Kite, Soaring Again, Shares Lead at Greensboro After 68

Tom Kite, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, hasn’t given up on his dream of also playing on the team in September. And after finishing second in the Masters and now sharing the lead after two rounds of the Greater Greensboro (N.C.) Chrysler Classic, why not?

Kite, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 1993, birdied three of his final five holes Friday on the Forest Oaks Country Club course for a four-under-par 68 and a nine-under 135 total. Mike Hulbert birdied his last three holes and four of his last six to shoot a 69 and forge a tie with Kite.

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Isao Aoki and Gil Morgan shot five-under 66s in windy conditions to share the first-round lead in the Las Vegas Senior Classic. The wind was not nearly as severe as a day earlier, when gusts of more than 40 mph toppled tents, blew golf balls off the green and canceled the pro-am at the new TPC at The Canyons.

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Vicki Fergon used four birdies in a row to break out of a season-long slump with a four-under 68 and a share of the first-round lead with Canadian Lorie Kane in the LPGA Chick-fil-A championship at Stockbridge, Ga.

Pro Football

Raider owner Al Davis got $70 million, most in interest-free loans the team doesn’t have to repay, as part of the deal to return the team to Oakland, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

The magnitude of Davis’ benefits in the $192-million deal came to light in a grand jury report released this week. Payments from the city of Oakland and Alameda County included $54 million in two tax-free loans.

Cornerback Darrell Green, 37, of the Washington Redskins signed a five-year contract worth $12.5 million. . . . Jerry Nuzum, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1948 to 1951, has died of cancer. He was 73.

Tennis

Michael Chang advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships, beating Zimbabwe’s Byron Black, 7-5, 6-3, in a mistake-filled match. . . . Carlos Moya, who lost to Pete Sampras in the Australian Open final, showed he can also win on clay as he defeated Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the Monte Carlo Open quarterfinals. . . . Second-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa battled for 2 1/2 hours before finally beating unseeded Elena Wagner of Germany, 6-1, 6-7 (11-9), 6-2, in the third round of the Budapest Open.

Miscellany

Warren Johnson recorded the first 200-mph run by a pro stock car in NHRA history in setting national elapsed-time and speed records during qualifying for the Pennzoil Nationals at Dinwiddie, Va.

Johnson covered a quarter-mile in 6.894 seconds at 200.13 mph in a Pontiac Firebird.

John Andretti, driving Cale Yarborough’s Ford Thunderbird, turned a lap of 193.627 mph and knocked Dale Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo off the pole for Sunday’s Winston 500 stock car race at Talladega, Ala. Bobby Hillin Jr., in another Ford, qualified second at 193.271 and Earnhardt was third at 192.699.

Four Chinese swimmers have reportedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and have been banned for two years, according to a report in Swimming World magazine.

Three women--Chen Jialin, Yu Ran and Pu Shi tested positive for an anabolic steroid and one man, Lu Quiang, had a testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio above the 6-to-1 limit. None of the banned athletes are top international swimmers, and swimming’s international governing body, FINA, has not confirmed the report.

The Las Vegas Bowl, troubled by low attendance and lackluster matchups, will change its conference alignments and increase payouts to $800,000 for this year’s game. Under the new structure, a representative of the Western Athletic Conference, most likely the third-place team, will play a team chosen from another major conference. The game had pitted the winner of the Big West Conference against the Mid-American Conference champion.

Meanwhile, the NCAA has certified the Motor City Bowl, clearing the way for the first game Dec. 26 in the Pontiac Silverdome, matching the MAC champion against an unspecified opponent.

Louisville’s women’s basketball team will have co-coaches next season, and if all goes as planned this summer, they will be husband and wife.

Sara White and Martin Clapp, assistant coaches, were named as co-coaches to replace eight-year veteran Bud Childers, who is leaving for James Madison. White and Clapp plan to be married Aug. 9.

Ohio State agreed to pay fired women’s basketball Coach Nancy Darsch $165,000 to buy out her contract, athletic director Andy Geiger said. . . . Former University of Miami assistant Mike Jaskulski was named men’s basketball coach at Towson State in Maryland, succeeding Terry Truax.

Two University of Nevada football players have been indicted on felony battery charges for an alleged attack on a former Reno high school football player. A Washoe County grand jury handed up the indictment against quarterback Nicholas Tomasello and defensive end Michael A. Robertson Jr.