Will Vasos, a former Class 5A state champion from Rocky Mountain High School, on Thursday upset top-seeded and defending champion Luke Shields of Grand Junction in the third round of the 93rd Denver City Open tennis tournament.
Vasos, the No. 13 seed, won 6-4, 6-3, eliminating Shields, a former standout at Grand Junction High School and Boise State. Shields’ brother, No. 2-seeded Clancy Shields, eliminated Ben Smith 6-2, 6-4 to advance.
In the women’s bracket, top-seeded Mallory Voel- ker advanced by beating Alexandra Leatu 6-1, 6-3, and No. 2 seed Lauren Strasburger eliminated Kathleen Parker 6-1, 6-1.
14ers set for move to Frisco, Texas.
Dallas Mavericks president and general manager Donnie Nelson will move the NBA Development League’s Colorado 14ers to Frisco, Texas, for the 2010-11 season. The team will not play next season. The club will be affiliated with as many as three NBA teams. Nelson’s ownership group also includes Evan Wyly, the chairman of Green Mountain Energy. Colorado 14ers owner Tim Wiens will retain minority ownership. The club’s nickname, colors and logo have not been set.
AFA soccer’s Buckley retires.
Air Force women’s soccer coach Marty Buckley, who started the program in 1992, said he will retire from coaching. Buckley compiled a 111-181-17 record over 17 seasons. After starting the program in Division II and moving as high as a No. 13 ranking in the nation, he jumped them to D-I in 1996. He will remain at Air Force as an administrator. Assistant Larry Friend was named interim coach.
Telluride gets FIS snowboard event.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association named Telluride as the host of the 2010 U.S. Snowboardcross Cup, the only American stop on the FIS Snowboard World Cup tour.
The Cup runs Dec. 17-20 and will serve as the second of five Olympic qualification events for snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom.
Mountain biking champion arrested.
Former mountain biking world champion Melissa “Missy” Giove, once a Durango resident, was ordered held on $250,000 bail after federal authorities said they seized more than 200 pounds of marijuana from a truck she was driving in upstate New York.
Giove, 37, and Eric Canori, 30, of Wilton, N.Y., were charged Tuesday with conspiring to possess and distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.
Nearly 400 pounds of pot was seized from the truck and from Canori’s home outside Saratoga Springs, 25 miles north of Albany, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
In court Thursday, public defender Tim Austin said the drugs and money were planted in Giove’s truck, possibly by police.
Giove, nicknamed “The Missile,” was the downhill world champion in 1994 and won World Cup season titles in 1997 and 1998, then captured national titles from 1999-2001. One of the sport’s first mainstream female stars, she retired from downhill racing in 2003.
