Sports Digest: Jeremy Abbot wins US Figure Skating title

ABBOT WINS US CHAMPIONSHIP: Rust will no longer be Johnny Weir and Olympic champion Evan Lysacek's only worry if they come back.

Jeremy Abbott proved he's capable of contending with the best in the world - past and present - in winning his third title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday. Needing only to stay on his feet to claim the title, he put on a sublime display of quiet elegance and superior skill that was simply bewitching.

"I skate to give a performance like that and so I felt really good," Abbott said. "I was really nervous when I started, I was shaking a little bit. But from the second I set for the quad I was like, 'I'm going to do this.' I just really took it into my hands and made sure that I did what I needed to do."

His final score of 273.58 was the highest ever at the U.S. championships, and puts him within striking distance of world champion Patrick Chan.

Earlier Sunday, Caydee Denney and John Coughlin won their first pairs title together after winning the previous two years with other partners.

Golf

SNEDEKER WINS A SHOCKER AT TORREY PINES: Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open in a playoff not even he thought was possible.

Kyle Stanley led by seven shots early in the final round Sunday, and he still had a four-shot lead as he stood on the 18th tee at Torrey Pines. Just like that, he went from being anointed a rising star to a meltdown that ranks among the most shocking in golf.

Snedeker, in the group ahead of him, hit wedge to a foot for birdie and a 67, then drove up to the media tent for an interview as the runner-up. He arrived in time to watch Stanley spin a wedge into the water, then three-putt from 45 feet for a triple-bogey 8 and a 74.

Two playoff holes later, both were in shock.

Snedeker's tee shot hopped over the green and would have gone into a canyon except that it bounced off a television tower. He chipped to about 5 feet and made the par. Stanley three-putted again from just outside 45 feet, his 5-foot par putt catching the right lip.

College basketball

BOATRIGHT ATTORNEY BLASTS NCAA AFTER PROBE: Connecticut guard Ryan Boatright says he just wants to concentrate on basketball while his mother considers legal action in the wake of an NCAA news release detailing an investigation into the freshman's eligibility.

Boatright played Sunday in the 24th-ranked Huskies' 50-48 loss to Notre Dame after the NCAA said it would it take no further action, despite finding that he and his mother had accepted more than $8,000 in impermissible benefits from at least two people.

"It's finally over with," Boatright said after scoring six points. "We can finally put it behind us. We don't have to worry about me getting pulled out again. We just have to use this to our advantage and come together as a team and make this last final run."

But Scott Tompsett, an attorney representing Ryan's mother, Tanesha, issued a statement calling Saturday's NCAA news release that announced the findings false and misleading. He said the people providing the benefits were friends of the Boatright family and had "no expectation of repayment or reciprocation."

Around the horn

Enrollment for the next session of general gymnastics classes for students aged 5 and older will be held from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Valparaiso High School fieldhouse. There are classes available at 5:30 or 6:30 p.m. on Mondays or Tuesdays. There are six classes in the Monday session, starting Feb. 6, with a fee of $36. There are seven Tuesday classes at a cost of $42.