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Show cs DAILY HERALD April Monday, 2006 NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE lush, Leinart impressive in wort out for NFL coaches John Nadel TH ASSOCIATED just one university," said Baltimore Ravens assistant John , FasseL the son of former Giants coach Jim FasseL This is the greatest aggregation of offensive firepower ever assembled on one pro scouting day from one school," said Leigh Steinberg, who represents Leinart and offensive tackle Winston Justice. "Its like, 'Star Wars' with hundreds of recruits and media from across the country," Steinberg said, adding he hadn't seen anything like this is his 32 years representing players. "Pete Carroll has really outdone himself , Steinberg said of the USC coach. "Pete has put the primacy of USC football on display for the whole nation to ' see." Carroll, who has guided the Trojans to a 484 record over the past four seasons, combined junior day, an annual event where several prospective high school recruits tour the campus, with Pro Day. "This is what we were dreaming it would be just like this," he said. With about 1,000 fans and re PRESS Matt LOS ANGELES Lein- art rolled to his left, and then back to his right before unleashing a perfectly thrown pass to Reggie Bush, who caught it some 30 yards downf ield just inside the right sideline. Just like it was drawn up, and the fans at Howard Jones Field cheered politely. Then, it was on to the next play at USCs Pro Day on Sun-- ; day, where 19 former Southern California players worked out for more than 100 NFL representatives including head coaches John Fox of Carolina, Jeff Fisher of Tennessee and Gary Kubiak of Houston. Most of the 19 are sure to be drafted later this month, including anywhere from three to six in the first round. Thus, the large turnout, and those on hand were properly impressed. "This is like a from an NFL standpoint," Fox said The majority of prospective prospects take part in the NFL 4--f x ''Hi.' ' i .f!WnlW!(!,JWss,' id - V RlC FRANCIS Associated Press Southern California's Reggie Bush runs a sprint for NFL scouts during Pro Day on Sunday in Los Angeles. Bush ran the 40 in 4.33 seconds. 40-ya- Combine at Indianapolis every February, but, several schools hold their own Pro Days. "It's like a who's who, and it's cruits in the stands at Cromwell .Field, the players took part in several drills including the vertical jump, dash, standing long jump, weight lifting and different cone drills. Then, everyone moved oyer to Howard Jones Field across the street for more drills. Bush and Leinart, the last two 40-ya- Heisman Trophy winners who many experts believe will go 2 in the draft, were generally satisfied with how they did. And they were glad the day ' was over. "Oh, yeah," Bush said with a smile. "I'm going to take a vacation." Bush outdid his former teammates in three areas, clocking 4.33 seconds in the 40, recordvertical jump, ing a 40 and going 10 feet, 8 'A inches in the standing broad jump, He had 24 repetitions 225 pounds. "I would have liked to have I thought run a little faster I could push a 4.29 out there, a he said. "This part of it is just trying to separate yourselves from the pack." Bush, a runaway winner of bench-pressin- g 4.3-flat- ," the Heisman last season, has already done that. "There's a lot of guys who' are fast," said Baltimore Ravens assistant Mark Carrier, a defensive back at USC from 1986-8"What makes him special is what he does when he has the ball in his hands. The guy up the street might run 4 2. Put there arent many guys who can do what he can do with the footbal'' It's been anticipated for months that Bush will go No. 1 in the April 29-3-0 draft to the Houston Texans. He said he met Saturday night with representatives of the Texans. "It wasnt anything serious," he said, adding a similar meeting was planned Sunday night with the Tennessee Titans. Leinart threw around 45 with passes and was almost all of them. Afterward, he spoke of showing his athleticism, ability to throw on the run, and arm strength. He had a vertical jump of 37 inches, but didn't run the 40. "They know I'm not a runthe ning quarterback dash for me is pointless," he 9. 40-ya- said. Steinberg, who has represented eight overall No. 1 selections in the draft, said he wouldn't beN surprised if Leinart winds up ' No. I. This day explodes the myth of heady quarterback with intangibles, cements Mart's status, as the franchise quarterback pick at the top of the draft," Steinberg said. d Two potential picks might be heading in opposite directions. Offensive tackle Winston Justice, who weighed in at 320 pounds, had a vertical jump of 39 inches and did 38 225 repetitions pounds. "It was like there was air in the bar, no iron," Fassel said, shaking his head. Running back LenDale White didn't run the 40 because of a sore hamstring, and did 15 reps in the bench-pres- s only one more than punter Tom Malone. Plus, he weighed in at 244 pounds, which is probably more than what NFL teams want. "I was surprised," Bush said regarding the fact that White didn't run the 40. "He said he was hurt." , first-roun- bench-pressin- BYUUVSC AUTO RACING Stewart holds off Hendrick at Martinsville Hank Kurz, Jr. THE ASSOCIATED RESS Va. MARTINSVILLE, Tony Stewart once got so frus1 trated with trying to go fast around Martinsville Speedway that he suggested it be turned 1 into a bass fishing pond. He would never allow it now. g , Stewart won a duel with Jimmie Johnson and overcame Hendrick Motors-portfrustrating dominance of NASCAR's smallest and trickiest track Sunday. It was Stewart's second victory at Martinsville, where he has also won three poles, and where he led 530 of 1,000 laps a season ago without winning either race. JOHN HARRELSONAssociated Press "The racing here has been awesome since they've done Tony Stewart (20) leads Jamie McMurray into tiirn four during the NASCAR Nextel Cup DirectTV auto race at the Martinsville everything," he said, speaking of resurfacing and other Speedway in Martinsville, Va., on Sunday. improvements. "They could still fill it up once a year with water, we could put dirt on it once it away. We didn't turn him fat, but as long as those people a year. Just let us still run two around. We didn't spin him out. keep cheering like they do We just got the position that when I get up there, I'm going Cup races." The race had all the typical we were after." to keep doing it for them," he Johnson said it's easy for the said. beating and banging of a short one who prevailed to pass off track event, but ended with The victory was Stewart's none of the top contenders feel- the contact as typical short-trac- k first in 20 races. "As good as we've run here . ing they'd been wronged like racing, but he had no last week in Bristol complaints about being nudged the last two years, this one Stewart and Johnson dueled and overtaken. means a ton to us," he said. "I just kind of used up my and side-by- "We knew that we were going side fpr four laps beginning stuff there at the end," Johnson to be a contender this week with 30 to go Sunday, bringing said. and the anticipation of comthe 65,000 fans to their feet. AfThe victory was the 25th for ing here this was one of the ter being rebuffed three times, the defending and two-tim- e places after the last few weeks, Stewart finally banged his way series champion, and second I couldn't wait to get here bearound Johnson with 27 laps at Martinsville. Stewart celcause I knew we had a shot at : to go. ebrated in what is becoming his winning this race." "I knew we were a little He also survived two single-fil- e trademark, climbing the fence near the flag stand and enjoyrestarts with Martinsville quicker than him," Stewart said. "There was no way he master Jeff Gordon right being the moment as his fans was going to give it away, so hind him, but got a good jump joined in from the other side. we were going to have to take, "I'm still too old and still too the second time when Gordon's JJ paint-tradin- 3 s' ' , NHL ROUNDUP Chevrolet wiggled coming out of Turn Two, and Stewart had clear sailing. He won by 1.083 seconds. Gordon, who had won both races last season and four of the last six on NASCAR's smallest and tightest oval, finished second, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kyle Busch, also of Hendrick. "We have a pretty good handle on this place," Gordon said of the Hendrick teams, which all finished in the top 10. Brian Vickers, the fourth, came in eighth. The race looked all day like it would come down to a battle between Stewart and Johnson, who combined to lead 483 of the 500 laps. But when Stewart started making his move on Johnson, Johnson's car was fading and he had no way to stave him off. Once Gordon passed Johnson, he had one chance to challenge, and lost it The first late restart came with eight laps to go, but with Gordon right on Stewart's tail heading through the first and second turns, Matt Kenseth's car slammed into the wall behind them, bringing out the 16th caution and leading to a red flag. After a delay of about 9 minutes, it restarted with three to go and the crowd rose expecting a classic finish to the bruising day of racing. It never developed as Gordon's car broke loose in the second turn and Stewart drove off for the victory. "I thought we might have had something for him," Gor ; don said of the first restart. "The car just stuck so good through (Turns) One and Two. I thought I was going to get a run on Tony down the back straightaway, but then the caution came out." But had already been plenty of drama on the 0.526-mil- e oval. Stewart and Johnson, who , had dueled all day, were running nose to bumper with Johnson ahead after a restart with 57 laps to go. After nearly 20 laps of that, Stewart made a move to Johnson's inside heading into the first turn. Johnson held him off despite contact out of Turn Two, and the pair repeated it for four straight laps. On the fourth, Stewart finally made the pass. The race proved a triumph for Earnhardt, whose day began ominously when he got caught in a multicar crash on the second lap, sustaining front and rear damage. His crew tore crumpled sheet metal off the car without him losing a lap under caution. And then he rallied, climbing to fourth before getting pinched low by Ryan Newman on the 316th laps, causing his car to spin. A pit stop dropped himtol8th. Then he rallied again for the strong finish. "That was a fun race," he said. "We beat on it pretty hard but it kept coming back. I knew we were putting on a good show and we just wanted to keep racing real hard." Johnson regained the points lead by 59 over Mark Martin, who finished 13th. Kenseth dropped to third after coming in 24th, followed by Kasey Kahne and Busch. Castroneves wins IRL Detroit squeaks past Wild race at St. Petersburg THE ASSOCIATED ST. PAUL, Minn! with PRESS - The.De-troi- t d Red Wings' power play vastly outplayed Minnesota's No. 1 penalty kill unit in a 2 victory on Sunday. The Red Wings scored two power play goals in the second period, both assisted by Steve Yzerman, to get their 27th . road victory of the season, one shy of the NHL record for road victories in a season. New Jersey set the record in 3-- 1998-9- Brendan Shanahan, Henrik Zetterberg and Robert Lang scored for Detroit, which thoroughly dominated the final 40 minutes of action to bounce back from an eyebrow-raisin- g home loss to lowly Chicago on Friday: The Wings won 11 games; in March and are steamrolling toward the playoffs. Detroit now leads the Stars by 10 points in the race for the best record in the West. Pierre-Mar- c Bouchard and Marian Gaborik scored and Manny Fernandez made 34 saves for the Wild. overtime to help the New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gionta scored his 42nd goal of the season when he picked up a loose puck at his own blue line and skated down the left wing before firing a slap shot past goalie Marc-Andr- e Fleury. Patrik Elias tied the game for New Jersey with less than 20 seconds to play, scoring after the Devils had two extra skaters when ' they pulled goalie Martin Brodeur during a power play. Jay Pandolfo also scored for the Devils, who have won four in a row and five of their last six to take over sole possession of sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Colby Armstrong alos scored for Pittsburgh, which led 1 through most of the final 40 minutes of 2:38 left in 2-- regulatioa I Flyers 4, Islanders At Uniondale, N.Y., Robert Esche stopped 31 shots and four different Philadelphia players scored to' lead Philadelphia. r, Mike Knuble, R.J. Jeff Carter and Sami Kapanen all scored for the 11 Um-berge- I Devils At Pittsburgh, Brian Gionta scored 3, Penguins 2: Flyers, who are now two e points behind the New York Rangers in the Atlantic Division with eight regular-seaso- n games left for both teams. Shawn Bates had the only goal for the Islanders, who have lost four straight and three in a row at home. New York goalie Rick DiPietro ' stopped 18 shots. first-plac- I Mighty Ducks 6, Canucks 2: At Anaheim, Calif., Teemu Selanne and Samuel Pahlsson scored two goals apiece to help Anaheim win its seventh straight at home and eighth of 10 overall Rookies Ryan Getzlaf and Francois Beauchemin each added a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who four points beNashville in hind fourth-plac- e the Western Conference. Vancouver remains in seventh-place, four points ahead of the Lbs Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks who are tied for ninth. After spotting the Canucks lead on a power-pla- y a goal by Todd Bertuzzi, Anaheim scored twice within a span of the first period and three times in.the first 12 minutes of the second. 0 Mike Harris THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Scott Dixon was in the dark and Helio Castroneves knew exactly what had to be done. In the end Sunday, Castroneves the IRL's erstwhile Spiderman got to climb the fence in a victory celebration at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Dixon had to shrug off a frustrating defeat. Castroneves, who failed to finish any of the three road or street course events last 40 laps year, led a race-hig- h this time. But he found himself trailing Dixon by nearly 16 seconds after the New stretched his fuel to the limit near the end of the 100-la- p event, taking the lead and pulling away after Castroneves pitted on lap 88. "Until then, I was driving conservative and just trying to save fuel," Castroneves said. "They told me to come in and I thought, 'Oh no, I don't want to pit.' There was another car in the pits and I stayed out, but you can't disobey twice and I had to come in the next time. "Then I knew how far be Zea-land- er . hind I was and I kept going really fast. I was taking a lot of chances, getting this close to the wall," Castroneves added, holding his right thumb and forefinger inches apart. "They told me 'Go for it, go like hell.' So I drove it like I stole it." Meanwhile, Dixon was bata radio tling two problems that was only working sporadically and a loose front wing that made his car bog down on every slow turn "I didn't have a clue what was going on in the race all day," he said. "I was just trying to go as fast as the car would let me, but I couldn't turn the car on the slow speed corners." Dixon, who said he didn't know how the wing broke, finally made his fuel stop on lap 96. It was a quick one, but not quick enough. He came back onto the track just behind Castroneves and never got the chance to make a run at him as a collision between Buddy Rice and Tomas Scheckter, battling for sixth place, brought out the second v caution flag of the day and forced officials to end the race under yellow. BYU begins week at home vs. SUU DAILY HERALD This week's collegiate baseball action begins with a game this afternoon when BYU hosts Southern Utah at 3 p.m. The Cougars, 7 overall host SUU, 14-- in the fifth meeting between the two teams this season. The T'Birds claimed the last game at Miller Park in but the Cougars took two of three at Cedar City the beginning of last month. "We keep trying to fight to find the answers, but right now we're at a roadblock," said BYU coach Vance Law. "(Ben) Saylor is swinging the bat well right now and Seth Johnson has given us a lift, but we can't survive on just two guys. We do have pitchers who are keeping us close, this isn't the start I had envisioned, I thought we'd be doing much better. I haven't lost hope in what we are trying to do." Following the game with SUU, BYU travels to Las Vegas to return to Mountain West Conference action against UNLV in a nationally-televisegame on Thursday to start a three-gam- e series with the Rebels. 10-1- 9, mid-Marc- h, d hits pace Wolverines to win over Saint Mary's: At Reno, Nevada, the Utah Valley State College sdftball team came up with timely hits and solid pitching to beat Saint Mary's 1 Key 5 in the consolation game of the Wolf Pack Invitational on Sunday. Heidi Boyer picked up her fourth win of the season, striking out three batters and scattering 10 hits. At the plate she went f or-- 4 with two home runs. Boyer smacked three home runs in the last two days and came up with six hits in the five games. Cari Hamilton continued her impressive weekend by going 3- or-- 4 For the weekend she was lQJor-1"We had timely hits today," UVSC coach Todd Fairbourne ., said. "Heidi threw a good game and Hamilton and Boyer got it done offensively." Jackie Roberts and Kaeleigh Forsyth also had two hits. The Wolverines pounded out 12 hits for the game. UVSC returns to the diamond on Tuesday when it hosts SUU in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. 9-- 2-- -f 7. I Wolverine golfers to compete In BYU Dixie Classic The Utah Valley State College women's ' golf team will tee off in its last regular-seasotournament at the 20th annual BYU Dixie Classic in St. George beginnings today. The Wolverines take on a field of 19 teams at the Entrada Golf Qub, including No. 10 n UNLV, No. 24 New Mexico, No. 29 BYU and No. 47 New Mexico State. This is a great field and will be a chance for our players to get some good experience," said head women's coach Denlse Larson. Utah Valley will play 18 holes today, Tuesday, and Wednesday with tee times beginning at 8 a.m. , |