– Arizona senior Mason Lawyer was named the Big 12's performer of the year in men's track and field last week when he won the 100 and 200 in the Big 12 championships at the UA's Drachman Stadium. The UA benefited from Washington State's decision last summer to eliminate all track and field events except distance running. That meant WSU sprints/hurdles coach Gabe Mvumvure was out of a job. Fortunately, new UA track coach Andrew Dubs was sharp enough to hire Mvumvure, who brought Lawyer to Tucson with him. Dubs had a terrific first season at Arizona, finishing No. 2 in the Big 12 men's finals. Dating to 2014, the UA men's track team never finished higher than No. 6 in the Pac-12 meet.
Arizona’s Mason Lawyer churns into the lead on the turn en route to wining the 200 meter dash at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Tucson on May 16, 2026. Lawyer’s 20.02 was a personal best, a record at Drachman Stadium and a meet record.
– Tommy Lloyd’s decision to schedule a nine-day exhibition/training trip to Lithuania in August will probably cost the UA athletic department close to $400,000. But that's chump change when you consider Arizona has been the No. 1 recruiting force in Lithuania in the 2020s, landing Azuolas Tubelis, Kerr Kriisa, Motiejus Krivas, incoming freshman Ugnius Jarusevicius and ex-UA forward Paulius Murauskas from the country. Lloyd's success has alerted top coaches, such as Michigan State's Tom Izzo, to Lithuania. Izzo is taking MSU on a summer exhibition trip to Lithuania this year also. Arizona's history with Lithuania goes back over 20 years to foreign recruit Robertas Javtokas in 1999.
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– The Arizona Interscholastics Association (AIA) chose the right person to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Class 6A state championship softball game last week — former CDO and UA star Callista Balko Elmore. Twenty-five years ago, 2001, Callista helped lead CDO to the state softball championship. She went on to be the starting catcher on Arizona's 2006 and 2007 NCAA championship teams.
– Brian Anderson, a pitcher/outfielder who played on CDO's 2000 state baseball championship team and became a No. 1 draft pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2003, is now working for the Big Ten Network. Anderson, who played under Jerry Stitt and Andy Lopez at Arizona, last week interviewed Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski during the Big Ten playoffs. Wasikowski was Anderson's position coach during his final Arizona season. Since Anderson's MLB career ended, he has coached at Arizona, Pima College and Northwestern. He now works for Amprion, a medical diagnostics firm.
– The rich get richer in college sports. Arizona's Big 12 foe Texas Tech, buoyed by money from mega-donor Cody Campbell, raised another $4 million last week by drawing 133,000 fans to Jones AT&T Stadium for a two-night concert featuring George Strait. A week earlier, Utah raised an estimated $1 million by staging the AMA Supercross off-road motorcycle world championships at Rice-Eccles Stadium, sold out. The Utes have also scheduled summer concerts at Rice-Eccles featuring rapper Post Malone and country star Zach Bryan, as well as a three-day Monster Jam World Finals event. The last concert event of note at Casino Del Sol Stadium on the UA campus was Fleetwood Mac in late August 1977, which drew 67,000 fans. Talk about an untapped source of income.
