Jensen named Big Sky's top player
Former Sandpoint soccer standout and current Eastern Washington University junior Abby Jensen was named Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week after recent performances against the University of Washington and San Jose State. She had three goals in the two contests.
Jensen scored a goal 12 yards out to the left post in the 35th minute to go into halftime with the lead over the University of Washington before the Huskies struck back late in the second half to take the lead and the game.
She then had two goals for the Eagles in their win over San Jose State. The Sandpoint native first scored in the 53rd minute on a penalty shot to tie the game 1-1. She then scored again in the 68th minute to knot the score 2-2. That was Jensen's third goal of the season and fifth overall for her career as an Eagle.
The Eagles will head to Moscow, Idaho, to play their last pre-conference match against the University of Idaho on Sunday (Oct. 7). The game time is 1 p.m.
? Hollands both qualify at opening SBX World Cups
Brothers Nate and Pat Holland, natives of Sandpoint, both qualified at a season-opening double World Cup snowboardcross event in Valley Nevado, Chile last weekend. The course had 32 features, with lots of jumps, which made for exciting racing.
Out of 52 riders competing, both Hollands advanced to the final field of 32 racers, where eight four-man heats compete head to head with the winners advancing until the final four battle for the podium. Of the eight U.S. riders on the World Cup team, only five made the cut of 32.
Nate posted the fastest time of any U.S. rider, and was leading the first heat before falling near the bottom of the course. In the eighth heat, Pat failed to qualify, eliminating any chance for either of the Hollands to grab a podium spot. The brothers will race against each other throughout the World Cup SBX season.
? Al Oerter, Olympic discus great turned painter, dies at 71
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Al Oerter was destined to become an athlete, although he often wondered what he might have been if not for a chance meeting with a discus.
"I could throw a baseball, a football or a golf ball a country mile," Oerter told the Associated Press in an interview last year. "It was just easy to throw anything."
The discus great who won gold medals in four straight Olympics to become one of track and field's biggest stars in the 1950s and '60s, died Monday of heart failure, less than two weeks after his 71st birthday.
His long love affair with the circular disk that would bring him fame began one day when he was hanging around a track, watching practice and gave it a try.
"I picked it and threw back to a guy further than he threw it to me," Oerter recalled. "The coach walked over to me and said you need to go over there with them."
? Seahawks sharp in rout of 49ers
After muddling through at 9-7 with a second-round playoff exit last season and having a defense that opponents repeatedly burned for big plays, the Seahawks decided to instill a far more aggressive scheme and mentality.
The 49ers absorbed the brunt of that new attitude on Sunday. The speeding Seahawks sacked Alex Smith on the third play and separated his shoulder. They sacked Trent Dilfer, his replacement, five more times. Linebacker Julian Peterson, the dynamo signed from San Francisco soon after Seattle's Super Bowl meltdown in February 2006, had three sacks in the first half. Seattle pummeled the 49ers 23-3.
"We really wanted to stick it to them," Peterson said of the defense.
It also held Frank Gore to 79 yards on 16 carries — after Gore had gouged Seattle for 212 and 144 yards last season when the 49ers won both games.
"We made a statement," said cornerback Marcus Trufant, who had two interceptions.
? U. of Memphis football player fatally shot; classes canceled
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Classes at the University of Memphis were canceled Monday after a football player was fatally shot on campus, in what school officials said was a targeted attack but city police later said could have been random.
By late Monday afternoon police had not identified any suspects in the slaying of Taylor Bradford, who was shot about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, apparently near a university housing complex.
After the shooting, the 21-year-old junior crashed a car he was driving into a tree. Police said they had not determined whether he was shot before or after he started driving the vehicle.
Police were responding to a car crash when Bradford was found slumped over in the vehicle on a campus street about 200 yards from his apartment complex.
"It wasn't until the paramedics got there that they determined there was a possible gunshot wound," said Bruce Harber, director of university police. He was apparently shot once, police said, though an autopsy was pending.