Ledecky’s time fastest in 1,500 free this year

Katie Ledecky won the 1,500meter freestyle at a Pro Swim Series meet in Mission Viejo (San Diego County) with the world’s fastest time this year.

The Stanford grad touched in 15 minutes, 40.55 seconds in the outdoor pool Sunday. Ashley Twichell finished second in 16:06.68.

Ledecky’s time was 17 seconds quicker than the world’s previous best this year, the 15:57.03 posted by Simona Quadarella at the Italian Olympic trials. Ledecky set the world record of 15:20.48 in 2018.

Ledecky’s 800 split would have won the individual event in Mission Viejo and would be the world’s fastest this year as well. Her final time in the 1,500 would have been good enough to place third in the men’s event, won by Jordan Wilimovsky in 15:10.44.

Ledecky finished second in the 100 free in 54.22 seconds. Cal alum Abbey Weitzeil won in 53.68.

The women’s 1,500 will be an Olympic event for the first time at the Tokyo Games.

Tennis: Veronika Kudermetova of Russia won her first WTA title, coming up strong on big points to beat Danka Kovinic 64, 62 at the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, S.C. The 23yearold Kudermetova did not drop a set in six matches on the way to the championship at the season’s first claycourt tournament.

⏩ David Goffin beat Marin Cilic 64, 36, 60 to reach the second round of the claycourt Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco. Although the 2014 U.S. Open champion Cilic had 10 aces and led the match 30, he made 52 unforced errors and also dropped serve six times against the 11thseeded Belgian.

College football: Eddie George has been hired as the head football coach at Tennessee State, the Nashville Tennessean reported.

A fourtime Pro Bowl running back with the NFL’s Titans and a Heisman Trophy winner, George is expected to officially be named to the position Tuesday. College softball: North Texas softball pitcher Hope Trautwein faced 21 batters and struck out all of them in a 30 victory at ArkansasPine Bluff. It is believed to be the first perfect seveninning game in NCAA Division I history with every out being a strikeout. NCAA records list two other pitchers with 21 strikeouts in a seveninning game. Alabama’s Alexis Osorio had 21 against Fordham in 2018, and Cal’s Michele Granger did that against Creighton in 1991.

Soccer: Atletico Madrid stumbled again in its bid to win a first Spanish league title in seven seasons, drawing 11 at Real Betis, leaving it narrowly ahead of secondplace Real Madrid and Barcelona. Atletico led Madrid by 11 points after a strong first half of the season, but the team has struggled in 2021, winning just two of its past six league matches. ⏩ In London, Tottenham suffered its 10th loss of the Premier League season, which is turning into the worst season of manager Jose Mourinho’s career. It was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who replaced Mourinho at Manchester United, who dealt Mourinho a 31 home loss, dropping Tottenham six points from fourth place. That spot is occupied by West Ham again after the east London club beat Leicester 32.

⏩ In Italy, Inter Milan continued the march to its first Serie A title in over a decade as it beat relegationthreatened Cagliari 10.