In Brief

COLLEGES

Maryland, Virginia net spots
in NCAA men's lacrosse final

Niko Amato made 13 saves to anchor a suffocating defense, and unseeded Maryland beat fifth-seeded Duke 9-4 on Saturday in Baltimore to reach the NCAA men's lacrosse title game.

In the other semifinal, Steele Stanwick had three goals and two assists, leading seventh-seeded Virginia to 14-8 victory over No. 6 seed Denver.

The Terrapins will play the four-time champion Cavaliers in the final Monday.

Also: UNLV wrapped up competition at the NCAA's West preliminary track and field championship in Eugene, Ore. The Rebels' 4x100-meter relay squad took 14th, falling two spots short of advancing to the national championship meet next month at Drake in Des Moines, Iowa.

Emily Blok, who ran in the relay, also took 23rd in the 200 dash.

Hammer throwers Amanda Bingson and Chelsea Cassulo will be the Rebels' representatives at the national meet, after taking first and third Friday.

Brandon Everage, a safety on Oklahoma's 2000 national championship football team, drowned while swimming in a river in Cameron, Texas. He was 30.

Milam County Sheriff David Greene said in a news release that authorities were called to the Little River on Friday evening. Friends said they had been swimming when Everage, a Granger resident, went under water and didn't surface. A dive team recovered his body Saturday morning.

Everage was a reserve on Oklahoma's 2000 national championship team and a starter on the 2003 team that had a shot at the BCS title before losing to Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl.

Everage was a second-team All-American in 2002, when he had 94 tackles, six interceptions and three sacks.

As a senior, he had 60 tackles while starting the final 12 games at free safety for the Sooners, including the 21-14 loss to LSU in the Sugar Bowl with the BCS title on the line. He was not drafted and didn't play in the NFL.

MISCELLANEOUS

Cowboys quarterback Romo
marries former beauty queen

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and former TV sports reporter Candice Crawford tied the knot in what was called the wedding of the year in Dallas.

KDFW-TV said the nuptials were held at Arlington Hall, a historic mansion along Turtle Creek in uptown Dallas.

Romo, 30, has been dating Crawford since late 2009. Crawford is a 25-year-old Lubbock, Texas, native and former beauty queen. She was Miss Missouri in 2008.

Also: Vancouver Canucks center Manny Malhotra was cleared to play in the Stanley Cup Finals, coach Alain Vigneault said.

Vigneault would not say if Malhotra will be in the lineup Wednesday when the Canucks open the best-of-7 series at home against the Boston Bruins.

Malhotra has been sidelined since March 16, when he was hit in the left eye by a puck. He has had several operations during his recovery.

World champion Caster Semenya won the women's 800 meters at the Dakar Grand Prix in Dakar, Senegal, clocking her fastest time of the season in her first international race of 2011.

The South African led the field throughout, finishing in 2 minutes, 0.61 seconds -- more than a second quicker than her previous best this year.

Former Olympic 200-meter champion Shawn Crawford of the United States took the men's 200 in 20.58 seconds.

Alberto Contador closed in on his second Giro d'Italia title, comfortably keeping his lead during a next-to-last stage won by Vasili Kiryienka of Belarus after a solo breakaway into Sestriere, Italy.

Contador finished eighth to maintain his lead of 5 minutes, 18 seconds over Michele Scarponi in the overall standings.

Kiryienka rode alone for most of the 20th stage and finished the 150-mile ride from Verbania to Sestriere in 6 hours, 17 minutes, 3 seconds.

David Zabriskie won the U.S. pro cycling time trial championship for a fifth time.

Zabriskie won by 31 seconds, covering the 20.7-mile course in Greenville, S.C., in 40 minutes, 23.5 seconds. Last year's winner, Taylor Phinney, finished 50 seconds back in seventh place.

Harvard is still dominating the nation's oldest intercollegiate sporting event.

The Crimson easily won the 146th Harvard-Yale Regatta in New London, Conn., completing the four-mile, upstream race on the Thames River in 19:06. Yale finished with a time of 19:19.

Harvard is 92-54 in the event, winning 11 of the past 12 matchups.

High Rate of Return outran favorite Mighty B Valiant in a side-by-side race to the wire to win the Heritage Place Futurity, the nation's first $1 million quarter horse race of the year.

High Rate of Return dueled with the 3-5 favorite before pulling ahead at the end of the 350 yards to win by half a length in 17.426 seconds at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.