The '08 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships get under way today in Boise, ID. The young Aggie team will be looking to build off of the momentum from their 38 top 10 finishes at the Don Kirby Memorial Invitational two weekends ago. As we mentioned earlier this week the Aggies have two regional qualifiers in Randi Grimes (hammer) and Jordan Veney (discus) and will be looking to have a few more girls put up regional qualifying marks. Also leading the way for the Aggies will be freshman Devin Brooks. Brooks is the standout hurdler from Seattle, WA and will also be relied upon to earn points for the team. You can follow all of the action with Live Results via the WAC website.

Two Aggie men's golfers finished in the Top 10 of the PGA Minority Championship. Chris Nieto and Henry Stetina both fired three round totals of 230 (14 over) to finish tied 7th.

Be sure to check out this week's interview with Aggie baseball coach Rocky Ward. Coach Ward talks about the Hawai'i series and this weekend's Louisiana Tech series.

On to today's links...

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with Aggie baseball head coach Rocky Ward throughout the 2008 season as the Aggies open their third season in the WAC. This week Coach Ward talks about this past weekend's series against Hawai'i, the series finale against Louisiana Tech and talks about the mindset of the team heading into the conference tournament.

bleedCrimson.net: Talk about the series against Hawai'i, you started out with two come from behind wins and then on Saturday you had kind of a weird day.
Rocky Ward: We continued the momentum and played pretty well but we kind of set a precedent on Thursday when we gave up five in the first but we managed to shut them out the rest of the way and managed to win 7-5. [Tyler] Sturdevant really pitched well after the first inning and we did a good job offensively.

Then in game two we gave up runs early, gave up the lead early again but the offense really had a good day, the final was 13-8 and it wasn't as close as that. Once we got to the top of that game we got after it, we had that game won for a while. Of course we had game four won like that too, that's what made it a weird day.

Women's basketball coach Darin Spence announced the signing of Kelsie Rozendaal to this year's recruiting class. Coach Spence says in the NMSU release that Rozendaal reminds him of Idaho's Katie Madison. Madison is a strong force inside averaging 14 points and seven rebounds per game and if Rozendaal can put up those kinds of number, Coach Spence will undoubtedly be quite happy. The Aggies, coming off the fifth best turnaround in college basketball last season, will have a very young team next season but with the leadership of Madison Spence and the rest of the returners, we expect them to have another outstanding season.

The women's outdoor track and field team will be in Boise, ID this week for the 2008 WAC championships. Coach Richburg is hoping that the Aggies will be able to have a strong performance this year and is also hoping that the Aggies can have a few more girls qualify for the NCAA regional meets. So far this season two players have qualified for regionals. Randi Grimes has qualified in the hammer throw and Jordan Veney has qualified in the discus. The championships get under way tomorrow.

This weekend the Aggie baseball team will wrap up their regular season hosting Louisiana Tech. The Aggies will be playing to wrap up a 4-seed in next week's WAC tournament. Those of you who were expecting Coach Ward's weekly interview today, we will have that for you tomorrow.

On to today's links...

There are only two sports still competing at NMSU, baseball and women's track and field. The Aggie baseball team, even though they were not in action, got a little help yesterday via a walk-off home by Nevada's Shaun Kort. The Wolf Pack defeated the Sacramento State Hornets and at least for the time being, keep the Aggies in 4th place. The Aggies have one final regular season series left to play. This weekend the Aggies will host Louisiana Tech and if they can get a sweep, they will wrap up the 4th seed and would then face 3rd place Hawai'i. Sacramento State and San Jose State, have series with Fresno State and Nevada respectively. With the Spartans and Hornets facing the top two teams in the league the Aggies may not need to win all four although three of four would be a minimum to sustain momentum heading into the WAC tournament.

In yesterday's post we talked about the improvement of the WAC in women's softball and how there was a slight chance that the league could get four teams into the NCAA tournament. That slight chance turned into reality as all four teams we talked about yesterday, Louisiana Tech, #10 Fresno State, Nevada and Hawai'i, will all participate in this year's tournament. While the Aggies missed out on this year's tournament, they faced perhaps one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Aggies played 12 of this year's NCAA tournament teams, a total of 22 games. In addition, they played two other teams who at the time they played them were ranked in the Top 25. Throw in the five rivalry games against UNM and UTEP and you see why we think next season the Aggies will have a bunch of battle tested kids coming back who will be ready to compete for league title and an NCAA appearance.

On to today's links...

The Aggie baseball team dropped a pair of games on Saturday afternoon to Hawai'i. The Aggies lost game one of the doubleheader by a score of 17-10 and lost game two by a score of 15-14. The game two loss was especially disappointing considering the Aggies had a 12-6 lead heading into the seventh inning and had just posted an eight run inning to take the lead. In game one the Aggies fell behind 9-1 after three innings but made a furious rally to pull to within two runs at 11-9 in the sixth, however they couldn't keep the Warriors off the board and Hawai'i would tack on six more runs to seal game one. The Aggies ended up with a split of the weekend series and despite the two losses today, still remain in 4th place in the conference as San Jose State lost both games of their doubleheader with Fresno State and Sacramento State split a pair with Nevada. Both San Jose State and Sacramento State finish up their series with Fresno State and Nevada tomorrow. Should both of those teams lose, it would further solidify the Aggies' hold on the 4th spot due in large part to the Aggies' series wins over both teams (3-1 over San Jose State and 4-0 over Sacramento State). The Aggies have one final series remaining against Louisiana Tech this coming weekend and can seal a 4-seed in the upcoming conference tournament with a series win. A 4-seed would likely result in a first round matchup with Hawai'i.

The WAC Softball Championship Tournament concluded on Saturday and two Aggies were named to the All-Tournament Team. Freshman third baseman Ashley Maroda and senior utility player Stephanie Hererra were the two Aggies who were honored. Shockingly the #10 Fresno State Bulldogs were shut out of the All-Tournament Team (namely their outstanding pitcher Morgan Melloh who was the WAC Pitcher and Freshman of the Year).

Coach Rodolph has mentioned many times in our weekly interviews, including in this past week's interview, that the WAC is a much improved league across the board. You don't have to look any further than this year's championship tournament for proof. La. Tech finished the regular season 7-10 overall and earned the 4-seed. The Lady Techsters brought home the title taking down all three top seeds (1-seed Nevada twice, 2-seed Fresno State and 3-seed Hawai'i) en-route to the title. The WAC will get at least two teams into the tournament and more than likely three and there's very slight possibility of four. Louisiana Tech will get the automatic bid, #10 Fresno State is a shoe-in for an at-large bid, and Nevada likely did enough in the regular season (regular season conference champions) and by virtue of reaching the conference final should receive very strong consideration for an at-large as well. The wildcard will be Hawai'i, which went to the NCAA tournament last season and finished 38-19 (10-7) this season. They played a strong non-conference schedule but may not have enough quality wins to get an at-large berth. Needless to say, Coach Rodolph's assertions that the league is much stronger this season were vaidated by the results of the regular season as well as the tournament.

The Agges should receive strong consideration next season for a preseason #1 ranking in the league. Of the the top four teams in the WAC this season, NMSU handed three of them losses (Nevada, Hawai'i and Louisiana Tech) and came close to beating Fresno State, Hawai'i and Nevada in three other games. All three of those were one run losses and two of them were in extra innings (10 against Nevada and 9 against Fresno State). The Aggies have five players returning who were freshmen this season and each of them played a ton of time for the Aggies. Also returning for the Aggies are the pitching duo of Kim Watson and Samantha Dillard. Both Watson and Dillard pitched masterfully during the conference tournament. The Aggies should content for a conference title as well as an appearance in the NCAA tournament next season.

On to today's links...