The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 15

The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. www.delawareonline.com InsEa today Delaware at Play, C2 Football, golf, C3 fl NHL, high schools, C4 Basketball, C5 Scoreboard, baseball, C7 Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004 Section 0r.3-two punch Rookie Robby Ginepri (left) and Andy Roddick give the U.S. a 2-0 win over Austria in the Davis Cup. C6 News tips for Sports: 324-2801 or sportsdelawareonline.com Sports editor Ron Fritz, 324-2919 Shootout will give drivers an edge at Daytona MM? urn 11 poles last year the most since Bill Elliott won 11 in 1985 and four-time pole winners Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte.

The lineup also includes pole winners Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Terry Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Jeremy Mayfield, Elliott Sadler, Dave Blaney, Jeff Green, Mike Skinner and road racing specialist Boris Said, who led qualifying at Infinion Raceway Both Said and Skinner, who lost his full-time ride in the Cup series and is returning to the Craftsman Truck series, found Shootout rides in January. Steve Park, who won two poles in 2003 but is also heading for the truck series, Feb. 15 Daytona 500 don't get to practice until today Thirteen of the 15 drivers who earned spots in the Shootout by winning poles in 2003 will participate, along with five former champions. Daytona is one of only two NASCAR tracks where horsepower-sapping re-strictor plates are required to keep speeds under 200 mph for safety reasons. The plates do their job, but they also equalize the cars and make racing wide open and dangerous, with cars often in tight drafting packs running two- and three-wide at more than 190 mph.

Heading the Shootout entry list are Ryan Newman, who won a series-high will not race in the Shootout. Neither will Daytona 500 pole winner Jeff Green, who now drives for Petty Enterprises, which does not take part in special events sponsored by beer companies. Former Shootout champions entered are Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, 2003 winner Dale Earnhardt Ken Schrader, Rusty Wallace and Elliott. Under the format adopted last year, the drivers will race for 20 laps on the 2 '4-mile Daytona oval, take a 10-minute intermission, during which their crews will be allowed to make adjustments on the cars, then race the final 50 laps. Everyone will be required to make a pit stop following the break.

Budweiser Shootout WHAT: 70 laps, 175 miles WHEN: Tonight at 7:30 TV: TNT (race starts at 8 p.m.) FAST FACT: Only four drivers have won the Budweiser Shootout a race for the previous season's pole-winners, and the Daytona 500 in the same Speedweeks. Dale Jarrett won both races in 1996 and 2000. The other drivers who have won both races during Speedweeks are Jeff Gordon (1997), Bill Elliott (1987) and Bobby Allison (1982). Mike Finney By MIKE HARRIS Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. The 19 entries in the made-for-TV Budweiser Shootout will have an advantage over the rest of the drivers trying to earn starting spots in the Daytona 500.

They got to practice Friday and will get an exclusive 70-lap drafting session on the high-banked oval tonight. "Any extra time we can get on the track is a plus," said Kevin Harvick, who will be making his second Shootout start. "I know the rest of those guys would like to be out there today" The other 26 drivers entered in the NO. 4 MILFORD 38, NO. 5 SMYRNA 23 1 (A immrtmnmniir i hiiiwimwb MwnwaiawBinrtirtitoiffiimmiiiw 1 1 'V.

Stf A APSe Fryers coach Ken Hitchcock (top) and Jeremy Roenick, who are both going to the NHL All-Star Game, have clashed almost constantly for the 21 months they have been together. Flyers' clash of the titans Hitchcock, Roenick personalities don't mesh The News JoumalWIUJAM BRET2GER Milford's Thomas Drummond (top) works against Smyrna's Andrew Ribolla. Drummond picked up a decision in a 130-pound match. ra Ml EI is oil ojDul I Milford builds lead in lower weights to defeat Smyrna By CHUCK CORMLEY Special to the News Journal It was meant to be a simple evaluation of the Flyers as they enter the NHL All-Star break. It turned into an All-Star coach placing his All-Star center on a heap of white-hot coals and roasting him to a crisp.

Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock and mercu when Brian Fletcher won a 9-1 major decision at 160, but that was as close as they could get. Mike Crain (125) scored the lone fall for Smyrna. Parsley has vivid memories of Smyrna's gym. "The last time we won the division four years ago, we won it in Smyrna's gym in a match that came down to heavyweight," he said. "Fortunately, tonight it didn't come down to heavyweight, but certainly I'm excited about the effort the kids put forth." It is never easy to defeat the Eagles in their own nest, but Milford proved it is not impossible.

Reach Miks Finney at 734-7945 or mfinneydelawareonline.com. Kendzierski was confident that was not going to happen. "With the first two weight classes, we were all talking on the bench, whispering it was our night," Kendzierski said. "We could tell right away. "It was a long day in school.

Everybody was walking around and that's all that everybody was talking about. All of the teachers were coming up to us and wishing us good luck. They wanted us to go get it and that was a goal of ours." Thomas Drummond (130), Josh Abraham (140), Dan Donovan (152) and Brandon Kendzierski (275) all won hard-fought decisions for Milford (8-2). The Eagles pulled to within 25-17 sion title. "Certainly, the start at 103 was a big advantage to us, because we came out with both guns ablazing with Artis, Hummel and Fleming," Parsley said.

"They were on fire." Before the Eagles realized what had hit them, Milford had taken a 16-0 lead. Milford ended the night just as strongly as it began it. Luke Pierson posted a fall at 171 before Kris Kendzierski won a 14-5 major decision to give the Bucs a 35-17 lead and clinch the team victory. "We wrestled well," Pierson said. "Basically, once we got ahead by a lot, we knew that the only way we could lose it is if our good guys up top lost." By MIKE FINNEY Staff reporter SMYRNA Don Parsley could not have hand-picked a better weight class to begin with.

The Milford High coach's team is loaded in the lower weights and he was confident they could knock Smyrna back on its heels Friday night, especially after learning the crucial meet would begin at 103 pounds. The script worked to perfection, as Jimmy Artis (103) and Jon Hummel (112) opened with technical falls before Nate Fleming (119) scored a pin as the Buccaneers bumped off Smyrna 38-23 to capture the Hen-lopen Conference Southern Divi rial center Jeremy Roenick will smile for the cameras and become salesmen for the sport of hockey this weekend in St. Paul, Minn. But beneath their love of the game is an underlying disdain for each other's personality "We're two totally different personalities and those personalities are going to clash," Roenick said as he prepared to play in his ninth NHL All-Star Game. "I'm sure he doesn't appreciate a lot of things I stand for.

I like to have fun, I like to be charismatic and if he doesn't like ALL-STAR WEEKEND SCHEDULE At XCel Energy Center, St Paul, Minn. Today 7 pjru 2004 NHL YoungStars Game, SuperSkills Competition Sunday 3 p-rru 2004 NHL All-Star Game TV: ABC INSIDE Enjoy this All-Star game who knows when the next one will be played? C4 Former Hen QB aiming high Blue Hens out to avenge loss as Towson visits iwgjwffg'imiiu i iiiiii win iB iww i wwipeiwi Nagy hopes to go from AFL to NFL to it, that's too bad, 'cause here's what you got." What you've got is a coach who wants things done by the book and a player who likes to scribble in the margins. Roenick, a 15-year veteran, believes he is everything the NHL should be flash and dash and crash and brash. Who else in hockey calls the NHL commissioner a Neanderthal and a liar and gets away without a fine? Who else would intentionally knock a fan's beer off a ledge, then slip a five dollar bill through the glass for him to buy another? Who else would reach over the glass while serving a penalty and grab an Icee from a vendor, then admit he didn't notice the other team had pulled its goaltender when he came out of the box? "He doesn't like that part about me," Roenick said. Hitchcock, who will be making his fifth All-Star game appearance as an assistant to Pat Quinn, sees only what the NHL is: a tight-checking game in which talented By DOUQ LESMERISES Staff reporter John Gregory is the coach who found grocery stockboy Kurt Warner, a future NFL MVP, and brought him to the Arena Football League.

Right now, Gregory has another AFL quarterback who reminds him of Warner. That player is former University of Delaware quarterback Matt Nagy "Physically, he's about the same, and his ability to throw in different positions and on the run is pretty much like Kurt. And he's a natural leader like Kurt, and he's a fun guy to be around like Kurt," Gregory said. "Now, he has to get on the field and produce." Nagy is the starting quarterback for the AFL's Carolina Cobras, a team that went 0-16 last season but brought tack By KEVIN TRESOLINI Staff reporter NEWARK The University of Delaware's motivation is doubly strong today in its Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball encounter with Towson. Two of the toughest losses of the season should be on the Blue Hens' minds for today's 2 p.m.

matinee at the Carpenter Center (live on Comcast SportsNet). Delaware (12-8 overall, 6-5 CAA) is coming off a 63-61 loss at Hofstra Wednesday night in which UD committed a season-high 26 turnovers. The Hens wasted a 48-32 rebounding edge and career nights by junior forward Robin Wentt (17 points, 14 rebounds) and sophomore guard Rulon Washington (20 points, six 3-pointers). Until that game, Delaware's most exasperating defeat had come at Towson by a 70-68 margin on Jan. 10, when Delaware erased a double-digit lead, then lost on a late layup.

"They understand the significance of See HENS 5 Courtesy of the Carolina Cobras Cobras quarterback Matt Nagy (right) talks at training camp with Chris Royle. Carolina opens Its AFL season Sunday. at the point now where there's no more messing around. It's time to show people what I can do." Gregory is in his first year as the offensive coordinator for See NAGY -C3 none of the coaches and only one of the players from that misery. Nagy was acquired in a trade with the New York Dragons to lead the turnaround.

"It's nice to be the guy that they wanted," Nagy said. "I'm See FLYEaS C4.