PORTLAND, Maine — Fresh from the World Cup finals, Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin and other top U.S. skiers are headed from France to Maine to finish the competitive season at the U.S. Alpine Championships.
Vonn, the most decorated female ski racer in history, will headline the event that begins Wednesday and runs through the weekend at Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley in western Maine. Vonn finished the World Cup season by clinching downhill and super-G titles with season-ending wins. Shiffrin did the same for her third straight World Cup slalom title.
It will be Vonn’s first time at the national championships since returning from a serious knee injury. She said she hopes to inspire up-and-coming skiers to aim high.
For Shiffrin, it will be her first time at Sugarloaf.
“Sugarloaf seems like a rite of passage almost for every (International Ski Federation) racer in the U.S., and I’ve never skied there,” she said. “I’m checking that off the list.”
Area gymnasts awaiting regional. The No. 16 University of Denver women’s gymnastics team will travel to Ames, Iowa, for an NCAA regional April 4. The Pioneers will join No. 4 LSU, No. 9 Nebraska, No. 24 Washington, No. 28 Michigan State and host No. 33 Iowa State.
This is the Pioneers’ 17th consecutive NCAA team berth, qualifying in each of coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart’s seasons leading the squad.
Six members of the Air Force women’s team will compete in Ames as individuals. Senior Kim McRobbie, freshman Jamie Lewis and sophomore Kara Witgen will represent the Falcons in the all-around. Jessica Wallander will compete in vault and bars, Annie Graft will compete on the balance beam and Alexandra Stych will represent the Falcons in floor exercise.
Scherzer first starter for Nats•VIERA, Fla. — Max Scherzer will be the opening-day starter for the Washington Nationals instead of Stephen Strasburg, who made the previous three opening-day starts.
Scherzer never started on opening day for the Detroit Tigers despite winning the Cy Young Award in 2013. He signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with Washington in the offseason.
“It’s going to be real exciting,” Scherzer said Monday. “It’s a great honor to be able to start opening day, especially for this club, and especially on this staff. But at the end of the day, it’s just Game 1. There are bigger and better things I want to check off.”
• Bartolo Colon, not Matt Harvey, will be the starter for the New York Mets’ opener at Washington on April 6. Harvey is returning from elbow ligament-replacement surgery that has sidelined him since August 2013.
Colon was 15-13 with a 4.09 ERA last year and at 41 will become the oldest opening-day starting pitcher in the major leagues since April 2006, when 43-year-old Jamie Moyer was on the mound for the Seattle Mariners and 42-year-old Randy Johnson started for the New York Yankees.
• Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona said he doesn’t expect slugger Nick Swisher to be ready for the team’s April 6 opener at Houston.
Swisher underwent surgery on both knees last August and has been slower to recover than expected.
Footnotes. Rafael Nadal will play at this year’s Queen’s Club, ending his three-year absence at the grass-court tournament. Nadal has gone on to reach the Wimbledon final following every appearance at the event that is traditionally seen as a warm-up to the SW19 championships. … Maciej Paterski of Poland won the opening stage of Spain’s Volta a Catalunya, outsprinting Pierre Rolland and Bart De Clercq to the finish. … Former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea was banned 18 months for doping after testing positive for testosterone in an out- of-competition drug test.
