Nyman lifts U.S. in the downhill

The World Cup circuit has been racing on the classic Saslong course in Val Gardena, Italy, since 1969, but entering this weekend an American had never won there.

Now the U.S. has two wins in as many days.

Steve Nyman won a downhill Saturday for his first World Cup victory, a day after Bode Miller’s super-giant slalom triumph.

Marco Sullivan, another American, finished fourth Saturday for his best career result. Miller was the only skier with a faster midway split time than Nyman, but he nearly skied off course entering the tricky Ciaslat section and finished 14th.

The best previous U.S. results in Val Gardena were third-place showings by Mike Lafferty in 1972 and AJ Kitt in 1992.

Nyman covered the 2.1-mile course in 1 minute 56.52 seconds. Didier Cuche of Switzerland was second, 0.02 seconds behind, and Fritz Strobl of Austria was third.

Renate Goetschl, who won the season-opening super-G in Canada, won her second in a row at Reiteralm, Austria, finishing in 1:17.91 to lead another dominating performance by the Austrian women.

Teammate Nicole Hosp was 0.71 seconds back. Switzerland’s Martina Schild prevented an Austrian sweep, finishing third, 0.80 seconds back, for her best World Cup finish.

Austrians swept the next five spots for seven skiers in the top eight. The top American was Kaylin Richardson in 13th place.

Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark of Mount Snow, Vt., and Danny Davis of Highland, Mich., who narrowly missed qualifying for the 2006 Games, got halfpipe wins at the Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix at Breckenridge, Colo.

Clark won by a slim .2-point margin over a charging Elena Hight of South Lake Tahoe with 44.2 points. Finishing third was Soko Yamoaka of Japan with 41.6 points.

Davis had 45.9 points to beat Olympian Mason Aguirre of Mammoth Lakes. Tommy Czeschin of Mammoth Lakes was third.

Tobias Angerer and Virpi Kuitunen won World Cup cross-country ski freestyle races in LaClusaz, France.

Angerer, the defending men’s overall champion from Germany, finished the 30K in 1 hour, 17 minutes, 11.8 seconds. Aleksander Legkov was next, 0.6 seconds back, and fellow Russian Eugeny Dementiev was third.

Finland’s Kuitunen won the 15K in 42:08.9, with Riitta Liisa Roiponen finishing second in 42:09.1 and Italy’s Arianna Follis third in 42:09.5.

Austria’s 16-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer had a 140.5-meter leap in the second round to earn his second World Cup ski jump victory of the season in Engelberg, Switzerland.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Grand Valley State

earns Division II title

Cullen Finnerty ran for 115 yards and passed for 225 to lead Grand Valley State to its second straight national title with a 17-14 victory over Northwest Missouri State in the Division II championship game in Florence, Ala.

The Lakers (15-0) also beat the Bearcats (14-1) in the 2005 title game.

Greg Micheli led Mount Union to its ninth NCAA Division III title in 14 years, coming off the bench to throw three touchdown passes and run for another in a 35-16 victory over Wisconsin-Whitewater in the Division III championship game in Salem, Va.

Mount Union (15-0) also beat Wisconsin-Whitewater (14-1) last year in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.

Trey Erickson returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown and Mike Dvoracek scored from one yard out after a botched punt to lead Sioux Falls (14-0) to its first NAIA title with a 23-19 victory over St. Francis (Ind.) in Savannah, Tenn. It was the third straight title-game loss for St. Francis (13-1).

MISCELLANY

White Sox trade

Gload for reliever

First baseman-outfielder Ross Gload was traded by the Chicago White Sox to the Kansas City Royals for reliever Andrew Sisco, a 6-foot-10 left-hander coming off a difficult season.

Sisco, 23, was 1-3 with a 7.10 earned-run average in 65 games last year. Gload, 30, batted .327 with three home runs and 18 RBI in 77 games in 2006.

France’s Brian Joubert won his first Grand Prix final, scoring an impressive 233.46 points despite skating a far from perfect free program.

Joubert beat Daisuke Takahashi by almost nine points, with Nobunari Oda finishing third with 216.86.

U.S. champion Johnny Weir, last after performing an error-riddled Friday routine, withdrew after suffering a severe contusion on his right hip in practice.

Sarah Pavan and Jordan Larson led Nebraska to the NCAA women’s volleyball title, combining for 41 kills in a 27-30, 30-26, 30-28, 30-27 victory over Stanford in Omaha. Pavan had 22 kills and Larson 19 for Nebraska’s first title since 2000.

China gymnast Cheng Fei won the vault and Britain’s Elizabeth Tweedle took the gold medal on the uneven bars in the World Cup Final in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The U.S. did not attend.