Sports digest 2/11/02

AREA

Jackson sending six wrestlers to state

Jackson had six wrestlers place in the top four during Saturday's Class 4A sectional at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis to qualify for this week's state tournament in Columbia, Mo.

Winning sectional titles for the Indians were 112-pounder Brock Howard and 152-pounder James Love.

Seth Harrell (215) and Luke Wade (heavyweight) both placed second, Cody Rouse (130) was third and Ricky Feiner (140) finished fourth.

The Indians' other two sectional participants, Matt Kahle and Cameron Lacy, failed to advance.

The state meet will be held Thursday through Saturday.

ELSEWHERE

Tennis

The United States closed out a first-round Davis Cup sweep of Slovakia with James Blake and Andy Roddick winning their singles matches in Oklahoma City, Okla. After Pete Sampras and Roddick won their singles matches Friday, Blake and Mardy Fish clinched the series by winning their doubles match Saturday.

Venus Williams claimed her second title of 2002 when Jelena Dokic withdrew from the final of the Gaz de France tournament with a strained right thigh. Dokic said she was hurt during Saturday's 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 semifinal victory over Monica Seles and aggravated the injury in a doubles match later that day. Williams advanced to the Gaz de France final by beating defending champion Amelie Mauresmo 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the semifinals Saturday.

Football

Marvin Lewis will have a new job next season, after all. Two days after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers backed out of making him their new head coach, Lewis Sunday agreed to become defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins. The announcement came one day after Lewis declared he would remain defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, a post he's held since the team moved from Cleveland before the 1996 season.

The Chicago Bears and defensive coordinator Greg Blache have agreed on a three-year contract. Blache ran a hustling Bears defensive unit that keyed a surprising 13-4 season that included the NFC Central division title and ended with a first-round playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Blache had been interviewed for the Indianapolis Colts' head coaching job before it was given to former Tampa Bay coach Tony Dungy.

Baseball

Newly acquired pitcher Shawn Estes and the New York Mets reached agreement on a one-year contract worth $6.2 million contract. Estes had been scheduled for a salary arbitration hearing Thursday, a day before the Mets pitchers and catchers are supposed to report to spring training. The Mets have not had a player go to arbitration since David Cone in 1992.

Track & Field

Svetlana Feofanova broke the women's pole vault world record for the third time in a week, and Mark Bett ran the fastest indoor 10,000 meters in history at the Flanders Indoor in Ghent, Belgium. Feofanova cleared 15 feet, 6 1/4 inches and Bett clocked 27:50.29 to set a world best that stood for 27 years.

-- From staff, wire reports