Foxes, Tritons, Sagehens, Wildcats, Lions and Trojans, Oh My

Today was one of those days. The kind where you can ride down to the colleges and, from a couple hours after sunrise to past sunset, you can move from one athletic venue to another. If, like myself, you did that today, you could take in rugby, both mens and womens, track, softball, baseball, and lacrosse. Just tell yourself there will be other days for longer rides and give into being a spectator. The past couple of years i have taken a real interest is the rugby matches that take place, it is one tough sport, and the action rarely lets up for long. Beside that, rugby is one of those sports where you can have a team, like USC, UC San Diego, or my alma maters UC Santa Barbara and UCLA, who would normally play in division I sports, come into Claremont and play against mens and womens squads who would otherwise play in division III, and be evenly matched at that (alas, i missed the Gaucho women who came to town two weeks ago).

So, yes i got to see most of the women's match between the Tritons of UC San Diego against the Claremont Foxes, some of the match between the Claremont Lions (men) and the USC Trojans and, in between, rode over to the Pomona College Softball field where the Sagehens were taking on the Wildcats of Oregon's Linfield University (it wasn't looking too good for the Sagehens). That might not have amounted to the ride i would normally expect to take on a nice springtime weekend day, but it was filling none-the-less.

Thanks to watching matches for a couple years now, i know what a pitch is, what a try, what a conversion, and what a lineout are. I can now add those to the good old scrum and maybe, just maybe, converse to someone about rugby and sound like i know what i'm talking about - five points for a try, and two for a successful conversion. 

some of the athletes have great power, others great speed, she seemed to have both

to my non-expert eye, the Trojans seemed especially adept at controlling the lineouts

hmm, darn camera focused on the spectators rather than the action

between the action and that backdrop of majestic oak and brilliant redbuds, the rugby pitch, officially Parents' Field is really pretty spectacular

A single album has a selection of 134 pics from both rugby matches, as well as a few from the softball game.