Ortlieb Wins Battle of Olympic Gold Medalists

In a battle of Olympic downhill gold medalists, 1992 winner Patrick Ortlieb of Austria defeated this year’s champion, American Tommy Moe, in a World Cup super giant slalom on Sunday at Tignes, France.

Ortlieb was timed in 1 minute 22.25 seconds. Moe was second in 1:22.58 to continue the U.S. success on the slopes.

Fog and high winds after a heavy snowstorm forced postponement of the race Saturday. It was run Sunday in place of a giant slalom that was rescheduled for Val d’Isere on Dec. 18.

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Katja Seizinger of Germany, the Olympic downhill champion, won the World Cup super-G race at Lake Louise, Alberta. Picabo Street of Sun Valley, Ida., tied for third.

In three previous downhill races on the women’s World Cup tour, Street won one and Hilary Lindh of Juneau, Alaska, won two.

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Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands won his third consecutive World Cup 5,000-meter speedskating race, in 7:01.30, at Bergen, Norway. . . . Norwegian Fred-Boerre Lundberg defeated Japan’s Kenji Ogiwara to win a World Cup Nordic combined cross country race at Strebske Pleso, Slovakia.

Soccer

A.J. Wood scored his first goal in a final four game as Virginia won an unprecedented fourth consecutive NCAA men’s soccer championship by defeating Indiana, 1-0, at Davidson, N.C.

Wood scored his 13th goal in NCAA competition, but it was his first after three previous final fours. That lone goal helped Virginia (22-3-1) win its fifth national title.

The Cavaliers stretched their postseason unbeaten streak to 27 games, and their NCAA unbeaten mark to 24.

A last-minute goal by Jovan Kirovski, his third in as many games, earned the United States a 1-1 tie with Honduras in its final international soccer match of the year. Wilmer Velasquez had given Honduras the lead in the 68th minute.

In an earlier game, also at Cal State Fullerton, Jose Vasquez scored three goals as the Los Angeles Salsa defeated the Trinidad & Tobago Under-23 team, 4-1.

Names in the News

Free-agent closer Lee Smith, 37, said he likely will accept the Angels’ two-year, $4-million contract offer this week, and might sign as early as today. Smith had a major league-leading 33 saves last season for the Baltimore Orioles.

Gerry DiNardo, the coach at Vanderbilt the past four seasons, will be named Louisiana State’s new football coach at a news conference today. . . . Julio Cesar Chavez, who retained his WBC super lightweight title Saturday by stopping Tony Lopez in the 10th round, re-injured his left shoulder in the bout and co-trainer Emmanuel Steward said he would like Chavez to not fight until March.

Coach Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics will undergo colon surgery, the Boston Globe reported. . . . Lee Owens, an assistant at Ohio State for the past three years, was named head football coach at Akron, succeeding Gerry Faust.