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Courtney Bumpers Named Hardee's Carolina Student-Athlete of the Week
April 25, 2005 Courtney Bumpers won her second NCAA gymnastics title in as many years with a perfect 10 on the floor exercise and is the Hardees Student-Athlete of the Weekfor April 18-24, 2005. A junior from Stone Mountain, Ga., Bumpers defeated her 2004 co-champion, Alabama's Ashley Miles (9.975), to become the uncontested 2005 champion with a meet-high score. After winning Session I in Thursday's preliminary round with a score of 9.95, Bumpers was named a first-team All-America for the second time on floor exercise and the third time in her career and advanced to the final round. She successfully defended her 2004 national title, topping last year's score of 9.9375. Bumpers was competing without her team, which came in third at the 2005 NCAA Southeast Regional Championship where a second-place finish was necessary for a national bid. She faced gymnasts from five of the Super Six teams - Georgia, Alabama, Utah, UCLA and Nebraska - and two teams that competed in the preliminary round but did not qualify for the Super Six team finals - Iowa State and LSU. Bumpers is one of three gymnasts in the history of the Carolina program to compete at nationals but the only one to ever earn All-America status or advance to the final round. Other Nominees: BASEBALL Bard fired his second career complete game shutout in Sunday's two-hitter over Duke. He was sharp from the start, retiring the first seven batters he faced and setting down the side in order in three separate innings. He allowed just three walks on top of the two hits en route to his first shutout since a two-hitter against California on March 12, 2004. He also worked four innings in Tuesday's 18-6 win over East Carolina. Bard improved to 7-2 on the season with the win over Duke and lowered his season ERA to 3.34. He now has 51 strikeouts in 64.2 innings and is holding opponents to a .203 batting average. ROWING North Carolina's novice eight finished third, UNC's best finish of the day, at Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at Clemson. The novice boat's medal-winning finish came in a time of 7:34.3, behind Clemson and Virginia and ahead of Miami and Duke. Racing in the UNC boat were Tiffany Pierce (coxswain), Reine Duffy, Anna DeLoach, Megan Mitzel, Hannah Early, Devin Hudson, Sarah Norris, Chris Tommerdahl and Lauren Eney. MEN'S TENNIS Senior Jonathan Janda had the match clinching victories against both NC State and Duke as North Carolina's men's tennis team became only the second team seeded as low as No. 7 to advance to the ACC Tournament semifinals in the history of the championship. Janda won in both doubles and singles against NC State in the first round as the Tar Heels whipped the Wolfpack 4-0. Janda clinched the win by avenging a regular-season loss to NC State's William Noblitt 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 5 singles spot. In the quarterfinals, Janda was one of four Tar Heels to win in singles as Carolina rallied from a loss in the doubles point to upset the eighth-ranked Blue Devils 4-2. Janda's victory over Ned Samuelson at No. 5 singles 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 lifted UNC to its first win over Duke since 1996 after 11 successive dual match losses to the Blue Devils. Janda saved a match point in the second set which he went on to win in a tiebreaker 7-0. Janda then won the third set by breaking Samuelson's serve in the 10th game of the set. Janda improved to 7-1 in three-set matches this year. MEN'S LACROSSE Playing for the first time in his career in Upstate New York near his Auburn hometown, junior attackman Ryan Blair recorded a career-high eight points as the North Carolina men's lacrosse team defeated Colgate 12-6 at Tyler's Field on April 20. Blair equaled his career high with three goals while recording a career-high five assists in the match. Blair's eight points broke his previous career high of six he set earlier this season in games against Denver, Duke and Virginia. This marked the sixth time he has scored a career-high three goals in a game and his five assists broke his previous high mark of four against Maryland on March 22, 2003. SOFTBALL Crystal Cox picked up four wins on the week to lead the Tar Heels to a 5-0 record, including a three-game sweep at Maryland. Cox tossed 22.1 scoreless innings on the week, including a pair of complete-game shutouts. Cox recorded all three wins in the weekend ACC series in College Park, firing a shutout in game one, then picking up wins the other two wins with relief appearances. For the week, Cox struck out 34 batters while walking only four. MEN'S TRACK Vikas Gowda, the current national leader in the discus by more than five meters, won the ACC title in the event Friday at the ACC Outdoor Championships in Tallahassee, Fla, with a throw of 203 feet, 5 inches. Gowda has not lost a discus competition this year, and is the favorite at the NCAA East Regional meet May 27-28. WOMEN'S TRACK Erin Donohue capped her final ACC Championship meet with a conference title in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:09.06. Donohue also earned All-ACC honors in the 1,500 meters, taking second in 4:20.57. Donohue is currently ranked second in the nation in the 1,500.
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