COLLEGES
The Colonial Athletic Conference has canceled spring football practices for all of its member institutions, including the University of Maine.
The CAA announced the decision on Friday as sports around the world are put on hold in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Also, the NFL announced that it “prohibited in-person, pre-Draft visits involving draft-eligible players,” meaning any pro days held at schools will be shut down. Maine was scheduled to hold its pro day on March 27.
OLYMPICS
TRACK AND FIELD: Caster Semenya said she is switching events to the 200 meters in a bid to run at the Olympics.
The two-time Olympic 800-meter champion is barred from competing in top-level events from 400 meters to the mile unless she undergoes treatment to reduce her natural testosterone levels.
Semenya announced her decision to change events on her Instagram account on Friday.
Semenya said her decision was driven by a desire “to compete at the highest level of sport.”
“This decision has not been an easy one but, as always, I look forward to the challenge and will work hard, doing all I can to qualify for Tokyo and compete to the best of my ability for South Africa,” she said.
BASEBALL
MLB: Ted Cox, the first major league player with hits in his first six at-bats, has died. He was 65.
Cox was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in November and died Wednesday at Hospice Quality Care in Midwest City, according to his son, Billy.
Cox was born in Oklahoma City, played at Midwest City High School and was selected by Boston with the 17th overall pick of the 1973 amateur draft.
Cox made his major league debut for the Red Sox on Sept. 18, 1977, at Baltimore and singled twice and walked off Mike Flanagan, then singled and doubled against Scott McGregor. The next day at Fenway Park, he singled twice off the New York Yankees’ Ed Figueroa to break the record set by Cecil Travis of the 1933 Washington Senators. Cox grounded out against Figueroa in the fifth inning.
BASKETBALL
NBA: With the season on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson went ahead with surgery for a right shoulder injury that had sidelined him for three weeks.
SLED DOG RACING
IDITAROD: One Iditarod musher ditched a meal of frozen food heated over a campfire for a gourmet meal Friday.
Jessie Royer of Fairbanks was the first musher to reach the checkpoint in Ruby, a village less than halfway from the finish line, and a huge spread prepared by a chef flown in from Anchorage awaited her when she arrived with 14 dogs in harness at 6:37 a.m.
Royer was followed into Ruby, the race’s first checkpoint on the Yukon River, by three others: Thomas Waerner of Norway, Aaron Burmeister of Nome and Brent Sass of Eureka.
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