Second Run

MERIBEL, France -- An Olympic medal was all but certain for U.S. skier Julie Parisien of Auburn, Maine, in the women's slalom yesterday but she blew her chances in the second run. Parisien, 20, who had the fastest time in the first run, finished fourth after the second run.Petra Kronberger of Austria, the defending World Cup slalom champion, won the gold. Annelise Coberger of New Zealand, the first Kiwi ever to win a medal in the Winter Games, was second. Blanca Fernandez Ochoa of Spain was third.

UMBC (4-2) scored 11 second-half goals punctuated by an 8-0 run to break the game open and upset No. 18 Drexel on Saturday, 14-8. The visiting Dragons (5-1) took a 3-1 lead before Alyssa Semones (Westminster) scored two of her four goals in 16 seconds to tie the game. Drexel scored with six seconds left before halftime to enter the break up 4-3. No. 15 Navy 14, Lehigh 4: The Mids (6-0, 1-0 Patriot League) extended their conference winning streak to 11 as they toppled the visiting Mountain Hawks (2-3, 0-1)

SESTRIERE, Italy -- It took plenty of blood, Swedish sweat and years, but Anja Paerson finally got to stand on a podium without having to look up at Croatia's Janica Kostelic. After settling for two bronze medals in these Olympics to go with the bronze and silver she won four years ago, Paerson, 24, claimed her first gold medal yesterday by winning a women's slalom conducted in pea-soup fog at Sestriere. She did it with a winning time of 1 minute, 29.04 seconds and a second run of 46.66 seconds that knocked Kostelic from third to fourth, denying the Croatian her seventh medal.

Bianca Jarrett scored a team-high 18 points and was 11-for-12 from the free-throw line as visiting Morgan State (8-15, 5-5 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) defeated crosstown rival Coppin State, 74-61, on Saturday. Whitney Southerland hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half to spark an 18-3 run for the Bears. The Eagles (9-15, 5-6) fought back to within seven but never regained the lead. Kyra Coleman paced Coppin State with 22 points. Navy 60, Lafayette 52: The Mids (14-9, 7-1 Patriot League)

OCOEE RIVER, Tenn. -- In a comeback of truly Olympian proportions, Dana Chladek of Kensington, Md., shook off a horrendous first run to win the silver medal here yesterday in women's kayak.In an emotional moment, the Republic of Slovakia won its first Olympic gold medal ever when a 17-year old won the men's single canoe division. Michal Martikan edged out Lukas Pollert of the Czech Republic, the 1992 gold-medal winner.It was against the odds, but Chladek's silver was even more improbable than that.

The softball rivalry between North County and Chesapeake-AA picked up yesterday where it left off last season: quality pitching, an odd play and, once again, no room for error. This time the deciding break went No. 2 Chesapeake's way, and, combined with a 14-strikeout performance from senior pitcher Kristie Hurman, it was the host Cougars who came away with a 3-2 win over the third-ranked Knights. Chesapeake (10-1) got all of its runs in the bottom of the second inning, the last two unearned, and then was able to hold off two-time defending Class 4A champ North County, with Hurman retiring the last nine batters.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- They regained some respectability, but lost their chance for the Carolina League championship.That was the story of the Frederick Keys last night, when Wilmington shut them out for the second straight time and clinched the Northern Division title with a 3-0 victory before 3,706 at Legends Stadium.In the two losses, the Keys were punchless, mustering two hits in an inning only once and advancing just one runner to third base.They were equally ineffective on the pitching mound in an 11-0 defeat Sunday at Grove Stadium.

Glenelg starter Jeff Starcher's eyes lit up yesterday when he saw the unusual height of Atholton's pitching mound, one of the highest in the county.Starcher's best pitch is the curveball, and a high mound adds snap to that pitch.So it was no surprise that Starcher (3-0), last season's Baltimore Sun Howard County Player of the Year, threw his best game of the season, a five-hit, 4-0 victory over the No. 14-ranked Raiders (4-3 overall, 3-3 league). He struck out eight and walked three.Starcher's pitching opponent, Adam Beaver, also hurled a fine game, holding No. 9 Glenelg (6-2, 4-2)

Costly driver error puts U.S. 9th after 2 bob runsLA PLAGNE, France -- Chris Coleman did his job as Herschel Walker's replacement on the top U.S. four-man bobsled team. Driver Randy Will, who canned Walker, didn't quite do his.As a result, USA I was ninth after yesterday's first two runs, .76 of a second behind German great Wolfgang Hoppe.Start times, the reason Will sacked Walker on Thursday, were great. With Coleman as the brakeman, Will's crew covered the first 50 meters in 5.92 seconds on the first run, tying Hoppe and two-man gold medalist Gustav Weder of Switzerland for the fastest time.

LA PLAGNE, France -- Duncan Kennedy's chances of becoming the United States' first Olympic luge medalist virtually disappeared when he had a rough second run and dropped to 10th place yesterday.Kennedy was considered a medal contender because of his second-place finish on the World Cup circuit. But after the first two runs here, it's clear that the Europeans still dominate the high-speed sport.Germany's Georg Hackl set a course record of 45.190 seconds on his first run down the 1,250-meter course and took the lead with a combined time of 1 minute, 30.541 seconds.

Glenelg waited for a year for a rematch with Calvert, the team that ended the Gladiators' season in last year's Class 2A South region championship. But their rematch in Friday night's regional final yielded the same result, as the Cavaliers defeated the No. 6 Gladiators 69-52 to advance to next week's state tournament. If there is one consolation to losing again to the defending Class 2A state champions, it is this: "This time they beat us, we did not beat ourselves," Glenelg senior Danielle Burris said.

The No. 5 Milford Mill boys basketball team put together a solid 32 minutes Thursday night at New Town, but the second quarter was something special. With strong team defense at one end and balanced scoring at the other, the Millers went on a decisive 24-4 run to pull away for a 64-47 win over the Titans in Baltimore County play. Six players scored in the pivotal stretch, which started with Nick Smoot's 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Millers a 13-12 lead they would not relinquish.

There came a point late in the first half Tuesday at Reitz Arena when upset-minded Loyola learned the undeniable truth about No. 22 Maryland. Despite starting three freshmen, these Terrapins are for real. Trailing by as many as five early, Maryland took advantage of its pronounced size advantage to score 30 of the next 34 points, dominating Loyola in the paint before staving off the Greyhounds' second-half rally in a 79-61 win. Led by 6-foot-4 center Lynetta Kizer, who scored a season-high 21 points on 9-for-10 shooting, Maryland (8-1)

Howard County Board of Education candidate Robert Ballinger has been a fixture at this year's county fair. He has been gathering ideas from county residents on what they believe works in the school system and what could be changed. He has discovered that people don't mind taking a break from the shows, auctions and food lines to offer their opinions. "They talk about individual issues with the schools. They think that teachers in the classroom, knowing the students and knowing the involvement of the families, should have more leeway," said Ballinger, who lives in the Dorsey Hall community in Ellicott City.

The Maryland men's lacrosse team sent wave after wave against Hofstra, and the Pride finally relented under the pressure. Ten different players scored at least one goal to help the No. 3 Terps outlast No. 19 Hofstra, 11-8, before an announced 1,641 in a first-round NCAA tournament game at Byrd Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Terps, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, will meet the winner of today's contest between No. 6 seed Princeton (11-4) and Notre Dame (7-6) in the quarterfinal round Saturday at either noon or 2:30 p.m. at Princeton.

Maryland coach Cathy Reese has a favorite saying that perfectly describes Friday's Atlantic Coast Conference women's lacrosse semifinal at Ludwig Field. "The great thing about lacrosse is there's always a second half," Reese said with a laugh. After getting off to a slow start against No. 4 Virginia, the No. 3 Terrapins scored the first five goals of the second half to spark a 10-6 victory and a chance to defend their title against No. 1 North Carolina on Sunday. "We learned from what we just did," Reese said.

ATHENS -- To overcome gravity and hydraulics, successful whitewater paddlers combine the speed reading of Evelyn Wood, the sight reading of Liberace and the muscle of Barry Bonds. The U.S. canoe pairs team of Joe Jacobi and Matt Taylor and kayakers Brett Heyl and Scott Parsons passed the first of their Olympic literacy and strength tests yesterday to advance to today's semifinal competition. An estimated 8,000 spectators turned the seacoast venue into an international beach party. Under a brilliant blue sky, they sang and boogied to oldies and applauded both the front-runners and those struggling to master the churning froth.

The nice thing about drag racing is that anyone can race. There are classes for every level, for the novice driver to the weekly competitor, for the beginner and the professional.Last Sunday at 75-80 Dragway in Monrovia, 20-year-old Stephanie Howes of Westminster made her first run down the quarter-mile track. She never had been to a race until she started going with her boyfriend two years ago.Howes' boyfriend, Tony Battaglia of Union Bridge, had been trying to get her to race her car for some time.