Newbury Park miler breaks four minutes
Newbury Park High‘s running program is headed for Mt. Rushmore status after senior Colin Sahlman recorded the third-fastest indoor mile time by a high school athlete Saturday in New York.
He finished in 3 minutes, 58.81 seconds at the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge, becoming only the fourth high school athlete to break four minutes in an indoor mile.
“It’s crazy,” Sahlman said afterward by phone while on a visit to the Nike store in New York City. “I’m enjoying today.”
Bound for Northern Arizona, Sahlman was part of the record-breaking Newbury Park cross-country team in the fall and is now showing what he can do in track and field. He beat a field that included collegians and professional runners, recording a final 200 meters sprint in 27.79 to go from fourth to first.
“I hung with the front pack and had them lead me through,” he said.
His performance was another indication what an extraordinary coach Sean Brosnan has become. Brosnan developed 2020 Gatorade national runner of the year Nico Young, and now Sahlman is running faster than Young did in high school.
Rich Gonzalez, who operates the Arcadia Invitational and PrepCalTrack.com, said of the performance, “As if breaking four minutes as a high schooler isn’t mind-boggling enough, doing it in his first ever indoor race, having to do it in a place like New York, and having to beat every pro and collegian in the race to do it just leaves me shellshocked. He’s a great kid too, so it’s awesome for him to experience this. He’s fully deserving of his success.”
— Eric Sondheimer
White will retire after Beijing
Shaun White didn’t compete Saturday, but the prolific halfpipe snowboarder made news by announcing he’s planning to retire from the sport after the Olympics.
“A sad and surreal moment,” White told reporters in Zhangjiakou, China. “But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I’ve done and looked at the sun going down and went, ‘Wow, next time I’m here, I won’t be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.’ ”
White, 35, is trying to win his fourth gold medal in his fifth Olympic games.
The Kontinental Hockey League is calling off the rest of the regular season and going directly to the playoffs because of coronavirus concerns surrounding players at the Olympics, pending approval from its board of directors and the Russian Hockey Federation.
The move comes with more than 100 KHL players expected to compete in Beijing, making up 40% of team rosters. The playoffs are set to begin on March 1 after players quarantine upon their return.
The Sparks acquired Chennedy Carter and the rights to Li Yueru from the Atlanta Dream for Erica Wheeler, Los Angeles’ firstround draft choice next year and the No. 15 pick this season.
Carter averaged 16.1 points and 3.4 assists over two seasons with Atlanta after the Dream drafted her with the third pick in 2020. She was suspended in July for conduct detrimental to the team and didn’t return for the rest of the season.
Owner Shad Khan introduced Doug Pederson as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ coach and said the team has applied to the NFL to hire an executive vice president, a person who would report directly to Khan and oversee Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke. It represents a tweak to the team’s power structure as Pederson won’t have the power of former coach Urban Meyer.
Veteran center Greg Monroe is back with the Milwaukee Bucks on a 10day contract.
Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder threw two touchdown passes and the National team had eight sacks in a 20-10 victory over the American team in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Chris Eubank scored a unanimous decision over
Liam Williams to move closer to a world middleweight boxing title shot . ...
Sean Strickland defeated
Jack Hermansson by split decision in the middleweight main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.
Surfer Kelly Slater won his eighth title at Pipeline Pro — 30 years after his first victory at the famous break in Hawaii and just six days shy of his 50th birthday.
Slater beat Seth Moniz to become the oldest surfer to win the event.