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Jury still out on Weis after sluggish opener

TEN MONTHS for this?Notre Dame fans have been anxiously awaiting the start of the 2008 football season. The Fighting Irish Nation has endured the burden of a dismal 3-9 record since last November.But the new season brought with it the hope of brighter days.A much more friendly schedule, another great recruiting class, the addition of defensive guru Jon Tenuta from Georgia Tech and a year's maturation for starting quarterback Jimmy Clausen all added up to possibly an 8- or 9-win season for the fourth edition of Charlie Weis' Golden Domers.Setting the opening-day table was cupcake San ...

$100,000 Invitational shaping up

World Classic champion Starz Jenko heads the list of entries for the $100,000 Wheeling Island Invitational scheduled for October.In addition to capturing the World Classic at Mardi Gras in March, Jenko won the Grand Classic at Palm Beach in May, ran third in the Joe Ryan Memorial at Mardi Gras in April and was a finalist in the Twin Rivers Sprint in July.The Jack Sherck-owned sprinter arrived in Wheeling in August and is racing out of the Wayne Ward Kennel. Plans are for Jenko to stay in Wheeling following the Invitational.Starz Jenko won his first Wheeling start Sunday by 6 ...

Power Pak packs plenty

When Kiowa Power Pak arrived in Wheeling in May, he was only 16 months old.Three months later, the Steubenville Kennel powerhouse was beating some of the best middle distance racers at the racetrack.Scary to say the least."Barney O'Donnell called when Power Pak was 15 months old and said he's so fast there's nothing else (training) we can do with him," Steubenville Kennel trainer Debbie Schweizer said. "So the decision was made to send him to Wheeling."Expectations were high, and Power Pak - a January 2000 greyhound out of Kiowa Mon Manny-Kiowa More Mar - responded in a huge way.Power ...

Cwalinski, Colonials come up just short

PITTSBURGH - Shadyside's Erik Cwalinski did his best John Elway impersonation here Saturday afternoon.Elway, the former NFL great with Denver, authored one of the game's greatest drives during the 1986 AFC Championship Game at Cleveland.In the final five minutes of regulation, starting from his own two-yard line, Elway drove Denver 98 yards to a game-tying touchdown, forcing overtime.An ensuing field goal broke the Browns' heart and elevated Elway and his team to the Super Bowl.The stakes were not nearly as high for Cwalinski, Robert Morris University's starting senior quarterback who ...

Nate Davis, Ball State aiming for MAC title

AKRON The last time Ball State University's football program outright won the Mid-American Conference Championship was in 1996. Led into the trenches at that time by coach Bill Lynch, the Cardinals were drilled off the starting mark by Kansas and went on to drop the first three games of the season.Pulling themselves out of the gutter, Ball State shook up the MAC conference by shelling out eight consecutive victories as they took home the MAC title and made an appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl.Well that was 1996 and this is now.The Cardinals (3-0) are now triggered by Bellaire native Nate ...

Shadyside begins to turn the corner

It was only a month ago when Shadyside watched Ridgewood rack up yardage on the ground and eventually kick a field goal as time ran out to score a victory.Well, the Tigers the following week still looked sluggish against the run and watched Monroe Central build a sizable lead before the Orange kicked into gear and rallied for the victory with a strong second half.Then it wasn't as much the Shadyside defense, but the Tigers' offense, which struggled some before the Tigers eventually did away with Linsly.It was all of those three combinations rolled into one, which left very few area ...