RCW: Faces in the Crowd 3.31
Each week in Rock Chalk Weekly, the top Kansas Jayhawk performances are recognized as Faces in the Crowd. Get to know last week’s stars, including information on their latest accomplishments and a link to their full bio.
ARIADNA FONSECA DIAZ
Women’s Golf | Sophomore | Caracas, Venezuela
Bio Full Bio
Consistency helped Kansas women’s golfer Ariadna Fonseca Diaz get to and stay near the top of the leaderboard during the Dale McNamara Invitational in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fonseca Diaz led the entire field with 38 pars during the three-round, two-day event. She fired a 1-under 69 to open play and led the field after 18 holes. Fonseca Diaz followed her first round with a 2-over 72 to put her at 1-over for the day. She finished the event in a tie for third place, her second top-five finish of the season, and just two strokes behind the runner-up.
HARLI RIDLING
Softball | Junior | Sentinel, Oklahoma
Bio Full Bio
Junior catcher Harli Ridling led the way for the Jayhawks in a series win at Texas Tech over the weekend. Ridling paced the Jayhawks with a team-best .462 batting average on 6-for-13 hitting. She also boasted a team-high .692 slugging percentage after blasting her sixth home run of the season in game one’s 8-3 victory in Lubbock, Texas. Ridling also added three runs scored and two RBI.
HUSSAIN AL HIZAM
Men’s Track & Field | Sophomore | Jubail, Saudi Arabia
Bio Full Bio
Sophomore Hussain Al Hizam vaulted himself up the NCAA charts and into the Kansas history books as he cleared 5.60 meters (18-4¼) at the 38th Annual Sun Angel Classic. Al Hizam matched his senior teammate Jake Albright, who topped the same height last week at the Texas Relays, and improved on his previous career best by more than seven inches while taking down his own Saudi Arabian record in the process. The clearance vaulted Al Hizam’s name to No. 6 on the all-time Kansas pole vault chart while also moving him to No. 4 on the most recent NCAA yearly rankings.
GLEB DUDAREV
Men’s Track & Field | Freshman | Vitebsk, Belarus
Bio Full Bio
In the first collegiate hammer throw competition of his career, freshman Gleb Dudarev posted the top-five hammer throw marks in program history, including the school record, as he claimed victory in the event at the 38th Sun Angel Classic. Dudarev’s performance moved him to the top of the NCAA’s yearly leaderboard and among the top-25 in the world rankings for 2017. Dudarev flung the 16-pound implement to a mark of 71.11 meters (233-3.), immediately breaking Egor Agafonov’s 11-year-old school record by four inches on his first official collegiate attempt. Dudarev topped that mark with a distance of 72.69 meters (238-6) on his second attempt, once again etching his name atop the school charts. Over the final four rounds, he notched three more throws over 235 feet, but could not surpass his mark from the second round and went on to claim the event victory by more than 23 feet over the rest of the field.
