Russ Michna threw for 181 yards and had six total touchdowns as the Chicago Rush clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the Arena Football League’s American Conference with a 75-63 victory over Dallas on Sunday in Rosemont, Ill.
Had Chicago lost, the SaberCats would have vaulted over the Rush for home-field advantage through the conference playoffs. San Jose and Chicago have first-round byes. The SaberCats will play their postseason opener July 5 at HP Pavilion.
Women’s basketball
Los Angeles’ Candace Parker became the second woman to dunk in a WNBA game. In the Sparks’ 77-63 victory over Indiana at Staples Center, she caught a pass, dribbled the length of the court and dunked with her right hand with 29 seconds left. Lisa Leslie, Parker’s teammate, is the only other WNBA player to do it – throwing a shot down during a game in 2002.
Soccer
Cesc Fabregas scored the decisive penalty kick in a shootout, sending Spain past Italy 4-2 after a 0-0 draw in Vienna, Austria, setting up a semifinal against Russia on Thursday in the European Championship.
Olympic sports
With the first perfect dive of her long career, Laura Wilkinson locked up a third trip to the Olympics, holding off teenage phenom Haley Ishimatsu on the 10-meter platform at the U.S. diving trials in Indianapolis. David Boudia, 19, beat 18-year-old Thomas Finchum, his close friend and longtime training partner, in a battle of 10s on the men’s platform.
• Hunter Kemper earned his latest Olympics triathlon berth by finishing well ahead of Andy Potts at the Hy-Vee Triathlon in West Des Moines, Iowa. Sarah Haskins beat Sarah Groff to earn the final spot on the U.S. women’s team for the Beijing Games.
Miscellany
The photograph of a dislodged shoe on Big Brown’s right hind hoof in the June 21 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine might explain the colt’s stunning meltdown June 7 in the Belmont Stakes. An extreme close-up shows the hoof about 200 yards into the 1 1/2-mile race, in which the Triple Crown hopeful was eased and finished last.
IEAH Stables co-president Michael Iavarone said he found copies of two photos by free-lancer Russ Milton in his e-mail late Saturday.
“The picture shocked me,” Iavarone said.
• Harry Aleo, a horse owner whose colt Lost in the Fog was the 2005 Eclipse Award sprint winner, has died of cancer. He was 88. Aleo died at his home in San Francisco on Saturday.
• Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin has no intention of returning home to play in Russia, and the threat of a newly revamped Russian pro league using lucrative offers to poach talent is being dismissed by NHL officials.
