DENVER (AP) — A person with knowledge of the situation says the Denver Nuggets have traded Kosta Koufos to the Memphis Grizzlies and have also dealt their first-round pick in Thursday night’s draft to the Utah Jazz.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deals hadn’t been announced.

The Nuggets didn’t want to pay another young prospect to sit on their bench. So, they traded Frenchman Rudy Gobert, whom they selected with the 27th pick, to the Jazz for cash and the 46th pick, the person said.

They also traded Koufos to the Grizzlies for forward Darrell Arthur and the 55th pick, opening the way for JaVale McGee to start for them in 2013-14.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Rockies outfielder Michael Cuddyer lined a single to center in the second inning against the New York Mets, extending his hitting streak to a franchise-record 24 games.

Cuddyer entered Thursday’s game tied with Dante Bichette before breaking the team mark with a hit off starter Jeremy Hefner on a hot afternoon.

Cuddyer’s hitting streak is the longest in the majors this season.

He has reached base in 43 straight games, also a team record. The previous mark was 41 set by Andres Galarraga and matched by Todd Helton. Both of those, though, were over the course of two seasons.

Cuddyer has raised his season average to .346 during the streak. He is a .271 career hitter.

DENVER (AP) — Marlon Byrd hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and threw out a runner from right field in the ninth to lead the New York Mets past the Colorado Rockies 3-2 on Thursday in a makeup game for the one that was snowed out on April 17.

With the Mets trailing 2-1, Byrd drove a fastball from reliever Matt Belisle (4-5) into the seats in left-center. That was about the extent of the offense for New York with slugger David Wright receiving a rest. Starting pitcher Jeremy Hefner drove in the team’s other run on a groundout.

LaTroy Hawkins (3-1) earned the win with a scoreless seventh and Bobby Parnell closed for his 14th save in 17 chances.

The fourth-place Mets finished 7-4 on a four-city road trip that took them to three time zones. They have won eight of 12 overall.

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — The Calgary Flames traded left wing Alex Tanguay and defenseman Cory Sarich to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday for right wing David Jones and defenseman Shane O’Brien.

The 33-year-old Tanguay is returning to Colorado, where scored a career-high 29 goals in 2005-06. In 13 seasons with Colorado, Calgary, Montreal and Tampa Bay, he has 249 goals and 513 assists in 922 games.

Sarich has 20 goals, 128 assists and 1,051 penalty minutes in 915 games with Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Calgary.

Jones spent the past six seasons with the Avalanche. He has 70 goals and 56 assists in 272 games.

O’Brien has 13 goals and 75 assists in 483 games with Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Vancouver, Nashville and Colorado.

Lincoln, Neb. – The Nebraska track and field team continued its academic success on Thursday as three Huskers earned spots on the Capital One Academic All-America Men’s and Women’s Track and Field/Cross Country Teams. Senior Bjorn Barrefors led NU with his fourth honor, becoming Nebraska’s only four-time academic All-American.

Barrefors was named a first-team honoree for the fourth straight year. On the women’s side, seniors Mara Griva and Morgan Wilken became first-time honorees as they were both selected to the second team.

The men’s team now has a total of 23 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, including 18 since 2002 when the track and field/cross country team was created. The women’s team has a total of 26. Nebraska’s nation-leading total of CoSIDA Academic All-Americans has grown to 307 selections across all sports.

Barrefors completed his career in 2013 as a multi-event athlete and two-time captain for the Huskers. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, he is a computer science major with a minor in mathematics/physics. The NCAA Elite 88 Academic Award winner at the 2010 indoor track and field championships, he was a member of two conference championship teams. Barrefors is a six-time All-American and a two-time conference champion. He was selected as the 2012-13 Nebraska Male Student Athlete of the Year and broke school records in both the heptathlon and decathlon during his career. He received the 2012-13 Big Ten Medal of Honor, was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and an academic All-Big Ten selection.

Griva earned her first academic All-America honor in 2013 after completing a stellar Husker campaign as one of Nebraska’s top jumpers. A two-time captain for NU and native of Ventspils, Latvia, she is a management/marketing major at Nebraska. She finished her senior season with a fourth-place showing in the long jump and a sixth-place finish in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Griva is a 10-time All-American and nine-time conference champion. She swept the horizontal jumps titles at both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten Championships in 2013. As a senior, she was named the 2013 Big Ten Indoor Female Field Athlete of the Championships, the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Female Field Athlete of the Championships and the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Female Field Athlete of the Year. She is a two-time academic All-Big Ten honoree.

Wilken, a discus thrower and captain, also capped her Husker career with academic All-America accolades. She is a native of Crofton, Neb., and is a mathematics and math education major. A two-time All-American, she represented the Huskers in the discus at the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Championships. She finished fourth in the event at the 2012 Big Ten Championships and went on to record an eighth-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Wilken was named a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-District VII selection in 2011 and is a two-time academic All-Big Ten honoree.

DENVER (AP) — Newly hired general manager Tim Connelly says the youthful Denver Nuggets will consider all options with the No. 27 pick in the NBA draft today.

As it stands, the Nuggets are already one of the youngest teams in the league.

Connelly fully believes that Quincy Miller, a little-used forward last season, could be just the player to give the Nuggets a lift following a year in which the team won a franchise-most 57 games, only to bow out in the first round of the playoffs. Connelly says of Miller: “We already feel like we have a first-round pick in Quincy.”

The Nuggets enter the draft not only with a fresh GM but a new head coach after Brian Shaw was brought on board to replace George Karl.

BOSTON (AP) — John Lackey struck out a season-high 12 over seven strong innings and Daniel Nava drove in two runs, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 5-3 victory Wednesday and a sweep of the two-game series against the Colorado Rockies.

Shane Victorino had three hits and Dustin Pedroia added two for the Red Sox.

Colorado’s Michael Cuddyer extended his hitting streak to 23 games with two solo homers, matching Dante Bichette’s club-record set in 1995.

Lackey (5-5) gave up two runs and eight hits without walking a batter. Mixing a fastball and slider most of the time, he had good command, throwing 73 of 98 pitches for strikes.

The Rockies finished a road trip in which they lost seven of nine.

Roy Oswalt (0-2), making his second start since being recalled from Double-A, allowed five runs and nine hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one.

Park Ridge, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced that Indiana track and field athlete Derek Drouin was named the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year. He is the first five-time high jump national champion in NCAA history. The conference also announced that Minnesota ice hockey player Amanda Kessel was honored as the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year. She earned two national player of the year honors after leading her team to an undefeated season and its second straight NCAA title.

Drouin is the fifth Indiana student-athlete to win Male Athlete of the Year accolades and first since football’s Anthony Thompson in 1990. Drouin began his senior year at the 2012 London Olympics, where he claimed a bronze medal in the high jump to become the first Canadian male to medal in a track and field event since 1996. Collegiately, Drouin was name the National Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year after winning both NCAA high jump titles, becoming only the second student-athlete to win both honors in the same season. During the indoor season, Drouin became the first NCAA student-athlete to win the NCAA high jump title three times after taking home the 2013 championship. At the conference championships, he won the high jump and took third in the heptathlon, setting a world record in the heptathlon high jump. On the outdoor circuit, Drouin claimed his fifth overall NCAA high jump title at the 2013 national meet, making him the only five-time champion in the event’s history, and won his seventh Big Ten Championships crown in the event.  A semifinalist for the Bowerman Trophy, the nation’s top award for collegiate track and field, Drouin was the Big Ten’s Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year in addition to earning Academic All-Big Ten honors.

Kessel becomes just the second Minnesota student-athlete to be voted the conference’s Female Athlete of the Year, following swimming and diving’s Gretchen Hegener in 1997. The Gopher junior won the 2013 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation’s top player, becoming just the second player to win the award in program history, and helped Minnesota to an undefeated season and its second consecutive national championship in 2013. Kessel, who also was honored as USA Hockey’s Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year, is just the fourth player in NCAA history to score more than 100 points in a season, finishing with 101 on 46 goals and 55 assists. She averaged 2.66 points per game, including 28 multi-point games, which allowed her to surpass 200 career points midway through the season to become the 24th player in NCAA history to reach the milestone and only the ninth to do so in just three seasons. En route to leading the Gophers to a perfect 41-0-0 mark this past season, Kessel was named a first-team All-American, U.S. College Hockey Online Co-Player of the Year and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Player of the Year, finished the season with +71 plus-minus ratio. She was named to the WCHA All-Academic Team and was an Academic All-Big Ten performer.

Drouin and Kessel were among a field of heralded nominees for the annual conference honors that included nine individual national champions, four team national champions and 22 All-America honorees. On the men’s side, Drouin was among a group of six nominees to take home individual national championships, including Iowa wrestler Derek St. John, Michigan swimmer Connor Jaeger, Minnesota wrestler Tony Nelson, Ohio State tennis player Blaz Rola and Penn State wrestler Ed Ruth, with Jaeger and Ruth each leading his respective squad to a national team title. On the women’s side, Kessel was among a group of five nominees to win an individual or team national title. Individual winners included sprinter Ashley Spencer of Illinois, gymnast Joanna Sampson of Michigan and diver Casey Matthews of Purdue, while Kessel and Ohio State rowing’s Claire-Louise Bode led their teams to NCAA Championships.

The Big Ten Conference has recognized a Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year since 1982 when Indiana’s Jim Spivey earned the inaugural award. The conference first honored a Female Athlete of the Year in 1983, with Michigan State’s Judi Brown collecting the initial award. The Big Ten Athletes of the Year are selected by a panel of conference media members from nominations submitted by each institution.

The complete list of 2013 Athlete of the Year nominations, as well as the list of all-time winners for each award, can be found below.

2013 BIG TEN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR NOMINEES

School                                  Male Nominee                                                 Female Nominee

Illinois                                   Justin Parr (baseball)                                      Ashley Spencer (track & field)

Indiana                                 Derek Drouin (track & field)                        Lindsay Vrooman (swimming & diving)

Iowa                                      Derek St. John (wrestling)                            Jessica Barnett (field hockey)

Michigan                              Connor Jaeger (swimming & diving)        Joanna Sampson (gymnastics)

Michigan State                  Le’Veon Bell (football)                                   Caroline Powers (golf)

Minnesota                          Tony Nelson (wrestling)                                Amanda Kessel (ice hockey)

Nebraska                             Chad Wright (track & field)                          Mary Weatherholt (tennis)

Northwestern                   Venric Mark (football)                                   Chelsea Armstrong (field hockey)

Ohio State                           Blaz Rola (tennis)                                             Claire-Louise Bode (rowing)

Penn State                          Ed Ruth (wrestling)                                         Christine Nairn (soccer)

Purdue                                 Geoff Davis (track & field)                            Casey Matthews (swimming & diving)

Wisconsin                            Montee Ball (football)                                   Cassandra Darrah (softball)

 

BIG TEN JESSE OWENS MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS

1982 – Jim Spivey, Indiana, track and field/cross country

1983 – Ed Banach, Iowa, wrestling

1984 – Sunder Nix, Indiana, track and field

1985 – Barry Davis, Iowa, wrestling

1986 – Chuck Long, Iowa, football

1987 – Steve Alford, Indiana, basketball

1988 – Jim Abbott, Michigan, baseball

1989 – Glen Rice, Michigan, basketball

1990 – Anthony Thompson, Indiana, football

1991 – Mike Barrowman, Michigan, swimming

1992 – Desmond Howard, Michigan, football

1993 – John Roethlisberger, Minnesota, gymnastics

1994 – Glenn Robinson, Purdue, basketball

1995 – Tom Dolan, Michigan, swimming

1996 – Eddie George, Ohio State, football

1997 – Blaine Wilson, Ohio State, gymnastics

1998 – Charles Woodson, Michigan, football

1999 – Luke Donald, Northwestern, golf

2000 – Ron Dayne, Wisconsin, football

2001 – Ryan Miller, Michigan State, ice hockey

2002 – Jordan Leopold, Minnesota, ice hockey

2003 – Amer Delic, Illinois, tennis (co)

2003 – Matt Lackey, Illinois, wrestling (co)

2004 – Damion Hahn, Minnesota, wrestling

2005 – Luis Vargas, Penn State, gymnastics

2006 – Peter Vanderkaay, Michigan, swimming

2007 – Cole Konrad, Minnesota, wrestling

2008 – Brent Metcalf, Iowa, wrestling

2009 – Jake Herbert, Northwestern, wrestling

2010 – Evan Turner, Ohio State, basketball

2011 – David Boudia, Purdue, diving

2012 – Draymond Green, Michigan State, basketball

2013 – Derek Drouin, Indiana, track and field

 

BIG TEN FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS

1983 – Judi Brown, Michigan State, track and field

1984 – Lisa Ishikawa, Northwestern, softball

1985 – Cathy Branta, Wisconsin, cross country/track

1986 – Stephanie Herbst, Wisconsin, cross country/track

1987 – Jennifer Averill, Northwestern, field hockey/lacrosse

1988 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country

1989 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country

1990 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country

1991 – Julie Farrell-Ovenhouse, Michigan State, diving (co)

1991 – Joy Holmes, Purdue, basketball (co)

1992 – MaChelle Joseph, Purdue, basketball

1993 – Lara Hooiveld, Michigan, swimming

1994 – Kristy Gleason, Iowa, field hockey

1995 – Laura Davis, Ohio State, volleyball

1996 – Olga Kalinovskaya, Penn State, fencing

1997 – Kathy Butler, Wisconsin, track and field (co)

1997 – Gretchen Hegener, Minnesota, swimming (co)

1998 – Sara Griffin, Michigan, softball

1999 – Stephanie White-McCarty, Purdue, basketball

2000 – Lauren Cacciamani, Penn State, volleyball

2001 – Katie Douglas, Purdue, basketball

2002 – Christie Welsh, Penn State, soccer

2003 – Perdita Felicien, Illinois, track and field

2004 – Kelly Mazzante, Penn State, basketball

2005 – Jennie Ritter, Michigan, softball

2006 – Tiffany Weimer, Penn State, soccer
2007 – Jessica Davenport, Ohio State, basketball

2008 – Hannah Nielsen, Northwestern, lacrosse

2009 – Maria Hernandez, Purdue, golf

2010 – Megan Hodge, Penn State, volleyball

2011 – Shannon Smith, Northwestern, lacrosse

2012 – Christina Manning, Ohio State, track and field

2013 – Amanda Kessel, Minnesota, ice hockey

DENVER (AP) — A Denver judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman who accused former Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox of sexual assault.

Court documents show the case was dismissed last week at both parties’ request, with no one admitting fault.

Attorneys for both sides mentioned a confidential agreement reached outside of court in declining to comment Wednesday.

The woman had sued after jurors acquitted Cox of criminal charges alleging he sexually assaulted the woman at his apartment in 2010 after a night of partying. She remembered little of what happened but became pregnant, and prosecutors said DNA tests indicated Cox was the father.

Cox now plays for the San Francisco 49ers.

Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas, who was a witness in the criminal case, was previously dismissed from the lawsuit.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — UCLA has its first-ever national championship in baseball after completing a two-game sweep of Mississippi State.

Eric Filia drove in a career-high five runs and Nick Vander Tuig scattered five hits in eight innings as the Bruins hammered the Bulldogs 8-0 at Omaha.

Vander Tuig snuffed out Mississippi State rallies in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings to preserve his shutout and fourth win in the NCAA tournament.