Volunteer IPFW assistant falls to death from cliff\nFORT WAYNE -- A volunteer volleyball assistant at Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne fell to his death from a 20-foot cliff along the coast of Puerto Rico, coach Arnie Ball said.\nTony Laux, 32, had accompanied the IPFW men's team to Puerto Rico for a series of exhibition matches against the University of Puerto Rico.\nA group of about 30 IPFW players, relatives and fans were leaving a beach area in Vega Alta on Tuesday when Laux fell from the cliff into the heavy surf of the Atlantic Ocean, Ball said. Scott Knerr, an IPFW trainer, administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was unable to revive him.\nPolice said Laux struck his head on a rock.\nLaux was a 1998 IPFW graduate. He was equipment manager for IPFW athletics for several years and a member of the school's cross country team. As the volleyball team's volunteer manager-coach, he helped keep statistics and organize the team.\n"He loved it," said his mother, Judy Coyle. "They always go down to Puerto Rico for a tuneup. This was the first time they asked him to go down, and he was thrilled he was going to get to go. So I know he was doing what he really enjoyed."\nThe volleyball team will remain in Puerto Rico until this weekend to compete.
Scott and Dulebohn win short program\nATLANTA -- Rena Inoue and John Baldwin likely only needed a clean short program -- which has been mostly automatic for them this season -- to take the lead in the pairs event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.\nOn this night, nothing was a given.\nInoue belly-flopped on a throw triple loop, then Baldwin dropped his hand to the ice on their side-by-side triple toes. Their errors left them second behind Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn on Wednesday night, after all the top couples made mistakes.\nThe leaders' problems came when they bungled their side-by-side triple toe loop jumps. The defending champs still held the lead, however, with the free skate -- worth two-thirds of the final score -- coming Friday night.\n"I think that we had been skating so well in practice, I thought I had to skate perfectly," Scott said. "I knew when I went out there that I felt tight."\nKatie Orscher and Garrett Lucash were third, followed by Jennifer Don and Jonathon Hunt, bronze medalists at last year's junior world championships.
