Houston Chronicle

King soars to win at U.S. swimming nationals

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INDIANAPOL­IS — Olympic gold medalist Lilly King can prepare for another showdown with Russian rival Yulia Efimova after winning the women’s 200-meter breaststro­ke Wednesday at the U.S. National Championsh­ips.

King had the secondbest time in the world this year — 2 minutes, 21.83 seconds. Efimova went 2:19.83 two weeks ago. The two have not squared off since King called Efimova a drug cheater last summer in the Rio Olympics.

Katie Ledecky and Ryan Murphy lived up to their reputation­s, too. Ledecky qualified for the American world championsh­ip team with a win in the women’s 200 freestyle. Murphy took the men’s 200 backstroke.

Other winners included Kevin Cordes in the men’s 200 breast, University of Texas junior Townley Haas in the men’s 200 free, and Kathleen Baker in the women’s 200 back.

TRACK AND FIELD Bolt wins 100 at Golden Spike

Usain Bolt started the European leg of his final season before retirement with a victory in the 100 meters at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

At the meet where he has most frequently competed in his career, with nine appearance­s, Bolt reeled in the rest of the field after a trademark slow start to cross the finish line in 10.06 seconds.

However, he had to hold off a strong challenge from Yunier Perez of Cuba, edging him by 0.03.

The eight-time Olympic champion is preparing for the world championsh­ips in London in August, his final major competitio­n.

Christian Taylor of the U.S., the Olympic triple jump champion, won with a meet record of 17.57 meters. In other news: • Texas A&M’s Fred Kerley and Oregon’s Raevyn Rogers, who is from Kinkaid High School, were named outdoor college athletes of the year by Track & Field News. Kerley, who is from Taylor, was the NCAA 400-meter champion, finishing the season undefeated. Rogers won her third consecutiv­e NCAA outdoor 800-meter title.

PRO FOOTBALL Cowboys’ Irving gets 4-game ban

Dallas defensive end David Irving has been suspended the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s policy against performanc­eenhancing drugs.

The ban leaves the Cowboys without two potential starting pass rushers because of suspension­s. Randy Gregory is likely to miss the entire season for multiple violations of the substancea­buse policy.

TENNIS Djokovic wins at Eastbourne

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match at the Eastbourne Internatio­nal that was carried over from Tuesday because of rain, setting up a quarterfin­al match against Donald Young at the Wimbledon warm-up event.

In the women’s tournament at Eastbourne, top-seeded Angelique Kerber beat Kristyna Pliskova 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 and was scheduled to play Lara Arruabarre­naVecino in the third round later Wednesday, only to see rain to bring an early end to the day’s play.

In other news:

• The “Big 4” of men’s tennis were given the four highest seedings for this year’s tournament at Wimbledon.

No. 1-ranked Andy Murray, the defending champion, is the topseeded player, followed by Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

In the women’s seedings, Kerber is No. 1, followed by Simona Halep, Pliskova and Elina Svitolina.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL Vanderbilt coach suspends players

Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason has indefinite­ly suspended the three Commodores football players who were involved in an incident that resulted in two of their getting shot.

Nashville, Tenn., police said defensive back Tae

Daley suffered a noncritica­l gunshot wound to his leg and defensive back Frank Coppet received noncritica­l birdshot wounds to his arms Monday in an “ill-conceived plan” to recover wide receiver Donaven Tennyson’s stolen cellphone.

PRO BASEBALL Hale, Skeeters shut out Ducks

Jake Hale combined with three relievers on a five-hitter, and the Sugar Land Skeeters shut out the Long Island Ducks 3-0 at Sugar Land’s Constellat­ion Field to improve to 30-37 in the Atlantic League.

 ?? Petr David Josek / Associated Press ?? Usain Bolt, right, beats Cuba’s Yunier Perez by three-hundredths of a second (10.06 to 10.09) to win the 100 meters at the Golden Spike meet. “I’m not happy with the time,” Bolt said of one of his tune-ups before taking part in the world championsh­ips...
Petr David Josek / Associated Press Usain Bolt, right, beats Cuba’s Yunier Perez by three-hundredths of a second (10.06 to 10.09) to win the 100 meters at the Golden Spike meet. “I’m not happy with the time,” Bolt said of one of his tune-ups before taking part in the world championsh­ips...
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