Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

Three teams from Kentucky are among the top 10 ranked cross country squads in the Southeast Region, both on the men’s and women’s lists compiled by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Cory Thorne

The top ranking among state schools came from the Louisville men at No. 4. William & Mary is No. 1, followed by North Carolina State, Virginia and Louisville.

The Cardinals, who will host the NCAA Southeast Regional on Saturday, Nov. 14, are coming off a fourth-place finish in the Big East Conference championships. Cory Thorne, a senior, became U of L’s first-ever Big East cross country individual champion.

After Louisville comes No. 5 Duke, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Eastern Kentucky and, at No. 10, Kentucky.

Wesley Ruttoh

EKU, led by individual champion Wesley Ruttoh, captured its fourth consecutive Ohio Valley Conference championship last weekend.

UK, paced by Luis Orta in 13th place, finished seventh at the Southeastern Conference championships.

Ranked women’s teams from the Bluegrass are Western Kentucky, Kentucky and Louisville at 7-8-9.

Duke leads the women’s rankings, trailed by Virginia, N.C. State, North Carolina, William & Mary, James Madison and the three Kentucky teams. Charlotte completes the top 10.

Janet Jesang

Chelsea Oswald

Western got a 1-2 finish from Janet Jesang and Marion Kandie to run away with its fourth consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.

UK, led by freshman Chelsea Oswald in 14th place, took eighth in the SEC meet.

Sixth-place individual Tarah McKay helped U of L’s team take seventh at the Big East meet.

Astros add pair of former Legends to 40-man roster

The Houston Astros announced Thursday that they have purchased the contracts of left-handed pitcher Fernando Abad and infielder Wladimir Sutil, and added the pair to the 40-man roster.

Fernando Abad

Wladimir Sutil

Both former Lexington Legends were eligible to become minor-league free agents if they had not been added to the 40-man roster by Monday.

Abad, 23, has been in the Astros system for seven seasons. The Dominican spent most of the 2009 campaign with High-A Lancaster, where he was 4-6 with a 4.14 ERA over 41 relief appearances. He struck out 79 and walked only eight. He also made three starts for Double-A Corpus Christi, where he was 0-1 with a 3.21 ERA, 13 strikeouts and three walks.

With the 2008 Legends, Abad was 2-7 with a 3.30 ERA over 45 relief outings. He struck out 94 and walked 13 over 76 1/3 innings. Over his seven seasons in the minors, spanning 410 2/3 innings, Abad has struck out 437 and walked only 59.

Sutil, a Venezuelan who played 66 games over parts of two seasons with the Legends, earned Texas League post-season all-star honors with Corpus Christi in 2009. The shortstop hit .273 over 125 games, with a homer, 37 RBI, 77 runs scored and a club-best 19 stolen bases. He had more walks (44) than strikeouts (42).

Sutil played six games for Lexington in 2005, going 6-for-23 (.261) and driving in three runs. In 2006, he played 60 games with the team before being promoted to High-A. He hit .272 for the Legends, with 12 RBI, 31 runs and 20 stolen bases. Over seven seasons in the Astros system, Sutil has 161 stolen bases.

South Atlantic League baseball

Coming up

Lexington Legends vs. Greenville Drive

What: Three-game series

When: Friday through Sunday (7 Friday and Saturday nights; 4 Sunday)

Where: Fluor Field at the West End (Greenville, S.C.)

Probable pitching matchups (Legends listed first): Friday, RH Robert Bono 6-3, 2.21) vs.  RH Brock Huntzinger (0-0, 0.00); Saturday RH Kyle Greenwalt (4-6, 3.38) vs. RH Hunter Strickland (3-4, 2.78); Sunday, RH Jordan Lyles (3-6, 3.34) vs. RH Stephen Fife (0-1, 0.60).

Tim Federowicz

Drive to watch: All-Star C Tim Federowicz (5-foot-10, 213 pounds, from Apex, N.C.) leads Greenville in batting (.338 over 53 games), slugging (.543), OPS (.926), hits (74), doubles (18), homers (9) and total bases (119). He’s second in RBI (32) and on-base percentage (.382), third in runs scored (30). Selected by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh rounds of the 2008 draft, out of the University of North Carolina, Federowicz spent last season with short season-A Lowell, where he hit .244 with a homer and 15 RBI, and tied for second on the team with 10 stolen bases in 13 tries. He threw out 16 of 49 attempted base-stealers. This season, he hit .246 (16-for-65) in April, .348 (32-for-92) in May and is .419 (26-for-62) thus far in June.

Kyle Miller

Legend to watch: IF/DH Kyle Miller (6-1, 200, from Jacksonville, Fla.) continues to recover from a miserable start. Miller was hitting .161 for the Legends when he was demoted to extended spring training on May 10. He returned 20 days later looking more like the player who hit seven homers in 32 games for the 2008 Legends. Since returning to the club, Miller is hitting .256 (10-for-39). Thursday night, he extended his hitting streak to five games. During the streak, Miller is hitting .353 (6-for-17), with a double in four of the five games. For the full season, Miller is hitting .214 with a homer and nine RBI (including one in each of his last three games). Selected by the Houston Astros in the 21st round of the 2007 draft, out of Central Florida Community College, Miller led the Greeneville Astros in 2007 and tied for eighth in the Appalachian League with seven homers. He split the 2008 season between Greeneville (.274, 1 HR, 13 RBI, 19 games) and Lexington (.234, 7 HR, 24 RBI, 32 games).

Radio: WLXG AM-1300

The University of Kentucky softball team turned a local Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant into a Buffalo Wild, Wild Wings during Sunday’s televised NCAA Selection Show (ESPNU).

“We were just told to meet at ‘B.W.’s’ at 9 o’clock, so I thought it was just going to the team,” said second baseman Natalie Smith, a junior. “And then I walk in and girls got surprised with their families, and then everyone’s whispering ‘Coach Cal’s here!’ and Mr. Barnhart, all the athletic people, our media crew, academics, weight, strength and conditioning. It just shows what a family UK athletics is, and it’s just really awesome to have that support system around us.”

Yes, men’s basketball coach John Calipari and athletics director Mitch Barnhart joined in the celebration.

This was big stuff — Kentucky gets its first invitation to the NCAA softball big dance.

“It was really exciting, for the first time in my three years here,” said Molly Johnson, UK’s sweet-hitting junior shortstop. “I was really happy for the team.”

Rachel Lawson

“I wanted to see what the looks on all their faces were because I’m so proud of everything that they’ve done this year,” Coach Rachel Lawson said as she relived the moment that Kentucky’s name appeared on the screen. “They deserve it. They work hard. Just for them to feel this moment for the first time, I think, is very special.”

UK (32-21) landed in the Columbus (Ohio) Regional, one of 16 four-team regionals that will be played next weekend. The Wildcats will open the double-elimination regional against Brigham Young (39-16), the Mountain West champion, Thursday at 5 p.m. Ohio State (44-9), seeded 11th nationally, will face MAAC champion Canisius (27-22) Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Play continues through Saturday. The champion will advance to a best-of-three Super Regional, May 22-23, to face either sixth-seeded Georgia, North Carolina, Campbell or Radford. Winners of the eight Super Regions advance to the College World Series, May 28-June 3, at Oklahoma City.

“Rachel and this group have done a remarkable job,” Barnhart said. “I’m really, really proud of them.”

Natalie Smith

“All the hard work has finally paid off,” Smith said. “We’re really excited to go to Ohio State. Because it’s near Kentucky, a lot of family can travel. We think we’re going to get a lot of fans, and it’s definitely a regional that we think we have a good shot of winning.

“These freshmen have no idea how big of a deal this is because they haven’t had to go through the past two years of losing seasons and just a lot of ups and downs, coaching changes. But it’s all worth it right now and any problems we’ve had in the past, everything’s just kind of melted away. It’s almost like a clean slate and we’re just ready to go.”

UK finished 20-31 in 2007 and, in Lawson’s first season as coach, 17-37 in 2008.

“It’s huge for the program,” Lawson said of what the NCAA berth means, “because I think now they finally understand they’re on the big stage. That was the coolest thing about being at the SEC Tournament, because I heard one of the players say ‘we’re a big deal.’ I don’t think they understood until they were sitting on the field in Knoxville this weekend that they understood they were a big deal. So now that they understand that they are a big deal, now it’s just a matter of winning softball games and don’t worry about anything else.”

UK is among nine SEC teams to receive NCAA bids, along with top-seeded Florida, No. 4 Alabama, No. 6 Georgia, No. 13 Tennessee and unseeded Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State. The Wildcats are coming off an SEC Tournament that saw them stun Georgia 2-0, then take Alabama to extra innings before falling 2-1.

Molly Johnson

Megan Yocke

“After the SEC Tournament, I think our confidence was soaring,” Johnson said. “That win against Georgia really helped. Then taking Alabama to extra innings, a win would have been even better, but extra innings against a top-notch team like Alabama will only help a young team like ourselves.”

“We extremely confident right now,” said sophomore Megan Yocke, who can play infield or behind the plate. “We think that we can pretty much take on anyone. We’ve faced a lot of Top 25 competition in the early season and we played extremely well against them. And we’ve gotten better throughout the season, so I think if we were to face those same teams again we could give an even better run.” 

COLUMBUS REGIONAL SCHEDULE
Thursday (times subject to change):
Game 1: Kentucky (home) vs. BYU (away) - 5 p.m.
Game 2: Canisius at Ohio State - 7:30 p.m.

Friday (times subject to change):
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner - 1 p.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser - 3:30 p.m.
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser - 6 p.m.

Saturday (times subject to change):
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner - 1 p.m.
Game 7, if needed: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser - 3:30 p.m.

Region seeds – 1. Florida; 2. UCLA; 3. Washington; 4. Alabama; 5. Michigan; 6. Georgia; 7. Oklahoma; 8. Stanford; 9. Arizona; 10. Arizona State; 11. Ohio State; 12. Northwestern; 13. Tennessee; 14. Georgia Tech; 15. DePaul; 16. Florida State.

* Louisville was selected as a regional host. The Cardinals will open against Purdue. Also in the field are ninth-seeded Arizona and Tennessee Martin.

To see the full NCAA bracket, visit:

 http://www.ncaa.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/ncaa/sports/w-softbl/auto_pdf/Soft-D1-2009Bracket-64

Spanning the commonwealth and beyond …

The Mason-Dixon Athletic Club will host its 49th annual Mason-Dixon Games, Friday and Saturday, in Broadbent Arena at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.

Approximately 3,000 Kentucky middle school and high school athletes will compete, plus about 70 Masters and Open athletes.

Friday’s schedule begins at 4:30 p.m. with Masters and Open events. Middle school events begin at 5:15 p.m.

Saturday’s high school schedule begins at 8 a.m. for Class A, 1 p.m. for 2A and 5 p.m. for 3A. The meet is designated by the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association as the indoor state championships.

Admission is $5 each day. Officials will again be collected canned goods and non-perishable items, to be donated to the Dare to Care Food Bank.

In conjunction with the Games, the Mason-Dixon Games Hall of Fame induction banquet will be tonight (Thursday) at Wildwood Country Club in Fern Creek.

Inductees include athletes Bobby Brown (long jump), Susie Brutscher (pole vault pioneer), 1976 Olympian Tommy Haynes (triple jump, long jump) and 1968 Olympic gold-medalist (200 meters) Tommie Smith (440 yards), along with officials Ron Althoff, David L. Armstrong, Donnie Ray and Jack Thompson, plus “significant supporter” of the Games David A. Jones.

Al Michaels returns to Olympic broadcasting

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, announced Thursday that Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Al Michaels will serve as host of NBC’s live weekend and weekday daytime coverage of next year’s Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Michaels last broadcast a Winter Olympics in 1988, also in Canada — Calgary, Alberta.

In 1980, Michaels made the call on what, according to a variety of polls, Americans consider the nation’s top sports moment of the 20th century, The Miracle on Ice hockey victory over the Soviet Union.

“Do you believe in miracles? YES!” was his most memorable line as the game neared the finish at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

Michaels will host more than 50 hours of live coverage. Although this will mark Michaels’ debut as an Olympic host, he is no stranger to the Games. Vancouver will mark his sixth Olympic assignment.

He covered hockey, biathlon, speed skating, ski jumping and cross-country skiing at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics; hockey at the 1980 Lake Placid Games; figure skating and hockey at the 1984 Sarajevo Games; track and field, plus road cycling, at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games and hockey at the 1988 Calgary Games.

Michaels is the only broadcaster to call a Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and host a Stanley Cup Final for network television.

12 semifinalists for Sullivan Award are named

The 12 semifinalists for the 79th annual James E. Sullivan Award include three gymnasts and three swimmers.

Nastia Liukin

The Sullivan Award, named in honor of the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) founder and past president, is presented annually to the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States. In addition to athletic accomplishsments, the Sullivan Award considers the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism.

Gymnasts on the semifinals list are Beijing Olympics all-around champion Nastia Liukin, Olympic balance beam gold-medalist Shawn Johnson and Olympic silver-medalist on the horizontal bar, Jonathan Horton.

Swimming semifinalists are the Olympic men’s 4-by-100-meter freestyle relay champions, Paralympian champion Erin Popovich (four gold medals, two silver) and 41-year-old Olympian Dara Torres (three silver medals).

Also on the list are: Cynthia Barboza, Stanford University, volleyball; Amanda Blumenherst, Duke University, golf; Sam Bradford, University of Oklahoma, football; Tyler Hansbrough, University of North Carolina, basketball; the Lopez family (Olympic medalists Diana, Mark and Steven), taekwondo, and Gerald “Buster” Posey, Florida State University, baseball.

Fan can vote online at www.usatoday.com. The winner will be announced April 15 at the New York Athletic Club.

Trammel is USATF Athlete of Week

Two-time Olympic and World Outdoor silver-medalist Terrence Trammell, winner of the men’s 60-meter hurdles and the Visa Championship Series at last weekend’s USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, is USA Track & Field Athlete of the Week.

Trammell led all the way at Boston, clocking 7.37 seconds to break Reggie Torian’s 10-year-old meet record of 7.38. Trammell just missed the American record (7.36) but did get the fastest time in the world this season.

Among others, Trammell beat Oklahoma State freshman German Fernandez for weekly honors. Running in the Big 12 Indoor Championships at College Station, Texas, Fernandez won the mile in a collegiate-record 3:55.02. Three hours later, Fernandez won the 3,000 meters in the second-best time in meet history, 7:57.21.

UK baseball opens 3-game set vs. Indiana State

James Paxton

Chris Rusin

The Cats (6-2) and Sycamores (9-2) will meet Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m.

 

Cats add two games to schedule

Pre-game clinic Saturday

Briefly: James Johnson, Bobby Curtis

James Johnson, right, with Helena Hau and myself in Beijing.

James Johnson,

a three-time national champion Greco-Roman wrestler out of the University of Kentucky, has been on tour since Feb. 23 as coach of U.S. Greco-Roman athletes competing in the Hungary Grand Prix and in Slovakia. The tour ends Sunday.