SPORTS digest

Curbstone Coaches to honor state champs

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

The Curbstone Coaches will honor fall state champions when they meet on Monday at noon at the Avion Banquet Center.

To be honored are the Warren JFK football team, Canfield Cianciola, and Columbiana golfer Jared Wilson.

The luncheon is open to the public.

Columbiana wrestlers finish 14th

Bainbridge TWP.

The Columbiana High School wrestling team finished 14th at the Kenston Holiday invitational.

Caleb Rupert (195 pounds) and Tim Davin (285) finished in third place while Brandt Virden (106) and Vince Vivo (160) finished in seventh place.

Mirth captures first in Poland 5K

POLAND

John Mirth, 54, won Saturday’s Crazy Lenny’s New Year’s Eve 5km Race with a time of 18:21. He finished six seconds ahead of Brett Whitty.

Mary Beth Acker finished ninth overall and first among women with a time of 20:35.

Canes sign equipment manager as goalie

tampa, fla.

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed equipment manager Jorge Alves to a professional tryout contract to be the backup goaltender for Saturday night’s game at Tampa Bay.

Eddie Lack, the regular backup to Cam Ward, is ill and unavailable.

Alves, 37, has been one of Carolina’s full-time equipment managers since the 2012-13 season and practices with the team on a regular basis. He played on North Carolina State University’s club hockey team for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons and had several short stints in the ECHL and Southern Professional Hockey League.

Alves moved to Raleigh in 2001 following four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and has been with Carolina’s equipment staff since 2003-04.

The Hurricanes had Alves lead the team onto the ice for warmups, letting him skate around the Carolina zone in his No. 40 jersey by himself before joining him.

Grayson Allen no longer a Duke captain

blacksburg, va.

Suspended Duke Blue Devil Grayson Allen made the trip to Blacksburg with his team, but sat on the bench in street clothes.

Following Duke’s 89-75 loss at Virginia Tech, head coach Mike Krzyzewski did not reveal any more on Allen’s status going forward but said the Allen is no longer a team captain.

“Right now, I don’t want to talk about Grayson,” Krzyzewski said. “He was part of the loss today by not being there. Instead of tri-captains, we’ve eliminated him from being a captain of the team. Only Amile (Jefferson) and Matt (Jones) are doing that. It’s unfortunate for any team to have interruptions. Sometimes you have no control of them, like an injury or sickness. Then sometimes something like this happens. We’ve had a lot of interruptions. We have to stop having interruptions.”

Usain Bolt calls into Manchester talk show

manchester, england

Manchester United’s in-house television channel received a shock when Usain Bolt called up to discuss Saturday’s 2-1 win over Middlesbrough in the English Premier League.

In the post-match phone-in , MUTV presenter Mandy Henry introduced the next caller as a “Usain from Jamaica” but then added: “It’s not Usain Bolt is it?”

The nine-time Olympic champion replied: “It is Usain Bolt”.

“They came through like the old Manchester United,” Bolt continued. “They came through and pushed on and persevered, the Manchester United way. It was a great match, I am very happy about this.”

The Jamaican sprinter tweeted to confirm he was the caller and Henry replied : “Sorry Usain - we didn’t think it was you! Enjoy your celebrations in Jamaica & call again after West Ham on Monday night!”

Staff/Wire reports