Sports briefs 11/5/03

Baseball

Edgar Martinez still won't talk retirement. Martinez, who turns 41 in January, agreed Tuesday to a $3 million, one-year contract with the Mariners.

Seattle outfielders Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Cameron and infielders Bret Boone and John Olerud won AL Gold Gloves. Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, Texas shortstop Alex Rodriguez, Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez, Minnesota outfielder Torii Hunter and Anaheim catcher Bengie Molina also were chosen.

Colleges

St. Louis said it will redshirt freshman center Bryce Husak and play this season's first 10 games without center Ian Vouyoukas, ordered by the NCAA to sit out for playing with professionals on his club team in native Greece. Husak, a 7-foot, 250-pound center from Mount Vernon, Iowa, will have four years of eligibility remaining, beginning with the 2004-05 academic year.

The Big East finalized its expansion plan, inviting five schools to help rebuild the conference after defections of three key schools to the ACC. Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida will join the league in 2005-06, while Marquette and DePaul will join for all sports except football. The Big East acted after losing football powerhouses Miami and Virginia Tech, as well as Boston College, to the ACC earlier this year. The conference needed to make three additions for football to maintain its Division I-A status.

Conference USA added five new schools, responding swiftly to the departure of three of its top basketball programs to the expanded Big East. Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa agreed to leave the Western Athletic Conference for Conference USA. The league also added Marshall and Central Florida from the Mid-American Conference. The schools will join Conference USA on July 1, 2005.

Suspended running back Maurice Clarett has dropped a federal complaint seeking a $2.5 million fine against Ohio State for releasing information from an NCAA investigation to prosecutors. In his court motion, Clarett reserved the right to renew the complaint if he could get backing from the U.S. Department of Education, which oversees the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act he accuses the school of violating.

Area digest

Central eighth grade girls sweep Egyptian

Central's eighth grade girls basketball team swept Egyptian Tuesday night.

Central's A team won 38-14. Taylor Billings, Tierra Walker and Carissa Wheeler scored six points apiece. In the B game Central won 39-10. Lataisha Roberts led the Tigers with 13 points and seven rebounds.

-- From staff, wire reports