Sports Brief: September 1

Intramurals

Women’s softball intramurals finished with the defending champions taking the lead in the all-sports race. Here is the updated all-sports rankings for the women’s division:

Gamma: 160

Upperclassmen: 120

Lambda:   90

Theta:   20

Iota:     0

Beta:     0 

Meanwhile, in the men’s division, Chi Lambda Phi got revenge over Delta Gamma Sigma, beating them 27-6. 

The game was close until 3 or 4 batters into the top of the first inning as Chi went up 20-0 after 2 innings played. Delta tried rallying back, allowing zero hits in the 4th and 5th inning, but Chi notched in the winning runs thanks to the 10 run per inning rule coming into play during the 6th. Winning the championship gives Chi the lead in the all-sports race, which can be seen here:

Chi: 140

Delta: 110

Freshmen:   70

Upperclassmen:   60

Kappa:     0

Alpha:     0

Psi:     0

The flag football season is right around the corner, so get ready to fight it out on the gridiron. This year, an upperclassmen team has been formed, allowing men who did not rush to still play football.

Women’s World Cup

The FIFA women’s World Cup concluded with Spain defeating England 1-0. The win makes Spain the fifth nation ever to win the women’s World Cup behind the United States, Norway, Germany and Japan.

Spain, as a whole, outplayed England in terms of shots, shots on target, passes and corners taken. They also played a cleaner game, committing less fouls. Spain took full advantage of their higher possession rate, having possession of the ball 58% of the time and an 81% pass accuracy compared to England’s 72%. 

During the second half, England subbed out 2 midfielders hoping to create more scoring opportunities, but Spain would go on to prevail after 15 minutes of stoppage.  Spain also scored early on thanks to left back Olga Carmona hitting the bottom right corner of the goal in the 29th minute.

World Track and Field Championships

The 2023 Budapest track and field championships have finished with the United States leaving victorious. The United States finished first on the medal table with 29 total medals, 12 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze. Canada and Spain tied for the second most gold medals at 4, but Jamaica finished second in total medals with 12 (3 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze).

The United States came back on the Netherlands to win an incredibly tight 4×400 mixed relay and set a world record time of 3:08.80. The team consisting of Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong, Matthew Boling and Alexis Holmes ran well, but did take advantage of the Netherlands’ anchor leg Femke Bol tripping before the finish line. This was the second time a Netherlands runner fell mid race that day, as Sifan Hassan tripped during the 10,000m final. 

Sha’Carri Richardson made history for the United States as the first athlete in history to win a world championship gold medal despite not qualifying automatically for the event. Richardson ran the third fastest time in her semifinal heat and ran the third fastest time overall. In the final, she beat out Jamaicans Shericaka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Preyce. Her time of 10.65 was a championship record, beating Jackson by only 7 hundredths of a second. 

Richardson would go on to win bronze in the 200m final, finishing behind American Gabrielle Thomas and Jamaican Shericka Jackson, who’s gold winning time of 21.41 was also a new championship record.

Major League Soccer.

Inter Miami beat Cincinnati in penalties on August 23 to move to the US Open Cup final. 

Despite his dominance since joining America’s premier soccer league, Lionel Messi did not score any goals until the penalty shootout. The shootout lasted until the last kicker, Cincinnati’s Nick Hagglund, missed the goal. 

Inter Miami will play Houston Dynamo in the Open Cup final on September 27, with kickoff at 7:35 p.m.