BG football completes staff

Owens men’s, women’s basketball players honored

3/11/2014

BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University football coach Dino Babers completed his coaching staff with the addition of Mike Mickens as cornerbacks coach and Andrew Sowder as director of player personnel.

Mickens, a former cornerback at the University of Cincinnati, spent last season as an assistant coach at Idaho. Mickens, who also was on the NFL practice squad roster in Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Cincinnati, also has coached at his alma mater and at Indiana State.

Sowder spent the past two seasons as outside receivers coach under Babers at Eastern Illinois. Sowder also was a student coach assisting Babers while at Baylor, his alma mater, where he also played two seasons as a tight end.

College hockey

BOWLING GREEN — Two BG players received weekly honors from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Freshman forward Kevin Dufour was named WCHA offensive player of the week after scoring three goals and adding an assist in the Falcons’ sweep of Bemidji State last weekend.

Dufour shared the honor with Cody Kunyk of Alaska.

Freshman defenseman Sean Walker was named the league’s rookie of the week after netting a goal and three assists in BG’s sweep of the Beavers.

College basketball

Owens Community College landed two men and two women on the first teams of the All-Ohio Community College Athletic Association basketball teams.

John Murry and Bikramjit Gill were named to the men’s first team.

Andy Bachman was selected to the second team, while Shaakir Lindsey was honorable mention.

The Express finished 25-6 overall and shared the OCCAC title.

Kamilah Carter and Ashley Tunstall were both named to women’s first team.

Eboni Adams was named to the second team, while Paige Wright was honorable mention.

The Express finished 26-3 and won the OCCAC championship.

Tennis

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Jelena Jankovic routed Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open, winning a matchup of former tournament champions and No. 1-ranked players.

Jankovic made the quarterfinals for the first time since winning the Indian Wells title in 2010, when she beat Wozniacki.

Lauren Davis withdrew from her match against qualifier Casey Dellacqua because of a gastrointestinal illness. Dellacqua advanced to the quarters against No. 6 seed Simona Halep, who beat Eugenie Bouchard, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

On the men’s side, 24th-seeded Marin Cilic defeated 16th-seeded Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-3 in a fourth-round match in the bottom half of the draw. Roberto Bautista Agut beat Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (6).

Wrestling

ST. PAUL — A Minnesota high school wrestler won over the crowd with a hug that came away from the mat — and after a loss.

Instead of getting upset when he lost the 120-pound title match in the Class 3A tournament, Blaine High School sophomore Malik Stewart went over to his opponent’s dad — who is dying of cancer — and gave him a hug.

The crowd at the Xcel Energy Center loved it.

“He won,” Stewart said of opponent Mitchell McKee. “He was pretty proud, and his dad was pretty proud. So I went over there and I shook his hand, embraced him a little bit, and told him to stay strong and everybody loves him.”

Stewart lost his own father to a heart attack when he was just 7 years old.