On the Sidelines

The Trackwire Preseason Top 25 poll includes both the men's and women's track teams. The women's squad is ranked No. 8, while the men's team came in at No. 16. The women's team is the highest ranking squad in the Big Ten and no other conference school has both teams in the top 25. \nLast season, the women's team took eighth at the NCAA Indoor Meet and tied for 35th at the NCAA Outdoor Meet. Furthermore, many members of the 2002 cross country team that turned in a 14th-place finish at the NCAA Meet will compete. \nThe men's team sent seven individuals to the NCAA championships in 2002. \nLakers beat Hornets\nNEW ORLEANS -- Kobe Bryant scored 36 points and had 11 rebounds, while Shaquille O'Neal scored 10 of his 23 points in the final period to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 90-82 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night.\nO'Neal also had 11 rebounds for Los Angeles, which held New Orleans without a field goal for the last 8:20 to win its fifth straight and register its fifth road victory of the season.\nBaron Davis, back in the lineup for the first time in six games for New Orleans, scored 20, including four 3-pointers, but couldn't get a basket in the fourth quarter as the Hornets lost their fifth straight.\nJamal Mashburn added 19 for New Orleans, while David Wesley scored 14 and P.J. Brown had 12 points and 14 rebounds.\nRobert Horry added 10 points for the Lakers, who have gone 9-5 since losing to New Orleans in Los Angeles on Dec. 13. New Orleans is 3-13 since then.\nNew Orleans' last field goal of the game was a 3-pointer that gave it a 77-76 lead. Then O'Neal took over, scoring eight of the Lakers' next 10 points, including a three-point play when he was fouled inside after getting a loose ball.\nWhite Sox get Colon; Expos get El Duque\nNEW YORK -- Bartolo Colon moved to the Chicago White Sox, and Orlando Hernandez went to the Montreal Expos on Wednesday in a three-team trade also involving the New York Yankees.\nIn exchange for Colon, who won 20 games last season for Cleveland and Montreal, the Expos received Hernandez and another right-hander, Rocky Biddle, plus outfielder Jeff Liefer and cash.\nThe White Sox earlier acquired Hernandez and $2 million from the Yankees for right-handed pitchers Antonio Osuna and Delvis Lantigua, a minor leaguer.