A much-improved UTEP women’s golf team will look to surprise the field at next week’s Conference USA Championship, which tees off on Monday in Fort Myers, Fla.
“Because of the season we’ve had, we’ve got to win to continue on to regionals,” coach Jere Pelletier said on Thursday. “There are quite a few teams this year that are ahead of us. I think we are ranked sixth or seventh. But we have surprised them before, and I think the mindset is we don’t have anything to lose. We’ve just got to get out there and play and hopefully we can surprise them again.”
Six years ago, the Miners entered the C-USA Championship rated seventh among league teams but captured their first league title, overthrowing no. 13 Tulane and no. 42 Tulsa in the process.
UTEP has put together a strong season that included one tournament title and three runner-up finishes in the fall. The Miners appear to have regained their stride in the last two spring tournaments, tying for third place at the Little Rock/Arkansas State Invitational and tying for sixth at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic.
The Miners have strength at the top of their lineup in sophomore Lily Downs (75.2 scoring average), senior Alisa Rodriguez (75.4) and junior June Ting (75.7). Downs and Ting have both claimed tournament titles this season. All three have picked up six top-20 finishes in 2016-17.
“You’re hoping everybody is peaking at the same time and playing their best,” Pelletier said. “We seem to be playing pretty good right now. Alisa, Lily and June have been steady all year. The key for us in the conference is going to be to get one of the other two players to play well. My senior Sofia [Castiello] is starting to play good, and my freshman Abbie (Anghelescu) has shown some real signs of improvement this spring and I think she’s going to play well.”
A total of 11 teams will participate in the championship at the par-72, 6,194-yard Verandah Golf Club. Eighteen holes will be played each day, Monday through Wednesday. Old Dominion enters as the favorite with a no. 63 ranking by GolfStat. UTEP is rated no. 126. Live stats will be available at www.golfstat.com.
The tournament was also in Fort Myers a year ago.
“Alisa and Sofia played [the course] well last year,” Pelletier said. “Lily played pretty well. And right now Lily seems to be playing the best of all three of them. I think it’s going to be a dogfight to see which one comes in first.”
The UTEP track and field team return to action as they head to the Golden State for the Mt. SAC Relays (May 13-14) and the Jim Bush Collegiate Invitational (May 15).
It will be the first action for the Miners since competing in the Texas Relays two weeks ago.
Mt. SAC
Heading to Torrance, Calif. will see the 5 distance runners for the Miners on Friday. Daniel Cheruiyot in the 3,000m steeplechase set for a 4:30 p.m. PT start. Cheruiyot earned a fifth-place finish at the Texas Relays on March 29.
Three Miners will compete in the 10,000m run, Winny Koech and Gladys Jerotich will set to run at 6:00 p.m., followed by Antony Kosgei in the men’s open at 6:40 p.m. Cosmas Boit will compete in the 5,000m run set for 7:40 p.m.
UCLA Invitational
The second destination will see the Miners compete at the UCLA Drake Stadium on Saturday. Starting the day at 8:30 a.m., will be Abedola Akomolafe, Fayon Gonzales and Cierra Chenault in the hammer throw. Lucia Mokrasova and Tyler Ragin will compete in the long jump set for 10:00 a.m. Israel Ramsay returns to the high jump after placing second at the C-USA indoor championships.
Sophomore sensation, Tobi Amusan will race in the 100m dash set for 3:20 p.m. Amusan holds the nation’s fastest time in the 100m hurdles with a time of 12.63. Lilian Koech will run in the 800m, after posting the third-fastest time (2:08.51) in the C-USA this season registered at the Texas Relays. Competing in the 400m dash will be Ada Benjamin, Florence Uwakwe, Imani Adams and Madison Gibson.
On the men’s side, Emmanuel Korir makes his return to the track after winning the 800m NCAA Championship on March 10. The freshman has made an immediate impact on the track setting an indoor school record in the 800m (1:46.75). Korir also recorded a world best 1:14.97 during the indoor season in the 600m. The distance runner will compete in the 800m at 3:45 p.m., along with sophomore Jonah Koech.
Competing in the 1,500m run will be Michael Saruni and Evans Kiprono. Saruni had an outstanding performance at the Texas Relays where he set the second-fastest outdoor school time in the 800 (1:45.82). The mid-distance runner competed against the 2012 Olympic silver medialist (Leonel Manzano) and the collegiate record holder (Donivan Brazier) in Austin. Saruni and Kiprono will be set to run at 5:05 p.m.
�ACL injuries have become a youth sports epidemic and are the No. 1 sports injury we operate on at our outpatient surgical center,� says Jennifer Beck, MD, associate director of the Center for Sports Medicine at the Orthopaedic Institute for Children, in a media release.
�The injury is most common in sports that involve sudden changes of direction�such as football and soccer�but fortunately there are some basic things athletes can do to lessen the chance of injury.�
Beck notes in the release that most ACL injuries are not the result of contact with another player but rather occur during sudden twisting motions (such as when the feet are planted one way and the knees are turned another way), or when landing from a jump. Factors that can contribute to ACL injuries include biomechanical issues such as muscle strength and leg alignment, as well as sport technique and preparation.
Young athletes can reduce their risk for ACL injuries by performing training drills that require balance, jumping, power, and agility.
�Drills such as these also help�improve neuromuscular conditioning and muscular reactions and have shown to ultimately decrease the risk of ACL injury,� Beck adds.
Other exercises could include focused stretches, leg raises, leg lifts, prone hip extensions, and sidesteps.
Along with these tips, the OIC Center for Sports Medicine advises parents and coaches to ensure that young athletes don�t skip the warm-ups, drink enough fluids, use proper equipment, and never play through pain.
�We want children to have fun, but it is also important to have a common sense approach to playing and to not ignore injury,� Beck shares. �While rest, ice, and ibuprofen can help reduce basic soreness, if pain persists parents should contact a physician. Failure to address a sports injury properly and promptly can lead to lifelong problems.�
[Source(s): Orthopaedic Institute for Children, Business Wire]
The majority of clients that present to the clinic with anterior knee pain over the coming year will more often than not have a patellofemoral (PF) problem.
It may be a slight bit of biomechanical mal-alignment that has stirred up the knee cap – this is the good, or they may have started to wear the cartilage behind the knee cap and as a result it has softened – chondromalacia � this is the bad. They may even have worn a hole into the knee cap cartilage and they now have a chondral defect, or worse still an osteochondral defect – the downright ugly.
These problems affect runners, cross fitters, group exercise enthusiasts (PUMP classes) and simple recreational walkers who spend a lot of time on hills and stairs.
How These Extremes Are Managed Will Differ
The biomechanical irritations and the chondromalacia versions can be managed conservatively with a combination of local treatment modalities and correcting the biomechanical faults. The more serious chondral/osteochondral defects often need some surgical intervention as often the pathology is too advanced to respond to conservative treatment alone.
Understanding the exact mechanical contributions of the knee cap in relation to the femur is critical for the therapist to effectively manage these problems.
At the local PF level, the fault is usually a malposition of the patella in the femoral trochlear groove. Often the knee cap is being pulled too far laterally and superiorly in the groove, creating an uneven contact situation between the knee cap and the femur. The PF compression force during loaded knee flexion (squats, lunges etc.) is no longer optimal and usually a smaller portion of the patella cartilage is taking all the load. This wears the cartilage down and creates pain and pathology. This is most noticeable as the knee flexes to 30 degrees and onwards as it is this knee flexion angle where the knee cap enters the femoral trochlear groove.
The more distant (but often dominant) faults lie at the hip/pelvis and at the feet. Below is a breakdown of common biomechanical faults that may contribute to PF pain syndromes.
1. Overpronation
If the foot pronates (rolls in) for too long or too much, the pronated midfoot forces the tibia to remain internally rotated. The femur follows the tibia and also internally rotates. This creates a mal-alignment at the knee whereby the PF arrangement is altered and the knee cap shifts laterally. We are all familiar with the Q angle of the knee and how this affects the PF alignment.
Common causes of overpronation may be structural flatfoot problems that can be corrected with orthotics and shoe selection. However, tight soleus (that limits dorsiflexion) or a tight and overactive peroneal system that everts the foot and flattens the foot can also be a cause.
Stretching and loosening the soleus and peroneals along with strengthening the anti-pronation muscles such as tibialis posterior, flexor hallucis longus and flexor digitorum longus may help fix this problem.
FADDIR represents a flexed, adducted and internally rotated hip joint at foot strike. This is often caused by tight and overactive hip flexors such as TFL and the adductors and weakness in the abductors (gluteus medius) and external hip rotators (gemellus, obturator muscles). This hip posture forces the femur to roll inwards and as a result the knee is deviated medially and away from the vertical line drawn up from the foot. This also increases the Q angle and PF misalignment results and perpetuates the local knee imbalance of tight and overactive lateral quadriceps and lateral hamstrings along with ITB tightness. As a result the VMO weakens.
Loosening the overactive TFL, adductors, lateral quad, ITB and lateral hamstring whilst strengthening the gluteus medius, hip external rotators and VMO may help this biomechanical mal-alignment.
3. Pelvic Trendelenburg
Defined as lateral pelvic shift whereby at stance phase the opposite side of the pelvis drops down below the height of the pelvis on the stance side. This is usually caused by a weak gluteus medius complex that is unable to hold the pelvis stable during stance phase. The implications again are that this causes the knee to roll in and increase the Q angle. The solution is to muscle up the gluteus medius.
This often forgotten about imbalance creates a situation whereby the individual finds it difficult to attain hip extension at the end of stance phase. The hip remains locked in a degree of flexion.
The knock on effect is that the knee also stays locked in some flexion. With the knee in flexion, the knee cap is now compressed against the femur, compression on the underside of the kneecap may result. To fix this the therapist needs to stretch/loosen the hip flexors and strengthen the gluteus maximus to promote more hip extension.
Chiropractors think that good health is decided by way of a healthy nervous system, particularly a healthy spinal column. Sometimes, vertebrae become misaligned and put pressure on the nerves exiting the spinal cord. The misalignment of a vertebra is called a chiropractic subluxation.
Chiropractors use specific methods to return the vertebrae in their proper locations or muster them to allow them to go freely when subluxations happen. These techniques are called spinal manipulations or adjustments. During an adjustment, the vertebra is freed in the misaligned location and returned to the right place in the spinal column. The adjustment permits the entire body to cure and preserve homeostasis once performed.
Chiropractors Are Trained In Many Different Adjustment Techniques
Some are done by hand; some necessitate using specialized instruments. Since each patient is different, your chiropractor will pick the best technique for the state. Nevertheless, don’t hesitate to ask the chiropractor which technique she or he will be doing and the way that it will be achieved.
Common Adjustment Techniques Employed By Chiropractors Are The Following:
Toggle Drop – this is when the chiropractor presses down firmly on a specific part of the back. Subsequently, using a drive that is precise and rapid, the chiropractor aligns the spine. This really is accomplished to enhance mobility in the vertebral joints.
Motion Palpation – this hand-on procedure is performed to determine in case your vertebrae are moving freely inside their normal planes of motion.
Lumbar Spin -the chiropractor positions the patient on her or his side, then implements a thrust that is quick and precise returning it to its proper place.
Release Work – the chiropractor applies gentle pressure using her or his fingertips to separate the vertebrae.
The chiropractor applies a quick thrust at once the table drops. The dropping of the table allows for a lighter adjustment without the twisting postures that can accompany the manual adaptation.
Instrument adjustments – of correcting the spinal column frequently the gentlest ways. The patient lies on the table while a string is used by the chiropractor face down – filled activator instrument to do the adjustment. This technique is frequently used to perform adjustments on creatures too.
Manipulation done under anesthesia (or twilight sedation) – this is performed by a chiropractor certified in this technique in a hospital outpatient setting when you’re unresponsive to traditional adjustments
Keep in mind that before you experience complete relief out of your symptoms you may really need to go back to the chiropractor’s office for additional adjustments.
People who run marathons go through intense training before enduring the physically grueling 26.2-mile event�so it�s little wonder their health can sometimes suffer. But on marathon days, the event can also create unexpected problems for non-runners who need urgent medical care.
In a new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that road closures and traffic disruptions on marathon days can lead to delays in emergency care that can cost people their lives.
Dr. Anupam Jena, from the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and his colleagues analyzed data from Medicare claims for hospitalizations for heart attack in 11 cities that hosted marathons from 2002 to 2012. They compared the death rates of these people on marathon days to those a few weeks before and after the marathon. People who had heart attacks on marathon days had a 13% higher rate of death than people on other days. Ambulances also took 4.4 minutes longer on days marathons were run.
�We were expecting to see there would potentially be delays in care,� says Jena, �but not necessarily increases in mortality. It�s difficult to influence mortality; you would have to have substantive delays in care.�
Road closures, detours and other changes in traffic patterns were dramatic enough to cause delays that could affect a person�s chance of surviving a heart attack, the team found. Over a year, marathons could contribute to an additional four deaths, based on the 30-day mortality rate calculations. The effect remained strong even after they adjusted for the possibility that more people visit a city hosting a marathon, and therefore statistically there may simply be more heart events. The researchers also made sure that hospitals and emergency services were not short-staffed or overburdened with the added volume of requests. All of these factors were similar on marathon and non-marathon days.
The disruption in traffic during a marathon is the primary reason for delays in care, Jena says. That�s good news because it�s a fixable problem; marathon planners can ensure that access to hospitals is not congested and affected by the race route.
The other lesson from the study is useful for people in need of medical attention. A quarter of the people in the study chose not to call an ambulance and instead drove themselves to the hospital�perhaps because they thought that emergency services were tied up with the marathon�and these people seemed to account for most of the higher mortality on marathon days, says Jena. That may be because they were forced to take more circuitous routes to reach the hospital, he says. �They don�t experience the four-minute delays of ambulance transport; they�re experiencing much larger delays because they are trying to drive themselves.�
Even with the delays, ambulances were the best form of transportation to the emergency room. �Anybody thinking of driving to the hospital themselves on the day of a major public event should pick up the phone and call 911,� Jena says.
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