Guelph Storm 6-5 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. UNC

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Virginia Thrasher went through a three-week spring whirlwind, winning three NCAA titles and a spot on the U.S. Olympic Shooting team.The precocious 19-year-old closed out the summer with her biggest surprise yet.Keeping her nerve on sports biggest stage, Thrasher on Saturday earned the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, outlasting two-time gold medalist Du Li to capture the womens 10-meter air rifle title.This is beyond my wildest dreams, Thrasher said. I knew it was a realistic expectation for me to get into the finals and once you get into the finals, anything can happen. For me, this year has been incredible.Thrasher had a quick rise to the top.A figure skater growing up, she switched sports five years ago after a hunting trip with her family. Thrasher killed a deer with her first shot of her first hunting trip and has continued to hit the mark wherever shes gone.Thrasher was not expected to be among the top five scorers -- all that counts in NCAA competition -- at shooting powerhouse West Virginia, yet got better as the season progressed. She became the first freshman to win both NCAA rifle titles and led the Mountaineers to the team championship.Less than a month later, Thrasher won the U.S. Olympic Trials, earning a spot in Rio.She didnt flinch at the sports brightest spotlight -- or an air horn.Though not expected to be a medal contender, Thrasher finished a spot behind fellow American Sarah Scherer at sixth in qualifying to make the eight-person final.She opened the elimination finals -- a new format in this years Olympics -- with a perfect 10.9 and was in the lead after Scherer became the first shooter knocked out.Thrasher stayed in the top spot as her competitors fell off, consistently hitting 10s despite a fan blowing an air horn at random times.Thrasher entered the final with a 0.7-point lead and opened with a solid 10.5, which Li matched. Thrasher smiled after a 10.4 left a slight opening, but Lis 10.1 on her final shot sent Thrasher on a surprising trip to the podium.In the finals, about halfway through, it kind of became clear to me that I was in contention for a medal, Thrasher said. But I quickly pushed that thought away and focused on breathing, just taking one shot at a time.Thrasher pulled it off against two of the worlds best rifle shooters, Li and Yi Siling.Li won gold medals in air rifle in 2004 at the Athens Games and in 3-position rifle in Beijing four years later. She also competed in the 2012 London Games and pulled off a clutch shot in the Rio final, hitting 10.9 to stay alive in the second round.Yi took a similar path as Thrashers, earning air rifle gold at the 2012 London Games just three years after starting her international shooting career.Thrasher stood her ground against the two Chinese shooters in the medal eliminations, hitting nothing lower than 10.4. Yi went out after a 9.8 on her final shot to earn bronze and Thrasher finished with a cumulative score of 208.0 to beat Li by a point in front of a rowdy crowd.I heard the cheers and the horns and it was very disturbing, Yi said. But I just had to control myself. I also looked up and saw that Virginia and Du Li were doing well themselves.Thrasher ended up on top of the podium and her whirlwind will wind down soon; a biomedical engineering major, she starts classes again at West Virginia on Aug. 17.Im actually looking forward to getting back to school again, Thrasher said.She will have a new title when she returns: Olympic champion. Dennis Byrd Jets Jersey .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. LeVeon Bell Womens Jersey . "Hes going to have hip surgery on Jan. 7, and hell be expected to rehabilitate for four to six months beyond that," Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said Friday in an interview. http://www.jetsrookiestore.com/Jets-Le-Veon-Bell-Jersey/ . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Joe Namath Youth Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Robby Anderson Jersey . -- Charlie Graham stopped 67 shots as the Belleville Bulls edged the visiting Guelph Storm 6-5 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Cappie Pondexter scored a season-high 24 points, Allie Quigley had 18 points and the Chicago Sky clinched a playoff spot with a 96-86 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.Pondexter and Quigley each hit a 3-pointer during a 10-2 third-quarter run and the Sky outscored Connecticut 28-14 in the quarter for a 71-61 lead.Jasmine Thomas made two 3-pointers in the final 1:07 to pull Connecticut to 90-85 with 26 seconds left but Pondexter answered with two free throws for a three-possession lead.Courtney Vandersloot added 16 points for Chicago (16-15), which played without WNBA scoring leader Elena Delle Donne for a second straight game because of a thumb injury.dddddddddddd Pondexter moved into fifth place in WNBA history with 6,277 points, passing Lisa Leslie.Thomas finished with a season-best 21 points and Chiney Ogwumike had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Connecticut (11-20), which is 0-7 at home against the Eastern Conference. ' ' '