Sports briefs for September 15, 2003

Monday, Sept. 15, 2003 | 10:49 a.m.

U.S. women second in world tournament

Kristie Marano won a gold and the U.S. women won six other medals, but Japan won five golds to take the women's team title and Georgia took the men's Sunday in New York at the World Freestyle Championships.

Kerry McCoy and Cael Sanderson won silver for the U.S. men, who came in second. Georgia finished with 33 points. The U.S. men and Iran both finished with 31 but the Americans finished second by virtue of winning two silvers to just one for Iran.

"I didn't wrestle well and this was a time to wrestle well, so I'm disappointed," Sanderson said. "This year has been pretty ugly for me."

McCoy forced overtime at 265 by taking down Uzbekistan's Artur Taimazov with 7 seconds left, but Taimazov flipped the American from the clinch in overtime to win.

Japan won gold medals at 112, 121, 130, 139 and 158 to tie the U.S. women, who had led the team race going into the finals. Both teams finished with 62 points but the tiebreaker was Japan's gold medal count.

Marano won her second gold and seventh medal at the worlds, using two 3-point rolls to defeat Poland's Ewelina Pruszko 7-1. Only two other American women have won gold medals at the worlds: Tricia Saunders in 1992, '96, '98 and '99 and Sandra Bacher in 1999. Marano also won a gold at the 2000 worlds.

UNLV wins tournament

Tournament MVP Alex Hernandez scored twice to lead the UNLV men to a 3-2 victory against Southwest Missouri State and the championship of the Ameritas Classic at Omaha, Neb. Hernandez, a senior midfielder, also scored in UNLV's 2-0 victory Friday against host Creighton. The victories were the first in six matches this season for the UNLV men.

BYU quarterback out

Brigham Young quarterback Matt Berry, who broke a bone in his throwing hand Saturday in BYU's 10-7 victory at New Mexico, had surgery Sunday and is expected to be out at least three weeks. Berry, a redshirt sophomore, hit his hand on a helmet while throwing. Coach Gary Crowton said first-year fresham John Beck will start in Berry's place Saturday against Stanford.

Sykora joins Ducks

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks agreed to terms on a three-year, $12 million contract with forward Petr Sykora on Sunday, ending a three-day impasse that caused him to miss the start of training camp.