Shiffrin ties Cup record in slalom

Mikaela Shiffrin wrote more World Cup ski history in Courcheval, France, winning her 35th career slalom to tie a women’s record while getting her 50th overall victory.

Shiffrin tied her childhood idol Marlies Schild of Austria. Schild’s final slalom victory, in December 2013, was achieved at the age of 32. Shiffrin turns 24 in March.

Shiffrin is also the youngest of the eight skiers, four men and four women, to win 50 World Cup races across all disciplines. Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 wins is the record.

“It’s so distracting that they give out those numbers for me,” Shiffrin said. “I was trying as hard as I could not to focus on that today.”

 Swiss skier Daniel Yule claimed his first World Cup victory when first-run leaders Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen straddled gates in the second leg of a night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy. Hirscher, who won the opening two slaloms of the season, kept the discipline and overall World Cup lead.

Obituaries: Forrest Fezler, a former PGA Tour pro who grew up in San Jose and attended Stanford, died of cancer Friday. He was 69.

Fezler earned one victory and 30 top-10 finishes in his tour career, and finished second to Hale Irwin in the 1974 U.S. Open. He also won the 1969 California Amateur Championship.

Fezler later worked as a golf course designer. His work included collaborating with Mike Strantz on the renovation of Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course, which is used in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.  Mel Hutchins, the All-America center who helped elevate BYU to the top ranks of college basketball in 1951 and became a four-time NBA All-Star, died Wednesday in Encinitas (San Diego County). He was 90.

Hutchins had been treated for Alzheimer’s disease, his son, Matthew, said.

Hutchins joined with forward Roland Minson in helping BYU win the championship of the 1951 NIT at a time when it rivaled the NCAA Tournament in prestige. It was the first national championship in any sport for BYU.

The 6-foot-5 Hutchins was co-rookie of the year in the NBA with the Milwaukee Hawks; Hutchins and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players to have led the league in rebounding in their rookie seasons. Hutchins later led the Fort Wayne Pistons to the NBA playoffs in 1955 and 1956, paving the way for the franchise’s move to Detroit.

He was the uncle of former NBA forward Kiki Vandeweghe.