaliers Earn All-ACC Honors: Four Virginia wrestlers have earned 2009 All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors, as announced Friday by the conference. Rocco Caponi, Chris Henrich, Brent Jones and Mike Sewell all nabbed league honors by virtue of their top-two finishes at the league championships.

For more Hoo news or to read full releases, check out Virginiasports.com.

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Issue No. 17 - December 27, 2001

Kwakou Robinson Speaks with TheSabre.com

Kwakou Robinson, a 6-4, 315-pound defensive lineman from Polytechinic Prep in New York, committed to the Hoos in mid-December. He's listed as the best player in the state of New York, and one of the best defensive linemen in the country.

We spoke with Kwakou last night to get his impressions of his visit, and find out why the SuperPrep All-American chose UVa over Ohio State.

"I chose UVa because of their great academics and great coaching staff with Al Groh," Robinson said. "Virginia's in a great conference for defensive linemen. It's a pass rush conference. And, I just loved my visit to Virginia."

It must have been really good visit, since Kwakou had been leaning heavily to Ohio State just days prior.

"The school is beautiful and my mom loved it. There are no words for it. It was just big and beautiful."

Robinson also said that the staff played an important role in his decision. Coach Danny Rocco was his recruiting coach, and Robinson was impressed with him and the rest of the staff.

"Coach Rocco's a great guy. Ron Prince, the offensive line coach, also another great guy - just the whole staff - Al Golden, Mike London - all great guys."

So where would Robinson play once he gets into the system? Many believe that he'll play defensive tackle, but Robinson said on CavTalk radio last week that he could possibly play defensive end.

"Coach Golden said I would fit in well there. As long as I'm on the defensive line, I don't really care what position I play. I wouldn't have any problems playing defensive tackle. They can move me inside or outside."

Check Out SabreMail #17.

Coming Soon

The Sabre has you covered when it comes to Hoo news. Here are a few of the articles to expect on the site soon:

• Jed Williams: Jed Williams is working on his next column for The Sabre.
• Spring Football: What's on tap with the Hoos as spring football rolls on?
• Lacrosse Features: We've got several lacrosse items in the works, including reaction and photos from Saturday's 7 OT thriller with Maryland. Also stay tuned for a feature on senior Matt Kelly.

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Quick Take: Matt Kelly On Maryland
Due to a scheduling quirk for the North Carolina game, the Virginia men's lacrosse team plays its only ACC home game of the 2009 season Saturday when Maryland comes to town. The Cavaliers and Terrapins square off at Klockner Stadium at noon. The Sabre caught up with senior Matt Kelly for a Quick Take about the challenges presented by the Terps.

Cavs Hope To Avoid Déjà Vu Against Terps
It's hard to ignore the resemblance. With a 10-0 record, having beaten Syracuse and Johns Hopkins by just a goal each, the Cavaliers find themselves in a remarkably similar situation to last season, before Maryland upended them 13-7 in College Park.

Deep Backfield Adds To Cavs' Weapons
Despite the loss of Cedric Peerman, the Cavaliers enter 2009 with a surprisingly full back field, complete with proven talent and experience. Mikell Simpson, the break-out story of 2007, returns to try and resurrect his stride after a tough campaign last season. Rashawn Jackson, the do-it all back, looks to continue his versatility in a variety of two-back sets. The depth continues with Raynard Horne and Keith Payne, both of whom have game experience. Finally, Torrey Mack looks to get in the mix at some point this season after redshirting in 2008.

Patience Needed
If you've been following The Sabre men's basketball message board since the departure of Dave Leitao, you may feel like you belong on an island in an ABC sitcom. After all, far too many fans have completely lost track of time. In nine days, Hoos have gone from euphoric hope to troubled despair. Nine days? Nine days! Have some much-needed patience.

D-Line Depth Provides Options
With converted tight end Andrew Devlin, nickel and dime lineman John-Kevin Dolce, and redshirt freshman Buddy Ruff joining the rotation, Virginia's has created an advantageous situation on the defensive line entering spring practice. After all seven of the top eight contributors from 2008 - only the rock solid Alex Field is missing - are back in the orange and blue. That means the coaching staff has plenty of options when it comes to the front line of the defense.

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