Boxer Franchon Crews wins Police Athletic League middleweight title

Boxing

Crews wins Police Athletic League middleweight title

Franchon Crews of Baltimore captured the National Police Athletic League middleweight championship Saturday in Oxnard, Calif., winning by technical knockout in the second round against former Baltimorean Danielle Mitchell, now of North Hollywood, Calif. In the 165-pound semifinals, Crews won by TKO over Kira De Morales of San Pedro, Calif. Next, Crews will help her husband and training partner, Glenn Dezurn of Baltimore, prepare for his fifth professional fight, set for Oct. 24 in Somerset, N.J.

Colleges

Cirovski suspended for violating Big Ten sportsmanship policy

Maryland men's soccer coach Sasho Cirovski was suspended one game Wednesday by the Big Ten Conference for violations of the conference's sportsmanship policy after the team's 3-2 overtime loss to Northwestern on Sunday. As part of the penalty, the school has also been fined $10,000. Cirovski will incur the total cost of the fine, a team spokeswoman said. According to a story in The Diamondback, Maryland's student newspaper, Cirovski "tried pushing his way toward the officials, his arms flailing and his voice booming" and needed to be held back as he approached three game officials after the loss. Cirovski served the suspension Wednesday night as Maryland beat visiting Virginia Commonwealth on Mael Corboz's penalty kick in the 17th minute.

More men's college soccer: Seniors Grant Valenstein and Geoff Fries scored in the 77th and 89th minutes, respectively, as host Navy (6-4-2, 2-1 Patriot League) earned a 2-0 victory over No. 20 American (7-3-1, 1-2) on Wednesday night, raising its record against Top 25 teams to 2-0-1.

Big Ten Conference: Conference officials guaranteed that any student-athlete recruited to an institution through a scholarship offer will not have a reduction or cancellation of his or her scholarhip as long as he or she remains in good standing with the community and university, and that if a student-athlete's undergraduate education is interrupted for a legitimate reason, he or she would be able to return to the institution at any time with an athletic scholarship.

Football: Towson redshirt freshman linebacker James Simms has been named to the Jerry Rice Award midseason watch list, which recognizes the top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision. Simms leads the Colonial Athletic Association in tackles and ranks 11th in the FCS with 10.7 per game.

Et cetera

Baltimore Running Festival to start earlier for O's game

Baltimore Running Festival races will begin an hour earlier than originally scheduled because of the Orioles' deep run into the baseball postseason. Lee Corrigan The festival, which includes a marathon, half-marathon, group relay, 5K and kids race, will stagger starting times between 7 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. on Oct. 18, the day the Orioles and Kansas City Royals would play Game 7 of the American League Championship Series at Camden Yards at 8:07p.m. Festival organizers said the start times won't change again even if the ALCS concludes before Oct. 18. If the series goes at least six games, race-day changes would be more drastic. Rather than running through Camden Yards on Eutaw Street — the finish line is between Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium — participants would use the Russell Street access road. The course also would close at 1 p.m. to give crews time to ready the ballpark area for Game 7. A series of at least six games would force organizers to cancel parking and shuttle service for the race expo Oct. 17.

—Alexander Pyles

Varsity football: North Harford coach Gene Liebel was named the Ravens High School Coach of the Week after North Harford (2-3) rallied from 14 points down in the second half to earn a 15-14 victory over Havre de Grace (4-1).

NBA: The NBA suspended DeJuan Blair, Nene, Daniel Orton and Xavier Silas one regular-season game each for leaving the Washington Wizards' bench during the first quarter of the preseason opener against the Chicago Bulls on Monday night. The players left the bench when Wizards forward Paul Pierce and Bulls center Joakim Noah scuffled in front of the Chicago bench early in the game. Pierce and Noah were each fined $15,000 for the altercation, in which Noah initiated the contact and Pierce poked Noah in the face. The suspensions will take effect for the first game the players are physically able to play.

—Jorge Castillo, The Washington Post

Laurel Park: Horacio Karamanos rode three winners to vault four spots in the rider standings. The 41-year-old finished first aboard Cherokee Empire ($8.60-race 2), Northern Smile ($30.20-race 3) and Next Best Thing ($9.60-race 8), and has 13 victories during the fall meet, trailing only Trevor McCarthy (21) and J.D. Acosta (15).

Lacrosse: Rebel (4-0) continued its unbeaten streak in the Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League this past week with its 6-4 win over Ensure Productivity (0-4). Ginny Capicchioni made 31 saves, and Garrett Ince, Eric Boyle and Steve Personale each had two goals. Patrick Crosby made a season-leading 44 saves for Ensure Productivity. Tyler Midwinter and Brad Jones scored twice each. First Mariner earned its second straight win with an 11-9 victory over Parrot (2-2). Justin Mullin scored five times for First Mariner, and Andrew "Buggs" Combs added three. Jack Runkel, typically a goalie, played defense and scored a goal. For Parrot, Jordan Kenney and Will Harrington had three goals each, and Jeff Joy and John Powell had a goal each.

Indoor Soccer: The Major Arena Soccer League announced rule changes for the 2014-15 season, including using multipoint scoring for home games of the Blast, Harrisburg Heat, Rochester Lancers and Syracuse Silver Knights; dressing 12 to 14 players per game; and allowing slide tackles if the sliding player does not initiate contact with the opposing player or slide recklessly. For the complete rules, go to maslsoccer.com.