Wildcat Wrap: Arizona tennis, women’s golf open fall slate

Editor’s note: With several sports going on, Wildcat Wrap serves as a recap that focuses on the Arizona programs that we do not have the time to cover on a regular basis but are certainly worthy of recognition.

The fall sports calendar is underway, with Arizona men’s and women’s tennis and women’s golf competing in the coming days.

Men’s tennis heads to San Francisco and Austin, Texas Thursday for the Battle of the Bay (San Francisco) and Longhorn Invitational (Austin).

No. 23 Colton Smith and No. 99 Herman Hoeyeraal will compete at the Battle of the Bay while No. 50 Gustaf Strom, No. 92 Nick Lagaev, Sasha Rozin, and Casper Christensen will participate in the Longhorn Invitational.

Men’s tennis opened the fall season by hosting the Wildcat Invite and competing in the USC + 1.

The women's tennis program will also participate in the Battle of the Bay. The tournament runs Sept. 21-24.

Women’s golf

Women’s golf begins the fall season Friday at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tenn. The three-day event features several of the nation’s top teams include Vanderbilt, Baylor, Auburn and ASU, all of whom are ranked in the WGCA’s preseason top 25 poll. Arizona is unranked in the poll but fourth in receiving votes.

Arizona competed in the event a year ago, finishing runner-up.

“It’s always exciting to compete in the first tournament of the year, especially at a great event like the Mason Rudolph Championship,” said head coach Laura Ianello. “We played great on this course last year, and our young ladies are eager to get back out there again. This was a young team that made a deep run in Scottsdale last season, which set the stage for us to improve this year. This weekend will be our first chance to see our growth and development as a team.”

Triathlon

Arizona triathlon competed in its second competition last weekend, finishing fifth out of six teams at the Battle of Fort Worth.

Freshman Dana Prikrylova led Arizona with a time of 1:08:39 to finish third overall in the individual competition.

Arizona top-20 times from junior Laura Holanszky and sophomore Molly Lakutiak with finishes of 1:09:52 and 1:11:29 respectively.

Holanszky is one of two Arizona athletes set to compete in the U-23 Triathlon World Championships in Spain on Sunday. She will represent Hungary, while teammate Lydia Russell will compete for Team USA.

“I am incredibly proud to see these two represent our program on the world’s stage but also represent their home countries,” said Arizona Triathlon head coach Wes Johnson. “A big part of my vision for Arizona Triathlon is to be an Olympic-level program, having student-athletes compete at the highest levels. We recruit and compete against the best of the best from across the world, and to have Lydia and Laura accomplish this goal in the first year of our program means a lot.”