BRIEFLY Liriano leads Pirates past Cardinals in first game of MLB season

BRIEFLY

Liriano leads Pirates past Cardinals in first game of MLB season

PITTSBURGH — Veteran pitcher Francisco Liriano tied a Pirates opening day record by striking out 10 and singled home the first run of the 2016 Major League Baseball season for good measure, sending Pittsburgh past the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Sunday in the first official game of the MLB regular season.

The Mets and Royals also opened the season Sunday, but played later in the evening.

Iowa State’s Sievers qualifies for NCAA Championships

MINNEAPOLIS — Meaghan Sievers became the third freshman Cyclone gymnast to qualify for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships on Saturday when she tied for first place on vault at the Minneapolis Regional. Her score of 9.900 tied with two other gymnasts to earn her a spot at the April 15 Semifinals in Fort Worth, Texas.

The last Iowa State freshman to qualify for NCAAs as an individual was Erin Dethloff in 2003, and the only other one was Sissy Huey in 1999.

Panther heavyweight Cabell earns Olympic trial berth

CEDAR FALLS — Heavyweight Blaize Cabell won the Last Chance Qualifier tournament today to be the third Panther to earn a shot at the 2016 Olympics.

Cabell’s collegiate career came to a disappointing end when illness knocked him out of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships late last month. His win today extended his wrestling career before the senior graduates from UNI.

Cabell advanced to the finals of the 125-kilo weight class with two 12-2 tech falls over Kevin Christman and Ben Durbin of the Cyclone Wrestling Club. He pinned David Zabriskie of Lehigh Valley Athletic Club in 55 seconds to win the tournament and advance to the trials.

Cabell will join former Panther Joe Colon at the trials qualifier set for April 9-10 in Iowa City. Colon qualified for the trials mid-December at the U.S. Senior Nationals and Trials Qualifier in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jordan Holm won the Pan-American Games Qualifier to earn a spot in the Greco Roman division.

Cyclones win three events at San Francisco State Distance Carnival

SAN FRANCISCO — The Iowa State track and field teams wrapped up its weekend out West with three victories Saturday at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.

At Cox Stadium in San Francisco, the Cyclones swept the 400-meter hurdles competition. On the men’s’ side, Derek Jones followed up an impressive 51.99 at Stanford yesterday with a better 51.85 to get the win in the event. On the women’s side, Alyssa Gonzalez crossed the line first in 1:01.05, which is the new meet record for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.

Iowa State also got an event win from Elijah Young in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, with the Des Moines native crossing the line first in 14.96.

— Staff and Wire Reports