• Slug: Sports-Adaptive Sports Arizona, 1,326 words.
• Photo available.

By Addison Kalmbach
Cronkite News

TUCSON – The warm southern desert air hit the faces of Abby Dunn, Emilee Gustafson and Hayley Nilsen as they left the comforts of home and hopped on a quick flight to Colorado for the chance of a lifetime.

A dream since their teenage years, the Arizona Wildcats trio arrived at the doors of the world-class U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where their grueling practices culminated in a life-changing training camp.

And from there, the three UArizona athletes journeyed to Bangkok, Thailand, where they not only won gold medals in their chosen sport on the national stage while representing Team USA, but returned with a fresh arsenal of ideas for an already-successful Wildcats program.  Continue reading “Triumph in Bangkok: Arizona trio win IWBF gold medals, offer fresh perspective on adaptive athletics”

• Slug: Sports-Pat Murphy Brewers, 800 words.
• Photo available.

By Jake Brown
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In 2007, Phoenix native Ted Aust was recruited by Arizona State from Villanova. Aust, a senior transfer, was invited to the house of Pat Murphy, who was the Sun Devils’ legendary baseball coach. There, Aust met World Series-winning second baseman Craig Counsell, who was also visiting. Murphy ensured Aust would have a role in the Sun Devils bullpen once he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Nearly 16 years later, after Counsell had transitioned into managing and was hired away from the Milwaukee Brewers by the Chicago Cubs, Murphy earned a promotion from Milwaukee bench coach to take over as the Brewers’ new skipper, the team announced Wednesday.

“There’s just something about this city,” Murphy, 64, said Thursday in his introductory press conference at American Family Field, one day after agreeing to a three-year contract to man the Brewers’ helm. Continue reading “Skip to the Brew: Former ASU baseball coach Pat Murphy hired Milwaukee’s manager”

• Slug: Sports-Pac-12 Transfer Portal Impact, 1,250 words.
• Photo available.

By Caitlin Fowble
Cronkite News

LAS VEGAS – Last Friday, the Arizona men’s basketball team traveled to Durham, N.C., to take on Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The game was the Wildcats’ hardest to date in the young season, and they entered the ranked matchup as the underdogs.

North Carolina transfer Caleb Love led the upset with one of the top performances, posting 11 points, three assists and two steals to help Arizona move to No. 3 in the rankings as the team looks to continue its dominance in the young season with three new transfers on the roster. Continue reading “Shaken and stirred: NCAA transfer portal transforms Pac-12 basketball”

• Slug: Sports-CFP Rankings Week 3, 900 words.
• Photo available.

By Jesse Brawder
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In what can only be described as a fever dream for the Pac-12 in its final year, one of its schools still has the opportunity to create chaos in the College Football Playoff race.

In the first season Oregon State has appeared in the CFP rankings, the No. 11 Beavers (8-2, 5-2 Pac-12) will have the ultimate chance to shake up the playoff hunt during the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Beavers’ schedule for their final two games is arguably one of the most difficult in the country, as they take on No. 5 Washington (10-0, 7-0 Pac-12) and No. 6 Oregon (9-1, 6-1 Pac-12) to close out the season. Continue reading “Oregon State eyes chaotic conclusion to upend Pac-12 in College Football Playoff race”

• Slug: Sports-Corbin Carroll Rookie Award, 1,000 words.
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By Tyler Bednar
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – One year ago, Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll had only 32 major league games under his belt. With the Diamondbacks mired in a five-year postseason drought, general manager Mike Hazen had seen enough.

The organization ponied up on March 11, weeks ahead of the 2023 season, to offer the 22-year outfielder an eight-year, $111 million contract extension. In a sport where the potential of franchise players doesn’t always pan out, the Diamondbacks took a measured risk and the bet paid off tenfold.

On Monday, Carroll won the National League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award by unanimous vote. Continue reading “Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll wins first Rookie of the Year Award in franchise history”

• Slug: Sports-Phoenix Rising Win Title, 1,232 words.
• 2 photos available.

By William Scott
Cronkite News

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – As Emil Cuello walked up to the penalty spot, the roar of the Charleston Battery home crowd at Patriots Point Soccer Complex was deafening.

Fans whistled, screamed obscenities, waved flags, slammed thunder sticks together and did anything to create a wall of noise in an effort to distract Cuello, who was taking Phoenix Rising FC’s first penalty in the shootout that would decide the fate of the USL Championship Final on Sunday.

It worked. Continue reading “‘They don’t know how to die’: Phoenix Rising win first ever USL Championship”

• Slug: Sports-ASU Triathlon Championship Preview, 630 words.
• Photo available.

By Thomas McDonald
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona State’s No.1 ranked women’s triathlon team is eyeing a seventh straight national title when it competes in the Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championship Saturday.

The race features 30-plus teams from three divisions and includes a 750-meter swim in Tempe Town Lake, a multi-looped closed 20-kilometer bike course and a flat 5K two-loop run.

Defending its title will not be easy for ASU, coach Cliff English said, because the competition has grown “stronger and stronger” each season.  Continue reading “ASU women’s triathlon team eyes 7th straight national title at Tempe competition”

• Slug: Sports-USA Hockey Laila Edwards, 1,080 words.
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By Chase Beardsley
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Mullett Arena buzzed with excitement Wednesday night, with the anticipation of not one but two groundbreaking milestones. Team USA women’s hockey made its debut in the Valley for the 2023-24 Rivalry Series against Team Canada, and as the puck drop drew near, fan noise reached a crescendo in the hope of witnessing another piece of history.

Laila Edwards was set to become the first Black woman to suit up for the women’s national team before she was announced as a healthy scratch. Edwards is expected to play Saturday when the popular series moves to Los Angeles, delaying a long-overdue feat that should have happened a long time ago – and she’s the first one to fully admit that.

Although she finds it disappointing that it took this long for a Black female to crack the national team’s roster, she’s excited for what she can inspire in the future. Continue reading “Never give up: Laila Edwards set to break color barrier for U.S. women’s hockey”

• Slug: Sports-Diamondbacks Playing Catch-up, 1,400 words.
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By Sabrina McClain
Cronkite News

SCOTTSDALE – Playing October baseball was a novelty for the Arizona Diamondbacks and advancing to the 2023 World Series was even more unfamiliar. However, the longer the season went, the more the Diamondbacks fell behind on offseason duties – another unique experience the organization had not dealt with since the club’s 2001 run to the Fall Classic.

Evaluating the team’s inevitable offseason changes was put on the back burner – and for good reason, as Arizona made a magical run through October before losing the World Series in five games to the Texas Rangers. But despite the postseason success, Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen feels extremely behind in preparing for a shot at redemption in 2024.

“We’re just coming out of the coma right now,” Hazen said Wednesday at MLB’s general manager meetings in Scottsdale. “Just trying to get our arms around the market, the players’ availability of both trade and free agencies … we’re just starting to have conversations now. Continue reading “Behind the curve: GM Mike Hazen, Arizona Diamondbacks playing catch-up following World Series run”

• Slug: Sports-U.S. Canada Women’s Hockey, 1,760 words.
• Photo  available

By Chase Beardsley
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Arizonans have witnessed many big sporting events take over the state’s arenas throughout the years. However, they will see something many have never seen before when the United States women’s national hockey team faces off against Canada in the 2023-24 Rivalry Series, with the first of the seven-game competition tipping off Wednesday night at Mullett Arena.

The matchup between Team Canada and Team USA is as fierce and as passionate as any rivalry in any sport. It stretches back decades, with the two sides facing each other countless times in the past and mostly, inevitably, in the final rounds of the Olympics and tournament play. In fact, every women’s Olympic gold medal game has been between the two countries with the exception of one year.

It began in Nagano, Japan, when the 1998 Olympics featured women’s teams in the ice hockey competition for the first time. Team Canada was heavily favored, blowing through all competitors in nearly every tournament for years, with Team USA a perennial second. Continue reading “One of sport’s fiercest rivalries comes to Mullett Arena as Team USA meets Canada in women’s hockey”

• Slug: Sports-Brittney Griner Team USA, 730 words.
• File photo available available

By Sebastian Sanchez
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Brittney Griner pledged never to play overseas again – with one notable exception: representing Team USA.

The opportunity arose in October, when the USA Basketball Women’s National Team unveiled its training camp roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics, featuring Griner and her Phoenix Mercury teammate, Diana Taurasi.

“I didn’t think I would ever wear this jersey again,” Griner said Tuesday. “I didn’t know what the future was.” Continue reading “‘I didn’t think I would ever wear this jersey again’: Brittney Griner willing to return overseas for Team USA”

• Slug: Sports-Offensive Linemen Food, 4,500 words.
• 3 photos available

By Logan Stanley
Cronkite News

PHOENIX — In the sport of football, the “trenches” is another name for the area of the field where offensive linemen and defensive linemen clash. It is often one of the hardest places to play, and that means these players must have the most grit and determination.

Usually, the toughest athletes are called upon. And the biggest.

To push other large human bodies around in a way that satisfies football coaches requires an incredible amount of strength. Bigger typically means stronger, and those who battle it out on the offensive and defensive lines weigh more than any other players on a football field. Continue reading “Pancake blocks to pancake stacks: Eating ‘a chore’ for offensive linemen in complex relationship with football, food”

• Slug: Sports-Desert Ridge Robotics, 2,000 words.
• 2 photos available

By Jesse Brawders
Cronkite News

MESA – There have always been various ways for students to compete during high school, from football to field hockey, cheerleading to chess.

But a recent technological revolution is creating a new opportunity for students – competitive robotics.

The revolution has evolved worldwide since the inaugural VEX season in 2007, with more than 20,000 teams from around the world now competing against each other. Continue reading “Desert Ridge High School leads way in building bridge to connect students with world of competitive robotics”

• Slug: Sports-Coyotes Strong Start,  980 words.
• Photo available

By Chase Beardsley
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The Arizona Coyotes are off to their best start in years.

Barely a handful of games into the season, there have been some interesting and disappointing factors in the young core.

True, the 4-4-1 record is merely the best start over a nine-game span since the 2019-20 season. What has given life to the Coyotes’ first month of the 2023-24 season? While the sample size is still small, some patterns have emerged. Continue reading “Grab bag: Arizona Coyotes offer fresh mix of good and bad in season’s strong start”

• Slug: Sports-Baseball Players Relationships, 2,100 words.
• 4 photos available

By Alexis Davis
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The default ringtone on Andrew Saalfrank’s iPhone began to chime just as he was in the middle of making a deli sandwich. On the other end of the call was Blake Lalli, manager for the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate.

“Oh, no,” Saalfrank said.

He answered the phone and walked away. Continue reading “Sisterhood of the traveling baseball: Life for partners of pro players isn’t always easy”

• Slug: Sports-Big 12 Schedule Release, 570 words.
• Photo available

By Walker Smith
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As their time in the Pac-12 nears its end, the Arizona and Arizona State football teams learned how their new era in the Big 12 will start.

The Big 12 conference announced Wednesday the upcoming matchups for the next four seasons starting in 2024, including the home and away schedules for newcomers ASU and UArizona.

The Sun Devils will play four home games and five away games in 2024. They will host BYU, UCF, Kansas and Utah, while facing Arizona, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech on the road.  Continue reading “Big 12 announces conference schedules for ASU, Arizona football in 2024-2027 seasons”

• Slug: Sports – Dbacks Fan Two Decades, 750 words.
• 2 photos available

By Jake Brown
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Jeff Golner had a golden opportunity to work the World Series in 2001, but the chance to witness his favorite team win the championship while he was working in game operations at Bank One Ballpark quickly soured at the thought of the opposing team crashing his dreams.

Invited to work the unveiling of the championship trophy after Game 7, Golner had to prepare for both outcomes as a member of the game ops team. However, being superstitious, he tried not to think about the possibility of handing over the Commissioner’s Trophy to the New York Yankees.

“I said, ‘Great, I won’t be there,’” Golner said, joking about the meeting invitation he received to coordinate the trophy presentation. “This is Baseball Superstition 101. I won’t be attending that meeting.’” Continue reading “Avid Diamondbacks fan Jeff Golner rings in World Series return with engagement and mother”