During practice, Dennis Mkrtchian is a jokester. Until there’s something to play for. If coach Billy Martin has the team play for a small prize or to determine who has to run a suicide, Mkrtchian amps up the intensity, shifting into the hyper-competitive mode he normally reserves for matches. Read more...
Photo: Senior Dennis Mkrtchian, the No. 2 singles player for UCLA, reached a career-high ranking at No. 36 this year. He holds a 13-5 record in 2015. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Junior Karue Sell has settled into his role as co-captain of the UCLA men’s tennis team after first arriving in Westwood three years ago. The Brazil native is regarded as one of the most laid-back members of the team and said he was surprised by how uptight Americans were when he first arrived. Read more...
Photo: Junior Karue Sell has settled into his role as co-captain of the UCLA men’s tennis team after first arriving in Westwood three years ago. The Brazil native is regarded as one of the most laid-back members of the team and said he was surprised by how uptight Americans were when he first arrived. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Tracy Ayers knows that for any athlete, club or varsity, an injury can be devastating. “People come to me when they’re at their worst, when they’re really really hurt and they’re scared. Read more...
Photo: Club rugby player Michelle Rodriguez said she uses the Club Sports Athletic Training Center every day to receive icing, heating, and electrical stimulation on her right shoulder, which she injured in March. (Daniel Alcazar/Daily Bruin)
In his 37 years as a trainer for UCLA Athletics, Tony Spino had interacted sparingly with Club Sports. So, when Executive Director of Recreation Mick Deluca sent him a message in 2013 asking to talk about a sports medicine program, Spino had no idea that a year later he’d be in charge of taking the program’s fledgling training center off the ground. Read more...
Photo: Athletic trainers Tracy Ayers (left) and Jonathan Wu (right) have helped to spearhead the club sports athletic training facility project first put forward by Tony Spino. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin)
Clara Goin walked into the athletic training room in the Robertson Gymnasium at UC Santa Barbara an hour before her soccer match. For the second-year biology student, coming to the center has been a routine occurrence for her the last few weeks. Read more...
Photo: Third-year bio-psychology major, Brittany James, treats Clara Goin for a leg injury. (Matt Cummings/Daily Bruin)
At the end of the senior meet against Stanford in early March, UCLA gymnastics’ three seniors received farewell cards from their teammates in a warm special presentation. Read more...
There is a flow about their actions, a sense of regality. Each step filled with equal parts of elegance and precision. They float across the stage, leaping from one side to the other, with quick feet and graceful execution. Read more...
Photo: Anderson School of Management student Scott Sugimoto is a former world-class fencer who finished eighth in Sunday’s Okawa Three-Weapon Open fencing tournament. Sugimoto was a two-time All-American fencer at Columbia University from 2004-2007, and also was part of the U.S. fencing team.(Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin)
