Ledecky wins major swim meet amid pandemic

Wilimovsky dominates men’s 1,500-meter Aztecs clinch 2nd MWC crown

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, March 4, (AP): Like everyone else, Katie Ledecky was forced to shelve her plans when the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Instead of looking far into the future, the five-time Olympic champion swimmer switched to a more immediate mindset.

Forget that the four-year cycle leading to the 2024 Paris Olympics is already underway. Ledecky is still working toward making a big splash at this summer’s delayed Tokyo Games.

SWIMMING

“In some ways not traveling over the past year and just being able to train has been really good for me and something I hope will pay dividends,” she said from Northern California in a recent virtual interview. “I’m someone that really loves training. I kind of like the day-to-day of just going to work and putting in that work in the pool and eventually seeing the results.”

Ledecky returned to national competition on Wednesday for the first time in a year, winning the 1,500-meter freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in San Antonio, Texas.

She led by a half-pool length for most of the 30-lap race before touching in 15 minutes, 42.92 seconds. Ashley Twichell finished well back in second at 16:04.29.

“I didn’t set too many expectations coming into this first race,” Ledecky said afterward. “I knew getting the first race out of the way would kind of be a milestone in this journey back into real racing.”

Jordan Wilimovsky won the men’s 1,500 in 15:15.28. He’s already qualified for Tokyo in open-water competition.

Ledecky is among several big names diving back in with three months to go until the U.S. Olympic trials. Caeleb Dressel, Simone Manuel, double backstroke world-record holder Regan Smith, and Ryan Lochte will swim over four days in the first single-site American

In this July 27, 2019 file photo, shows gold medalist Katie Ledecky of the United States waving on the podium following the women’s 800m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. (AP)

meet since the pandemic began.

Aiming to make his fifth Olympic team, Lochte is entered in five events.

Ledecky is entered in her other usual events: 200, 400, and 800 freestyles. She’s also set to swim the 50 and 100 free.

Her Olympic schedule will focus on the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500, plus any relays. The 1,500 is a new women’s event in Tokyo.

Last March, when it was announced the Tokyo Olympics were postponed, Ledecky resumed classes at Stanford. She had planned to take the year off from school leading up to the games; instead, she signed up for a full schedule of virtual classes in the spring and fall. She completed her psychology degree with a minor in political science.

“That was a great silver lining,” she said.

In the early days of the pandemic, Ledecky scrambled to find a pool to train in after Stanford shut down its facilities. She and Manuel worked out in a backyard pool.

VILLANOVA, Pa, March 4, (AP): Justin Moore scored 24 points and helped No. 10 Villanova capture the Big East title with a 72-60 win over a No. 14 Creighton team playing with coach Greg McDermott under fire for using language evocative of slavery.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl added 14 points and 14 rebounds for Villanova (16-4, 11-3), which lost star senior guard Collin Gillespie to a left knee injury in the first half. He writhed in pain on the court and immediately needed help to the locker room.

Mitch Ballock led Creighton (17-7, 13-6) with 14 points.

Florida St 93, BC 64

In Tallahassee, Fla, M.J. Walker scored 18 points, hitting six 3-pointers, and RaiQuan Gray added 16 points to help Florida State beat Boston College for its 25th straight ACC home win.

Gray scored in double figures for an 11th straight game for the Seminoles (15-4, 11-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who are in position to win the league’s regular-season title with a win at Notre Dame on Saturday.

San Diego St 71, UNLV 62

In Las Vegas, Matt Mitchell scored 19 points and Jordan Schakel added 16 for No. 19 San Diego State, which beat UNLV to clinch the Mountain West Conference regular-season title for the second straight year.

Nathan Mensah scored 14 points for the Aztecs (20-4, 14-3 MWC), who used a 14-0 run spanning halftime to take control and win their 11th straight game. They get a week of rest before returning to Las Vegas as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

BASKETBALL

Morehead St 61, SE Missouri 54

In Evansville, Ind., Ta’lon Cooper came off the bench to score 17 points to carry No. 2 seed Morehead State to a win over Southeast Missouri in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tourney.

Johni Broome had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Morehead State (21-7). Devon Cooper added 12 points. Skyelar Potter had six rebounds.

New Orleans 92, NW State 83

In New Orleans, Troy Green posted 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as New Orleans got past Northwestern State.

Rodney Carson Jr had 16 points for New Orleans (8-14, 7-7 Southland

Conference). Damion Rosser added 13 points. Ahren Freeman had 12 points and five assists.

Idaho St 68, E. Washington 63 In Cheney, Washington, Robert Ford III posted 17 points and seven rebounds as Idaho State defeated Eastern Washington, making a late 9-0 run.

Trailing 63-57 with just under three minutes to go, the Bengals drained back-to-back 3-pointers from Daxton Carr and Brayden Parker, the latter for a 64-63 lead. Parker added two free throws and Idaho State was up 66-63 with 21 seconds left.

HBU 72, Incarnate Word 67

In Houston, Pedro Castro tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds to lift Houston Baptist to a win over Incarnate Word.

Darius Lee had 12 points for Houston Baptist (5-17, 4-10 Southland Conference), which ended its four-game losing streak.

Miss St 63, Texas A&M 57

In Bryan-College Station, Texas, Iverson Molinar scored 18 points and D.J. Stewart added 14 as Mississippi State fended off Texas A&M.

The Aggies were playing their first game in 32 days, having postponed all seven games they were scheduled to play in February due to COVID-19 issues within the program.

Abdul Ado added eight points, six rebounds and five blocked shots for Mississippi State (14-12, 8-9 Southeastern Conference), which shot 53% for the game (26 of 49) with 18 assists and eight 3-pointers. Tolu Smith also scored eight and added five assists.

Boston U. 69, Lehigh 58

In Boston, Walter Whyte had 19 points and eight rebounds and Sukhmail Mathon posted 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocks as Boston University beat Lehigh in the Patriot League Conference Tourney first round.

Javante McCoy had 13 points for BU (7-10). Jonas Harper added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Penn State 84, Minnesota 65

In University Park, Pa., Myreon Jones scored 17 points, knocking down four 3-pointers, as five Penn State players reached double-figures and the Nittany Lions walloped Minnesota.

Tre’ Williams added 17 points for Minnesota (13-13, 6-13) and Isaiah Ihnen scored 12 with 10 rebounds. The Gophers have lost six straight and have not won a road game in 10 tries this season.

Florida A&M 65, NC Central 58

In Durham, N.C., Bryce Moragne tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds to carry Florida A&M to a win over North Carolina Central.

MJ Randolph had 13 points and nine rebounds for Florida A&M (8-10, 7-4 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference). Kamron Reaves added 13 points. Jalen Speer had 10 points.

Alex Caldwell had 11 points for the Eagles (4-8, 2-5), who have now lost five consecutive games. C.J. Keyser added 11 points and six rebounds.

UCF 73, Tulsa 69

In Orlando, Fla., Isaiah Adams had 19 points as Central Florida narrowly defeated Tulsa.

Darius Perry and Darin Green Jr. each added 14 points for Central Florida (9-11, 7-10 American Athletic Conference). Avery Diggs had three assists.

Brandon Rachal had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Golden Hurricane (10-11, 7-9). Darien Jackson added 13 points and Keyshawn EmberySimpson had 11.