in brief

HORSE RACING

Misremembered runs strong,
captures Santa Anita Handicap

Misremembered won the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap in Arcadia, Calif., on Saturday, holding off fast-closing Neko Bay by a half-length.

The victory was Misremembered's first after three consecutive runner-up finishes, putting Hall of Famer Bob Baffert in the winner's circle as the horse's trainer, co-owner and breeder.

Ridden by Martin Garcia, Misremembered ran 1¼ miles in 2:00.20, the 4-year-old horse's first victory at the distance.

Also: Alphie's Bet won the $150,000 Sham Stakes by 2¼ lengths, helping the 3-year-old colt establish his credentials for the Kentucky Derby.

Ridden by Alex Solis, Alphie's Bet ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.72 on Santa Anita's synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

Awesome Act beat Yawanna Twist by 1¼ lengths in the $250,000 Gotham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct in New York.

It was the second straight race in the United States for Awesome Act, who started his career in England. He ran fourth in November in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita and returned to Britain for winter training.

LOCAL COLLEGES

Harper explodes for No. 1 CSN,
but Coyotes manage only split

Freshman standout Bryce Harper went 7-for-8 with a pair of solo home runs and a pair of doubles as the top-ranked College of Southern Nevada baseball team split a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader with College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.

The Coyotes (16-4, 3-1 SWAC) won the first game 10-8 but dropped the nightcap 8-7 in eight innings.

Michael Wesner homered in the first game for CSN, and Ryan Scott homered in the second game for the Coyotes.

Also: Rayne Bradshaw had two homers and drove in five runs as the CSN softball team swept Western Nevada 8-0 and 10-6 in a Scenic West doubleheader at the Russell Road Recreation Complex.

Samantha Powell pitched a three-hitter in the opener, and Evelyn Terrazas homered in the second game for CSN (15-7, 11-5 SWAC).

The UNLV baseball team scored eight runs in the eighth inning and then scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a wild pitch as the Rebels completed a doubleheader sweep of Columbia at Wilson Stadium, 13-12.

R.J. Arnold went 5-for-5 and drove in three runs in UNLV's 11-4 victory in the opener.

Kyle Kretchmer went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the second game for the Rebels (10-3), who have won eight of their past nine games.

The UNLV softball team swept a pair of games in the Eller Media Stadium Classic at Eller Media Stadium, blanking Portland State 8-0 and downing New Mexico State, 9-6.

Jessica O'Connor tossed a two-hitter to win the first game, while Kendall Fearn broke a 4-all tie with a grand slam in the fifth inning of the second game for the Rebels (12-7).

The UNLV men's tennis team beat Hawaii 5-2 at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

Mehdi Bouras, Luca Barlocchi, Johannes Markel and Attila Toth won at Nos. 1-4 singles, respectively, for the Rebels (7-3).

Kelsey Williamson (400 meters), Jennifer Johnson (400), Bailey Kuestermeyer (1,500), Lucy Buester (5,000) and Sarah Muniz (steeplechase) recorded personal bests for the Rebels' track team at the UNLV Track Classic at Myron Partridge Stadium.

Muniz's time of 11 minutes, 4.95 seconds was the second-fastest steeplechase time in school history.

MISCELLANEOUS

Cruz takes bantamweight belt
from Bowles in WEC 47 main

Bantamweight Dominick Cruz captured the World Extreme Cagefighting championship when titleholder Brian Bowles could not answer the bell for the third round in the main event of WEC 47 in Columbus, Ohio.

Bowles said he broke his right hand on his first punch, Sherdog.com reported.

Cruz was leading on all three judges' scorecards when the fight was stopped.

In the co-main event, bantamweight Miguel Torres suffered his second straight loss with a second-round tapout against Joseph Benavidez.

In other fights, former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champ Jens Pulver lost to Javier Vazquez by submission, and LC Davis scored a majority decision over Deividas Taurosevicius in a featherweight match.

Also: Devon Alexander knocked out Juan Urango with a right uppercut at 1:12 of the eighth round to unify the WBC and IBF light welterweight titles at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

Alexander (20-0, 13 knockouts) made a successful defense of his WBC title, while taking away the IBF title from Urango (22-3-1).

Australian Victor Darchinyan (34-2-1, 27 knockouts) scored an unanimous decision against Rodrigo Guerrero (13-2-1) of Mexico City to retain his WBC and WBA super flyweight titles in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The judges scored the bout 118-110, 117-111 and 120-108.

The Wranglers scored three third-period goals to rally from a two-goal deficit but lost to the Ontario Reign 4-3 in a shootout in ECHL play in Ontario, Calif.

Adam Miller, Chris Neiszner and Jerry Pollastrone scored for Las Vegas (25-26-6).

Bob Bryan and John Isner defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (8), 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-3 in doubles to keep the United States alive in the Davis Cup first round, cutting host Serbia's lead to 2-1.

Isner was a last-minute replacement for Bryan's twin Mike, who was sidelined with food poisoning. The Bryans are the top-ranked doubles team.

Isner, who made his Davis Cup debut on Friday, will try to even the series today when he plays second-ranked Novak Djokovic in the first reverse singles on an indoor clay court at Belgrade Arena. Sam Querrey is set to play the final singles match against Viktor Troicki.

Lindsey Vonn won her third straight World Cup downhill title with a narrow victory in her first race since the Vancouver Olympics.

She beat Johanna Schnarf of Italy by a mere 0.01 seconds at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, to tie Bode Miller for the most career World Cup victories by an American at 32.

Didier Cuche of Switzerland won his third straight World Cup downhill title with a dominant run in Kvitfjell, Norway, his first race after missing the podium in the event at the Vancouver Olympics.

Cuche finished the 1994 Olympic course in 1 minute, 45.98 seconds to beat Olympic silver medalist Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway by nearly half a second. Defending champion Klaus Kroell of Austria was third.

Fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps came within a half-second of the U.S. record in the 200-yard individual medley, winning in 1 minute, 40.58 seconds in the Maryland swimming championships at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Phelps had been scheduled to swim in two events but chose to drop out of the 500 freestyle to concentrate on the 200 IM after swimming a 1:43.99 in his qualifying heat.

Phelps is scheduled to swim in the 200 yard butterfly today, a stroke and distance he considers to be his best.

Lance Armstrong's hopes of a Tour of Murcia victory were all but dashed when he finished eighth and more than a minute behind leader Frantisek Rabon in the time trial in Alhama De Murcia, Spain.

Armstrong clocked 26 minutes, 28 seconds in the 13.7-mile time trial. He trails Team HTC-Columbia rider Rabon by 1:23 ahead of today's flat 75.2-mile stage, where few serious breakaways are possible.