Sports briefs
Rohanna qualifies for U.S. Open
Rachel Rohanna of Waynesburg shot a 36-hole score of 1-over 141 Monday to win the lone berth in the 49-golfer field in the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at Chartiers Country Club. She opened with a 3-over 73, but played her second round in 2-under 68. She won the event by four strokes.
The Women’s U.S. Open will be played at Country Club of Charleston, Charleston, S.C., May 30-June 2.
Men’s tennis
The Washington & Jefferson men’s tennis team will travel to Johns Hopkins to take on the Blue Jays in Friday’s first round of the NCAA Division III Championships.
W&J won its fourth Presidents’ Athletic Conference title and first since 1969. W&J enters the NCAA tournament with a 15-3 record. Sophomore Nate Wang, a Peters Township graduate, was named the PAC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. This will mark the first NCAA tournament appearance in W&J history.
Johns Hopkins won its 13th straight Centennial Conference title. The Blue Jays enter with a 16-4 record and were 9-0 in conference. This will be the 14th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament for Johns Hopkins.
The 43-team field will play a single-elimination tournament with the first, second and third rounds played at regional sites, Friday through Sunday or Thursday through Saturday. Kalamazoo will host the finals May 20-22.
Riggle receives
Dal Canton Award
California University’s baseball program honored one of its greats last weekend with the presentation of the 11th-annual Bruce Dal Canton Pitching Award, which is given to a Vulcans pitcher who exemplifies greatness of character. The award is in memory of Dal Canton, who died in 2008 from esophageal cancer.
Junior Nick Riggle was the recipient of the award. He has a 7-2 record and is ranked second in the PSAC with a 2.05 ERA in 10 starts. Riggle has 45 strikeouts in a career-high 66 innings and has held opponents to a .239 batting average. For his career, Riggle has a 14-9 record.
Dal Canton was a charter member of the Cal U Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995 and spent more than 30 seasons in professional baseball as both a player and coach. He made his major league debut in 1967 with the Pittsburgh Pirates before retiring in 1977. He appeared in more than 300 games during his career with four organizations: the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox.
Following his playing career, Dal Canton worked with the Atlanta Braves as both a minor league and major league pitching coach.
Woods awarded Medal of Freedom
President Donald Trump awarded golfer Tiger Woods the nation’s highest civilian honor on Monday, describing the 43-year-old as a “true legend” who transformed golf and then fought through years of injury to return to the sport’s summit.
Trump awarded Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s the fourth golfer to earn that distinction and certainly the youngest. While Woods dominated the sport for more than a decade, he won his first major in nearly 11 years at last month’s Masters Tournament, a comeback that captivated the sporting world.
“Tiger was back on top,” Trump declared during the Rose Garden ceremony.
If there were a Mount Rushmore for golfers, Woods would almost certainly be on it. He ranks second in PGA Tour wins and in major tournament victories. But the president’s decision to award the nation’s highest civilian honor to Woods also raised scrutiny about whether the president should be boosting the profile of a business associate of The Trump Organization.
Trump understood the importance of Woods comeback to golf and its fans, tweeting shortly after the Masters win that he was awarding Woods the medal because of his “incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE.”