Woods Takes Lead in Byron Nelson

Tiger Woods sprinkled in a few birdies with some solid par saves for a three-under-par 67 Friday at cool, blustery Cottonwood Valley and took a one-shot lead in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas.

Woods, who lost the 36-hole lead last week at the Wachovia Championship, will be in the final group today with 47-year-old Mark O’Meara, his closest friend on tour.

O’Meara, who had a four-under 66, has not won on the PGA Tour since the 1998 British Open and is playing this year on a one-time exemption for being in the top 25 in career money.

Woods was at eight-under 132, his best start at the Byron Nelson Championship since a 64-64 in 1997 when he won.

Sergio Garcia birdied three of his last four holes on the TPC at Las Colinas to salvage a 68 and was in a large group at 134 that included Peter Lonard (70), Jerry Kelly (68) and Jonathan Byrd (67).

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Lorena Ochoa shot a five-under 67 and shared a one-stroke lead with Pat Hurst in the weather-delayed second round of the LPGA Franklin American Mortgage Championship at Franklin, Tenn.

First-round leader Nancy Scranton (72), Dorothy Delasin (67) and Wendy Ward (70) were tied for third at 138.

Tennis

Top-seeded Serena Williams and No. 5 Jennifer Capriati advanced to a matchup in the semifinals of the Italian Open at Rome with straight-sets victories.

Williams beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5, 6-0, and Capriati defeated Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi, 6-3, 6-3.

Second-seeded Amelie Mauresmo defeated Silvia Farina Elia, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, and No. 8 Vera Zvonareva knocked off Francesca Schiavone, 6-3, 6-3.

Top-ranked Roger Federer beat Carlos Moya, 6-4, 6-3, defeating one of the best clay-court players, to reach the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters in Germany. Federer next faces Lleyton Hewitt, who beat Austria’s Juergen Melzer, 6-4, 6-3.

Defending champion Guillermo Coria of Argentina, seeded second, cruised into the semifinals by beating David Ferrer of Spain, 6-2, 6-2. Coria will play Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who had 12 aces in downing Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

The sixth-ranked USC women’s team defeated American, 4-0, to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Trojans will play Arizona today.

UCLA and Pepperdine also advanced and will meet in a second-round match today. UCLA defeated Long Beach State, 4-0, and Pepperdine upset Brigham Young, 4-2.

Motor Racing

Kyle Busch started first in his Chevrolet and stayed there almost all the way, leading 236 laps and earning his first career victory in the NASCAR Busch series race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

With three laps to go after the second of two red-flag stoppage, Busch never got more than a car length ahead of Greg Biffle’s Ford but hung on to win by 0.15 of a second.

The track record fell again and again in Nextel Cup qualifying at Richmond International Raceway, but two drivers also crashed when the new asphalt went from grippy to slippery.

Twenty-nine drivers broke Ward Burton’s 2-year-old record of 127.389 mph, led by rookie Brian Vickers. He got his first career pole for tonight’s race with a lap at 129.983 mph.

Ricky Craven and rookie Kasey Kahne crashed early in the session, causing others to turn conservative instead of trying for the pole on the three-quarter-mile oval.

Tony Pedregon clocked the fastest Funny Car speed in NHRA history, powering to a pass of 329.83 mph in a track-record time of 4.765 seconds in qualifying for the Southern Nationals at Commerce, Ga.

College Football

Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick was cleared of charges that he had sex with a 15-year-old girl but was convicted of serving alcohol to a minor. Vick, the brother of Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $2,250 for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The panel investigating sexual assault allegations involving the University of Colorado’s program approved a report that is expected to provide a blueprint for change. It will be released Wednesday.

Miscellany

Ryan Vena threw for 225 yards and seven touchdowns to lead the Columbus Destroyers (5-9) to a 59-28 victory over the Grand Rapids Rampage (1-13) in an Arena Football League game in front of 16,711 at Columbus, Ohio.

The swimming complex playing host to, among other things, the U.S. Olympic trials July 7-14 in Long Beach, will be called Charter All Digital Aquatic Centre. Officials said the naming rights deal is worth about $200,000. Charter Communications is paying for the two video boards, one of which will be used as a scoreboard. The entire site will be wireless.