Miller Wins Another Slalom

Bode Miller won his first World Cup slalom in two years Sunday at St. Anton, Austria, helping him move into third place in the overall World Cup point standings.

Miller, of Bretton Woods, N.H., covered the Sonnenwiese course in a two-run combined time of 1 minute 34.60 seconds, finishing 0.95 of a second ahead of Finland’s Kalle Palander.

The last time Miller posted a slalom victory was in January 2002, in Schladming, Austria. He has had two giant slalom wins this season and twice reached the podium in a slalom.

Palander, the defending World Cup champion in the event and winner of three slaloms this season, finished in 1:35.55. Austria’s Mario Matt was third in 1:35.69, moving up from 18th after the first run.

Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria retained the World Cup slalom lead with 505 points after finishing fourth in 1:35.73. Palander is second with 455, while Miller is in fifth with 340.

In the overall World Cup standings, Miller is in third place with 984 points, one behind Austrian Benjamin Raich. Hermann Maier of Austria leads with 1,054 points.

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Hannu Manninen of Finland won his sixth Nordic combined World Cup event of the season. In 13th place after the ski jump portion, he had the fastest time in the 7.5-kilometer cross-country sprint to finish in 18 minutes 14.6 seconds at Oberstdorf, Germany.

Daito Takahashi of Japan was second, 1.1 seconds behind. Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., was third, 2.9 seconds behind.

Manninen leads the overall point standings with 1,070. Ronny Ackermann of Germany, who finished sixth, has 835. Lodwick is fifth at 573.

Tennis

Top-seeded Andy Roddick won his first title of 2004 with a 7-6 (13), 6-4 victory over Mardy Fish in the Siebel Open at San Jose.

Roddick improved to 12-2 this year by outlasting Fish in a thrilling first set. In four meetings, the two have played four tiebreakers.

Roddick saved four set points in Sunday’s tiebreaker and had five break points before winning the ninth game of the second set.

Top-seeded Kim Clijsters overpowered Mary Pierce, 6-2, 6-1, to win the Gaz de France in Paris for her 20th WTA Tour title. She made only five unforced errors, broke Pierce four times, and never lost serve.

College Baseball

Jason Vargas gave up a two-run homer in the first inning and didn’t yield another hit over eight innings, and Steve Velazco hit a tie-breaking, three-run double as No. 9 Long Beach State beat USC, 6-2, at Blair Field.... Sergio Pedroza’s two-run homer in the eighth inning helped No. 8 Cal State Fullerton rally for a 12-10 victory over 15th-ranked Arizona at Tucson.

Arizona State’s NCAA-record scoring streak ended at 506 games with a 6-0 loss to Oklahoma at Tempe, Ariz. The Sun Devils’ run dated to an April 7, 1995, shutout at USC. The old mark of 349 straight games with at least one run was set by Coastal Carolina from 1983-89.

Miscellany

Glenn Gauntt threw five touchdown passes to lead the Dallas Desperados to a 51-47 victory over the Philadelphia Soul in an Arena League game in front of 11,275 at Dallas.