Wednesday Update: Tosta wins silver, 3 gold medal games tonight

UCLA medalists so far: Dawn Harper, gold (track, 100m Hurdles) Mark Hunter, gold (rowing, lightweight double sculls); Sheena Tosta, silver (track, 400m Hurdles); Kim Vandenberg, bronze (swimming, 4×200 relay); Tanya Harding, bronze (Australia softball); Lauren Cheney, medal TBD (women’s soccer is in the gold medal game); Natalie Golda and Jamie Hipp, medal TBD (women’s water polo is in the gold medal game); The Bruin USA softballers (Andrea Duran, Lisa Fernandez, Tairia Flowers, Stacey Nuveman and Natasha Watley), medal TBD (they’re in the gold medal game).

WEDNESDAY UPDATE:

Track and Field: UCLA’s Sheena Tosta won the silver medal in the 400m Hurdles in a time of 53.70 seconds. It’s Tosta’s first ever Olympic Medal. Congrats to Sheena. This only happened a couple of hours ago, so if no one else does, I’ll try to add links to relevant articles and videos here. NBC is scheduled to show this race tonight.

In other track and field news, Bruin Yoo Kim competed in the pole vault qualifying but does not advance to the finals.

Softball: USA 4, Japan 1 (9 inn.) — The U.S. advances to the Gold Medal game after winning its most competitive game of the Olympics, needing extra innings to beat Japan. (Link to video) In both the 7th and the 8th innings, Japan had the winning run at second, but the U.S. got out of the jams. Natasha Watley scored the first run for Team USA, and Tairia Flowers made some great defensive plays in the eighth to help extend the game.

Australia 5, Canada 3 and Japan 4, Australia 3 (12 inn.) — Former Bruin Tanya Harding wins a bronze medal after pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief against Canada and 6 1/3 innings without an earned run against Japan.

What this all means — it’s USA vs. Japan in the gold medal game (Thursday, 3:30 a.m.). Softball pitchers have durable arms, but Japan’s ace threw 21 innings yesterday and won’t get a full day of rest with the game late tonight in Beijing. Plus, Team USA has seen her now, so it won’t be a surprise to face her now.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR TONIGHT & EARLY TOMORROW:

Notes: Yes, there are three Gold Medal games early tomorrow morning. The softball game will be live on USA. The soccer game will also be shown live on USA. I can’t find TV info for the water polo final yet and will update this when I do.

6:50 p.m. — Track and Field: High Jump qualifying rounds (Amy Acuff)
3:20 a.m. — Women’s Water Polo Gold Medal game: USA vs. Netherlands (Golda, Hipp, Baker coach)
3:30 a.m. — Softball: Gold Medal game, USA vs. Japan (Duran, Flowers, Nuveman, Watley)
6 a.m. — Women’s Soccer: Gold Medal game, USA vs. Brazil (Cheney, Ellis coach)

REST OF THE SCHEDULE BY DAY:

Friday, Aug. 22

3:20 or 4:40 a.m. — Men’s Water Polo: Semfinals (Brooks, Wright)
4:40 a.m. — Track and Field: 4×400 Relay round 1 (Monique Henderson)

Saturday, Aug. 23

*4 a.m. — Track and Field: High Jump finals (Acuff)
*5:40 a.m. — Track and Field: 4×400 Relay finals (Henderson)

Sunday, Aug. 24

TBD — Men’s Water Polo: Gold/Bronze Medal games (Brooks, Wright)

FULL LISTINGS BY SPORT:

TRACK AND FIELD (10 Bruins)

Amy Acuff (High Jump), Jeanette Bolden (Head Coach, team USA), Jessica Cosby (Hammer), Dawn Harper (100m Hurdles), Monique Henderson (4×400 relay), Yoo Kim (Pole Vault, Korea), Suzy Powell-Roos (Discus), Sheena (Johnson) Tosta (400m Hurdles), Rhonda Watkins (Long Jump, Trinidad and Tobago), Jonathan Williams (400m Hurdles, Belize)

Aug. 15 — Discus qualifying rounds (Suzy Powell-Roos — 15th)
Aug. 15 — Men’s 400m Hurdles round 1 (Jonathan Williams — 4th in heat)
Aug. 17 — 100m Hurdles round 1 (Dawn Harper — 2nd in heat, qualifies for semis)
Aug. 17 — Women’s 400m Hurdles round 1 (Sheena Tosta — 5th in heat)
Aug. 17 — Hammer throw qualifying rounds (Jessica Cosby — NM)
Aug. 18, 4:40 a.m. — 100m Hurdles Semis (Harper wins semifinal)
Aug. 18 — Women’s 400m Hurdles Semis (Tosta wins semifinal)
Aug. 18 — Long Jump qualifying rounds (Rhonda Watkins 19th in qualifying)
Aug. 19 — 100m Hurdles finals (Harper wins gold medal, link to video)
Aug. 20, 5:40 a.m. — Pole Vault qualifying rounds (Yoo Kim, NM)
Aug. 20 — Women’s 400m Hurdles finals (Tosta wins silver medal)
Aug. 20, 6:50 p.m. — High Jump qualifying rounds (Amy Acuff)
Aug. 22, 4:40 a.m. — 4×400 Relay round 1 (Monique Henderson)
*Aug. 23, 4 a.m. — High Jump finals (Acuff)
*Aug. 23, 5:40 a.m. — 4×400 Relay finals (Henderson)

SOFTBALL (6 Bruins)

Players on Team USA: Andrea Duran, Lisa Fernandez, Tairia (Mims) Flowers, Stacey Nuveman, Natasha Watley
On Australia: Tanya Harding (I couldn’t find their schedule)

Note: A lot of these games are at 9 p.m., watchable for us West Coasters.

Aug. 11 — USA 11, Venezuela 0 (Watley home run — link to video highlights)
Aug. 12 — USA 3, Australia 0 (Watley RBI single)
Aug. 14  — USA 8, Canada 1 (Duran 2 RBI, link to video)
Aug. 14 — USA 7, Japan 0 (Watley home run, link to video)
Aug. 15 — USA 7, Chinese Taipei 0
Aug. 17 — USA 8, Netherlands 0 (Flowers home run, link to video)
Aug. 17 — USA 9, China 0 (Flowers 2 RBI, link to video)

Australia: Finished 5-2, third place in group play.

Aug. 19 — Semifinal #1 vs. #2 — USA 4, Japan 1, 9 inn. (Link to video)
Aug. 19 — Semifinal #3 vs. #4 — Australia 5, Canada 3
Aug. 20 — Bronze Medal game: Japan 4, Australia 3, 12 inn. (Australia gets bronze)

Aug. 21, 3:30 a.m. — Gold Medal game: USA vs. Japan

MEN’S SOCCER (3 Bruins)

Players on Team USA: Benny Feilhaber, Patrick Ianni, Marvell Wynne

Aug. 7 — USA 1, Japan 0 (Wynne assist, link to video)
Aug. 10 — USA 2, Netherlands 2
Aug. 13 — Nigeria 2, USA 1 (USA eliminated)

WOMEN’S SOCCER (3 Bruins)

On USA: Lauren Cheney, Jillian Ellis (assistant coach)
On Canada: Kara Lang

Aug. 6 — Norway 2, USA 0
Aug. 6 — Canada 2, Australia 1 (Kara Lang scored game-winning goal)
Aug. 9 — USA 1, Japan 0
Aug. 9 — Canada 1, China 1
Aug. 12 — USA 4, New Zealand 0
Aug. 12 — Sweden 2, Canada 1
Aug. 15 — Quarterfinals: USA 2, Canada 1
Aug. 18 — Semifinals: USA 4, Japan 2

Aug. 21, 6 a.m. — Gold Medal game vs. Brazil

WOMEN’S WATER POLO (3 Bruins)

On Team USA: Natalie Golda, Jaime Hipp, Guy Baker (head coach)

Aug. 11, — USA 12, China 11 (Golda scored four goals — video highlights)
Aug. 13 — USA 9, Italy 9
Aug. 14 — USA 12, Russia 7 (Golda scored three goals)
Aug. 18 — Semifinals: USA 9, Netherlands 8 (Golda goal)

Aug. 21, 3:20 a.m. — Gold Medal Game: USA vs. Netherlands

MEN’S WATER POLO (2 Bruins)

On Team USA: Brandon Brooks, Adam Wright

Aug. 10 — USA 8, China 4  (Wright assist, link to video)
Aug. 11 — USA 12, Italy 11 (Wright goal)
Aug. 13 — Serbia 4, USA 2
Aug. 15 — USA 7, Croatia 5 (Wright goal)
Aug. 17 — USA 8, Germany 7 (Wright two goals, USA gets bye to semfinals, link to video)

*Aug. 22, 3:20 or 4:40 a.m. — Semifinals
*Aug. 24, TBD — Medal games

TENNIS (2 Bruins)

Bruins competing: Mark Knowles (Bahamas), Marcin Matkowski (Poland)

Both are competing in doubles. Knowles’ parter is Devin Mullings, Matkowski’s partner is Maruisz Fyrstenberg. There are 32 doubles teams in the single-elimination tournament.

Aug. 12 — First Round: Matkowski/Fyrstenberg def. Yu/Zeng (CHN) 6-3, 6-4.
Aug. 12 — First Round: Knowles/Mullings lose to Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan 6-2, 6-1.
Aug. 13 — Round of 16:  Matkowski/Fyrstenberg def. Damm/Vizner (CZE) 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5.
Aug. 14 — Quarterfinals: Matkowski/Fyrstenberg lose to Aspelin/Johansson (SWE) 7-6 (5), 6-4.

SWIMMING (2 Bruins)

Bruins competing: Kim Vandenberg, 4×200m relay (USA), Nicolette Teo, 100/200 breast, relays (Singapore)

Aug. 10 –100m Breaststroke heats (Nicolette Teo 1:10.75 — 7th in heat)
Aug. 13 — 200m Breaststroke heats (Teo 2:34.60 — 6th in heat)
Aug. 13 — 4×200m Relay heats (Vandenberg’s team wins heat, 7:52.43)
Aug. 13 — 4×200m Relay finals (Vandenberg not in final race where team won bronze, but she gets a bronze medal anyway.)

BEACH VOLLEYBALL (3 Bruins)

Bruin competing: Elaine Youngs
Bruins coaching: Bob Alejo, Liz Masakayan

Elaine Youngs and her partner Nicole Branagh are in Group E. Each group has four teams, the top two teams and some third-place teams go to the Round of 16.

Aug. 9 — Youngs/Branagh def. Kadjik/Mooren (NED) 21-19, 27-25. (link to video)
Aug. 11 — Youngs/Branagh def. Pohl/Rau (GER) 21-17, 21-16
Aug. 13 — Youngs/Branagh def. Ribalta/Crespo (CUB) 21-19, 13-21, 15-12. (link to video)
Aug. 14 — Round of 16: Youngs/Branagh def. Grasset/Peraza (CUB) 21-15, 21-13.
Aug. 17  — Quarterfinals: Youngs/Branagh lose to Xue/Zhang Xi (CHN) 21-17, 21-13.

ROWING (2 Bruins)

Bruins competing: Mark Altman (USA), Lightweight Fours; Mark Hunter (Great Britain), Lightweight Double Sculls

Aug 10 — Heats: Bruin rowing assistant coach Mark Hunter easily won his heat with partner Zac Purchase, advancing to the semifinals. The other Bruin, Mark Altman’s team finished fourth in their heat.
Aug. 12 — Repechage: Altman’s team finsihed third, which looks like enough to advance to the semifinals. (Link to video)
Aug. 15 — Semifinals: Hunter/Purchase won their semifinal (link to video).
Aug. 17 — Finals: Hunter/Purchase WIN THE GOLD MEDAL! (link to video)

GYMNASTICS (1 Bruin)

Bruin competing: Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Canada)

Aug. 10 — Women’s Qualifiers — Hopfner-Hibbs finished 19th in the All-Around (out of 98), which as freesia39 pointed out in the comments, is good enough to advance to the finals.

Aug. 14 —Women’s Individual finals: Hopfner-Hibbs finished 16th overall. Very impressive, and she’s just going to be an incoming freshman this year.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL (1 Bruin)

John Speraw is an assistant coach for Team USA. Since there are no Bruins actually competing, I’m just going to list the games here, not in the daily schedule:

Aug. 9, 9:30 p.m. — USA vs. Venezuela
Aug. 11, 9:30 p.m. — USA vs. Italy
Aug. 14, 7 a.m. — USA vs. Bulgaria
Aug. 16, 7 p.m. — USA vs. China
Aug. 18, 7 a.m. — USA vs. Japan
*Aug. 20, TBD — Quarterfinals
*Aug. 22, TBD — Semifinals
*Aug. 24, TBD — Medal games

(My sources were UCLABruins.com, NBC, USA Softball, USA Water Polo and the official Beijing 2008 site.)