York Daily Record from York, Pennsylvania • 8

2B YORK DAILY RECORD SPORTS TUESDAY, MARCH 11,2008 f4 VsV 1- 7 I '1 a if. 1 Bears rookie Beagle loves the pressure Hersheys Jay Beagle is on pace to hit the 20-goal plateau this season. I IDITAROD Past winners neck-and-neck NOME, Alaska The burled arch is up and ready for the grand finale of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. However, no one can predict who will reach it first The winner is due to arrive late today or early Wednesday. But who that might be remained a toss-up Monday between the last two men to win the Iditarod Lance Mackey and four-time champion Jeff King who were running a very tight race on the last leg of the trek to Nome.

Mackey was the first musher into the Koyuk checkpoint, clocking in at 1:19 p.m. Monday, followed 8 minutes later by King. The two remained for several hours in Koyuk, a village about 170 miles from the race's end in Nome. SUBMITTED Central Yorks Tyler Filling, shown in a competition earlier this season, won the the Pennsylvania Alpine Ski Racing High School Championship held at Sno Mountain in Scranton last weekend. Filling wins event Central York sophomore Tyler Filling finished first at a major competition.

1 kt 3 The Pennsylvania High School Championships is a qualifying race to select the team of racers who will compete at the Eastern High School Championships in Mount Cranmore, N.H., on Friday and Saturday. State high school teams from as far away as Wisconsin will compete for top honors at the New Hampshire event. Other Ski Roundtop Racing Club athletes who competed in the Pennsylvania High School Championships included Ellen Legro of Hershey, who won the women's slalom and finished fourth overall; Peter Twigg of Dover, who finished eighth in the slalom and ninth in the giant slalom; and Mathew Ream of Lititz, who finished 15th in the giant slalom. Filling, Legro and Twigg qualified to represent Pennsylvania at the Eastern High School Championship. Vessel checks, safety class: The U.S.

Coast Guard Auxiliary, Division 14, will conduct free vessel safety checks and a boaters safety class at the York Gander Mountain store on Saturday and Sunday. The Coast Guard recommends that all recreational boaters take advantage of this free VSC program every year. It consists of a review of safety equipment on your boat or personal watercraft. The results are shared only with the boater there is no penalty for failing. If a lot harder than college.

Its a process. It took a little bit of time to get stronger in the corners and in the zone, but we work on it a lot in practice, and that helps a lot. Im feeling comfortable play ing a two-way game. Beagle was a quick study. The Bears had a crowded roster and a sparse schedule at the start of the season, and Beagles playing time was limited for the first month.

But because he was a natural center on a team that didnt have a lot of depth in the middle, he stayed in Ilershey, while some of the other first-year players on the team were sent to South Carolina to get ice time. On Nov. 3, he scored his first goal for the Bears, and slowly, but surely carved out a spot for himself as a regular. I was a little bit surprised at the beginning when I started, he said. Having success almost right away at the start, to put in some goals.

But you work hard, I worked hard all summer training and try to work hard every practice, and when you work hard, good things are going to happen. Now, with the season winding down and the intensity picking up in the battle for playoff spots, Beagle is even more focused. The pressures there, he said. Coming down the stretch, I dont look at myself as a rookie. None of us are rookies.

Weve been here long enough that we know our role, and part of my role is to put pucks in the net. The pressures on to produce goals and make plays. That pressure, Beagle said, is also helping him to get better. I feel like Ive been playing better, he said. Tve been making plays.

I know I can play better, but overall Im happy. I want to continue to build and continue to get stronger. Meanwhile, Beagle continues to score goals, and if he reaches the 20-goal plateau, hell become just the 21st rookie in Hersheys 70-year history to reach that mark. By DAN SLRNOFTSKY Dir the Dully ReamtSuntkiy News HERSIIEY He isnt going to break Craig Fishers rookie record of 43 goals, but the odds are that Jay Beagle is still going to wind up among the all-time leading rookie goal-scorers in Iler-shej history. Beagle, fighting off the effects of an illness that dogged him all weekend long, scored a goal in each of Hersheys three games last weekend.

His goal against Portland on Sunday marked the 18th time this season thats hes lit up the goal lamp. With 16 games It'll on the regular-season schedule, its a safe bet hell not only reach the 20-goal plateau this season but easily urp ass it. Not bad for an undrafted player who spent his college career largely as a defensive forward. "I've always been a defensive player, Beagle said. "Crowing up, I was a defensive forward.

In junior, I started to get some skill, getting some goals and putting some points up, and I tried to continue that in college. I was a two-way player in college. My role was to PK (penalty kill) and defensive forward. "At the pro level, its taken me a little longer than I would have liked to get comfortable in the zone. Im shirting to feel comfortable and to contribute to help the down low, not get scored on.

he said. Coming into training camp with the Bears last fall, Beagle had a little taste of professional hockey. Last season, he joined the Idaho Steel heads of the ECHL after completing his collegiate career at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, playing in eight regular season games and 18 more in the ECHL playoffs. Still, moving up to the AHL was a big step. Especially in terms of the physical nature of the game.

"The guys are just that much bigger and stronger, he said. And to move them down low and to contain them from getting to the net is slumping News service ivxirs BUFFALO, N.Y. Scott Gomez scored the decisive shootout goal, sealing the New York Rangers 3-2 win over the slumping Buffalo Sabres on Monday night After the two teams traded shootout goals, Gomez broke the tie by faking right and tucking the puck just inside the left post past spread-eagled goalie Ryan Miller. Ja-romir Jagr and Fedor Tyutin scored in regulation for the Rangers, who improved to 100-3 in their past 13 games, and moved into a tie with Daily RecordSunday News Tyler Filling, a sophomore at Central York High School, won the mens championship at the Pennsylvania Alpine Ski Racing High School Championship held at Sno Mountain in Scranton last weekend. The event is a two-day alpine ski race open to all high school students in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Filling finished third in the slalom and first in the giant slalom to win the mens overall title. There was no doubt Tyler was the fastest kid on the hill, state Tripp McHenry, Tylers coach from the Ski Roundup Racing Club, in a news release. He smoked both runs of the giant slalom, winning by over a second, a large margin in a GS race. On the second run of the GS, there was a difficult turn right before a steep headwall. Tyler was the only athlete that skied it tactically correct and didnt scrub all his speed.

McHenry added: The way he was skiing, Tyler could have won the slalom, too. Unfortunately, he overshot a turn on his second run that cost him about three seconds to correct. Even with that mistake, he ended up only three-tenths of a second behind the winner. -avSY your boat passes the VSC you receive a decal to display on the vessel. Many insurance companies offer discounts to boats passing this inspection.

Additionally, the Coast Guard Auxiliary will conduct a two-day boaters safety class in the stores Gander Lodge. Upon successful completion, participants will be eligible to apply for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissions Boating Safety Education Certificate. This certificate is required to operate personal watercraft or to enable persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1982, to operate boats over 25 horsepower. The class is limited to the first 25 registrants.

There is a cost of $30 to cover textbooks and materials. Gander Mountain is located at 1880 Loucks Road in West Manchester Township. The inspections will be available Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m. The boaters safety class runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday. To register for the class or more information, contact Bob Whyland at 225-1272. Wrestling all-stars: The York-Adams Wrestling Officials annual all-star match will be held at 7 tonight at South Western High School. Doors will open at 6 p.m. All admission proceeds will go to the officials scholarship fund.

And all proceeds from refreshments will go to the South Western Sports Booster Club. a golf course. Tiger Woods, who happens to be pals with Federer, sat in the front row Monday, part of a sellout crowd that included Donald Trump, Regis Philbin and Anna Wintour. They sat around a blue, hard court, set up where the NBAs Knicks and NHLs Rangers play. This is maybe why so many people came out You dont often get the No.

1 in his prime playing against maybe the greatest player of all time, said Federer, who recently recovered from a bout of mononucleosis that he thinks contributed to losses in his past two tour matches. NCAA FOOTBALL No timetable for Patemo STATE COLLEGE -Joe Patemos future at Penn State is still unsettled beyond his current contract. PSU athletic director Tim Curley met recently with Patemo, though Curley said there is no timetable to make decisions about the future of college footballs second-win-ningest coach. The 81-year-old Patemo is entering the final year of his contract. The 2008 season would be his record 43rd on the sideline.

Patemos 372 career wins are one behind Florida States Bobby Bowden for most among major college rnschpR The University of Michigan agreed to improve wheelchair access as part of a deal approved Monday with a paralyzed veterans group that had sued the school. Starting with this season, 96 new accessible seats plus seats for companions will be available along the east side of the stadium, which can seat more fans than any other such site. And by the start of the 2010 season, at least 329 accessible seats, plus seats for companions and seats in the student section, will be available. NFL. Offensive lineman Jake Scott agreed to terms on a multiyear contract with the Titans.

The unrestricted free agent played for the Colts the past four seasons, starting 57 games, including 55 straight. Running back Warrick Dunn signed with the Buccaneers, returning to the team he played for during his first five NFL seasons. Dunn, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, spent the past six seasons with Atlanta. Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart has perfected new skills that may turn out to be a lifesaver on the football field or anywhere else. Leinart, hoping to raise awareness for American Red Cross training, demonstrated CPR and the use of a defibrillator on a training dummy and spoke about the importance of being trained in these life-saving techniques.

The Seahawks sjgned free agent Julius Jones to a multiyear contract Monday. Terms were not released, but its reportedly a four-year deal. Stadium seats, turf and pieces of the soon-to-be-razed RCA Dome roof became available online Monday for fans who want a piece of Indianapolis sports history. A pair of stadium seats will cost $450. Otto Schnellbacher, a two-sport star at Kansas who went on to play defensive back for the New York Giants and spend a season in the NBA in 1949, died Monday.

He was 84. SOCCER. Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks said Monday he had ended talks with Dubai International Capital, which has been negotiating to buy most of co-owner George Gillett's 50 percent stake. In Alvor, Portugal, the United States scored four second-half goals, beating Norway, 4-0, on Monday in the Algarve Cup and setting up a showdown with -Denmark in a rematch of last years final, which the U.S. won.

Youth rules exhibition Sabres Ottawa for fifth-place in the Eastern Conference. New York also inched to within three points of Eastleading New Jersey. Rangers looking to keep Jagr Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather reiterated Monday that he would like to re-sign winger Jaromir Jagr over the summer, in part for him to participate in the Rangers opening regular-season series in the Czech Republic in October. IIIHAMERICAN EXTERIORS1HI SIDING ROOFING WINDOWS IMNYURERUAGEMEN'M windowsSinstalled! Roger Federer outplayed Pete Sampras in a battle of two generations. Associated Press NEW YORK Roger Fe-derer, in his ultra modern allblack getup, and Pete Sampras, in his old-school all-white outfit, showed off the skills that earned them a combined 26 Grand Slam titles and more than a decade of No.

1 rankings. It was an exhibition, yes, but Federer still flicked his fancy strokes from all angles, just the way he does on tennis grandest stages these days. Sampras still smacked big forehands and bigger aces, just the way he did back in his day. Federer is closing in on Sampras record of 14 major tennis championships, a mark that truly exists only in black in white, written in a record book. For nearly 2 'A hours, before an appreciative and occasionally raucous gathering of 19,690 at Madison Square Garden, these two living, breathing greats of the game shared a court Pistol Pete vs.

The Federer Express. The Past vs. The Present Good vs. Evil," as Sampras said with a snicker earlier in the day. And, as one might expect youth was served ASSOCIATED PRESS Pete Sampras reacts after losing a point to Roger Federer during Monday's exhibition at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Current No. 1 Federer beat former No. 1 Sampras 63, 67 (4), 7-6 (6) in an encounter that certainly doesnt settle the "Who is better? debate, given that one participant is 26 and the other is 36, and nothing more than bragging rights was on the line. It did, however, raise tennis profile, make both men some money $1 million for Federer, less for Sampras and well, allow people to they saw Sampras, the best of his generation, face Federer, the best of his. No one can say they saw Ali face Tyson in a boxing ring Or Hogan face Woods on Vinyl Frames Insulated Glass Sashes Tilt-In for Easy Cleaning 12 Screens Standard Includes White Frame (Brown or Tan Available) Night Locks Safety Latches Full Limited Lifetime Warranty 755-9024 TOU.FHEE: 1-800-572-1239 Visit Our Showroom Cali for Hours Stony Brook Shopprtte 3755 Market St.

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