February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Election Day

I'll be so happy when this election is over. The media has been talking about it for over 1.5 years. No more political ads tomorrow on TV. YAY!

Women's Final Four

The women's final four basketball games take place tonight in Indianapolis. Oregon State vs UConn starts at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN and Washington vs Syracuse will tip at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

NCAA Volleyball Championships

Lincoln Journal Star/Jenna Vonhofe

The Nebraska Cornhuskers swept Texas Longhorns 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, and 25-21)
Saturday to win the Division I Women's Volleyball National Championship in Omaha, Nebraska. The Huskers won their fourth national title.

To reach the finals Saturday, Texas defeated Minnesota Golden Gophers 3-1 and Nebraska beat Kansas Jayhawks 3-1. I was hoping for an all Big Ten final, but it wasn't to be.

Leading the way for the Huskers was freshman Mikaela Foecke with a match high 19 kills. Foecke was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Junior Amber Rolfzen chipped in with 10 kills and four blocks. Sophomore setter Kelly Hunter contributed with 42 assists.

Lincoln Journal Star/Ted Kirk

NCAA Volleyball

World-Herald/Mark Mahan

Associated Press/Michael Zamora

The NCAA Women's Volleyball final four is set. The four teams left standing are from the Big Ten and the Big Twelve Conferences: Minnesota and Nebraska (B1G) and Kansas and Texas (XII).

These teams will meet on Thursday in the National Semifinals. Kansas will face Nebraska and Texas plays Minnesota. The games will broadcast on ESPN2 Thursday evening. I would love to see an all Big Ten National Championship game played on Saturday.

Go Nebraska and Minnesota!

Michigan football

The Michigan Wolverines football team will face the Florida Gators in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on January 1, 2016. This will be the fifth time that the Wolverines appear in the Citrus Bowl. The game will start at 1 p.m. ET on ABC.

NCAA Volleyball Tournament

M.P. King/Wisconsin State Journal

The 2015 NCAA Volleyball Tournament started Thursday. Out of 64 teams, the Big Ten Conference had nine teams selected: Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Illinois, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State.

All of the Big Ten teams won their first round games. Unfortunately, three teams lost in the second round: Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State. Purdue lost to Texas 3-1, Michigan fell to UCLA 3-2 and Michigan State was defeated by Washington 3-1.

Camille Stefani/Daily Collegian

The match-ups for the upcoming regionals on December 11 are Illinois vs Minnesota, BYU vs Nebraska, Washington vs Ohio State, Penn State vs Hawaii and Florida vs Wisconsin. The teams that win will move on to the final four and those matches with take place on December 12. The National Championship game will be played on December 19.

WNBA Conference Finals - Game 2

Game 2 of the WNBA Eastern and Western Conference finals took place Sunday. The Indiana Fever hosted the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx traveled to Phoenix Mercury.

The Indiana Fever came back from being down 15 points to win Game 2 70-64 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Liberty. The Fever win forced a Game 3 which will take place Tuesday in New York at Madison Square Garden. Leading the way for the Fever was Tamika Catchings with 25 points and for the Liberty, Tina Charles also had 25 points.

Game 3 will be played Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

The Minnesota Lynx won Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals 72-71 to sweep the series with the Phoenix Mercury. Lynx player Maya Moore lead all scorers with 40 points. Moore was fouled with 1.5 seconds left in the game. Moore hit 1-of-2 free throws to clinch the win for the Lynx.

The Lynx will await the winner of Tuesday's Indiana Fever vs New York Liberty contest to find out who they will meet in the WNBA finals.

World Cup Soccer

USA Today Sports/Michael Chow

I'm a few days late on this, but congratulations to Team USA for winning the World Cup Sunday night in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The United States defeated Japan 5-2. The USA won their last World Cup in 1999. Carli Lloyd had a hat trick 16 minutes into the game. Lauren Holiday and Tobin Heath scored the other two goals for the US.
The USA became the first team to win three women’s World Cups. Hope Solo won the Golden Glove award for her goalkeeping efforts during the World Cup. Carli Lloyd won the Golden Ball after scoring six goals during the WC.

Orange in the New Black

The new season of Orange is the New Black was released on Netflix on Friday. I finished Season 3 on Saturday evening.

I won't spoil it for anyone, but I was disappointed in this season. Many of the story lines were boring. Since they were boring, I didn't care. I did like the story lines with Boo/Pennsatucky, Healy/Red and Nicky. The story lines I didn't care about was Piper/Alex/Stella and Leanna/Norma.

I read the OITNB has been renewed for a fourth season. Hopefully that season will be much better then this one.

Divison I Outdoor Track and Field Championships

mgoblue.com

The Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships took place June 10-13, 2015 in Eugene, Oregon at the University of Oregon.

The Oregon men and women's teams won the team championships. The men won Friday with 85 points over Florida and the women took the title Saturday with 59 points over Kentucky.

mgoblue.com

Three ladies scored points for the University of Michigan Wolverines. U-M finished in 19th place with 14 points. Cindy Ofili finished as runner-up in the 100m hurdles. Ofili broke her sister's, Tiffany, school record by finishing the race in 12.60 for second place. Kentucky's Kendra Harrison won the race in 12.55. Erin Finn placed fifth in the 5000m run in 15:43.97. Finn became the first-ever Wolverine to achieve All-America status in both the outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m run, as Finn ran the 10,000m at 2014 Nationals. The final Wolverine to score was Brook Handler. Handler ran the 1500m in 4:16.19 good enough for seventh place.

mgoblue.com

The Michigan men also had athletes performing at nationals. Mason Ferlic competing in two events, 5000m and 3000m steeplechase. Ferlic's first race didn't go well. Ferlic fell into the pit during the 3000m steeplechase and was unable to recover. Ferlic finished 12th place in 8:57.30. University of Texas El Paso's Anthony Rotich won the race in 8:33.90. Ferlic's second race, 5000m, didn't go well and he DNF.

Cody Riffle finished in 23rd in the shot put with a throw of 59-10.5 ft. Morsi Rayyan competed in the 10,000m and finished 21st at 30:31.11.

 Men's Team Scoring
Oregon: 85 points
Florida: 56
Arkansas: 53
LSU: 45
USC: 40.5

Women's Team Scores
Oregon: 59 points
Kentucky: 50
Texas A&M: 47
Arkansas: 43
Georgia: 41

American Pharoah

New York Times/Chang W. Lee

New York Times/Ben Solomon

 New York Times/Chang W. Lee

New York Times/Chang W. Lee

American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes Saturday and the Triple Crown. American Pharoah is the 12th horse in history to win it. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.

American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes in  2:26.65. Coming in second was Frosted and third was Keen Ice.

The jockey that rode American Pharoah to all three wins was Victor Espinoza. Espinoza came close to riding a Triple Crown winner in 2014 with California Chrome. California Chrome came up short in the Belmont Stakes last year.

Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships

mgoblue.com

The Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships took place Friday and Saturday at the Ralph Young Track and Field Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.

On the first day, Michigan sophomore Erin Finn won the 10,000m in 33:54.85. Finn is a back-to-back winner in this event as she won it last year as well.  Teammates Gina Serno finished in seventh place (34:34.75) and Corinne Florie was 12th in 35:57.14

In the men's 10,000m Michigan's Morsi Rayyan finished in eighth place with a time of 29:58.29. Rayyan edged out teammate Mark Beams who placed ninth in 30:09.92.

mgoblue.com

 Mason Ferlic won the 3000m Steeplechase title Saturday in 8:43.30. This is Ferlic's first outdoor Big Ten title. Also scoring for Michigan in the event was Connor Mora, who placed seventh, in 9:07.53.

On Sunday, Michigan ladies went 2-3-7-8 in the 1500m. Shannon Osika finished in second behind with a time of 4:15.24. Michigan State's Leah O'Connor won the race in 4:14.19. Placing third was Brook Handler (4:16.01), Laura Addison (seventh - 4:22.69) and Jaimie Phelan (eighth - 4:23.81).

Cindy Ofili PR'd to defend her 100m title from last year in a time of 12.89. Teammate Sami Michell placed fourth in 13.51. Ofili and Michell scored in other events as well. Ofili was seventh in the 100m in 11.6 and Michell was third in the 400m hurdles, with a new PR, in 58.46.

Erin Finn claimed another medal during the championships. Finn finished third in the 5000m with a time of 16:14.27 and teammate Shannon Osika was sixth in 16:34.33. Leah O'Connor from Michigan State won her third event of the weekend in 16:03.98. O'Connor's teammate Rachele Schulist was second in 16:13.22.

Michigan men's runners in the 5000m went 2-3-7. Winning the event was Matt McClintock from Purdue in 14:16. Mason Ferlic was second in 14:20.33 and Ben Flanagan was third in 14:24.36.

Claiming third place in the shot put was Cody Riffle with a PR of 63-7.25 ft.

The Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships will broadcast on the Big Ten Network on Sunday, May 24 at 11 a.m. ET.

Women's Team Scores
Michigan State: 128
Nebraska: 97
Minnesota: 93
Ohio State: 87
Michigan: 80

Men's Team Scores
Illinois: 145
Nebraska: 108
Iowa: 81
Ohio State: 78
Penn State: 66

ITU Yokohama

ITU Media/Delly Carr

American Gwen Jorgensen won the ITU World Triathlon Series Yokohama race for the third-straight time Saturday in a time of 1:57:20. With the win, Jorgensen has won nine consecutive races in the ITU series and is the leading again.

Finishing on the podium for the first time ever was Australia's Ashleigh Gentle. Gentle placed second in 1:58:33 and teammate Emma Moffatt claimed bronze in 1:59:03.

ITU Media/Delly Carr

Jorgensen is back in the series lead with the win with 3200 points. She overtook American teammate Katie Zaferes, who now is in second place, with 2905 points.

The men's race in Yokohama, Japan had a very close finish. Spain's Javier Gomez was able to sprint away from Great Britian's Alistar Brownlee close to the finish line to win ITU Yokohama in 1:47:02. Brownlee crossed the line in 1:47:02 to take the silver medal. Gomez's teammate from Spain, Mario Mola finished with the bronze medal in 1:47:20.

Gomez is the leader of the men's series with 3507 points, Mola is in second with 2958 and Brownlee moved up to ninth place with 1540 points.

The next ITU World Triathlon race will take place in London, England on  May 31.

Kentucky Derby

New York Times/Andrew Hancock

The 141st Kentucky Derby took place Saturday evening in Louisville, Kentucky.

I was a fan of California Chrome last year. After last year's Kentucky Derby, I started following Chrome's jockey Victor Espinoza. This year, Espinoza has been the jockey for American Pharoah. Espinoza has posted photos of American Pharoah racing and in the barn. Just before the Kentucky Derby started Saturday, I tweeted that I wanted American Pharoah to win.

Getty Images/Andy Lyons

And he did. American Pharoah won the race in 2:03:02. American Pharoah finished a length ahead of second place Firing Line. Dortmund finished in third.

The next race for the Triple Crown is at The Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland on May 16.

Watch video of the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby.

ITU Gold Coast

ITU Media/Delly Carr

The ITU World Triathlon Series stopped in the Gold Coast, Australia Saturday for another race. And, some history was made.

Gwen Jorgensen, USA, won her eight consecutive WTS race. That is the longest-running streak for the elite women since the start of the series. Joining Jorgensen on the podium were fellow Americans Sara True and Katie Zaferes. True claimed silver and Zaferes won bronze.

ITU Media

Jorgensen came out with the leaders after the swim and stayed in the lead pack on the bike. On the run is where she put distance between her and second place. In transition two, Jorgensen's bike fell over, so she had to serve a 15-second penalty during the run. The penalty didn't hurt her at all.

Jorgensen crossed the finish line in 1:57:00. A minute and 18 seconds behind Jorgensen was True for silver (1:58:18)  and then Zaferes following in 1:58:36.

ITU Media

The next ITU series race will take place in Cape Town, South Africa on April 25.