'The Sun' wins four top-10 writing awards
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The Baltimore Sun sports staff won four top-10 writing awards and one honorable mention award for its Sunday sports section in the 2008 Associated Press Sports Editors contest. Jeff Barker's series of stories on a youth football coach who had a criminal background that went undetected and Candus Thomson's story on Kimmie Meissner's growth spurt and changing figure and how that affected her figure skating placed in the Explanatory category. The Sun's eight-part series on the 50th anniversary of The Greatest Game Ever Played was a top-10 winner in the Projects category. The series was written by Mike Klingaman, Rick Maese, Bill Ordine, Kevin Van Valkenburg and Childs Walker. Van Valkenburg's pre-Olympic profile of Phelps finished in the Features category. The Sun's Sunday section placed as one of the top 20 sections in the nation. The Sun competes in the over-250,000 circulation category that includes the nation's largest newspapers. Judging was conducted by 70 sports editors who met in Las Vegas for the annual judging and winter meetings.
UM's Levick named AD at Georgia State
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Georgia State named Maryland administrator Cheryl Levick as its new athletic director. Levick is a former AD at Saint Louis and Santa Clara. Since 2007, she served as executive senior athletic director at Maryland, overseeing daily management of 27 varsity teams, a 180-member staff and an annual budget of $51 million. She also led a fundraising campaign to sell suite leases for the basketball arena.
NHL: : Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur will return tonight against the Avalanche, his first game since undergoing elbow surgery almost four months ago. Brodeur has 544 career wins, seven shy of Patrick Roy's NHL record. ... Penguins captain Sidney Crosby cut short his participation in an optional morning practice because of a sore groin and was to sit out last night's game against the Islanders. Crosby's status is day-to-day.
Tennis: : Protected by two bodyguards as he walked onto the court, Andy Ram became the first Israeli to play in the United Arab Emirates. He lost a doubles match a week after Israel's Shahar Peer was denied a visa for the women's tournament. Ram and partner Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe fell, 6-3, 2-6, 10-8, to Marat Safin of Russia and Spain's David Ferrer in a first-round match. No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Andy Murray, meanwhile, led the top six seeds into the quarterfinals of the $2.23 million Dubai Tennis Championships.
