Sports

St. Louis’ Dick Witte and Wesley Finke play badminton with fierce determination. They are one of the best doubles teams in the nation, and last year they won the Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge, La.

Witte and Finke played in the Senior State Games on Sunday at the MU Rec Center.

It was a two-man sprint to the finish in the final race of the Columbia Cup.

Brad Huff won the men’s category 1/2/3 pro race Sunday on the course running through downtown Columbia and part of the MU campus. Stephen Rouff, from Team X Cycling in Kansas City, had the lead with a few laps left but finished just off Huff’s tail.

It was another heartbreaking loss for the Mid-Missouri Mavericks on Sunday, but they showed some fight in front of Bill Lee, the Frontier League Commissioner.

The Mavericks lost to the Rockford RiverHawks 5-4 in 11 innings at Taylor Stadium after tying the game twice. The RiverHawks swept the three-game series and improved to 23-13. The Mavericks dropped to 5-31.

Jaime Vergas, 50, of Columbia, showed an iron man effort at the Green Tennis Center.

Vergas took second place in the men’s singles 50-54 division Saturday at the Missouri State Senior Games. The final match against Stephen Robertson, 51, of Kirkwood, lasted about 2 1/2 hours.

Rickey Paulding won’t be the only former Missouri player with a chance to play in the NBA near his home.

A day after the Detroit Pistons selected Paulding in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft, Travon Bryant signed a free-agent contract to play with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Bryant, a Long Beach, Calif., native, will play with the Lakers’ summer league team and compete for a spot on the team’s regular-season roster.

Although the Mid-Missouri Mavericks had 12 hits, they couldn’t produce them when they needed them the most.

As a result, the Mavericks lost to the Rockford RiverHawks 10-4 on Saturday at Taylor Stadium in a Frontier League game. The loss dropped the Mavericks to 5-30, and the RiverHawks improved to 22-13.

Spectators will line the course as the pack roars around the corner, and for a few hours it will be all about pure speed.

It won’t be NASCAR or the Kentucky Derby, though. It will be cycling.

Missouri’s Marcus Mayes, a freshman, finished second in the 800 meters in College Station, Texas, on Saturday and earned a place on the USA Junior Team.

He finished in 1 minute, 51.24 seconds at the USATF Junior National Championships. He will compete in the IAAF World Junior Championships in Grosseto, Italy, on July 12-16.

Rickey Paulding won't be the only former Tiger with a chance to play NBA basketball near his home.

A day after the Detroit Pistons selected Paulding in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft, Travon Bryant signed a free-agent contract to play with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant, a native of Long Beach, Calif., will play with the Lakers' summer league team and compete for a spot on the team's regular-season roster.

Defensive mistakes ruined the game for the Mid-Missouri Mavericks on Friday.

As a result, the Mavericks lost to the Rockford River Hawks 10-4 at Taylor Stadium. The Mavericks (5-29) committed a number of passed balls and wild pitches.

Despite all the negative connotations associated with the NCAA’s investigation, the Missouri men’s basketball coaching staff can say it benefited from its effects.

The Tigers announced Thursday the hiring of former Liberty coach Jeff Meyer to take the position Lane Odom held. Meyer, along with newly hired associate head coach Melvin Watkins, combine for 24 years of head coaching experience. Meyer’s hiring completes the program’s coaching search.

To play in the NBA is a dream for any college basketball player. To play in the NBA for the champions would be nice. To play in the NBA in his hometown would be the best.

The Detroit Pistons made all of it a reality for former Tiger Rickey Paulding on Thursday night when they selected him with the 54th pick of the 2004 NBA draft.

Alfred Richardson knows Lake of the Woods Golf Course. After all, he used to work there.

Before Lake of the Woods became a municipal course, he worked as a chef during its country club days.

The Mid-Missouri Mavericks had the biggest crowd in their three-game series against the Evansville Otters on Thursday, and they gave the 2,260 in attendance something to cheer about in their last game of the series against Evansville.

The Mavericks beat the Otters 7-6 at Taylor Stadium in a Frontier League game.

Jack Timmons began playing bridge when he was 20 and working as a radar mechanic for the Air Force in Germany during the Korean War. It all started when a group of three friends was looking for a fourth person to play.

“I was pretty good with cards of any kind and liked the game,” Timmons said. “Some weeks we played as much as 70 to 80 hours a week, which was virtually all our spare time.”

Since his graduation and the end of a hectic basketball season, Travon Bryant has led a somewhat slow, simple life.

With his basketball plans undecided, there hasn’t been much for Bryant to do other than prepare for that future as best he can. On his own, Bryant has worked on his game and body for about five hours a day, then rested so he could do it again the next day.

The Mid-Missouri Mavericks played good defense and pitched well against Evansville, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Otters.

The Mavericks fell to the Otters 1-0 on Wednesday at Taylor Stadium in a game that was scoreless into the fifth inning for the second night in a row.

Most people start slowing after retirement. Ed Burnham has done anything but.

Burnham, 84, has run 138 marathons, and all of them have come after he turned 70. Burnham, of Kansas City, will run in the 5- and 10-kilometer Road Races at the Senior Show-Me State Games this weekend.

Jefferson City was worn out, and Post 202 took advantage.

Post 202 won both games of an American Legion doubleheader Wednesday at Rock Bridge, beating Jefferson City 13-3 in six innings in the first game and 14-2 in five innings in the second.

Uncertainty is perhaps the only thing certain about the NBA Draft. Whether that first-round pick becomes the next Michael Jordan or the next Sam Bowie remains to be seen, but those are the chances teams must take.

As usual, uncertainty marks the 2004 NBA Draft, which is at 6 tonight, but for some idea, the Missourian’s mock draft will provide thoughts on who might go where.