Women's golf heads to SDSU Farms Invitational

After a month without competition, the women’s golf team heads back to the course Monday for the SDSU Farms Invitational. 

Hosted by San Diego State, the Horns will face conference competitor No. 13 Oklahoma State, as well as 15 other top teams from around the country. 

Among these are USC and UCLA, who are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams nationally.

The Longhorns have struggled early this season, finishing near the bottom in their first two tournaments, but will look to junior Bertine Strauss to lead the team against these tough opponents. 

The first round of the three-day tournament begins Monday morning.

—Caroline Hall

Women's tennis team remains in top 25

The Longhorns host two struggling teams this weekend as they look to improve their Big 12 record.

Despite having a 6-9 dual-match record, No. 21 Texas remains the only top-25 team in the ITA rankings with a losing record.

The team may be getting a pass given that eight of those nine defeats have come against top-15 opponents.

However, those losses have allowed conference foes Baylor and Oklahoma to pass Texas in the rankings.

On Friday, the Iowa State Cyclones come to Austin for an evening matchup. The Cyclones own a 3-4 road record and enter this meeting having lost three straight at home.

Texas will face a 3-10 West Virginia squad Sunday at 11 a.m. Both the Mountaineers and the Cyclones own 0-2 conference records, as each team lost to Kansas and Kansas State, whom the Longhorns play in two weeks on the road.

Friday’s match against Iowa will start at 6 p.m. at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.

—Chris Caraveo

Women's track set to begin outdoor season with high expectations

The Longhorns begin their outdoor track and field season this weekend at the UTSA Texas Challenge Invitational, just one week off of a second-place finish at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. The team expects to continue finishing with the top scores in the nation as it transitions to running outdoors.

“We had a great indoor season on both the men’s and the women’s side,” head coach Mario Sategna said in a statement. “[The athletes] are going to expect the same type of performances as we head into the outdoor season.”

Running outdoors may be a significant boon to the team’s performance at meets. Because UT does not have an indoor track facility, the team was unable to regularly practice running the tighter curves and shorter distances of an indoor track.

This weekend’s meet marks a return to competing outdoors and will prepare the Longhorns for their first big challenge of the season at the Texas Relays held March 26-29.

—Daniel Clay

Men's track and field heads to San Antonio to start outdoor season

Fresh off a 20th place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the Longhorns will travel to San Antonio this weekend for the start of the outdoor track and field season at the UTSA Invitational. 

After a successful indoor season full of impressive performances, the men must quickly adjust to the outdoor conditions in order to be prepared for the upcoming meet.

The athlete to watch for the entire outdoor season is sophomore shot putter Ryan Crouser. Crouser, who already holds Texas’ indoor and outdoor shot put records, is coming off an individual national championship in shot put last week.

It may seem like Crouser has little left to prove, but head coach Mario Sategna disagrees.

“The sky is really the limit for Ryan,” Sategna said. “And he’s kind of his own toughest critic. So no matter how far he throws, he’ll find something to still be working on and improving.”

—Grant Gordon