ROAD RACING
North Yarmouth native Ben True won the USATF 20K national championship in dramatic fashion Monday morning, finishing less than a second in front of Abbabiya Simbassa and Nico Montanez at the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race in New Haven, Connecticut.
True, who will make his marathon debut at the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7, finished in 59:53. Abbabiya Simbassa and Nico Montanez were second and third, respectively, in 59:54. Leonard Korir, the defending champion, finished fourth in 59:58. True earned $9,000 for the win. Second paid $4,000 and third $2,000.
In the women’s race, Emily Durgin of Standish, a Cheverus High and UConn graduate, finished third in 1:07:03. Erika Kemp won the race in 1:06:20 and Makena Morley finished in 1:06:59 to edge Durgin for second.
True, 35, moves up to the marathon after failing to qualifying Tokyo Olympics this summer. True finished finished fourth in the 10,000 at the U.S. track and field trials in June, then pulled out of the 5,000 with injuries. True has a history of success in New York, winning the NYC Half Marathon in 2018, in his debut at the distance, in a time of 1:02:39.
BASEBALL
MINOR LEAGUES: Portland Sea Dogs first baseman Triston Casas, who hit five home runs in five games last week, has been named the Double-A Northeast League Player of the Week.
Casas went 8 for 17 with five homers and 11 RBI for the Sea Dogs last week. Casas hit his five home runs in two days. On Friday, he hit two home runs in the first game of a doubleheader, finishing 3 for 5 with five RBI. In the second game homered again and drove in two. Then on Saturday, he hit a pair of two-run home runs. The Sea Dogs won all three of those games.
Casas, the Red Sox top prospect, has played in 69 games this season, hitting .283 with nine doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 48 RBI. He missed time while helping Team USA win a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Sea Dogs are scheduled to return to action on Thursday after having five games canceled due to COVID-19 issues with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Portland’s next scheduled game is at home against Binghamton at 6 p.m. Thursday.
HIGH SCHOOLS
FIELD HOCKEY: Alice Donahue and Sophie Smith scored as Yarmouth (1-1) beat Freeport (0-2), 2-1, in Yarmouth.
Donahue tied it at 1 early in the third quarter off an assist by Cat Jordon following a penalty corner, and Smith got the winner on a breakaway later in the third.
Kyla Harvey scored in the first quarter for Freeport.
COLLEGES
MEN’S SOCCER: The University of Southern Maine (2-0-1) scored twice in each half en route to a 4-0 win over UMaine-Presque Isle (0-1) in Gorham.
Zekeriya Shaib and Trevor Sandler scored in the first half, while Tyler St. Martin and Edwin Bonilla scored in the second half for USM. Jacob Satires and Hayes Estrella combined for three saves.
Keith Mank and Cameron Kelley combined for eight saves for UMPI.
WOMEN’S SOCCER: The University of New England (3-0) scored three goals in the first half and cruised to a 4-0 win over Westfield State (1-1-0) in Biddeford.
Hannah Cottis, Meredith Kennedy and Tori Keyes scored in the first half for UNE. Kennedy also scored in the second half. She also had an assist.
Sydney Gillingham had four saves for UNE, while Lauryn Davis and Sarah Fuller combined for eight saves for Westfield State.
FOOTBALL: Minnesota running back Mo Ibrahim will miss the rest of the season because of a lower left leg injury, Coach P.J. Fleck announced.
Ibrahim will have surgery Tuesday and need four to six months to recover, Fleck said. The fifth-year player was a second-team preseason Associated Press All-America selection.
• UConn coach Randy Edsall has left the program a day after announcing he would retire at the end of the season.
Edsall, whose teams have gone just 6-32 since he returned to the Huskies for a second stint as coach in 2017, will be replaced on an interim basis by defensive coordinator Lou Spanos, the school announced.
“Upon further reflection by both Randy and I, and after having the opportunity to visit with Randy today, we are both in agreement that it is in the best interest of our student-athletes to have a new voice leading UConn football,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said
Edsall, 63, was originally the Huskies coach from 1999 through the 2010 season, leading UConn into what is now the bowl subdivision, taking the Huskies to five bowl games and winning Big East titles in 2007 and 2010.
He was rehired by UConn in 2017, despite going 22-34 at Maryland, where he was fired six games into his fifth season.
GOLF
SOLHEIM CUP: Europe retained the Solheim Cup on Monday in Toldeo, Ohio,, clinching just its second victory on U.S. soil when Matilda Castren closed out Lizette Salas 1 up to give the visitors the decisive point in a 15-13 victory.
Castren calmly curled in a 10-foot par putt on the 18th to edge Salas and give Europe back-to-back Cup victories for just the second time in the 31-year history of the biennial showdown between the two rivals.
“It’s just crazy, crazy,” said the 26-year-old who became eligible to make the team only after winning an event in her native Finland in July. “I can’t believe I made that putt. I knew it was important. I knew it was going to break a little bit left. Me and (my caddie) read the putt perfectly and it went in. It’s just such an amazing feeling, and so proud to be part of this team.”
Two years after needing a dramatic 7-foot putt by Suzann Pettersen to slip by the Americans at Gleneagles, the final putt this time around was more of an exclamation point on three days of steady and occasionally spectacular play by the visitors.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Four Argentina footballers are being investigated by Brazil federal police for allegedly providing false information upon arrival in Sao Paulo for a World Cup qualifying match.
The Brazil-Argentina qualifier on Sunday was interrupted after seven minutes when agents of Brazil’s health agency, Anvisa, insisted they should take England-based players Emiliano Martinez, Emiliano Buendia, Giovanni Lo Celso, and Cristian Romero to the airport for breaching coronavirus protocols.
Anvisa said Argentina soccer officials knew since Saturday that the four players — three of whom were on the field — should not play because they were in the United Kingdom 14 days before their arrival, but did not inform authorities as required. Visitors from the U.K. have a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine.
PELÉ: Pelé has had an apparent tumor on the right side of his colon removed in an operation.
Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo said the 80-year-old soccer great is in an intensive care unit and will be transferred to a regular room on Tuesday.
The operation was a “great victory,” Pelé said on his social media channels.
OBIT: Jean-Pierre Adams, the former France and Paris Saint-Germain defender who spent 39 years in a coma, has died. He was 73.
In a poignant tribute, PSG called him the club’s “glorious elder.”
“His joie de vivre, his charisma and his experience command respect. Paris Saint-Germain offers its condolences to his family and loved ones,” PSG said in a statement.
Adams, cared for by his wife Bernadette, has been lying in a coma at his home in the southern French city of Nimes since 1982.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Driver Valtteri Bottas is leaving Mercedes at the end of the season and replacing the retiring Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo.
The Alfa Romeo team said Monday that Bottas had signed a multi-year deal, paving the way for George Russell to replace Bottas at Mercedes.
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