IN BRIEF

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Creighton's Altman reportedly
leaving to take over at Oregon

Multiple media outlets reported late Saturday that Creighton coach Dana Altman has agreed to take over at Oregon.

Fox Sports was the first to report that Altman had been hired to replace Ernie Kent, who was dismissed last month after 13 seasons with his alma mater.

Altman spent 16 season at Creighton, finishing with a 327-176 record. He led the Bluejays to 11 consecutive 20-win seasons before going 18-16 this year.

Also: Dwayne Polee Jr., a 6-foor-7-inch forward from Westchester High School in Los Angeles, delayed announcing his college choice.

Polee, who is being recruited by UNLV, Georgia and St. John's, was to have announced his decision Saturday night. He is the son for former UNLV player Dwayne Polee (1981-82).

HORSE RACING

Filly Rachel Alexandra may run
on Kentucky Oaks undercard

Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra could be heading back to work.

Owner Jess Jackson is considering running the 4-year-old filly in the $400,000 La Troienne Stakes on Friday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Rachel Alexandra hasn't run since finishing second to Zardana in the New Orleans Ladies on March 13, a performance that ended plans for her to meet unbeaten mare Zenyatta at the Apple Blossom.

Jackson said he's pointing Rachel Alexandra to the La Troienne, a
1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and up. The race is the day before the Kentucky Derby, and on the undercard of the Kentucky Oaks, which Rachel Alexandra won by a record 20 lengths last year.

Also: Hurricane Ike roared to the lead at the top of the stretch then pulled away to win the $200,000 Derby Trial at Churchill Downs.

Hurricane Ike, ridden by Calvin Borel and trained by John Sadler, beat Aikenite by 2 lengths to win for the first time on dirt. The 3-year-old colt covered the one-turn mile in 1:36.35 and paid $13.80, $5.60 and $3.

Aikenite, with Garrett Gomez up, paid $6 and $4.40. Pleasant Prince, who could have earned a spot in next week's Kentucky Derby with a win, was a distant third and paid $3.40.

Eightyfiveinafifty went off as a solid 3-2 favorite but faded in the stretch and finished fourth.

LOCAL COLLEGES

Harper, Jones, Kurcz propel
No. 2 CSN baseball to sweep

Bryce Harper his his 21st home run of the season in the opener and pitchers Taylor Jones and Aaron Kurcz combined for a three-hit shutout in the nightcap as the second-ranked College of Southern Nevada baseball team swept a Scenic West Athletic Association doubleheader from Colorado Northwestern Community College 9-3 and 4-0 at Morse Stadium in Henderson.

Harper went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the first game for the Coyotes (38-10, 25-7 SWAC).

The College of Southern Nevada softball team split a Scenic West doubleheader, winning the first game 11-2 and dropping the second 9-6 on a walk-off grand slam.

The Coyotes are 29-16 overall, 25-14 in the SWAC.

The 11th-ranked UNLV men's golf team shot a final-round 10-under par 278 to finish third at the Cougar Classic in Provo, Utah.

The Rebels ended the three-round event at 6-under 858, eight shots behind Colorado State and six shots behind runner-up and host Brigham Young.

UNLV was led individually by Derek Ernst, who finished seventh overall at 4-under 212, six shots behind medalist Jared Becher of UNR.

The UNLV baseball team surrenedered a two-run, walk-off home run in the ninth inning and fell to eighth-ranked Texas Christian 9-8 in a Mountain West Conference game in Fort Worth, Texas.

Matt Curry delivered the decisive blow for the Horned Frogs. It was one of six homers hit by TCU.

Brandon Bayardi and Jarred Frierson homered for UNLV (21-17, 5-6 MWC).

Kylie Wagner pitched a two-hitter and collected three hits as the UNLV softball team completed a Mountain West doubleheader sweep of Utah in Salt Lake City with an 8-1 win.

Traci Odegard pitched a four-hit shuout for the Rebels (28-17, 5-2 MWC) in a 4-0 victory in the opener.

The Rebels men's tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to host San Diego State to finish the regular season at 12-11 overall and 2-4 in Mountain West play.

UNLV took two out of three games in doubles for one point and then collected one point apiece from Attila Toth and Johannes Markel with wins at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively.

The UNLV track team claimed three events at the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego.

Chauncey David-Jacobs ran a personal-best of 54.23 seconds to win the 400 meters, Deja Edwards captured the long jump with a distance of 19 feet, 6¼ inches, and the Rebels took the 400-meter relay in a time of :46.14.

MISCELLANEOUS

Daytona speedway to undergo
repaving in time for 2011 race

Daytona International Speedway will be repaved for the second time in history and is expected to be ready to host next year's Daytona 500.

A pothole on the track during this year's Daytona 500 forced two delays that totaled more than two hours during the Feb. 14 race. The original plan was to pour a concrete patch in the area and repave the track in 2012.

Speedway president Robin Braig said the resurfacing was accelerated because they couldn't risk a similar situation in February.

The repaving project will begin immediately after the July 3 Sprint Cup race with completion targeted for Jan. 1, 2011. Daytona's entire 2.5-mile tri-oval will be repaved as well as the skid pads, apron and pit road.

Also: Melanie Oudin of the United States defeated Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-3, but Russia's Elena Dementieva evened up the Fed Cup semifinals matchup in Birmingham, Ala., with a straight-set win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Dementieva, ranked No. 6 in the world, won 6-4, 6-3 in the best-of-5 event.

Fernando Verdasco reached his second final in two weeks by beating David Ferrer 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-1 at the Barcelona Open in Barcelona Spain.

Verdasco will play second-seeded Robin Soderling, who reached today's final after defeating Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-4.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will miss the rest of the Premier League season because of a groin injury but should be fit to play for England at the World Cup in June.

Rooney had only just recovered from an ankle injury when he hurt his groin in training on Thursday.

Jamaican Usain Bolt dazzled a capacity crowd with a lightning-fast final leg, overtaking USA Blue's Ivory Williams to win the 4x100-meter relay at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

A quartet of Mario Forsythe, Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson and Bolt finished in 37.90 seconds for Jamaica Gold, setting a Penn Relays record.

Jordan Bryden, 23, of Calgary, Alberta, and Rachel Cieslewich, 30, of Salt Lake City captured the men's and women's titles in the XTerra Lake Las Vegas half-marathon trail run.

Bryden covered the rocky 13-mile course in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 50 seconds, while Cieslewich was first in the women's division in 1:31.40.