July 11, 2020 Creed wins rain-shortened Trucks race at Kentucky Speedway Associated Press Share This StoryFacebookTwitteremailPrintLinkedinRedditSPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Sheldon Creed won the NASCAR Trucks Series race Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway when rain washed out the final stage.Creed won for the first time in the series, taking the second stage just before the thunderstorm hit the track.Creed started second in the No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet and was third in the first stage before dipping low past a group of trucks on the Lap 52 restart. He then battled Kentucky native Ben Rhodes’ for the lead and took control for good, taking the checkered flag just as dark clouds approached over Turn 4 of the 1.5-mile oval. Rhodes, the race winner two two years ago, 2015 winner Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter were next in Fords. Austin Hill was fifth in a Toyota.Rookie Zane Smith started the scheduled 150-lap event second beside Brett Moffitt and hung with him before taking the lead at Lap 26 for the Stage 1 win. Creed took the second stage to make the scheduled 225-mile event official at 71 laps, just moments before NASCAR put the race on hold with lighting spotted nearby.Crews scrambled to cover the cars and seek shelter just before heavy rain fell.
Paul Onuachu: Consolidating Place in Super Eagles
He scored the equaliser in the 50th minute after Jonathan Amon had put the home team ahead in the 19th minute of play and scored the winner with a powerful header in the 61st minutes of the encounter to put the game beyond their hosts.Onuachu has now scored 16 goals in 28 league appearances for FC Midtjylland this season and he’s surely making a claim to a position in Nigeria’s team to 2019 AFCON in Egypt.FC Midtjylland of Denmark striker debuted for the Super Eagles, against Seychelles after coming in for Oghenekaro Etebo in the 62nd minute. He stated afterwards that he would always give his very best anytime he was called upon to play for Nigeria.Onuachu was calm even after getting a strong tip from Eagles’ coach that he would start the game at Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, as the towering youngster said he had learnt how to cope with pressure.Rather than feel that he has already arrived, especially after getting lofty comments from Rohr, Onuachu is keeping his head down and aims to speak with his boots. He then went on to score the only goal in Nigeria’s lone goal victory in an international friendly game.In spite of missing two months of last season to injury, Paul Onuachu was still able to manage 18 league goals. He indeed attributed his none invitation to the Super Eagles before now to his injury.“I was supposed to be in the Nigerian squad for the last set of friendly games against Poland and Serbia but I was injured by the time the team list was to be released. I’m back now and hoping to get a look in soon.“My aim is to get back to scoring goals like I was doing before I got injured and hopefully I will make it hard for Coach Gernot Rohr to ignore me. He is aware of me and that is a motivation I need to build on,” Onuachu had said.So far, Onuachu has been able to walk the talk as he has been in fantastic form this season for FC Midtjylland in the Danish League, scoring 18 goals and also contributing three assists, which has really made it difficult for Rohr to ignore him.The 24-year-old, who hails from Owerri was also eligible to play for Denmark as he has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 in the country, but said representing the Danish national team was never an option for him, and he is “super proud” to have been named in Nigeria’s latest squad.“I am super proud to be selected for the Nigerian national team. It’s something I’ve been dreaming for a long time, and it’s just a good feeling to have achieved such a great goal in my career.“It has been a goal for me for a very long time, but you just have to be patient. I do what I can on the football field, and now I’m just glad it has succeeded. I was called by the Nigeria coach and he told me he wanted to try me out for a while, and now he has found room for me on the team,” said Onuachu.Speaking to cafonline.com about his player selection, the Franco-German stated that Onuachu was in form and was too strong to be overlooked.“He has the experience of Europe at the height of his 24 years. His size is obviously his strength and the beautiful goals scored in the Danish championship. This is another profile for us in the attack,” Rohr said.Last year, Onuachu alongside Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez were the only Africans to join top stars from around the world in the FIFA 19 Ultimate Team of the Week. Onuachu said his first call up to the Nigerian senior national team was a dream come true. The FC Midtjylland striker has lived in Denmark since 2012, and for most of his time in Denmark, he has been a diligent goal scorer.However, he had to wait to get a shot at the Nigeria senior national team, after he had earlier been called up to the Nigerian under-23 national team in February 2015. He was called up for Nigeria’s Super Eagles game against Seychelles and Egypt.FC Midtjylland’s head coach, Kenneth Andersen, believes that the selection is well-deserved. “He has played well for a long time, and it is deserved that he gets the chance… Now I’m not exactly an expert on the Nigerian national team, but from my point of view it has been underway for a while.”Onuachu said he received the happy message over the phone. “I was called by the Nigerian coach (Gernot Rohr), and he told me he wanted to try me out for a while, and now he could find room for me on the team,” he said.Share this:FacebookRedditTwitterPrintPinterestEmailWhatsAppSkypeLinkedInTumblrPocketTelegram Ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, one area that will give the Super Eagles manager sleepless night is the striking role but not in terms of lack of it but who to select. One player that is not ready to let the opportunity that came his way slip is Paul Onuachu. He tasted few minutes of action in Nigeria’s last qualifier match against Seychelles and scored the lone goal in the international friendly with Egypt three days later and on Monday he scored a brace for his club to remind Rohr of his importancePaul Onuachu was back on a score sheet after netting a brace in FC Midtjylland away win over FC Nordsjælland in their Danish Superliga clash on Monday.Onuachu has failed to score for FC Midtjylland in the last three games with his last goal for the club in the Danish Cup 4-0 win against OB Odense early last month which was also a brace.
Shafer discusses Cooper’s transfer announcement, Enoicy’s status after Fort Drum scrimmage
Facebook Twitter Google+ FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Corey Cooper announced his transfer from Syracuse on Instragram on Wednesday night, and SU head coach Scott Shafer addressed Cooper after the team’s scrimmage at Fort Drum on Thursday. Shafer said that Cooper mostly wanted to transfer to be near his hometown of Raleigh, N.C.The freshman H-back has been enrolled at Syracuse since January, but had not been in Fort Drum this week due to an upper-body injury.“It’s been a tough deal for him,” Shafer said. “We had a heart-to-heart, in fact we were texting back and forth this morning. He has some good options that he’s looking at down there. He’s a home body and he misses being close to his family.”Shafer said that Cooper will be restricted from transferring to another Atlantic Coast Conference school.Enoicy’s injury may not cost freshman receiver too much timeAdvertisementThis is placeholder textSU Athletics announced Tuesday that Adly Enoicy will undergo surgery for a lower-body injury, and Shafer said his recovery time might be less than a few weeks.He said that the injury is due to cartilage that wasn’t treated in high school and got exacerbated.“I think it’s gonna be pretty quick,” Shafer said. “I hate to put a timetable on it but I’ve seen guys get back in under a couple of weeks there.” Comments Published on August 14, 2014 at 9:51 pm Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3
LavaLab showcases student projects
LavaLab hosted its semesterly Demo Night at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on Tuesday night.LavaLab is a student-run organization in which students from engineering, business and design backgrounds form teams to build products throughout the semester. Demo Night is the culmination of that process. Each team had a table where they were able to show off their prototypes.There were a total of eight start-ups present. These included Docket, an app that forces users into choosing an event out of many; Utique, an app that chooses clothes in online stores based on a user’s personality; Voya, an app that captures all the great spots in a city to look at after a trip is over; Zap, an app that allows people to dare friends to do specific challenges that they must later prove with photo evidence; Cache, an app that saves users’ money in advance so that they can painlessly purchase items; Augment Analytics, a service that provides event companies and concert organizers with the demographic information of their attendees; Icepick, a dating app that sends users on carefully evaluated blind dates; and Jam Jar, a music-sharing app that gathers music from various streaming platforms.The event was packed with students, start-up scouts and visitors. Aneesha Gupta, LavaLab’s director of operations, explained that LavaLab’s popularity has affected its application process.“It is pretty intense,” Gupta said. “You submit a written application, and then come in for a personal interview where we get to know you, your background and your skill set. Then we have a group interview where we make sure that you have really good teamwork, problem-solving and leadership capabilities.”Gupta explained that during the group interview, applicants are given problems to solve. Last semester the issue was: “Your restaurant is running low on expenditures. How can you solve that problem?”“It’s always a very open-ended question on purpose to see how students can build a product to solve that problem,” Gupta said. “We see how applicants work in a team in that 45-minute block.”Gupta then delineated LavaLab’s methodology, saying that the program is built around connecting creative students.“A lot of people here at USC are really interested in building and creating, but they don’t have a team and they don’t necessarily have an idea,” Gupta said. “We put students in this incubated program where they can meet people and come up with a problem and a product together. You don’t come in with an idea. You come up with one once you meet your team in the first day of LavaLab.”Gupta said LavaLab has a full 10-week curriculum. In addition, it has plenty of workshops to facilitate the product development process, such as ideation, UX, design and pitch workshops. LavaLab also invites guest speakers, such as pitch coach extraordinaire John Bates.“We build our curriculum so that our workshops are aligned with the stages the teams are in,” Gupta said.Gupta said one of last semester’s most successful projects was Hexcare, a data analytics web platform that takes in data from wearables. This allows patients to share data with their doctors in real-time.“This semester we also have a lot of cool products,” Gupta said. “One of them is called Utique, which is a fashion platform. It’s a web service that takes online shopping data, such as clothes from Macys and Bloomingdales and JCrew, and puts it into one database. It learns your style and curates clothes for you based on your style and personality. It is your own curated boutique.”When asked about the importance of LavaLab, Gupta highlighted its uniqueness in the entrepreneurial world at USC.“Students who are interested in the start-up scene, or even just interested in building products, don’t have a lot of places to go where they can meet people and come up with an idea together,” Gupta said. “If you don’t have a starting point, there aren’t many options besides LavaLab.”LavaLab, founded in fall 2013, is only in its second year of existence. Gupta explained that before, members met in a small classroom and didn’t get much attention. Now the organization has gained traction through its curriculum and recruitment of talent.“It’s been pretty amazing to watch LavaLab grow tremendously,” Gupta said. “It’s an ongoing process. LavaLab is a start-up in itself and it’s been pretty great to have been a part of it.”
USC to host Project Scientist, a STEM summer camp for young girls
When Charlene Flores’ six- year-old daughter told her that she met someone famous during summer camp, Flores was thrilled to hear that the “celebrity” was a female scientist.“It just makes my heart sing,” Flores said in a video for Project Scientist, the camp her daughter attended.This summer, USC is hosting Project Scientist, a STEM program for young girls founded by USC alumna Sandy Marshall. In the past, Project Scientist has worked with universities such as CalTech to create a rigorous scientific curriculum for the camp. USC has now teamed up with Project Scientist to help develop the curriculum for each session.The camp is broken up into six one-week segments that each cover a different topic. Themes for each section range from space exploration to civil engineering, with activities designed to focus on the topic in fun and interactive ways.“I started Project Scientist for my daughters and girls all over the country with an aptitude, talent and passion for science, technology, engineering and math,” Marshall said in a Project For Science video. “I couldn’t find any science programs that were just for girls and serving girls as young as four years old, even though the research out there says you need to catch kids at this young age — four, five and six — when they already have a natural interest in science.”Each day includes hands-on activities that approach the theme through the lenses of art and exercise, as well as more traditional scientific learning and field trips that relate to the week’s topic. At the start of the day, campers have the opportunity to speak with a professional, a “STEM superstar,” to learn about their experience in their field and ask questions.“I think it’s extremely important that girls see role models that look like me and other women because I want them to not be intimidated about a field that may be male-dominated, for example,” said Moogega Stricker, a “STEM superstar” and NASA Jet Propulsion Lab engineer, in the same video. “I want them to change our future.”One of the main focuses of the camp is to encourage girls to see themselves in a STEM-related field. Activities aimed at self-reflection challenge what campers have been taught about what a scientist is and hope to give campers the confidence they need to be successful.“On day one, girls do the ‘draw a scientist’ test, and girls will typically draw an Einstein-type figure in the lab,” Marshall said. “By day five, girls are starting to draw females, and they’re drawing those less traditional pictures of a scientist out in the field doing things beyond the lab. By their final day with us, girls are drawing themselves and stating what they want to do in STEM.”
Virtual reality research helps veterans with PTSD
Participants in the virtual reality simulation wear head-mounted displays to experience a war environment that helps them process their past experiences and confront repressed memories. (Photo courtesy of Skip Rizzo) Dr. Albert Rizzo, director of Medical Virtual Reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, created the first prototype of the therapy program in 2004. He began developing the project after recognizing the urgency to address PTSD for service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a Research and Development Corporation study, nearly 20% of veterans returning from these conflicts report signs of PTSD. Clinicians operate the patient’s experience from a control panel to personalize the virtual setting. As the patient describes a traumatic memory, the therapist can adjust the time of day or include specific sounds to trigger an anxiety-inducing response. “I was not prepared or ready to deal with the trauma, so I just talked about surface-level problems,” Merkle said. The original Bravemind prototype used art elements from the video game “Full Spectrum Warrior” to create a single-world system for soldiers on the ground in Iraq. Thomas Talbot began working as the medical expert for Bravemind in 2011. As a former army doctor, he emphasized the realism of the virtual scenarios. Merkle credits the therapy program with helping him confront his trauma. Following positive feedback overseas, the Office of Naval Research funded a clinical version of the system in 2005. Bravemind has since expanded to over 100 different clinical centers but is used primarily in veterans affairs hospitals and military bases. “We want to increase the exposure because some people are afraid to talk to counselors or are afraid to admit that they’re struggling,” Femminella said. His therapist recommended the Bravemind project, which uses virtual reality technology to treat conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Patients are outfitted with a head-mounted virtual display and led by a therapist through a stress-inducing war environment. Participants physically hold a rifle as they experience a simulation that includes booming explosions and even smells of burning debris. “It’s something that a lot of younger veterans are used to, playing video games and being well-versed in this [technology], and it’s backed by the elements of science,” Merkle said. The Bravemind project offers a solution, exposing patients to a customized virtual experience that reflects the traumatic memory, Rizzo said. The current version includes 14 worlds for participants to choose from, including an Afghan village and Iraqi marketplace. “If you help a patient to go back to the scene of the crime emotionally or mentally and do it repeatedly, while it’s anxiety-provoking at first, eventually, the anxiety starts to extinguish or dissipate,” Rizzo said. When Chris Merkle retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2010, he struggled to overcome the lingering trauma of having served in Iraq and Afghanistan. While he met with a therapist regularly, Merkle found it difficult to share his overseas experience. Rizzo used the exposure therapy method to develop the project. Traditionally, PTSD patients in exposure therapy repeatedly recount a traumatic event in graphic detail to a clinician. This allows them to confront and emotionally reprocess harrowing memories. “It’s more than just looking at a picture,” Talbot said. “It’s something that you viscerally feel.” Merkle highlighted the relevance of the Bravemind project for younger generations of veterans who are wary of traditional talk therapy. Their grasp of newer technology helps ease the pressure of a stressful therapeutic method. “It really just fast-forwarded my recovery because I had to deal with it and process it, and then I would take [the headset] off and realize ‘OK, I’m still in the hospital, and I’m OK,’” Merkle said. The project has received funding from Dell Computers, Intel, Samsung Electronics and the SoldierStrong Foundation. Talbot said he hopes to reduce the amount of equipment needed for treatment, making the system more accessible to clinicians. According to Rizzo, traditional exposure therapy has limits as therapists struggle to manage the patients’ imagination of a scenario. “If you take the best technology … to teach people how to fight the war, we should be using the best technology to help people recover from wars,” Rizzo said. Brian Femminella, a sophomore majoring in political science and intelligence and cyber operations, will intern at the Bravemind project this summer. Femminella said he wants to collaborate with Rizzo to create an app that combines music therapy with VR technology. “Basically you’re asking someone who spent months, years, sometimes decades trying to avoid thinking about what we’re asking them to pull up and imagine in great detail,” Rizzo said. “We never know if they’re really doing it.” 
Michael Shashoua is awarded Fulbright grant
Goalie Michael Shashoua, a four-year member of USC’s men’s water polo team, has experienced a lot of success in the pool.The Trojans have won the NCAA championship in all four years that Shashoua has been here.He has managed to balance his commitment to his team with a difficult academic schedule.Scholar · A champion in the classroom as well as in the water, senior goalkeeper Michael Shahoua received a Fulbright Scholarship on Tuesday. – Photo courtesy of Sports Information Shashoua, majoring in business administration and international relations with a minor in communication law and media policy, has been awarded a Fulbright research grant to pursue studies in microfinance in Spain.Shashoua will head to Madrid to work with the Autonomous University of Madrid and Fair Isaac Corporation, the official credit agency of Spain, exploring the use of microfinance in developed countries.The prestigious honor gives Shashoua a full research grant along with a year of paid research in Spain. The program accepts 24 applicants, ranging from graduating seniors to doctoral students.Shashoua is one of 10 Trojans to earn a Fulbright grant for 2012-13, as well as the only student-athlete.The Fulbright program is the most well-known international exchange scholarship program in the world. In sending students to these exotic countries, the intention is to improve understanding between people of the United States and those of foreign countries.
Women’s soccer looks to extend win streak to four
Mohammad Alsubaie | Daily TrojanAfter a dominant home stand this past weekend — comfortably defeating Santa Clara and Iowa State — the No. 12 women’s soccer team goes back on the road, looking to bolster its record against Loyola Marymount and San Diego. Loyola Marymount (4-2-2) also played a weekend home stand this past week, hosting UC Irvine and Long Beach State, and taking 4 points from those two matches. The Lions, just like Santa Clara last week, have experience playing ranked Pac-12 opposition, besting No. 25 Utah 1-0 at home. The Lions last played on Sunday against Long Beach State, edging out a 2-0 victory. Even though Loyola Marymount was outshot in this game, the Lions’ defense was stout throughout the entirety of the match, only allowing nine shots, with incredibly only one allowed in the second half. The Lions are a second-half team this year, with seven of their 10 goals scored coming in the last 45 minutes of the game. Due to the Lions’ solid defense and tendency for second-half surges, the Trojans must continue to capitalize on their opportunities in and around the penalty box and stay focused throughout the full 90 minutes if they want to continue the win streak.This mentality was shared by junior forward Leah Pruitt, who said the team needs to “keep going out strong, hard [and] getting goals early” in order to be successful this weekend.Friday’s game is a rematch from last year, when the Trojans comfortably beat the Lions 2-0 at home. However, it will not be so straightforward this time, as Loyola Marymount have three players with multiple goals this season, making it even more important for the Trojans’ back line to defend as a unit to successfully thwart a multi-pronged Lions attack. The Trojans are on the right track in this regard, only allowing one goal over the past two games, keeping a shutout against Iowa State. This defensive astuteness will have to be at peak performance if this impressive defensive record is to continue.San Diego (1-5-0) should be an easy test for the Trojans on Sunday. Their last game was also against Long Beach State last Friday, but the Toreros were on the wrong side of a 3-0 result. They were only able to muster three shots (one on goal) the entire game, while conceding 13 shots. This lack of defensive solidity at the back should be welcome news for the Trojans, who recently have had no problem getting shots off, bagging 21 against Iowa State. The Trojans’ front line needs to continue to apply pressure to the back lines of their opponents, as it will be likely that scoring opportunities will arise due to a shaky Torero defense.The Trojans will need to take advantage of a lackluster San Diego team that has only scored 4 goals in six games this season, while at the same time allowing 11 to hit the back of the net. The Toreros are not a second-half team, with all 4 of their goals this season coming in the first half of play. They have been outshot 90-34 this season while also having to make more than twice the number of saves as their opponents. While this picture might make it seem like it will be a walk in the park for the Women of Troy on Sunday, San Diego is still a team that can make a good game with elite-level competition, with their only loss against ranked opposition coming from No. 22 Texas A&M in August.As long as the Trojans remain focused in their mission to take six points from their two road games this weekend and continue to improve on their finishing in the final third, they will return home with an impressive four-game win streak ready to start Pac-12 play next weekend.
Without Shannon Malone, redshirt junior Rachel Bonner steps into leadership role
Facebook Twitter Google+ Published on September 16, 2019 at 12:09 am Contact Eli: efjarjou@syr.edu Rachel Bonner entered her final turn of the event at the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships last February. The three-kilometer race was a tactical one, where laps on laps of methodical running culminate in an all-out sprint to decide a winner.Entering the decisive straight-away sprint, Bonner looked beside her to see two of her teammates, Paige Stoner and Laura Dickinson, dashing right along with her. The trio finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.“I just felt the momentum swinging around that final turn and it was just so intense and gratifying and special to just be running around with those girls,” Bonnersaid.Following the graduation of senior Shannon Malone, Bonner is set to lead 2019’s installment of Syracuse’s women’s cross-country team after its most successful season since joining the ACC in 2013. When a hip injury sidelined Malone for most of her redshirt senior season, SU was without a defined leader and Bonner, despite her unwillingness to classify as one, stepped into the leadership role. Bonner began to lead workout groups and motivate teammates in training. That, coupled with her strong showings in the championship races down the final stretch of the season, has catapulted her toward becoming a captain for the Orange.“Rachel has always had a leadership role ever since I got on the team,” said sophomore Laura Dickinson. “She has always been someone that I looked up to as a role model. She works hard. She is a great team player. She always brings a lot of energy and a lot of positivity to all the workouts.”AdvertisementThis is placeholder textBut Bonner does not see herself as a traditional captain. Following a year in which Malone was the lone representative for the SU women at NCAA Cross Country Championships, Bonner is not focused on filling those shoes. Instead, she prioritizes team success, which starts with setting the pace in workouts.Eva Suppa | Digital Design EditorWhen Bonner runs at the front of the practice pack, her teammates push themselves to keep up, Dickinson said. When Bonner travelled from her hometown in Michigan to Colorado to train in the high altitude this summer, her teammates noticed. SU head coach Brien Bell said Bonner’s lead-by-example style “rubs off on a lot of people.”The group behind Bonner might be “the best team we have ever had here,” Bell said. Bonner agrees. ACC coaches ranked Syracuse as the fourth best team in the conference entering the season. The only significant departure was Malone, and Syracuse’s top-seven features sophomores Abigail Spiers and Eleanor Lawler and upperclassmen Jordan Jacob, Madeleine Davidson, Dickinson and Bonner.One year after leading Syracuse to an overall third place finish at the ACC Cross Country Championships, Bonner said title contention is within reach. To get there, it starts with her.“I don’t know if she necessarily tries to be a leader, but she is,” Bell said. “Whether she wants it or not, her personality just is something people gravitate towards. She is very grounded. [Bonner] is ready and responsible, and relentless and reliable. She embodies those characteristics.”“She knows what needs to get done.” Comments
‘I’m sorry I didn’t check up on Junior Agogo before his death’ – Ex-teammate Derek Boateng
A former teammate of Junior Agogo, Derek Boateng, has expressed his regret about not checking up on him prior to his death.A clearly shaken Boateng said that the camaraderie shown by the players in camp when they are called up to the Black Stars squad, more often than not, does not continue when they disperse.“When we are in camp, [you can see] the love we show. Normally when we move from camp, it’s not the same, which is very wrong.”He added that this was unfortunate as he believes teammates should consistently check up on each other even when they are not in camp together.Boateng stated that he had not been in touch with Agogo and was not sure if any of the other players had spoken to him either.“It’s not good that after camp, we don’t have contact with each other, we don’t check up on each other. I feel so sorry about what happened to Agogo and that I didn’t keep in touch with him.”“Now he’s gone and I’m saying all these things about him when I should have gone to him. I don’t know if any of the other guys did. Life is too short and we have to come back together and support each other.”Agogo passed on in England at a hospital on Thursday.He suffered a stroke in 2015 and underwent rehabilitation two years ago. He died at age 40.Since his demise, tributes have been pouring in from across the world, including his former clubs, and former teammates. Fans of English Championship club, Nottingham Forest will also hold a minute’s applause in his memory.Agogo spent two years of his career at Forest from 2006 to 2008, playing 64 games for the club.President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo also offered his condolences to the family of former Black Stars striker.In a tweet, the President described Junior Agogo as “a fine player” who represented the nation proudly any time he was called up to the national team.READ ALSOTributes pour in for Junior Agogo following news of his deathJunior Agogo: Five things to know about the former Black Stars striker