Maier Crashes, Kjus Closes In

Hermann Maier of Austria, the reigning World Cup champion who suffered a spectacular crash at last year’s Winter Olympics, crashed again Friday, and it cost him part of his lead in the World Cup standings.

After mastering the World Cup circuit’s longest course last week at Wengen, Switzerland, Norway’s Lasse Kjus tamed the most dangerous, winning the two-leg Streif sprint downhill at Kitzbuehel, Austria, in 2 minutes 14.13 seconds.

It improved Kjus to 952 points, only 69 behind Maier.

“Right now I’m very focused and healthy,” Kjus said. “And everything has come together.”

Bothered because of a sore back in recent weeks, Maier was uncertain he would compete Friday, hinting he might skip the event in order to rest his back for the World Championships at Vail, Colo., beginning Jan. 30.

Maier opted to protect his lead atop the World Cup standings, instead of his back.

The effort proved futile, however, as the reigning World Cup overall, super-G and giant slalom champion crashed, earning no points.

“I thought I was too passive in the upper part of the course,” Maier said, “so I wanted to give a last push, but unfortunately the light had changed and I landed too far on the Hausbergkante jump.”

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Renate Goetschl of Austria ended a four-year winless streak in the super-G, defeating Martina Ertl of Germany at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, to win her third World Cup race this season.

Goetschl, who won consecutive downhills in November and leads the downhill standings, finished in 1:13.25, four-hundredths of a second ahead of Ertl.

College Basketball

Stephen F. Austin’s home games against Texas Arlington were rescheduled Friday after the son of UTA men’s Coach Eddie McCarter was murdered in Alabama.

At first, the women’s game was postponed from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. so players, coaches and fans could attend the funeral of former Ladyjacks star Katrina Price, who died Monday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The schools then reset both the women’s and men’s games to Feb. 8 because James Edward McCarter, 26, was shot to death early Friday at his grandmother’s home in Alabaster, Ala.

College Football

Ronney Jenkins, who was suspended by Brigham Young on Dec. 16 for his second violation of the school’s honor code, will play at Northern Arizona.

He will have two years of eligibility left in the Division I-AA Big Sky Conference.

Jenkins ran for 1,307 yards and 12 touchdowns in 13 games with the Cougars last season, but sat out the Liberty Bowl game against Tulane because of his suspension. He was honored as the 1996 Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division freshman of the year after rushing for 733 yards, but was suspended all of the next season because of undisclosed violations of BYU’s behavior code.

Arizona and Penn State will open the 1999 college football season in the Pigskin Classic on Aug. 28 at State College, Pa.

Arizona was 12-1 and No. 4 in the final Associated Press poll, the best finish in school history. Penn State (9-3) finished at No. 17.

The Kickoff Classic, set for Aug. 30 at East Rutherford, N.J., will match Ohio State against Miami.

Baseball

Infielder Mariano Duncan agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Mets and was invited to spring training as a non-roster player.

Duncan, 36, hit .232 with 10 homers and 34 runs batted in last season for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants in Japan’s Central League. He has a .267 major league average with 87 home runs, 491 RBIs and 174 steals.

Josh Booty, the Florida Marlins’ first-round draft pick in 1994, is being allowed to skip the final year of his baseball contract to play football at Louisiana State.

Miscellany

Scott Sharp turned in the fastest lap in the first day of practice for the Indy Racing League season-opening Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Sharp turned a lap of 170.132 mph despite missing virtually the entire morning practice because of a fuel-pressure problem. . . . A man admitted to the fatal shooting last May 25 of Curlie Sanders, a bronze medalist as a light-welterweight boxer at the 1986 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival. Ronnie Thaxton Jr., 20, will be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison next month at Rochester, N.Y., in exchange for pleading guilty Thursday to first-degree manslaughter. . . . Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jerry Ippoliti said he will retire at the end of June. Ippoliti became commissioner in 1994 and has seen the MAC grow from 10 schools to 13. But the conference’s schools lost a combined $51 million last year. . . . World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia ended his promotional deal with promoter Don King.