2 Ski Spectators Hurt in a Utah Avalanche; Hess Victor in Slalom

An avalanche near a world-class ski race in Utah buried two people watching the event Tuesday, leaving a North Carolina woman in extremely critical condition at a Salt Lake City hospital.

The slide occurred about 200 yards from where a World Cup women’s slalom race had ended 20 minutes earlier.

Marilyn Harrell, 36, Kinston, N.C., was buried for 20 minutes in the 100-foot wide, 600-foot long slide. She was not breathing when rescuers dug her out, Park City Ski Area vice president Craig Badami said.

Harrell was taken by helicopter to the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City, about 30 miles west of Park City, where she was listed in “extremely critical condition.”

“She suffered a cardiac arrest,” said hospital spokesman John Dwan. “But doctors got her heart beating again. Somebody who had a helicopter brought her husband down, and he is here with her.”

Badami said the woman’s breathing was restored on the mountain, near an area called the Gotcha Cutoff, before she was taken to the hospital. She did not regain consciousness at the ski area, however.

Another buried skier, Robert Bechet, 20, also was injured but not as seriously, witnesses said. He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City, where his condition was being evaluated.

Badami said rescuers were probing the 15-foot-deep slide area for other possible victims, but they believe everyone else was safely out of the area. Erika Hess of Switzerland, a two-time World Cup overall champion and the career slalom victory leader with 16, won the World Cup slalom ski race in Park City, Utah, by attrition. She completed the second run in 40.18 seconds for a two-heat time of 1 minute, 17.30 seconds, then watched as Tamara McKinney of Lexington, Ky., and first-run leader Paoletta Magoni of Italy each fell. A group of professional horse players has won $764,283 on a $1 bet, the biggest payoff in North American racing history.

The group showed up at Chicago’s Sportsman’s Park last week and began placing bets covering thousands of combinations, wagering more than $160,000 in all, track officials said.

Members of the group, who refused to give their names or say how many persons were involved, won the prize Monday.

The wager was on the track’s “Super Bet,” which involved selecting the first two finishers, in order, in the third and fourth races, and the first three finishers, in order, in the fifth race.

No one had won the Super Bet since early in the month, and the pot had grown each week.

It would have required five million one-dollar wagers to cover all possible combinations in the three races, the track officials said.

The previous record for a track payout in North America was $735,403 at Exhibition Park in Vancouver, Canada, in 1982. Businessman Warner Hodgdon, who bid $260,000 in a foreclosure auction on the Nashville Raceway lease, has not met the deadline to pay the money, and the lease has reverted to the next-highest bidder.

Hodgdon, who has filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws, did not meet Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, said attorney Gary Baker, who was outbid by the San Bernardino businessman at last Friday’s auction.

The lease now falls to Baker, Hodgdon’s former partner in the raceway operations, who had the next-highest bid of $259,000.

The United States Football League said it was expanding the applications of its instant-replay rule and has modified its rule on downing ballcarriers. Both changes are effective immediately.

Instant replay now will be used for challenges of calls when the status of the ball is involved, such as fumbles, pass completions, incompletions or interceptions; the penetration of the goal line; whether a kicked ball has been touched by either team, or whether a play is out of bounds.

The league also said it had eliminated the need for a ballcarrier to be touched when he has voluntarily downed himself by sliding to the ground.

Gene Iba, who took Houston Baptist to the NCAA playoffs a year ago and posted three consecutive 20-victory seasons, will be the successor to Jim Haller as Baylor coach, the Associated Press reported.

Iba will be formally named as Baylor coach at a press conference today.

Names in the News

Phoenix Suns All-Star forward Larry Nance, who has missed the last seven games with a pulled groin muscle, was put on the National Basketball Assn.’s injured list. The Suns also announced that reserve forward Mike Sanders, sidelined for the last four months with a knee injury, has been activated. St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca was named college basketball’s Coach of the Year by United Press International for the 1984-85 season. The Redmen, 29-3 and still in the NCAA tournament, enjoyed a five week stretch during the season as the nation’s top team. Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin has announced his retirement from the Jacksonville Bulls of the United States Football League, the club announced. Griffin, the only back ever to win the Heisman twice, joined the Bulls Jan. 22 after a two-year retirement.