Iowa

Just two weeks after winning a state tennis title, Bensalem's Hillary Mintz gave an oral commitment to play for the University of Iowa next season. Mintz won her second straight PIAA Class AAA singles crown Nov. 3, capping off a stellar high school career. The senior had won three District 1 titles before finishing second this year. Mintz, who plans to major in communications, earned the Hawkeyes' last available scholarship for 2003. Contact Shannon Ryan at 610-313-8097 or sryan@phillynews.

ZACH JOHNSON IS the Masters champion you did not know 48 hours ago. He's not Tiger. He's not Phil, or Retief or Ernie or Vijay. You know those guys. Zach? Well, he won his first major and he is the pride of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He's down to earth, a regular guy. He might be the most famous guy from Iowa since the fictional Radar O'Reilly. "He's like an Iowa kid.Kind of naive, very humble, and just a cool guy," said Ryan Hartman, Johnson's former teammate at Drake University in Des Moines and one of his closest friends.

Soul (1-5) at Iowa (2-4) When: Tonight, 8:05 Where: Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines TV: WMCN Radio: None Series: This is the first meeting between the teams. Iowa was not in the AFL from 2001-09. About the Soul: Riding a five-game losing streak since opening up the season with an overtime win in Pittsburgh . . . Despite the skid, the Soul entered the weekend just 2 1/2 games back of Cleveland in the East Division . . . Ryan Vena is the likely starter at quarterback as Justin Allgood continues to shake off the effects of a concussion sustained last season.

Rollie Massimino learned some things about this year's edition of his Villanova basketball team during the three-game Maui Classic, which concluded with 11th-ranked Iowa's 97-74 win over the Wildcats. He learned that his young team can come up big at important moments against good teams, as sophomore Tom Greis did Saturday night, hitting a game-winning shot with seven seconds left in a semifinal win over Illinois. He learned that they can put teams away, as they did Friday night in coasting to a first-round victory over Nebraska.

Lawrence Westbrook and Travis Busch each scored 10 points and No. 22 Minnesota rallied from a 13-point deficit then hung on to beat host Iowa, 52-49, last night. The Golden Gophers (14-1, 2-1 Big Ten) shot only 33.9 percent from the field and nearly let the game slip away in the closing seconds. Minnesota led 50-44 with 24.5 seconds left. Jake Kelly of Iowa (11-5, 1-2) scored and Al Nolen of Minnesota missed two free throws. Jeff Peterson buried an open 3 from the corner with 5.3 seconds left to make it a one-point game, but Westbrook hit two free throws.

Stuck in the corner with time running out, all Jermaine Wallace could do was heave the ball and hope. Swish! Wallace hit a fadeaway three-pointer with a split second left, and little Northwestern State, the No. 14 seed, pulled off a shocker with a furious rally, beating Iowa, 64-63, yesterday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the Atlanta Regional. Down by 17 with 8 1/2 minutes left, the 14th-seeded Demons from Natchitoches, La., stormed back to down the Big Ten Tournament champions in the Atlanta Regional.

Marcus Wilson, a second-team all-South Jersey wide receiver from Camden Catholic in Cherry Hill, has made an oral commitment to Iowa. Wilson, who is entering his senior year, made his decision after attending Iowa's football camp over the weekend, Camden Catholic coach Dennis Scuderi said. According to Scuderi, Wilson had received offers from Rutgers, Boston College, Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisville and Iowa. "He said he really felt comfortable there," Scuderi said.

A Los Angeles high school football player pulled from a game by a doctor because of exhaustion died in his sleep hours later, authorities said. And in Muscatine, Iowa, a player died after collapsing on the sideline during a game. Eric Michael Hoggatt, 18, a senior, of South Central Los Angeles, was found dead at 5:45 a.m. yesterday when his mother, Verna Hoggatt, noticed he was not up at the customary time to catch the bus to Reseda High School in the suburban San Fernando Valley.

On Iowa's big day, I asked Slats Grobnik what he'd do if he lived in that state. "I'd move. " What I meant was, which presidential candidate would you vote for? "Nobody. I'd stay home and feed the pigs and talk to the chickens, or whatever they do for kicks in Iowa. " But what about your responsibilities as a concerned citizen? "You don't understand. I'm a mainstream kind of guy, see. " What does that mean? "It means that if you want to be in the mainstream in Iowa, you don't do nothing today except maybe turn on the tube and watch all the TV newsies yapping about why the guy who finished third did better than the guy who finished first.

Senior guard Hernell Jackson scored 9 of his 23 points in overtime and keyed a pivotal 9-2 run as Texas-El Paso defeated Arizona, 98-91, in a first- round West Region game yesterday in Tucson, Ariz. The Miners (25-6) advance to tomorrow's second round to face Iowa. UTEP, the Western Athletic Conference's regular-season champion, trailed Arizona (18-12) by 78-73 with 50 seconds left in regulation but forced the overtime by tying the score at 79-79 on Jackson's three-point goal with 26 seconds left and junior guard Chris Blocker's jumper with 1 second showing.

Penn State will play back-to-back prime-time Big Ten games, the conference announced in unveiling its prime-time schedule Tuesday. Penn State is at Iowa on Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. on the Big Ten Network and then hosts Ohio State on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2. Here is the schedule announced for Big Ten conference games in prime time. More will be announced at a later date. Sept. 29: Wisconsin at Nebraska, 8 p.m. ( ABC, ESPN or ESPN2) Oct. 6: Nebraska at Ohio State, 8 p.m., ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 Oct. 13: Ohio State at Indiana, 8 p.m., (Big Ten Network)

Drexel extended its basketball season Sunday, but not before fighting off a team that earned plenty of respect in an impressive two-game stay in Philadelphia. Leading by as many as 18 points in the first half, Drexel held off a late charge to defeat the University of Northern Iowa, 65-63, in a second-round NIT game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The outcome wasn't decided until a forced double-pump three-point shot by Northern Iowa's Johnny Moran bounced off the back of the rim as time expired.

NIT second round: No. 7 seeded Northern Iowa (20-13) at No. 3 Drexel (28-6)   Sunday, 11 a.m., Daskalakis Athletic Center Television: ESPN Points per game/opponents points per game: Northern Iowa, 65.6/61.8; Drexel, 65.1/55.4 Probable lineups Northern Iowa G Deon Mitchell 6-1 Fr., 7.1 ppg., 2.2 rpg. G Johnny Moran 6-1 Sr., 7.1 ppg., 3.0 rpg. G Marc Sonnen 6-3 Jr.,...

Chris Allen led four Cyclones in double figures with 20 points, and eithth-seeded Iowa State (23-10) scored its final 14 at the free-throw line Thursday night to beat ninth-seeded Connecticut, 77-64, in a South Regional in Louisville, Ky. It's the first time since UCLA in 1996 that the defending champs have lost in the opening game and only the second time the Huskies (20-14) have lost their first game in the NCAA tournament. UConn coach Jim Calhoun was already on his feet before the final buzzer, walking to congratulate Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg.

He is happy that his team was recognized for a good season with an NIT bid, but St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli doesn't want anyone to carry that affirmation beyond one simple goal - a first-round win Wednesday night over Northern Iowa. "It's not about advancing or knowing who might be your next opponent," Martelli said Tuesday before putting the Hawks through practice at Hagan Arena, site of the 7:15 p.m. opening game. "It's only about winning on Wednesday. " The temptation for the Hawks would be to look ahead in their bracket.

DES MOINES, Iowa - The vice president of China is spending a good deal of his U.S. trip in Iowa, a state better known for hosting American presidential candidates than major heads of state. So why is this rural place playing such a big role in the leader's historic tour of the United States? The answer lies in the way Xi Jinping likes to do business - by building personal relationships - and in Iowa's rich agricultural industry, which is closely tied to China's. "He's very outgoing, very personable," said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who met with Xi in 1985, when a Chinese delegation visited Iowa to study farming practices and again last year, when Branstad led a trade mission to China.

CHANDLER, Ariz. - If President Obama is showing some swagger, it shouldn't be a surprise. His job approval ratings point to an uptick. The Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden just pulled off a daring rescue that Obama authorized in Somalia. He's fresh off a big speech before Congress, and the Republicans who want his job are criticizing each other probably more than they are Obama. As he hits the road for three days of travel to important political states, Obama is on a roll.

The third-ranked Penn State wrestling team reeled off seven straight wins to run away from No. 2 Iowa, 22-13, in a marquee Big Ten dual Sunday in sold-out Rec Hall in State College, Pa. Nearly 7,000 fans came to their feet as true freshman Morgan McIntosh clinched the victory with a win over Iowa all-American Grant Gambrall in the 197-pound weight class. SOCCER: The U.S. women's team took it to Guatemala, 13-0, to clinch a berth in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the London Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Austin Hollins scored a career-high 18 points to help visiting Minnesota beat No. 7 Indiana, 77-74, last night. Christian Watford missed a potential game-tying three-pointer in the closing seconds for Indiana. Rodney Williams scored 14 points and Julian Welch added 10 for the Golden Gophers (13-5, 1-4 Big Ten), who had lost four straight. Minnesota shot 6-for-13 on three-pointers in the first half to take the lead. Indiana freshman Cody Zeller matched a season high with 23 points for the Hoosiers (15-2, 3-2)

NASHUA, N.H. - Rick Santorum was more than halfway through his 20-minute pep talk at an outdoor rally here when the 2012 GOP presidential hopeful heard something for the first time - applause, or, more accurately, the muffled noise of a few dozen pairs of gloves thudding together on a bracing-cold January morning. "You can keep your hands inside your big pockets to stay warm," the bemused former Pennsylvania senator told a crowd of roughly 100 people - half of them journalists and many of the rest undecided voters curious to see the candidate who shocked pundits by nearly winning last week's Iowa caucuses.