College Football
Sun Belt Conference to drop NMSU, Idaho
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The Sun Belt Conference presidents and chancellors decided to drop New Mexico State from its football conference beginning in 2018.
The New Orleans-based conference announced Tuesday that its presidents and chancellors have decided to remain a 10-football team conference and not renew agreements with New Mexico State and Idaho.
Both football teams will play in the conference until 2017.
New Mexico State President Garrey Carruthers says the schools is disappointed but respects the conference’s decision.
New Mexico State remains a member of the Western Athletic Conference for non-football sports.
The university is currently evaluating options for football.
Cycling
Penalty costs China gold, awards Russia
LONDON – China was downgraded from gold to silver for an illegal change in the women’s team sprint at the track cycling world championships on Wednesday, handing the title to the Russian team.
Initially, it looked to be a repeat of last year’s top two at the worlds in Paris, with China and Russia taking gold and silver respectively.
But Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong were penalized for the change, with the gold going to Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova.
New Zealand retained its men’s team sprint title, beating the Netherlands in the final in 43.257 seconds.
Rebecca Wiasak of Australia made a successful defense of her individual pursuit title, clocking 3:34.099 to beat Malgorzata Wojtyra of Poland by 7.8 seconds.
Sebastian Mora won the scratch race, adding the world title to European gold.
MLB
Cache of 7 century-old baseball cards found
LOS ANGELES – From a crumpled paper bag in a dilapidated house came a baseball-card find of a lifetime. Seven of them actually.
Card experts in Southern California say they have verified the legitimacy – and seven-figure total value – of seven identical Ty Cobb cards from the printing period of 1909 to 1911. Before the recent find, there were only about 15 known to still exist.
Joe Orlando, the president of Professional Sports Authenticator in Newport Beach, California, who verified the find, said in a statement Wednesday that it is “spectacular” and “miraculous” to have come across such a cache.
The family who discovered the cards in a neglected paper bag at the run-down house of a deceased great-grandfather has asked to remain anonymous.
Tennis
Davis Cup: Hewitt to be play for Australia
MELBOURNE, Australia – Lleyton Hewitt will end his short retirement to become playing captain for Australia against the United States in the first round of the Davis Cup World Group this weekend.
Davis Cup officials said Hewitt, who retired after a second-round singles loss at the Australian Open in January, will replace Nick Kyrgios, who has a virus.
Hewitt took over as Australia captain at the start of this year.
The draw for the first-round tie on grass at Kooyong was scheduled for Thursday morning, with two opening singles on Friday.
Australia and the United States are meeting for the 46th time but first since the 1999 quarterfinals, when Australia went on to beat France for the title. The U.S. has a leading 32 Davis Cup victories, with Australia second with 28.
Associated Press
