Oklahoma tops USA Today coaches’ college football poll

Oklahoma is the preseason No. 1 in the USA Today coaches’ poll.

The Sooners received 42 of 59 first-place votes to easily outpoint No. 2 Alabama, which received 13 first-place votes. Oregon, which lost last season’s BCS championship game, is third and Louisiana State is fourth.

The Ducks and Tigers will open the season against each other at Cowboys Stadium on Sept. 3 in Arlington, Texas. They each received two first-place votes in the coaches’ poll.

Florida State is fifth, followed by Stanford, Boise State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M; and Wisconsin. Defending national champion Auburn starts the season ranked 19th in the coaches’ poll. After a tumultuous off-season, Ohio State is ranked 16th. Notre Dame is No. 18.

Louisiana State assistant coach Steve Kragthorpe has learned that he has Parkinson’s disease and is relinquishing his duties as offensive coordinator, but is remaining on the Tigers’ staff.

Kragthorpe, who was hired during the off-season, will remain as the quarterbacks coach while offensive line coach Greg Studrawa has been elevated to offensive coordinator.

Kragthorpe, 46, is the former head coach at Louisville (2007-09) and at Tulsa (2003-06). He gave up an assistant coaching position at Texas A&M; last summer when his wife learned she had multiple sclerosis, but decided to get back into coaching when LSU hired him last January.

Australian Nick O’Hern shot a bogey-free 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Chris Riley in the first round of the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Riley had one bogey in his round of 66 on Thursday at Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno. He is one of seven past champions playing in the 13th year of the event on the 7,472-yard mountain course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Will MacKenzie, the 2006 champ, was another stroke back at 67, tied for third with Blake Adams and Briny Baird. 2007 winner Steve Flesch shot 68.

Jessica Hardy outraced Ann Chandler over the final lap to win the 100-meter breaststroke at the U.S. national championships at Palo Alto.

She touched in 1 minute 6.81 seconds, well off her world- and American-record time. Chandler finished at 1:07.17 and Ellyn Baumgardner was third.

Elizabeth Beisel won the 400 individual medley four days after winning the world title in Shanghai. She was under the American-record pace at 200 meters before finishing in 4:34.78 -- a whopping 3.10 seconds ahead of Maya Dirado.

Nathan Adrian won the men’s 50 free at 21.84 seconds, fourth-quickest in the world. Lara Jackson won the women’s 50 free at 24.98.

Tim Phillips won the 100 butterfly at 51.69, tying the sixth-fastest time in the world.

Top-seeded Gael Monfils won two matches on Thursday, beating Ryan Sweeting then Dmitry Tursunov, to progress to the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason Classic in Washington.

Monfils was among several players who were forced to play their second and third-round matches the same day because rain curtailed play on Wednesday. The Frenchman downed American Sweeting, 6-3, 7-6 (3), and had a similar scoreline against Russian Tursunov, winning 6-2, 7-6 (9).

The other player to win twice was seventh-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, though the Cypriot had to labor through six sets to down Somdev Devvarman, 6-2, 0-6, 7-5, and Thomaz Bellucci, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

No. 3-seeded Viktor Troicki beat South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, 6-3, 6-3. The Serb will next face John Isner, who won five fewer games than James Blake but snared both tiebreaks against his neighbor and doubles partner to win, 7-6 (0), 1-6, 7-6 (4).

Former Angels third baseman Doug DeCinces has agreed to pay $2.5 million in penalties and interest to settle allegations that he used inside information to make more than $1.2 million in profits trading the stock of Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. in 2009.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement the same day that it filed a civil lawsuit detailing allegations that DeCinces, acting on an inside tip, bought more than 83,000 shares of Advanced Medical Optics in the weeks leading to its 2009 acquisition by Abbott Laboratories Inc.

-- Houston Mitchell

Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson is returning to UCLA as special assistant to Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.

Johnson will work part time reaching out to alumni and in the area of student-athlete development.

-- Chris Foster