Local Sports Digest

YSU
Football ticketsgoing on sale
YOUNGSTOWN -- Single-game tickets for the 2006 Youngstown State University football season will go on sale Tuesday at the YSU athletic ticket office located inside Stambaugh Stadium.
Individual game tickets, season tickets and Penguin Club memberships are available. Prices for the 2006 season are $14 for reserved seats and $10 for general admission. Season tickets start at $48 for six home games.
The YSU promotional schedule will include postgame B.J. Alan fireworks on Aug. 31 and Sept. 23.
Kid's Tailgate Day on Sept. 23 and a Kid's Football Fest on Oct. 7 will take place in the tailgate areas and feature inflatables, clowns, face painting and other activities for young Penguin fans.
The Homecoming game will be highlighted by the gameday parade, Hall of Fame ceremonies and the announcement of King and Queen at halftime.
Season and individual tailgate permits are available through the athletic ticket office for the Giant Eagle Penguin party lot.
YSU will hold the annual Football Media Day on Aug. 9 at Stambaugh Stadium beginning at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Fans may get photos and autographs of players.
The athletic ticket office will have extended hours until 7 p.m. on that day. For more ticket or football gameday information, fans may call (330) 941-1YSU or log onto www.YSUsports.com.
LOCAL
Schedules needed
The Vindicator seeks fall sports schedules from the following schools:
Lowellville, Sebring, Brookfield, Columbiana, East Palestine, Leetonia, Badger, Mathews, Southington, Wellsville, Southeast, Farrell, Grove City, Hickory, Kennedy Christian, Laurel, Mercer, Mohawk, New Castle, Neshannock, Reynolds, Sharon, Sharpsville, Shenango, Slippery Rock, Union, Wilmington and West Middlesex.
Athletic Directors should e-mail schedules to sports@vindy.com or fax (330) 747-6712.
Springfieldstudent is 15th
NEW MIDDLETOWN -- Jeff Harper, who will be a sixth grader at Springfield Intermediate School in the USA National Track and Field meet in Baltimore.
Harper competed in the Midget Division and placed 15th in the shot put in a field of 38 and 20th in a group of 36.
O'Halloran, Kingset for U.S. trials
IRVINE, Calif. -- Two Youngstown-area swimmers will be competing in the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships and USA Team Trials that begin Monday and run through Saturday.
Tyler O'Halloran, a Boardman High graduate and a senior at the University of Texas, has qualified for two events -- the 100-meter backstroke and 10th in the 100-meter butterfly. He is seeded seventh and 10th, respectively.
O'Halloran will be representing the Texas Aquatics Swim Club.
Nate King, a Warren Harding High graduate and a senior at Ohio State, has qualified in three events -- the 200-meter individual medley, the 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter backstroke. He is seeded 23rd, 34th and 51st, respectively.
SRU to reinstate2 women's sports
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Slippery Rock University will reinstate two women's sports following a federal judge's ruling that eliminating them did not comply with a federal law requiring equal opportunities for female athletes.
University President Robert Smith announced Friday that the school will reinstate women's water polo and swimming for the 2006-07 academic year. The schedules for both sports will closely resemble the 2005-06 schedule, the university said.
The university announced in January it was cutting eight sports to save $350,000 -- including women's field hockey, water polo and swimming -- as part of an effort to erase a $2 million budget shortfall. The school later reinstated field hockey, but members of the women's swimming and water polo teams challenged the cuts in a federal lawsuit.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose said Smith was wrong not to consider compliance with Title IX, a law requiring schools that receive federal money to provide equal sports opportunities for men and women. The university also cut men's swimming, water polo, golf, wrestling and tennis after the school year ended. Officials argued in court that they tried to be fair in deciding which sports to cut.
TCTA teamwins event
ELMHURST, Ill. -- Trumbull County Tennis Association's Team Youngstown won the Midwest USTA Grand Prix Tennis Tournament from July 21-23.
Teams from Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus and St. Louis competed in a round-robin team format with competition ranges from ages 10-18.
The Youngstown team went undefeated and won the championship. Eight local area high schools were represented. Among the players were: Sean Philbin, Howland; Albert Covelli, Warren JFK; Matt Shroder, Howland; Brad Broker, Poland; Chad Ruehs, Poland; and Ben Broker, Poland. The team was coached by Cathy Ballas, Jim Trapp and Pat Philbin.
NATION
Gatlin testspositive
Reigning Olympic and world 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin said Saturday he has been informed that he tested positive for testosterone or its precursors, the same positive test that has thrown Floyd Landis' victory at the Tour de France into question.
Gatlin, who positioned himself as a leader in trying to prove track and field is a clean sport, said in a statement released through his publicist that the United States Anti-Doping Agency informed him of the test taken after a relay race in Kansas in April.
"I cannot account for these results, because I have never knowingly used any banned substance or authorized anyone else to administer such a substance to me," Gatlin said. "In the course of my entire professional career, I have been tested more than 100 times. ... All of the tests this season, including the out-of-competition and in-competition tests conducted just before and after the race in Kansas, were negative."
Bernardini wins
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Bernardini will not be overlooked again.
The brilliant 3-year-colt outclassed the field in the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course , proving to just about everyone that his victory in the Preakness Stakes was no fluke.
"I guess there was a lot of doubt in people's minds about the Preakness," winning trainer Tom Albertrani said. "Today, he showed us what a really good horse he is. I wasn't really surprised."
Vindicator staff/wire reports