Nette Wortgeplänkel » aiders win, Hocutt was recognized by a Texas

EUGENE, Ore. -- The Latest on the run-up to the Summer Olympics (all times local to Rio de Janeiro):10:48 p.m.Defending Olympic champion Gabby Douglas bid for a return to the games remains up in the air during the final night of the Olympic Trials.Douglas was a shaky seventh during the opening night on Friday after falling on balance beam. She fell again on the beam Sunday night, taking some of the momentum out of solid performances on vault and uneven bars at San Joses SAP Center.Douglas is attempting to become the first reigning Olympic all-around gold medalist to return for the next games since Nadia Comaneci in 1980.The five-woman team will be announced later Sunday night.---10:33 p.m.Brenda Martinez was laying on the track, her head buried in her hands.She seemed prepared for heartache again at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials. She tripped after she charged around the final turn of the 800 meters on Monday, missing out on a top-three finish and a coveted spot on the Olympic team for Rio.She had one more chance to make the team in the 1,500 meters. Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury grabbed the top two spots, and Martinez and Amanda Eccleston leaned for third before collapsing.Martinez appeared to sob, unable to look at the results on the scoreboard at Hayward Field. But Simpson was watching intently.Once it was official, Simpson ran to Martinez and scooped her into her arms.Im so proud of you, Simpson said. Im so proud of you.Martinez had edged Eccleston by .03 seconds.Maybe that can be my story, Martinez said about finally making the team. If I can help someone along the way: Dont give up on your dream.---10:08 p.m.Simone Biles is closing in on an automatic spot on the U.S. Olympic womens gymnastics team.The three-time world champion opened the final night of Olympic Trials with a solid 15.550 on floor exercise despite taking a small step out of bounds during her dynamic routine. Biles has a total of 77.4 points through five rotations, nearly two points clear of Laurie Hernandez.The top finisher in the all-around is guaranteed a spot on the five-woman Olympic team. The other four positions will be selected at the end of competition on Sunday night.---9:40 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Matthew Centrowitz made his second Olympic team with a victory in the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials on Sunday. Centrowitz finished fourth at the London Games. Runner-up Robby Andrews and third-place finisher Ben Blankenship also are headed to Rio. Leonel Manzano, the silver medalist in the London Olympics, finished fourth and did not make the team.---9:31 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Beijing Olympics silver medalist Kerron Clement won the 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Track and Field Trials to earn a spot on the team for the Rio Games next month. Runner-up Byron Robinson and third-place finisher Michael Tinsley, the silver medalist at the London Olympics, also earned spots on the team.---9:30 p.m.Retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant posed for photos at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials ahead of watching Gabby Douglas and other American stars try to secure their spots for the Rio Olympics.His guide for the night at San Joses SAP Center? None other than Nadia Comaneci.Just hanging out with Nadia and checking out some gymnastics, Bryant said.---9:25 p.m.There will be no Olympic double for Allyson Felix.Beaten to the line by 0.01 seconds for third place by a diving Jenna Prandini, Felix finished fourth in the 200 meters at Olympic trials and will not be able to defend her title.Also off the table -- the 200-400 Olympic double. With Felix in mind, Olympic organizers changed the schedule to allow for the womens 2-4 double. Felix qualified last weekend for the 400, but had been dealing with a sore right ankle and could not make it in her signature event.Tori Bowie and Deajah Stevens finished first and second.Honestly disappointed, you know?---9:15 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Tori Bowie won the womens 200 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials to earn her first trip to the Olympics. Runner-up Deajah Stevens will also make her Olympic debut as will Jenna Prandini, who upset favorite Allyson Felix by 100th of a second for third.---9:10 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Jenny Simpson earned a spot on her third Olympic team with a victory in the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trial. Runner-up Shannon Rowbury also made her third Olympic team, and third-place finisher Brenda Martinez will also go to the Rio Games next month.---9:05 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Erik Kynard, who won the silver medal in the high jump at the London Games, won the event at the U.S. Track and Field Trials to earn a spot in the Rio Games next month. Third-place finisher Bradley Adkins also earned a spot on the Olympic team. Runner-up Kyle Landon had not jumped the minimum height, or standard, to compete in the Olympics.---9 p.m.It wouldnt have mattered if Molly Huddle celebrated this one early.Huddle finished well ahead of the pack to win the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials on Sunday at Hayward Field.The American record-holder in the event finished in 15 minutes, 5.01 seconds. Huddle also won the 10,000 meters at the Trials last weekend to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the Rio Games next month.Last year at the world championships in Beijing, Huddle celebrated too early in the 10,000-meter race, costing her the bronze medal.This will be Huddles second Olympic appearance -- she finished 11th in the 5,000 at the London Games.She said this week shell likely focus on the 5,000 alone in Brazil.---8:40 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: American record holder Molly Huddle earned a spot on the Olympic team by winning the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials. Shelby Houlihan and Kim Conley also made the team for the Rio Games.---8:40 p.m.QUALIFICATION ALERT: Jenn Suhr will get to defend her Olympic gold medal in the pole vault after winning the event at the U.S. Track and Field Trials. Runner-up Sandi Morris and third-place finisher Alexis Weeks also qualified for a spot on the Olympic team in Rio.---8:24 p.m.New Jersey prep star Sydney McLaughlin became the first 16-year-old in 40 years to make the U.S. Olympic track team with a third-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles on Sunday at the U.S. Track and Field Trials.McLaughlin joins winner Dalilah Muhammad and runner-up Ashley Spencer on the team headed to Rio. Muhammad, the silver medalist at the 2013 world championships in Moscow, finished in 52.88 seconds.McLaughlins time of 54.14 was a junior world record. She will be a senior at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, next fall.The last 16-year-old to make the team was 100-meter hurdler Rhonda Brady in 1976. FORT WORTH, Texas -- Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt walked into his suite at Amon G. Carter Stadium on Saturday and immediately found the remote control for the two TVs on the walls and asked for a channel listing.Hocutt, the new chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee, had the West Virginia-Oklahoma State game streaming on his phone, and turned the TVs to Michigan-Michigan State and Louisville-Virginia.You watch those last two plays, Hocutt said of the Wolverines, how the linebackers and safeties run downhill, how aggressive they are.Hocutt, a former linebacker at K-State, pulled two sheets of folded paper out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket and scribbled a note. He wouldnt share the specifics but said he keeps a list of various games he wants to pay attention to, and he makes notes on each team as the day unfolds.At 7 p.m. ET Tuesday on ESPN, when the CFP announces its first top 25 of the season, the college football world will be taking note of everything he says.Hocutt is the new face of the College Football Playoff, replacing Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, who is still on the committee but is no longer the chair after a two-year stint. He will be the one tasked with explaining the committees rationale to the public. It can be an unenviable assignment -- just ask Long -- as his every word will be parsed for meaning and his explanation is the closest the public will get to understanding the deliberations of the 12-member selection committee.Like Long, Hocutt pulls the double duty of running a Power 5 athletic department while traveling to Grapevine, Texas, to meet every Monday and Tuesday, for six straight weeks to discuss and debate the top 25 teams in the country.Its so different for the five sitting athletic directors [on the committee], he said, not that its good or bad, just different.As the Big 12s playoff chances were taking a nosedive because of losses by West Virginia and Baylor, Hocutt was fist-bumping and hugging the Texas Tech players and coaches in the stadium tunnel while they bounced to the locker room following a desperately needed 27-24 double-overtime win against TCU. During the final minute of the Bears loss to Texas in Austin, Hocutt was listening to his head coach Kliff Kingsbury in the postgame news conference.Hocutt cares deeply about the success of the Texas Tech athletes. During the football teams pregame warm-ups, he checked in on the mens and womens cross country results from the 20-yard line. As he walked off the field following the Red Raiders win over the Horned Frogs, he said, this is the best part of the job. But he also understands the importance of shedding his Big 12 ties once he steps into the committee meeting room.Its too important of a responsibility to not check that allegiance at the door, Hocutt said. Its not about a particular league; its about the game of college football, and how important it is to the fan base, and alumni, and young men who commit so much to play at this level and the coaches who give their livelihoods to this game.We look at it as individual teams, he said. When Im watching a game, Im not thinking this is a particular conference team, Im looking at it as a team striiving to finish as high in our top 25 as it can.dddddddddddd Conference affiliation and conversation does not come up in the room or when I look at teams.Hocutt has been looking at teams since the start of the season and said he has done his best to ignore the AP rankings next to them.Ive been very careful not to, he said. I dont want that in the back of my head in any way.Hocutt said he didnt start digging into statistics until Week 5, and last week, for the first time, he put 30 teams down on a spreadsheet.Ive been paying close attention since Week 1, he said. Ive been watching a lot of games. My volume of work watching games is consistent.That work began on Saturday morning at breakfast at the Red Raiders hotel in Dallas. Sitting at a table adjacent to where Kingsbury was having his breakfast, Hocutt was flipping between the early games on his phone. Technology is a CFP committee members best friend. Without it, theres no way each of them would be able to stay abreast of the weekends games.By 8 a.m. on Sunday, each of the committee members receives condensed versions of 25-30 games downloaded onto their CFP-provided iPads. The games are similar to the cut ups that coaches look at and can be viewed much faster than a regular broadcast.Ill watch some of the games from this afternoon a little closer, Hocutt said on the bus back to the Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, as he was again flipping through the late games on his phone. Its so much more efficient to watch the condensed versions. You can volume through so much more in a condensed amount of time.Hocutt said he stayed up until about midnight Central time on Saturday, and his most serious studying of the games happened between about noon and 6 p.m. CT on Sunday before he had to catch his flight to Grapevine, where he will convene with the rest of the committee to begin their deliberations.Hocutt said he talked to about half of the committee members over the past few weeks in anticipation of the first ranking.Its the right time for us to meet as a committee and start to show our perspective, he said.Hocutt arrived at the Gaylord Texan Resort around 8 p.m. CT on Sunday, where he continued to watch the Week 9 games and started compiling his list of top 30 teams. Because the committee didnt begin its meetings until 1 p.m. CT on Monday, he also had some time in the morning to review his top 30 teams.Hocutt obviously knows football, but entering the world of TV is like opening up a new playbook with different terminology.What does IFB stand for? Hocutt asked of the new earpiece he had made so he could hear the analysts in the studio at ESPN. Is it IFB or IBF?He has worked on his pronunciation of Louisville (Its an uh, not an ee, he says, Lou-uh-v