Summer Update: Red, White and Aggie Blue

The UC Davis campus remains in its quiet summer mode while most student-athletes continue in their offseason mode (if they're not traveling the world). However, a handful of Aggies continue to wear the colors at this time of year, even if they're not the usual blue and gold.

For starters, almost the entire baseball team (or so it seems) has taken to the various summer wood-bat leagues around the country. Joe Waltasti assembled a handy online headquarters on the main website to track those guys: http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/071713aac.html.

This supplements another cool Waltasti-penned page summarizing bios, stats and Twitter accounts for the various Aggie baseball players in the professional leagues: http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060713aaa.html. Note: this hereby counts as my obligatory Daniel Descalso update.

Assistant track and cross country coach Kim Conley continues to achieve on the world stage as she prepares for the IAAF World Championships in Moscow. She posted a monster personal record of 8:47.95 in the 3,000-meter race at the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games last weekend, competing alongside two-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury and her fellow London 5K qualifier Molly Huddle.

Although her TRACKimmy blog has gone dormant for a year, Conley posts regular updates of her training on her Twitter (@KimConley). If nothing else, she reveals which recent Aggie trackster has turned pro as a member of Oiselle's Haute Volée team.

Davis High/UC Davis alum Tyler Raber claimed another tournament win on the amateur circuit with his victory at the Pacific Coast Amateur. He had captured the Silicon Valley Amateur in January, following a victory at the 2012 Trans-Mississippi event. Raber gave chase in defending his Trans-Miss title earlier this month, overcoming a relatively slow start by firing a 66 in the final round to finish in a tie for 18th.

Finally, UC Davis had not one, but two water polo representatives at the 19th Maccabiah Games, a competition for Jewish athletes. 2009 All-American Dakotah Sturla (formerly Mohr), who previously starred in Davis High's royal blue and UC Davis' Yale blue, returned to the tank to help captain the USA team past host Israel, 14-6, in the gold medal game. This completed an American sweep, as Mike Millstein and the men's team also defeated Israel, 9-3, to end a 12-year drought for the gold medal. So a hearty mazel tov to both of them.

(Photo credit: Stanford Schwimer)

That's about it for now. As we head into August, keep an eye out both on TOTB and the main site for featured content, perhaps most notably the new Jabari's Corner. Hopefully, we'll get volleyball player Holland Seymour to contribute more guest blogs. Also, swimmer Sarah Luibel and high jumper Mo Spikes look to join forces with AGTV in creating some video content in 2013-14. We'll keep you posted on what happens on that front and, of course, we'll crosslink their work on our site.
 
Mark Honbo, assistant athletics communications director, has roughly a week left in his summer. The Aggie fall teams begin reporting next week, starting with women's soccer.