Sports digest 5/21/02

Area

Jackson soccer to play

Parkway Central today

Jackson (15-1-1) will make its first 4A sectional soccer appearance today when it faces Parkway Central (15-4-3) at the Anheuser-Busch Conference and Sports Centre in Fenton, Mo.

Jackson recently broke Cape Girardeau Central's four-year hold on the Class 4A, District 1 title with a 4-0 victory. Parkway Central advanced with a 2-1 victory over Francis Howell North.

Today's winner will face either Francis Howell Central (13-7-3) or Nerinx Hall (23-2) in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Elsewhere

Baseball

Clemson infielders Khalil Greene and Jeff Baker are among five finalists for the 2002 Golden Spikes Award given to amateur baseball's top player.

Greene and Baker are the first teammates to be finalists for the award since 1997, when Lance Berkman and Matt Anderson of Rice were honored. Berkman plays for the Houston Astros and Anderson for the Detroit Tigers.

Baker, a four-time member of the USA baseball team, is Clemson's career home run leader, and Greene is the Atlantic Coast Conference's career leader for hits and homers.

Other finalists are infielder Russ Adams of North Carolina, who was batting .373 with 51 RBIs and 44 stolen bases; pitcher Bobby Brownlie of Rutgers, who led Team USA last summer with a 7-0 record and an 0.84 ERA; and pitcher Jeremy Guthrie of Stanford, who is 9-1 with a 2.68 ERA in 15 starts this season.

The 2002 Golden Spikes Award winner will be announced July 9.

*** University of Kansas baseball coach Bobby Randall resigned Monday, after his team went 22-29 this season.

Randall, 53, said the Jayhawks' losing conference record had overshadowed the team's accomplishments. The Jayhawks were 5-21 in the Big 12.

He became the Jayhawks' coach in 1996, after coaching Iowa State University's baseball team for 11 seasons.

Randall's best season at Kansas was in 1997, when the Jayhawks had a 31-25 record and finished eighth in the Big 12.

Motorsports

Jeff Gordon doesn't normally drive with anyone during a NASCAR race.

In September's Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond International Raceway, he will make an exception: Bugs Bunny.

Gordon's race car, along with the cars of seven other Winston Cup drivers, will feature a Looney Tunes-themed paint scheme at the Sept. 7 race.

Also sporting cartoon characters will be Kevin Harvick (Tasmanian Devil), Jimmie Johnson (Sylvester and Tweety Bird), Jeff Green (Daffy Duck) and Mike Skinner (Yosemite Sam).

"I'm looking forward to teaming up with Bugs for the race in Richmond, and going head-to-head with the other characters," Gordon said. "Hopefully, we can get Bugs into Victory Lane."

Miscellaneous

More than half of the personal trainers flunked a fitness knowledge test posed by researchers.

"It is truly a buyer-beware (industry), and in order to do that, it's buyer be aware," said Steven Loy, professor of kinesiology at California State University, Northridge, and regional director for the American College of Sports Medicine.

Only 42 percent of 115 trainers who took part in a recent Exercise Physiology Research Laboratory study at UCLA passed a test of fitness knowledge. Even trainers with at least five years experience fared poorly, with 44 percent passing.

That lack of knowledge can increase the risk of injury to clients and the financial risk to health clubs and gyms, which have been increasing in popularity. There are now more than 15,000 gyms nationwide.

Hourlong training sessions cost up to $70 an hour.

-- From staff, wire reports