Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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APRIL 2022 9 cavalier sports Maria Deaviz • Track & Field The second-year thrower from Souderton, Pa., earned her first- ever gold medal on the collegiate level at the ACC Indoor Champion- ships Feb. 24-26 in Blacksburg, Va. She wasted no time breaking a 14-year-old Vir- ginia record in the shot put on her second throw of the day, recording a toss of 54 feet, 11.5 inches. Deaviz was the top-ranked shot put athlete in the country when she joined the UVA program two years ago. Jake Gelof • Baseball The second-year third base- man from Rehoboth Beach, Del., was named the ACC Player of the Week Feb. 28 after hitting .900 (9 for 10) with four home runs and 15 RBI in four games. He capped his big week by becoming the first Cavalier to hit for the cycle in 21 years. During UVA's school-record-tying 19-1 start through March 21, Gelof hit .464 (seventh nation- ally), and led the country in home runs (12), RBI (45) and slugging percentage (1.174). Garrett Grice • Wrestling The 2022 signee from Bel- levue, Neb., joined one of the most exclusive groups in his home state when he became the 35th member of the four-time state champion club Feb. 19. The 138-pounder went 50-0 during his senior season at Bellevue East and finished his career with a 196-1 record. Grice, the nation's No. 11 recruit at 132 pounds and the No. 81 overall prospect per FloWrestling, signed with UVA in November. Emma Navarro • Tennis The second-year from Charles- ton, S.C., was named the ACC Player of the Week March 8 after picking up a pair of top-20 wins in singles, both in straight sets. She topped No. 7 Cameron Morra of North Carolina (6-3, 6-3) and defeated No. 19 Georgia Drummy of Duke (6-2, 6-4). Navarro was also awarded a wild card entry into the main draw of the singles championship at the 2022 BNP Paribas Open March 7-20 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif. HOO'S HOT Recognizing the "Who's Hoo" in UVA athletics — Cavalier student-athletes, past, present and future who are making news around the world of sports. 10 Or more victories at home for the Virginia men's basketball program in 13 straight seasons. UVA is an ACC-leading 78-13 (.857) in league home games over the past 10 seasons, per the school's media relations depart- ment. Duke is second at 77-14 (.846). UVA has also won 18 or more games for 11 straight years and has 12 or more ACC wins each of the last four seasons. 11 Career walk-off home runs in the major leagues for former Cavalier Ryan Zimmerman, who announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Feb. 15. He is one of only 10 players in major league history to have that many game-ending home runs, according to ESPN Stats & Information re- search. Eight of those players are in the Hall of Fame. The Nationals took him with their first pick (fourth overall) in the 2005 MLB Draft soon after the team moved from Montreal to Washington, and he spent his entire career with the franchise. He currently stands as the Nationals' career leader in games (1,799), runs (963), hits (1,846), total bases (3,159), doubles (417), home runs (284) and RBI (1,061). Zimmerman, 37, was a two-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger winner (2009, 2010) and a Gold Glove winner (2009), and helped Washington win its first World Series championship in 2019. He had hits in 10 of the Nationals' 16 postseason games in 2019 and hit the first World Series home run in Nationals franchise history. " For 17 seasons, Ryan Zimmerman epitomized what it meant to be the face of the franchise. He was an All-Star, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner, Comeback Player of the Year and World Series cham- pion — but those accolades pale in comparison to his impact on our organi- zation and in the community during his career. Ryan always carried himself with class, honor and respect and played the game for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back." — Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo on the former Cavalier baseball star and MLB standout after he retired 60 Runs scored by Virginia against Cornell Feb. 25-27, a school record for a three-game series against one opponent. The 60 runs — 24-9, 17-2 and 19-1 wins over the Big Red — were tied for the most in any three-game span in the history of the program. The only other three-game stretch of 60 runs came all the way back in 1891. Virginia scored 10 or more runs in nine straight games from Feb. 23-March 8, breaking the school record of seven consecutive contests achieved in 1893. The Wahoos scored 236 runs in their first 20 games (11.8 per outing), the most in the country through March 20. Tennessee was second with 227. 533 Assists — fifth on UVA's all-time list — for fourth-year guard Kihei Clark in 127 career games as of March 21. He reached the 500 milestone after dishing out seven assists in a hard-fought 65-61 loss to Duke Feb. 23, making him just the fifth UVA player with 1,000 career points and 500 career assists. The other four are John Crotty, Sean Singletary, London Perrantes and Donald Hand. 1942 Was the last time the Virginia baseball program recorded three shutouts in its first four games of the season, until that feat was achieved this year against Bellarmine (1-0), Gardner-Webb (7-0) and VMI (14-0). That has happened only three times in school history, with the other occurrence coming in 1908. Through March 20, Virginia was tied for the national lead in shutouts (five), and ranked fifth in ERA (2.35), fourth in strikeouts (236) and tied for fifth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.8).