Patriots, Rams
to meet in Super Bowl
PITTSBURGH — They weren’t supposed to win their division. They weren’t supposed to be one of the last four teams standing. And they sure weren’t supposed to make the Super Bowl.
Now that the New England Patriots have done all that, they kindly request that you continue to insult them.
The Patriots used two quarterbacks and two touchdowns by their special teams to beat the favored Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-17, in Sunday’s AFC Championship game. The Patriots are going to Super Bowl XXXVI. An eager nation expects the St. Louis Rams to beat them by 14 touchdowns.
Drew Bledsoe subbed for an injured Tom Brady and threw for 102 yards and a touchdown. Brady had taken over for an injured Bledsoe three months ago. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he would wait until later in the week to name a Super Bowl starter.
— Michael Rosenberg
Knight Ridder newspapers
Lorenzo leads
indoor track team
Senior Santiago Lorenzo led the Oregon decathletes in their indoor season multi-event debut, posting the world’s second-leading score in Friday and Saturday’s heptathlon win in the Wisconsin Elite Invitational at the University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center.
Lorenzo, the NCAA decathlon champion last spring, won the seven-event competition with a score of 5,608 points, followed by senior teammate Billy Pappas (second, 5,446) and redshirt junior Jason Slye (third, 5,064). Lorenzo’s score also broke the track record of former NCAA decathlon champion James Dunkleberger (5,539) from 1996.
Lorenzo’s 138-point personal best moved him to second in the world behind current world leader Dmitriy Ivanov of Russia (5,671). Pappas’s mark moved him to third on the U.S. season best list, while Slye’s mark was a 75-point personal best.
Lorenzo won the shot put (46-4) with a personal best by more than a foot and also led competitors in the long jump (23-4), shot put (46-4) and 1,000 (2:51.66). Pappas added the meet’s top mark in the 60 hurdles (8.23), and Slye posted the best mark in the pole vault with a 5 inch personal best and tied the NCAA provisional mark (17-0 3/4).
— From staff and wire reports
