LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska women’s bowling coach Bill Straub has returned from a leave of absence.
Straub left the team in January for heart surgery, turning the coaching duties over to assistant Paul Klempa. The Cornhuskers won two tournaments in Straub’s absence and are rated No. 2 nationally.
The Huskers will compete in the NCAA Championships starting next Thursday in Cleveland.
The North Platte Bulldogs boys and girls soccer teams split their games with Lexington on Thursday.
The Lady Dawgs earned the win for North Platte and were dominant against the Minutemaids in a 9-0 route. The match was fairly close at halftime as the Bulldogs only led 2-0, but North Platte scored seven second half goals to not just shut, but slam the door.
Taylor Banark led the way for the Lady Bulldogs with three goals and two assists. Andrea Monzano added two goals while, Alex Neff, Morgan Hansen, Madalynn Doughty, and Samantha Tagwerker each scored one goal each for North Platte. Abby Stark earned the shutout as the keeper and had seven saves in the match.
The boys soccer team for North Platte lost to the Minutemen, 2-1 following a shootout. The Bulldogs trailed 1-0 at the half before tying it in the 2nd half and forcing a shootout with Lexington. Nick Wilkinson scored the lone goal for North Platte in the match. The Bulldogs lost in the shootout 5-4. Dakota Guenin was in the net for North Platte and made 11 saves.
North Platte Community College sophomore guard for the men’s basketball team, Ethan Montalvo committed on Thursday to play at Texas State University.
Montalvo received interest from a number of NCAA Division I schools but made his decision after his visit to the campus in San Marcos, Texas.
Montalvo will go down as one of the greatest players in North Platte Knights history. He was named the Region IX South Sub-Region player of the year this past season to go along with being named to the Region IX First Team and the Region IX All-Tournament team. Montalvo finished his career at NPCC without ever losing at his home gym of McDonald-Belton Gymnasium on the South Campus of North Platte Community College with a 28-0 record. He also ranks fifth all-time on the Knights career scoring list with 1,173 points. Montalvo started every game of his Knights career and tied for the most games played in a Knights uniform at 68.
This past season Montalvo led the Knights to a second-place finish in the South Sub-Region of Region IX and to the semifinals of the Region IX Tournament. He led the team in scoring at 18.9 points per game. He also averaged 3.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game.
The Bobcats of Texas State University play in the Sunbelt Conference and finished with an 8-23 overall record this season. Montalvo will likely have opportunities to play against some of the nation’s top talent and top teams while in San Marcos. This past season the Bobcats played Texas out of the Big 12, Utah from the PAC 12 and Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs.
(AP) — Police say a former Nebraska defensive end had more than $1,300 in Husker football equipment stolen from the trunk of his car while he was away playing for the Cleveland Browns.
Eric Martin told police his white Nebraska football helmet, more than 13 jerseys, three pairs of game pants and a pair of football cleats were missing from his 2003 black Ford Focus.
Police Capt. Danny Reitan says Martin, who played for Nebraska from 2009 to 2012, left the car with a friend in Lincoln around May 27 while he was in Cleveland.
The car was ticketed several times and ultimately towed from a restaurant parking lot on Jan. 9. Martin reported the items stolen Thursday.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tournament that began with the lure of a billion-dollar bracket will come to a close at a billion-dollar stadium outside of Dallas.
Big as March Madness and the Final Four have become, they’re not big enough to blot out the storm clouds on the horizon. The NCAA has issues looming — among them, the possible unionization of players and a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s ban on paying players.
If the NCAA loses either case, it would threaten almost everything. That includes its most lucrative and intoxicating event: The basketball tournament, which is celebrating best-in-a-generation TV ratings, a record number of overtime games and a staple of big-name programs — Florida, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Kentucky — that made it through hours of entertaining action en route to the Final Four.
MIAMI (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton singled home the go-ahead run with two outs in the eighth inning, capping a comeback to help the Miami Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 8-5 Thursday.
Casey McGehee had two hits and three RBIs for the Marlins, who scored 27 runs while winning three of four games in the season-opening series. Miami finished last in the majors in runs and batting last year and lost 100 games.
The Marlins were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position for the afternoon before Christian Yelich made the score 5-all in the eighth with a two-out RBI single off Matt Belisle (0-1). Yelich stole second — with the call confirmed by a replay review — and Jeff Baker walked.
Yelich scored easily when Stanton singled after falling behind 0-2, and McGehee followed with a two-run single. McGehee has eight RBIs and Stanton seven in the season’s first week.
NEW YORK (AP) — The seven NFL teams with new head coaches can begin the first phase of offseason workouts on Monday.
Those workouts for the Redskins, Titans, Buccaneers, Browns, Lions, Texans and Vikings will be limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehab sessions.
Each of those clubs can conduct a voluntary minicamp, with the first of those scheduled for April 22-24 in Detroit and Tampa. Cleveland, Minnesota, Tennessee and Washington will hold their voluntary minicamps the following week, while Houston will go May 6-8.
All other teams can begin their opening phase of workouts April 21.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Doug McDermott, who finished his career at Creighton as college basketball’s fifth-leading scorer, is a near-unanimous selection as The Associated Press’ player of the year.
McDermott is the 11th three-time All-American and first in almost 30 years. He led the nation in scoring with a 26.7 average while shooting 52.6 percent from the field including 44.9 percent from 3-point range.
The 6-foot-8 McDermott averaged 7.0 rebounds in leading the Bluejays to a 27-8 record in their first season as a member of the Big East. He finished his career with 3,150 points.
McDermott received 64 votes Thursday from the same 65-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Russ Smith of Louisville got the other vote. The voting ended on Selection Sunday.
KEARNEY, Neb. – Hours before the final weekend of the regular season, Tri-City Storm head coach and general manager Jim Hulton has agreed in principle to an extension which will keep him at the helm through next season. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Hulton, 45, took over on Nov. 19, 15 games into the regular season. In January, the general manager made the decision to make trades to position the franchise better for the future.
“I’m very happy to have the opportunity to come back and hopefully finish the job,” Hulton said. “We started a big task at the trade deadline and put a lot of stock in our team moving forward. To have the opportunity to come back and see that to fruition is something that I’m very excited about.”
Tri-City was 4-9-2 (.333) when Hulton came in, replacing Josh Hauge. The Storm have gone 17-25-1 (.407) under his guidance, for an overall record of 21-34-3 (.388). Currently tied with Des Moines for sixth in the Western Conference, Tri-City has been eliminated from playoff contention.
“I think all the pieces are in place for this organization to have success,” Hulton said. “I think we have a terrific ownership group that supports us in every way possible, we have a great office staff here with the Storm and there’s continuity in the coaching staff.”
The bench boss also said that his assistant coach JB Bittner, who was hired in June, will be returning by his side.
“I’m very comfortable with JB,” Hulton said. “He’s more than an assistant coach to me, he’s a coaching and management partner and we think we’ve solidified our scouting staff. Now we have to put the on-ice product there and that’s the enjoyable part from a coach’s standpoint. We think we’ve aligned ourselves in a spot where we can do these things and hopefully have a lot more success on the ice.”
Hulton was brought in to replace Josh Hauge, and has coaching experience at many levels, both amateur and professional. Before coming to Kearney, he was with the Florida Panthers as an Assistant Coach in the National Hockey League from 2008-2011.
A Kingston, Ont. native, Hulton also served as a head coach in the OHL for 10 seasons with the Mississauga IceDogs, Belleville Bulls, Kingston Frontenacs and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
The news comes on the five-year anniversary of the announcement that Mr. Kirk Brooks acquired the franchise back in 2009. In each year since Brooks came on board, including the current season, attendance at the Viaero Event Center has increased.
Tri-City will head to Des Moines and drop the puck on their final weekend of the regular season at 7:05 p.m. on Friday night.
The Storm will then return home to close the season in Kearney at the Viaero Event Center against the Lincoln Stars. The final home game of the 2013-14 season will get underway on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.
LINCOLN – Three new multispecies big game hunting permits are authorized for 2014, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Each of the three permit recipients will be drawn in a lottery.
Those new permits are:
— One Super Tag permit for residents or nonresidents. This permit is valid for one elk of either sex, one antelope of either sex, one deer of either sex, and two turkeys.
— One Combo permit for residents only. This permit is valid for one antelope of either sex, one deer of either sex, and two turkeys.
— One Combo permit for nonresidents only. This permit is valid for one antelope of either sex, one deer of either sex, and two turkeys.
Each of the new multispecies permits allows qualifying persons to apply multiple times a year at $10 per application. Each is valid for 2014 and 2015 in open hunting seasons with the appropriate weapons. The turkey bag limit allows only toms and bearded hens to be taken in the spring.
A regulation that states no person may have more than one bull elk permit in a lifetime does not apply to lottery and auction permits.
In addition to the new permits listed above, Game and Parks currently has a Super Tag permit (elk, antelope, deer and turkey) for residents only that allows one $25 entry per person each year.
The application period for these multispecies permits is April 21 – July 4, 2014.
