Sports Briefs - Olympics officials: Conditions fine

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Vancouver Olympics officials are confident that concerns about the warm weather's affect on conditions at Cypress Mountain soon will be forgotten.

Dave Cobb, VANOC's executive vice president, said yesterday that both the freestyle skiing and snowboarding courses are at an Olympics-quality caliber.

Yesterday marked the second day of freestyle skiing training sessions. VANOC limited access to Cypress on Monday to coaches and athletes.

The conditions at Cypress have dominated headlines leading up to the Games, which are scheduled to open on Friday. Officials spent the past two weeks flying in and trucking in snow from around British Columbia to build a base on the two courses after the region experienced the warmest January on record.

Alhough temperatures dropped to near freezing conditions yesterday, the long-range forecast is mixed and includes the possibility of rain through Saturday.

The first event scheduled is women's moguls qualifying on Saturday, with the finals to be raced later that day. Men's qualifying and finals follow on Sunday.

More Olympics

■ A gold medal in luge will be worth $1 million for a Canadian winner, thanks to a team sponsor. Fast Track Group, which bills itself as a financial-education specialist, is putting up $1 million for a Canadian gold, to be split between the champion luger and the Canadian Luge Association. The company is offering $50,000 for silver or bronze medals, but the Canadian entries are considered long shots.

■ Dr. Christiane Ayotte, the scientist in charge of Vancouver's state-of-the-art doping lab, said that her staff already has tested more than 200 blood and urine samples from athletes. There have been no positive tests reported, but Ayotte said it is impossible to guarantee a completely clean Olympics. The goal for the new facility at the Richmond Oval is to process about 2,000 samples -- 1,600 urine and about 400-500 blood samples -- during the Games.

Baseball

■ Left-hander Scott Schoeneweis has agreed to a minor-league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers and has been invited to major-league spring training. Schoeneweis, a former Duke pitcher, would get an $800,000, one-year contract if added to the 40-man roster and would have the chance to make $700,000 in performance bonuses. He is 46-57 with a 4.97 ERA in his 11-year major-league career.

■ Arizona ace Brandon Webb threw off the mound yesterday for the first time since undergoing right-shoulder surgery.

Webb said he was pleased with how he felt after throwing between 20 and 25 pitches in the Chase Field bullpen.

Webb made one start last year, then underwent surgery on Aug. 4.

It's not clear when Webb, who turns 31 in May, will throw again. The team has not released a timetable for his return to the rotation.

Webb is 87-62 with a 3.27 ERA in seven seasons.

■ Left-hander Mark Hendrickson has agreed to a one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles that guarantees him $1.4 million after pitching well out of Baltimore's bullpen last season.

Hendrickson, 35, went 6-5 with a 4.37 ERA in 53 games with Baltimore last year. He was most effective in relief, going 4-0 with a 3.44 ERA.

Baltimore also agreed to a minor-league contract with left-hander Will Ohman, who was invited to big-league spring-training camp. Ohman, 32, was 1-0 with a save and a 5.84 ERA in 21 games with the Dodgers.

■ Speedy outfielder Willy Taveras has been released by the Oakland Athletics, eight days after he was acquired from Cincinnati with infielder Adam Rosales for infielder Aaron Miles and a player to be named.

Taveras hit .240 with one homer and 15 RBIs for Cincinnati last season.

■ Right-hander Jamey Wright and the Cleveland Indians have agreed to a minor-league contract. Wright, 35, led the Kansas City Royals with 65 relief appearances last season, going 3-5 with a 4.33 ERA. He is 82-115 with a 5.03 ERA in 14 seasons.

■ Rep. John McComish, a Phoenix Republican, introduced a bill late Monday to raise money for a new spring-training complex for the Chicago Cubs. The bill would increase car-rental taxes and levy a surcharge on all tickets for spring-training baseball games in Arizona but does not specify an amount for the tax or surcharge. McComish said the state needs to raise $59 million of the stadium's $84 million cost.

Miscellaneous

■ Randy Transou, who won the NCHSAA open-classification golf championship while playing for Reynolds High in 1970, died Monday in Winston-Salem after a 2½-year fight with cancer. He was 57.

■ Coach Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech plans to add Andy McCollum to his staff as defensive-line coach and recruiting coordinator.

The hire is pending approval of the administration.

McCollum has been N.C. State's linebackers coach the past three seasons. He will replace Giff Smith as recruiting coordinator. Smith has joined Chan Gailey, a former Georgia Tech coach, with the Buffalo Bills.

■ Rutgers suspended C. Vivian Stringer, its Hall of Fame women's basketball coach, yesterday for one game for misusing practice players.

Stringer will miss the Scarlet Knights' game against Seton Hall tonight. Stringer is third among women's coaches on the all-time victories list with 838 wins and was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last September.

Stringer violated an NCAA bylaw which states that managers may not participate as practice players with the institution's team if they are not eligible student-athletes.

Carlene Mitchell, the associate head coach, will be the acting head coach against Seton Hall.

■ Strong wind yesterday off the coast of Valencia, Spain, kept Alinghi and BMW Oracle from practicing ahead of the first race of their America's Cup showdown. Cup holder Alinghi decided against launching its catamaran, but American challenger BMW Oracle launched its trimaran, then eventually decided to abandon a planned practice.

The first race was called off Monday because of unsteady wind and the start of the three-race series was pushed back to today.

■ The U.S. women's soccer team will play Mexico in an international friendly March 31 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, the home stadium of Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake. It will be the U.S. team's first game in Utah since 2003.

■ Senior Brendan Gielow of Wake Forest birdied two of his final three holes yesterday for his second college victory, at the Jacksonville Invitational in Ponte Vedra Bech, Fla.

Wake Forest finished second in the tournament, firing the lowest round of the day.

Gielow finished the 54-hole tournament at the TPC of Sawgrass Stadium Course at 2-over par, one-shot better than Kelvin Day of Charleston Southern.

Wake Forest's 10-over 298 helped it get past ACC rival Clemson for second place. East Tennessee State fired the low round of the tournament on Monday, which propelled the Buccaneers to a 7-stroke victory in the tournament.