Indoor Track

The Widener men's track and field team has won three consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference indoor titles and will go for its fourth in a row Saturday at Lehigh. The Pride can become the first team to win four straight since Elizabethtown captured five consecutive crowns beginning in 2004. Sophomore Michael Ciavarelli (Monsignor Bonner) is the reigning champion in the 400-meter dash, as is senior Ryan Gallagher (Neshaminy) in the 5,000-meter run. The men's 4x200-meter relay team has won three straight titles.

Sarah Smith, a Coatesville High School junior, clears a hurdle while practicing her event, the 50-meter hurdles, at the Coatesville Area Multi-Purpose Stadium. Despite the cold, practice for the indoor track team at the school has been held outside in recent years, leading to a reduction in injuries, says Tom Ingram, assistant boys' indoor track coach.

Darrah Morrison hit a bank shot with 1 second left in overtime Saturday as Villa Joseph Marie squeaked past St. Hubert, 39-38, in a nonleague girls' basketball game. Morrison led the Jems with 14 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter. Colleen Coleman added 10 points. Charlotte Kucowski scored a team-high 15 points for St. Hubert. In other nonleague girls' basketball action: Kathleen Fitzpatrick scored a game-high 26 points for Notre Dame as the Irish defeated Villa Maria in overtime, 46-41.

La Salle's Nick Crits, a Wissahickon graduate, was named the Atlantic Ten men's track and field performer of the week, the league announced Monday. Crits placed first in the 3,000 meters at the Jack Pyrah Invitational on Saturday. Matt Curtis (West Deptford) of Rutgers-Camden earned the NJAC men's indoor track honors with firsts in the 400 and the 4x800 relay at the Ursinus College Bow-Tie Classic. Rowan's Jewel Brown (Clayton) was the NJAC women's track rookie of the week. Women's basketball.

A Springfield Falcons player suffered a seizure after being checked into the glass Sunday night, causing the American Hockey League game with the Adirondack Phantoms to be suspended. Falcons left winger Wade MacLeod was taken to a hospital in Springfield, Mass., and the team later said the 26-year-old was stable and alert. The Phantoms are the Flyers' affiliate. Defenseman Brandon Manning received a two-minute penalty for boarding on the play. The coaches agreed to suspend the game in the second period with Adirondack leading, 2-1. No makeup date was announced.

March Madness, Division III style, has struck the Alvernia College campus in Reading, and two former Chester High athletes have played huge roles in the men's basketball success. Guards Daimen Hunter and Tahir Lowrie have helped the Crusaders advance to the national semifinals, in which they'll face Illinois Wesleyan at 6 p.m. Friday. The winner will play Nebraska Wesleyan or Williams College on Saturday for the championship. Hunter, a junior, was named co-player of the year in the ECAC Division III Southern Region with Lebanon Valley's Andy Panko.

Vancouver was selected yesterday as the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, taking the games to Canada for the first time since 1988 when Calgary played host. Vancouver, located in British Columbia in western Canada, won by a mere three votes (56-53) over Pyeongchang, South Korea, in balloting by International Olympic Committee members. The election wasn't without controversy - several members didn't vote, which could have swung the result the other way. The IOC said it was unsure why. Awarding the 2010 Games to North America leaves Europe in a strong position for the 2012 Summer Olympics - at the expense of New York.

The mile, the two-mile, the distance medley, the 3,000 meters - no matter what the event is - Darryl Brown of Kennett wants to run it. "He's a kid that just loves to run," Blue Demons boys' indoor track and field coach John Ferraro said. "Two weeks ago at Kutztown, he ran the mile, the 4x800-meter, and the 4x400 meter. He just loves running, pure and simple. " Brown, a senior, admits that while he does enjoy indoor track, the conditions and the practice times make the winter season his least favorite.

Bridgeton's Braheme Days' 68-foot, 11-inch shot put highlighted the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 boys' indoor track championships on Monday night at the Bennett Center in Toms River. South Jersey Group 1. Woodbury's Anthony Averett won the 55-meter dash and the high jump in the boys' competition, and Penns Grove's Faleesha Dowe (55, 400) and Haddonfield's Katherine Johnston (shot put, pole vault) were double winners in the girls' meet.   Wrestling Bordentown and Point Pleasant Beach combined for 11 pins in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 1 tournament, and the Scotties prevailed, 45-30.

Phoenixville tennis coach Leo Scoda looked at his watch, wondering how long he could hold off before forfeiting Enrico Capitan's match. It was the last day of March, and Scoda knew the schedule was tight. That's why the coach had slated Capitan for one of the first preliminary-round matches in the Phoenixville Kiwanis/Booster Tournament - to make sure Capitan would have plenty of time to get from the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center in Roxborough to Devon for a summer internship interview.

The Widener men's track and field team has won three consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference indoor titles and will go for its fourth in a row Saturday at Lehigh. The Pride can become the first team to win four straight since Elizabethtown captured five consecutive crowns beginning in 2004. Sophomore Michael Ciavarelli (Monsignor Bonner) is the reigning champion in the 400-meter dash, as is senior Ryan Gallagher (Neshaminy) in the 5,000-meter run. The men's 4x200-meter relay team has won three straight titles.

A Springfield Falcons player suffered a seizure after being checked into the glass Sunday night, causing the American Hockey League game with the Adirondack Phantoms to be suspended. Falcons left winger Wade MacLeod was taken to a hospital in Springfield, Mass., and the team later said the 26-year-old was stable and alert. The Phantoms are the Flyers' affiliate. Defenseman Brandon Manning received a two-minute penalty for boarding on the play. The coaches agreed to suspend the game in the second period with Adirondack leading, 2-1. No makeup date was announced.

Darrah Morrison hit a bank shot with 1 second left in overtime Saturday as Villa Joseph Marie squeaked past St. Hubert, 39-38, in a nonleague girls' basketball game. Morrison led the Jems with 14 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter. Colleen Coleman added 10 points. Charlotte Kucowski scored a team-high 15 points for St. Hubert. In other nonleague girls' basketball action: Kathleen Fitzpatrick scored a game-high 26 points for Notre Dame as the Irish defeated Villa Maria in overtime, 46-41.

La Salle's Nick Crits, a Wissahickon graduate, was named the Atlantic Ten men's track and field performer of the week, the league announced Monday. Crits placed first in the 3,000 meters at the Jack Pyrah Invitational on Saturday. Matt Curtis (West Deptford) of Rutgers-Camden earned the NJAC men's indoor track honors with firsts in the 400 and the 4x800 relay at the Ursinus College Bow-Tie Classic. Rowan's Jewel Brown (Clayton) was the NJAC women's track rookie of the week. Women's basketball.

P ASSING ALONG some city high school football tidbits . . . For further evidence that guys who limit themselves to one sport are foolish, check with Gratz senior Nydair Rouse. He now owns a piece of a city playoff record, and he's giving the credit to track. Saturday, as the Bulldogs (10-0) topped Mastery North, 36-12, in a Public AAA semi, thus earning a 10th win for the first time in the school's 84-year grid history, the 6-1, 175-pound Rouse scored the game's third touchdown on a 40-yard connection with Davone Cornish.

PASSING ALONG some city high school football tidbits . . .  For further evidence that guys who limit themselves to one sport are foolish, check with Gratz junior Nydair Rouse. He now owns a piece of a city playoff record, and he's giving the credit to track. Saturday, as the Bulldogs (10-0) topped Mastery North, 36-12, in a Public AAA semi, thus earning a 10th win for the first time in the school's 84-year grid history, the 6-1, 175-pound Rouse scored the game's third touchdown on a 40-yard connection with Davone Cornish.

For Syid Evans-White, the moments before the biggest win of his high school career bordered on meditation. "I was just thinking calm, calm . . .," he said. In the recent indoor track sectional finals, Evans-White was favored in the 55-meter hurdles. But a false start in trials cost him an opportunity at the title. "I didn't handle the pressure," he said. Saturday, with a South Jersey title on the line in the 100 hurdles, Evans-White didn't make the same mistake.

UPON FIRST GLANCE, there's a strong temptation to think Oumar Diawara is cool only because he has participated in five sports this school year for Boys' Latin Charter. And, indeed, that's an amazing accomplishment. But Diawara, a 6-foot, 150-pound senior, also deserves praise for his classroom feats (cumulative 3.2 GPA through 4 years), especially with one very important variable in mind. As recently as 7 years ago, English was mostly a rumor to Diawara. Though he was born in Philly, at age 5 he'd been sent to Bamako, Mali, in Africa, to live with his grandfather/namesake, Oumar Diakara.

Bridgeton's Braheme Days' 68-foot, 11-inch shot put highlighted the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 boys' indoor track championships on Monday night at the Bennett Center in Toms River. South Jersey Group 1. Woodbury's Anthony Averett won the 55-meter dash and the high jump in the boys' competition, and Penns Grove's Faleesha Dowe (55, 400) and Haddonfield's Katherine Johnston (shot put, pole vault) were double winners in the girls' meet.   Wrestling Bordentown and Point Pleasant Beach combined for 11 pins in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 1 tournament, and the Scotties prevailed, 45-30.

About an hour before Wednesday night's game, Rowan men's basketball coach Joe Cassidy sat with his former assistant, Rutgers-Camden coach Jason Curbison. "We kind of looked at each other and said, 'Now what?' " Cassidy recalled. That's the big question, from an athletic standpoint, about the proposed merger of Rowan and Rutgers-Camden that was announced Wednesday afternoon by Gov. Christie. Will Rowan and Rutgers-Camden remain as separate athletic programs, both of which compete in the New Jersey Athletic Conference at the Division III (non-scholarship)