The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Forty Acres Insider: June 4
06.04.2019 | Forty Acres Insider
Important news, interesting tidbits and exciting stories happening in and around Texas Athletics compiled by Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte. [<a href="http://texassports.com/archives.aspx?path=forty_acres_insider">Forty Acres Insider archives</a>]
Greetings Longhorn Nation,
What a fun week we have ahead of us as Mike A. Myers Stadium will take center stage for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Title dreams will be in the air and the competition will be fierce as we roll out the Burnt Orange carpet for the more than 1,200 student-athletes and 177 programs descending on Austin. That group includes our Longhorns, and we'll be out there pulling for Coach Floréal and our 20 event qualifiers. It promises to be an exciting few days so we look forward to seeing everyone at the track! Tickets are still available for this incredible event.
I'm so grateful to all the staff members working the NCAA Championships and those volunteering their time to help out at the meet. We will be providing the finest of Texas hospitality and can't do it without the "we" not "me" attitude that our wonderful Athletics staff lives by, so thank you to everyone supporting our efforts.
As we look ahead I'd be remiss to not look back and pay tribute to the tremendous finishes our Men's Golf and Rowing teams turned in last week. How exciting was the Men's Golf Championship with those thrilling back-to-back wins over our Red River rivals Oklahoma and defending National Champion and top-seeded Oklahoma State to advance to the Championship Match. It didn't end the way we wanted it to, but I'm so proud of our team's grit and determination in finishing as the NCAA Championship runner-up. Thank you Golf Channel for your awesome coverage as Big 12 AD and President meetings in Dallas prevented me from joining the team in Fayetteville, but did allow for some good natured ribbing of our friends to the north as Coach Fields and the Longhorns got victories over the Sooners and the Cowboys. How good is Big 12 golf with three of the final eight teams in match play coming from our great league?!
And what about Coach O'Neill and the Rowing squad? He's built a program that was rarely talked about when he arrived in Austin five years ago into one that is now consistently among the nation's elite. A school-best second-place finish this year with all of our boats finishing in the top three for the first time ever is part of a steady climb that had our Longhorns taking third place in 2018, and fourth in 2017. Awesome job ladies!
That makes four Longhorn teams (Men's Golf, Men's Swimming & Diving, Rowing and National Champion Men's Tennis) with Top-2 NCAA finishes in 2018-19, the most for us in 25 years (1993-94) and second-most in school history! Seven programs (Women's Golf, Women's Swimming & Diving, Volleyball) have finished in the Top 5 and nine (Football, Softball) earned Top-10 finishes. What an amazing year, and we're not done yet!
With the spring semester complete and grades in the books, we are all extremely impressed by the performance of our student-athletes off the field, as well. We understand the demands and challenges they face in balancing academics and athletics, and we're so proud that our 484 student-athletes achieved a combined GPA of 3.09, 298 (62%) of them had a 3.0 or better, 141 (29%) posted a 3.5 or better, and 25 earned a perfect 4.0. Fifty-seven percent (277) of our student-athletes now have a 3.0 or better cumulative GPA. That is just awesome! We are so lucky to have a great student services staff, led by Dr. LaToya Smith, and I'm beyond grateful for all of their efforts and the support they provide our student-athletes. What starts here, changes the world!
In closing, as football season tickets go on sale to the public this week, we are incredibly proud of the efforts of our Longhorn Ticket Operations and Sales Team and the support of our passionate fans. During the upgrade and renewal process so far this offseason, 97 percent of Longhorn Nation renewed. Additionally, more than 6,000 new season tickets have already been purchased. We will be publishing our seat map for fans to choose season tickets with seat locations this Thursday, June 6, online at TexasSports.com/tickets or by calling 512-471-3333. Due to overwhelming demand, purchasing season tickets is the best way to guarantee seats for the LSU game on Sept. 7, as any remaining single game tickets will be offered first to current season ticket holders. We can't wait for the season to get here and are so excited to see everyone at DKR in the fall!
With your help, we're putting the "T" back in Texas, and the Pride and Winning Tradition of the Texas Longhorns is alive and well.
To receive the Forty Acres Insider via email, subscribe today!
Hook 'em, Horns!
Longhorn Diving Legend and our three-time Olympian Laura Wilkinson
Thanks to an awesome Longhorn fan who let us know about this terrific story. How cool is it that Longhorn Diving Legend and our three-time Olympian Laura Wilkinson – at the age of 41 – is in the midst of a comeback and training to compete for a spot on Team USA for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Check out her inspirational video.
Luke Yaklich named Men's Basketball Associate Head Coach
Welcome to the 40 Acres to Luke Yaklich, who joined Coach Smart's staff as associate head coach! Read more.
Kickoff times set for four Football games
We've got kickoff times and TV set for Louisiana Tech, Rice, Oklahoma and Texas Tech! Can't wait to see you all at DKR, on the road and in Dallas this fall! Shout out to our partners at Longhorn Network as we enter our ninth year with exclusively televised Football games! Read more.
Women's Golf sweeps 2019 Big 12 Conference awards
Congratulations to Women's Golf for sweeping the Big 12 awards with Coach Murphy as Coach of the Year, Agathe Laisne as Golfer of the Year and Hailee Cooper as Freshman of the Year! Read more.
No. 4 Rowing's Slijepcevic named Big 12 Rower of the Year
Congratulations to our Big 12 Rower of the Year Milica Slijepcevic aka Mica! Way to go Mica! Read more.
Three from Men's Tennis earn four ITA All-America honors
It's that time of year for championships and All-Americans, and Men's Tennis now has both! Congratulations to Yuya Ito, Harrison Scott and Christian Sigsgaard for that tremendous honor! Read more.
No. 9 Softball puts three on Softball America All-American teams
More All-Americans as our Softball team had three of their own! Congratulations to Janae Jefferson, Miranda Elish and Shealyn O'Leary! Read more.