Evans Sets Meet Record in Winning 800-Meter Race

With 15-year-old Brooke Bennett nipping at her heels, Placentia’s Janet Evans reaffirmed her status as the world’s fastest 800-meter freestyle swimmer in the Alamo Challenge at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Evans, 23, the only American woman to win four Olympic swimming gold medals, maintained a body-length lead throughout the race to finish in a 8 minutes 31.90 seconds. Bennett was timed in 8:32.99, and both shattered the meet record of 8:37.77 set by Evans in 1992.

Soccer

Anaheim Stadium will be one of the sites for the Gold Cup, the Confederation of North, Central and Caribbean Association Football’s (CONCACAF) biennial tournament for national teams.

Games also will be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum and San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium.

This year’s tournament will expand from the usual eight teams to a 12-team bracket, including three South American squads to be determined this year. The United States earns a berth as the host country, while Mexico automatically qualifies as the defending Gold Cup champion.

Golf

Clark Dennis, who has missed the cut in 10 of his last 16 tournaments, shot a 64 on the course that was his childhood playground and took a share of the first-round lead in the Colonial National Invitation golf tournament at Fort Worth.

“It’s good to be home,” Dennis said after the six-under-par round on a rain-softened course gave him a tie with Lennie Clements, who has never won in 15 years on the PGA Tour.

“It’s vulnerable, about as vulnerable as Colonial is ever going to be,” Clements said.

Billy Andrade shot a 65, and the group at 66 included Fuzzy Zoeller, Payne Stewart, Curtis Strange, Mike Hulbert, Jeff Maggert, D.A. Weibring and Craig Parry.

Two-time Colonial winner Ben Crenshaw shot a 75.

Loretta Alderete of San Clemente matched the best round of her career with a five-under 67 to share the first-round lead with Pat Bradley in the $500,000 Corning Classic in New York.

Alderete, who is not exempt and has played in one LPGA event this year, had one bogey while taking a tournament lead for the first time since turning pro in 1985.

Tennis

Stefan Edberg defeated MaliVai Washington, 6-4, 6-4, as Sweden swept the United States, 3-0, to end America’s hopes of reaching the World Team Cup final at Duesseldorf, Germany.

Magnus Larsson defeated Todd Martin, 7-5, 7-5, and Edberg and Jonas Bjorkman teamed to beat Jared Palmer and Richey Reneberg, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Names in the News

Jean Alesi, driving a Ferrari, won the provisional pole position for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix with an 88.904-m.p.h. average over the 2.068-mile circuit through the streets of Monte Carlo. . . . The Kings signed Swedish elite league center Daniel Rydmark to a two-year contract. . . . Former NBA player Jeff Ruland lost a lawsuit in which he contended that his career was shortened because a Boston Celtic ballboy accidentally pushed a ball cart into his leg while he was playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. . . . Dan Fortmann, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member and longtime team physician of the Rams, died at 79.