Colorado Springs

NEW YORK M-y Marty Mankamyer resigned as the president of the embattled U.S. Olympic Committee last night, saying that she has neither the resources nor the energy to continue to battle against the onslaughts of my detractors. Mankamyer, 69, faced a no-confidence vote on Saturday by the organizations executive committee, the result of a campaign by some top officials to force her to step down. "This is a time when the USOC needs to refocus on its priorities and get away from public displays of disagreement," she said in an e-mail message to Olympic committee officials and the media.

Two boys from Gymnastics Plus in Columbia are the only qualifiers from Maryland this year to earn trips to a competition in Colorado Springs, Colo., this month in hopes of making the U.S. national junior development boys team. As on any national junior team, participants receive high-level training intended to help them reach for elite-athlete status in the sport, although participation is no guarantee of eventual membership on a national team. The two are Mario West, 10, of North Laurel and Johnny Schell Jr., 12, of Laytonsville, Montgomery County.

FLORISSANT, Colo. - Stressed over a rapid evacuation to escape a raging wildfire, the 14-month-old timber wolf-mix Shunka was shaking so violently the other night that her keeper took a sheet into Shunka's stall and lay down on the hay beside her. Darlene Kobobel was able to calm Shunka, but she is worried about her wolves. Tuesday, she moved all 12 of them from her Wolf Rescue Center to a small barn in this town 30 miles west of Colorado Springs. "When you see orange flames at night and you're one ridge away and the wind is blowing in your direction, it's time to go," Kobobel said yesterday, explaining why she left her 8 1/2 -acre center in Lake George, a town on the front lines of the Hayman fire.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Eight times a day, Spencer Wren's red cog trains run to the top of Pikes Peak and tourists take in the spacious skies, majestic mountains and lush tree-speckled plains that stretch to the Continental Divide. The view from Pikes Peak, which inspired Catherine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful," draws about 350,000 tourists a year. But yesterday, as a giant fire raged nearby, Wren ran only seven trains to the top, and not all of them were full. Ridership this week is down 15 percent from this time last year, he said.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Inside a radio studio, James Dobson - founder of the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family - was taping his daily program with a woman who adopted her 2-year-old daughter when the child was a frozen embryo. Dobson, who believes firmly that life begins at fertilization, cautioned his listeners not to be swayed by scientists who say embryos are nothing but "dots." "It's amazing to me how many Christians are coming down on that side," Dobson said.

Baseball Angels: Sent P Toby Borland outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. Athletics: Placed OF Billy McMillon on 15-day DL, retroactive to July 23, with inflamed right shoulder. Blue Jays: Placed P Steve Parris on 15-day DL, retroactive to July 24. Purchased contract of P Matt DeWitt from Triple-A Syracuse. Designated P Orlando Woodards for assignment. Giants: Designated IF-OF Felipe Crespo for assignment. Activated former Orioles P Tim Worrell. Optioned P Ryan Vogelsong to Triple-A Fresno.

Baseball Blue Jays: Recalled IF Chris Woodward from Triple-A Syracuse. Brewers: Signed P Butch Henry; assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. Devil Rays: Recalled 2B Brent Abernathy from Triple-A Durham. Placed OF Jose Guillen on 15-day disabled list. Diamondbacks: Activated IF Greg Colbrunn. Optioned Ryan Christenson to Triple-A Tucson. Mariners: Purchased contract of SS Geoff McCallum from Independent League Fargo-Moorhead. Marlins: Waived P Dan Miceli. Mets: Recalled P Grant Roberts from Triple-A Norfolk.

Sandra Leith Merson, a homemaker, died Saturday of cancer at Winchester Medical Center in Virginia. She was 51 and had lived in Highlandtown before moving to Berkeley Springs, W. Va., in 1985. She was an administrative aide at Alex Karas Rolls Royce and Photography on Belair Road. Born Sandra Leith Shock in Rising Sun, she graduated in 1972 from Patapsco High School. In 1975, she married William Henry Merson, who survives her. Services will be held at 11 a.m. today at Helsley-Johnson Funeral Home in Berkeley Springs.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Legal maneuvering will delay the extradition of three Texas fugitives until Thursday at the earliest, and probably until after Feb. 23. Attorneys for Joseph Garcia, Randy Halprin and Michael Rodriguez have until Thursday to file paperwork contesting extradition or the escapees will be sent back without a hearing, according to state District Judge David Parrish's ruling Friday. The three men plan to fight extradition, but as of Friday, none of their attorneys had filed a petition demanding that the state of Colorado justify its reasons for detaining and extraditing them.

DENVER, Colo. - The last two of seven fugitives from Texas were apprehended early yesterday in Colorado Springs, ending an exhaustive 42-day search for men the authorities believe killed a police officer 11 days after they escaped from a maximum-security prison. Tracked down at a Holiday Inn where they negotiated the terms of their surrender with law enforcement officials for more than five hours, the men - Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury - walked out of a room they had occupied for two days and were taken to the El Paso County jail.