Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Brooksville man wins 10K Classic

Brooksville's John Emerson, 22, took the lead just after Mile 1 and crossed the 10K finish line in 32 minutes, 32 seconds to win the 17th annual Say No to Drugs Holiday Classic in Clearwater. Last year's winner, Lee Stephens, finished second in 33:28. Clearwater's Keith Sawayda, 42, was third in 34:16, followed by Ray Chumbley (35:26) of Port Charlotte and Dan French, 43, of Brooksville in 35:27.

Maria Ghizzoni, 38, of St. Petersburg ran a women's course record 35:39 and was sixth overall. Christa Benton was runnerup in 36:37. Dana Parrot of Tampa finished third in 36:54, followed by Jacki Wachtel (36:56) of Tarpon Springs and Beth Old (38:04) of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg's Amy McClenathan, 44, won the women's 10K masters title in 41:23. Her male counterpart was Andy Shearer (35:42) of Tampa.

Mallory White, 11, of Lakeland won the women's 5K in 19:50, 11 seconds faster than Judy Maguire, 47, of the host Dianetics Team. Louis Rufo, 23, won the 5K in 16:25. Tommy Accaria (17:17) of New Port Richey was runnerup.

There were 207 finishers in the 10K and 346 in the 3.1-mile event.

Twenty-seven current and former student-athletes received degrees. Gators football had nine graduates, followed by men's track and field and soccer (3 each), baseball (2) and men's and women's swimming (2). Men's and women's tennis, softball, women's track and field and women's golf each had one.

No. 3-seed Washington upset top-ranked Nebraska 3-0 (30-26, 30-25, 30-26) in San Antonio, Texas, to claim the program's first National Championship. The Huskies (34-1) went 18-0 in games in the tournament, with no team scoring more than 28.

Lindsey Kildow won a World Cup downhill, with Caroline Lalive the runner-up - the first 1-2 downhill finish for U.S. women since Picabo Street and Hilary Lindh in 1994.

In a big boost for the Americans with the Turin Olympics looming, Kildow and Lalive also become the first American women to finish among the top three at Val d'Isere since Street placed second in a downhill in 1996.

BODE BACK ON TOP: Bode Miller finished eighth in the men's event, won by Marco Buechel, but regained the lead in the overall standings. The New Hampshire skier leads Austria's Michael Walchhofer by 22 points.

JUMP POSTPONED: Snowstorms and strong wind forced the cancellation of a men's World Cup large hill ski jumping event, which will occur today, weather permitting.

BOBSLED: Germany's Matthias Hoepfner edged American Todd Hays by eight hundredths of a second to win his first World Cup race.

BOXING: John Ruiz lost the WBA heavyweight title in Berlin by dropping a disputed split decision to 7-footer Nikolay Valuev. Valuev, who becomes the tallest and heaviest (323 pounds) champion of all-time, won 116-113 and 116-114 on two judges' cards, with a third judge scoring the fight 114-114.

SKATING: Mao Asada, 15, attempted only one triple axel but easily beat world champion Irina Slutskaya to win the women's title at the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo.

BIATHLON: Anna Carin Olofsson won the 7.5-kilometer World Cup sprint with a time of 22 minutes, 11.5 seconds. Kati Wilhelm finished 53.5 seconds behind to move to the top of the overall standings.

CROSS COUNTRY: Beckie Scott led the entire way to win a 15-kilometer classic World Cup race in 45 minutes, 2.2 seconds.

HORSES: Film Maker defeated Kate Winslet by 31/2 lengths in Miami's $200,000 La Prevoyante Handicap. Film Maker covered 11/2 miles in 2:27 3/5 and paid $4, $2.80 and $2.40.

SOCCER: Pele's son was released from prison by the Brazilian Supreme Court pending a trial on drug-related charges. ... Manchester United beat host Aston Villa 2-0 to move within six points of Premier League leader Chelsea.

Times correspondent Dave Theall contributed to this report, which used information from Times wires.