8B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007
INDY CAR SERIES
Graduate to debut in KC
BY STEVE BRISENDINE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — With only 16 days between her first laps in an Indy car and her first open-wheel race, Milka Duno had better learn fast.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Duno prides herself on being a quick study. After all, she earned three of her four masters' degrees in a 2 1/2-year span.
The difference is when you blow an answer on an engineering paper, you don't run the risk of smacking into a wall at more than 200 mph.
"You can't compare the two, because they're different circumstances." said the 34-year-old Venezuelan, who is scheduled to make her IndyCar Series debut April 29 at Kansas Speedway. "But they're both very difficult things."
Difficult enough, in fact, that Duno ranks the switch from sports car racing to open wheel competition among the three biggest challenges of her life.
"There was studying for four years to be a naval engineer. That was very hard," said Duno, whose first time in an Indy car was a rainshortened 140-lap test on April 12. "Then there was taking three master's degrees simultaneously.
Mika Duno will take her first laps April 29 in the IndyCar series at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. Kan.Duo has simultaneously completed four masters' degrees but said Indy car racing ranks among one of the biggest challenges of her life.
The high speeds involved in oval track racing present several challenges Duno — who is following Sarah Fisher and Danica Patrick into the IndyCar Series — never had to face in sports cars.
"Now," she said, "there is Indy."
"The normal race car driver, in the road course racing, has a screw loose," Duno said with a laugh, twirling a finger at her temple for emphasis. "To drive on an oval, we
have two screws loose."
There's the unrelenting G force, for starters.
"It on you all the time, and your body feels that," she said. "I am having to train even harder, do more cardiovascular training, everything."
Keeping an open-wheel car in a groove is radically different, too, from maneuvering on a road course.
Duno said that on a road course, all the steering makes you tired "and you know that you are working hard," she said. "Here, you don't move too much but you feel the same, so tired, like you do on the road course."
The emphasis on downforce in IndyCar racing also means a different setup process.
That's where Duno's engineering background gives her an edge, Samax Racing owner Peter Baron said.
"A lot of drivers can just say, 'It's tight, it is loose, it oversteers' — very simple terms," Baron said. "She understands how a suspension works, can talk with the engineer about how a shock absorber works, all the aero effects."
And just as in her student days, Duno doesn't mind staying up late to work out problems.
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MLB
Kansas City Royals' John Buck hits a solo home run in the 10th inning to beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in a baseball game Wednesday in Detroit.
Royals edge Tigers in 10th
BY LARRY LAGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT -- The Kansas City Royals snatched away a victory from Detroit, one day after blowing a late lead themselves.
John Buck hit a leadoff homer in the 10th inning and Kansas City rallied past the Tigers 4-3 on Wednesday to end its six-game losing streak.
"That's a big win for us," manager Buddy Bell said, "especially after last night."
The Royals were leading after six innings Tuesday night before Detroit scored a run in both the seventh and eighth to win 7-6.
Gil Meche didn't earn the victory in the series finale, but he gave the Royals a chance to come back from a 3-0 deficit.
He didn't allow an earned run over eight innings, dropping his ERA to 2.22. He gave up six hits and three walks while striking out six.
"He's a great pitcher," Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman said after allowing one run in seven innings. "That's why he got the money he did."
Mache signed a $55 million, five-year contract with Kansas City in the offseason, and the team's losing streak weighed heavily on his mind before he went to the mound.
"That was on my mind from the time I tried to sleep last night," Meche said. "That's why you paid me to come here. I knew that going
against Bonderman was going to be tough, and he pitched great. But we hung in there."
Mike Sweeney hit an RBI single in the seventh and Kansas City tied it with two runs in the ninth against closer Todd Jones.
"It was great to see us come back in the ninth against one of the top closers in the game," Bell said.
David Dejesus drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a ground-out and scored on Mark Teahen's double. Sweeney's single put runners at the corners before Ross Gload beat out a potential double-play ball, allowing Teahen to score the tying run.
It was the first blown save in eight chances this year for Jones, who gave up his first runs of the season. He wasn't upset that the game was tied on a play that was almost a double play, but he was disappointed in himself for walking DeJesus to start the inning.
"That's a cardinal sin," Jones said. "I don't have the stuff to get out of those jams anymore."
One iming later, Buck hit a 2-0 pitch from Fernando Rodney into the left-field seats.
Rodney (1-3) has struggled this season, giving up six runs in seven innings for a 7.71 ERA and taking the loss in half of Detroit's defeats.
"He's been out of whack for a little bit," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We need him to be good to be successful."
Joakim Soria (1-0) struck out four in two scoreless innings for his first major league win. With a runner on first, he fanned Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillen to end the game.
"Soria was great in the ninth and 10th," Meche said.
Detroit went ahead 3-0 in the sixth with three unearned runs.
Brandon Inge's walk and Curtis Granderson's bunt single left Meche in a two-on, none-out jam for the second time. He almost pitched out of it again.
Placido Polanco hit a grounder to third baseman Alex Gordon, who botched a possible double play by throwing wide of second base. Inge scored on the error.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Craig Monroe hit a two-run single to make it 3-0.
"I'll take the blame for the sixth," Meche said. "I made the first mistake on Granderson. I should have made the play on the bunt."
Kansas City (4-11) pulled within two in the seventh on Sweeney's RBI single. Joel Zumaya pitched a perfect eighth for Detroit, but Jones couldn't hold a 3-1 lead in the ninth.
"We put ourselves in a pretty good situation," Leyland said. "It looked like Todd was out of sync for the first batter because he doesn't walk people, and that's what got it started."
Bonderman allowed three hits, struck out six and didn't walk a batter.
》ATHLETICS RECRUITING
Letter ends up at high court
BY JENNIFER C. KERR ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — A 1997 letter from a football coach became the focus of heated questions at the Supreme Court on Wednesday during arguments over limits on recruiting high school athletes.
At issue is whether a private school in Tennessee has a free-speech right to contact prospective students about its sports programs, even though the school belongs to an athletic association with anti-recruiting rules that bar such contacts.
Justice Antonin Scalia expressed doubt about Brentwood Academy's free-speech rights in relation to the letter, which invited 12 eighth-graders at other schools to attend spring training at Brentwood.
"It was a letter from coach," said
Scalia. "I mean, that to a young kid,
that is recruiting."
Justices Stephen Breyer and David Souter also had pointed questions for James Blumstein, the attorney representing Brentwood, a wealthy prep school south of Nashville.
Blumstein argued the letter was harmless and was sent only to students at other schools who had already signed an "enrollment contract" and planned to attend the academy in the fall.
Souter quizzed Blumstein about the small percentage of students who signed the enrollment contracts, but then go to other schools. Why isn't there a legitimate interest in preventing recruiting among those youngsters. Souter asked.
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which governs high school sports in the state, found
the 1997 letter from Coach Carlton Flatt to be a violation of its recruiting rule. Brentwood was hit with a $3,000 fine and four years' probation by the association.
"Enforcement of the rule here imposed only a minimal burden on speech." Maureen Mahoney, an attorney for the association, told the justices. Athletic recruiting, she said, is harmful to young adults and puts too much of an emphasis on sports.
Brentwood voluntarily joined the association and was bound by its rules, she said.
Chief Justice John Roberts appeared skeptical and questioned whether letters informing students of dates for spring practice could be seen as permissible speech.
The case is Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Assn. v. Brentwood Academy, 06-427.
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