SPORTS DIGEST || YSU track breaks two school records

YSU track breaks two school records

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State set two new school records at the 2018 YSU Icebreaker at the Watson and Tressel Training Site on Friday.

Freshman Akeem Cooper broke the triple jump record with a leap of 14.87 meters while winning the event. Sophomore Daiquain Watson set the long jump record at 14.87 while taking third place.

Sprinter Chad Zallow recorded two first place finishes in the 60m dash and the 60m hurdles. His time of 6.77 seconds in the 60m was just 0.03 seconds off from tying his own school record.

Penguin freshman Destiny Washington won in the 60-meter hurdles.

U.S. teen scores in Bundesliga debut

Josh Sargent scored on his first touch 2 minutes into his professional debut, a 78th-minute header by the 18-year-old American that helped Werder Bremen beat Fortuna Duesseldorf 3-1 on Friday in the Bundesliga.

Sargent, who left O’Fallon, Missouri, to join Bremen last winter, scored after Davy Klaassen sent a pass into the penalty area from 30 yards that was toe-poked by Martin Harnik. The ball bounced off a shoulder of goalkeeper Michael Rensing, and Sargent raced in to nod the ball into the goal from 1 yard.

“Beginners luck,” Sargent tweeted.

Georgia Tech hires Temple’s Geoff Collins

ATLANTA

Georgia Tech hired Temple coach Geoff Collins on Friday, choosing a Georgia native with a background in defense to replace Paul Johnson as the Yellow Jackets coach.

Collins, 47, is a former Florida and Mississippi State defensive coordinator and Georgia Tech assistant who was 15-10 in two seasons at Temple.

Liberty hires Hugh Freeze

LYNCHBURG, VA.

Hugh Freeze has enjoyed the highs of football, such as winning the Sugar Bowl and beating mighty Alabama. He’s also known embarrassment and shame following a personal scandal that cost him his job at Mississippi.

He was introduced as Liberty’s football coach on campus Friday.

Freeze will replace Turner Gill, who resigned after his seventh season to spend more time with his ailing wife. The Flames finished 6-6 this season, their first competing at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, and were 47-35 under Gill.

Freeze spent five years at Mississippi and led the Rebels to a 39-25 record and four bowl games. He resigned in the summer of 2017 amid a scandal in which school officials discovered a “pattern of personal misconduct” starting with a call to an escort service from a university-issued cellphone.

All-Pro Robertson killed in limo crash

MABANK, Texas

Former two-time All-Pro linebacker Isaiah Robertson was killed when the limousine he was driving skidded on a rain-slicked curve on a dark, rural East Texas highway and was hit by two other vehicles.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports the crash happened about 10 p.m. Thursday on Texas Route 198 almost 6 miles (9 kilometers) north of Mabank and 50 miles southeast of Dallas. A DPS statement says the limousine Robertson was driving entered the curve at an unsafe speed for the rainy conditions. It veered off the road and skidded sideways before coming to a stop partially on the road. A pickup truck following behind hit the limo, knocking the limo into the southbound lane where it was slammed by an oncoming car.

Robertson, a 69-year-old Garland, Texas, resident, was taken to an Athens, Texas, hospital 20 miles away, where he died. The truck driver was treated for minor injuries and discharged. The other car driver was unhurt.

The Los Angeles Rams drafted Robertson from Southern University in the first round of the 1971 NFL draft. He remained with the Rams through 1978, then played in 1979-82 for the Buffalo Bills. He was named first-team All-Pro in 1973 and 1976 and was chosen for the Pro Bowl in his rookie 1971 season, as well as 1973-77.

Staff/wire report