Miscellany

The Big Sky Conference Ethical Conduct and Violations Committee has suspended Idaho State cross country coach Brian Janssen for the remainder of the season.

The action followed a protest by ISU staff members and athletes at the conference championship meet last Saturday at Ogden.

They protested a long-standing conference rule allowing seven athletes per team to participate in the championship.

Conference Commissioner Doug Fullerton said Janssen was aware of the planned protest before the event and failed to take action.

Bobby Labonte earned his second straight pole, again elbowing the Winston Cup championship contenders out of the spotlight with a record-setting lap in time trials for the season-ending NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. Chad Little, from Spokane, qualified 10th.

Four more Cuban national baseball team members have defected in Mexico, a week after Cuba clamped down on those it said were helping its athletes defect. Agent Joe Cubas, who has helped nine other baseball players in recent years, said Friday he met three players in a rural town in Mexico on Wednesday and helped them escape from the team’s hotel.

Those he helped were 25-year-old first baseman Roberto Colina, outfielder William Ortega, 21, and infielder Jesus Ametller, 22,

A fourth player, catcher Michell Hernandez, 21, had abandoned the team last Friday, without Cubas’ help. His whereabouts are unknown, Cubas said.

In Oakland, Calif., Monica Seles bounced back from a second-set lapse to overcome feisty Kimberly Po 6-2, 7-5 and advance to the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic.

The top-seeded Seles trailed 4-2 in the second set before breaking back to win five of the next six games, earning a spot against Romania’s Irina Spirlea in the semifinals. Today’s other match pits Brenda SchultzMcCarthy against Martina Hingis. Schultz-McCarthy earlier topped Lindsay Davenport 6-2, 6-4.