CLAY WINS WORLD HEPTATHLON TITLE

Hampered by nagging injuries and assorted illnesses over the past few years, Hawaii's Brian Clay gave notice that he's back and with a real shot at winning an Olympic gold medal this summer in Beijing.

Clay won the world decathlon title in 2005 and was twice runner-up in the world indoors, but his performances had suffered of late.

Yesterday in Valencia, Spain, the man from Kaneohe set the world standard in the heptathlon – a grueling multi-event challenge staged over two days.

The fully-recovered Clay amassed a personal best total of 6,371 points, just 105 short of fellow American Dan O'Brien's 1993 world record.

The 28-year-old Castle High grad put on a dominating performance, winning four of the seven events -- the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put and 60-meter hurdles -- to finish 137 points ahead of runner-up Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus.

MEN'S HOOPS: The Basket Bows would have been better of remaining stranded at the Dallas Airport.

As a result of the awful weather that's stricken that area of the mainland, UH was stuck in Dallas all day Friday en route to Las Cruces, N.M., from the team's previous stop in Rustin, La.

The Bows arrived in town five hours before Saturday night's game and resembled a team whose game was packed in lost luggage and were routed 106-71 by New Mexico State despite a career-best 26 by Riley Luettgerodt.

The Aggies avenged an earlier 23-point road loss to UH, out-rebounding the Bows by an astounding 65-29 margin. They had nearly as many offensive rebounds -- 28 – as Hawaii's entire total.

New Mexico State improved to 19-13 and earned a share of the WAC regular-season title at 12-4. The Aggies finished in a four-way logjam that also included Utah State, Nevada and Boise State.

Hawaii fell to 11-18 with its sixth straight loss and finished fifth in the WAC at 7-9.

The Bows won't have to worry about travel for their next game. They will remain in Las Cruces for this week's WAC tourney, facing fourth-seeded Boise State in a quarterfinal game on Thursday that will tip off at 8 a.m., Hawaii time.

BASEBALL: If it's any consolation, the baseball Bows gave a better account of themselves than a 0-for-3 weekend would indicate. For one thing, Long Beach State came to Les Murakami Stadium as the nation's 10th-ranked team. For another, UH was in every one of those games.

And although UH is a lackluster 5-9 overall. Five of those setbacks have come against Top Ten opponents, including earlier losses to No. 1 Arizona State and No. 8 Michigan. That said, Hawaii could benefit from better contributions from its relievers. More timely hitting wouldn't hurt, either.

On Friday, Hawaii's bullpen let one get away, suffering a 4-3, 12-inning loss to the Dirt Bags. Honest, that's the school's official baseball nickname. In other sports, the teams go by 49ers.

On Saturday, LBS jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning en route to a 4-2 win. In sunday's series finale, Long Beach State made a clean sweep of things as Hawaii blew an early 4-0 lead to suffer an 8-4 loss.

The Bows are back in action tomorrow, opening two-game home series against Alabama-Birmingham. The Blazers are 6-7 after taking two of three agaisnt UH-Hilo over the weekend.

SOFTBALL: The 15th-ranked Rainbow Wahine softball team came up short in its bid to win the Malihini Kipa Aloha tournament yesterday as Washington rallied for three runs in the sixth to pull out an 8-6 win in the championship game.

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