MacMillan, Wilson Spark U.S.
The United States women’s soccer team defeated England, 2-0, Sunday in the Algarve Cup at Ferreiras, Portugal, behind goals by Shannon MacMillan and Kelly Wilson.
MacMillan scored in the 59th minute; Wilson scored in the 75th.
The U.S. moved into a first-place tie in Group B with Norway, which tied defending champion Sweden, 3-3. The U.S. and Norway each has four points and the winner of their game Tuesday advances to the final Thursday.
But if the U.S. and Norway tie, Sweden can reach the final by beating England.
Pro Football
Defensive end Leonard Little will be back with the St. Louis Rams next season. Linebacker London Fletcher apparently will not.
Ram Coach Mike Martz said the team signed Little, who became an unrestricted free agent Friday, to a five-year contract, one day after signing unrestricted free agent Jamie Duncan to replace Fletcher.
Duncan’s contract is said to be worth about $11 million over five years. Little’s deal is said to be for $17.5 million and includes a $5-million signing bonus.
Fletcher, who also became an unrestricted free agent Friday, was the Rams’ leading tackler last season.
Winter Sports
Andy Finch and Tricia Byrnes of the U.S. scored their first career World Cup halfpipe victories.
Finch won the men’s title with 44.4 points at Sapporo, Japan, and Byrnes won the women’s title with 37.8 points. Gretchen Bleiler of the U.S. was third in the women’s event.
Austria’s Stephan Eberharter finished third in a World Cup super-giant slalom at Kvitfjell, Norway, and won his first World Cup overall alpine skiing title.
Italy’s Alessandro Fattori recorded his second World Cup victory and Switzerland’s Didier Defago was second.
Germany’s Hilde Gerg clinched her second World Cup super-G women’s title when Sunday’s race at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, was canceled because of bad weather.
Olympic bronze medalist Adne Sondral of Norway won 500- and 1,000-meter speedskating races in a World Cup sprint meet at Oslo.
Among the American finishers, Kip Carpenter was third in the 1,000 and Casey FitzRandolph was fourth in the 500.
Jennifer Rodriguez, winner of two Olympic medals, was runner-up in the women’s 1,000.
Finland’s Samppa Lajunen won a World Cup sprint at Lahti, Finland, for his fifth consecutive victory in the Nordic combined.
Jennifer Heil of Canada, who finished fourth at the Olympics, upset Olympic gold medalist Kari Traa of Norway to win the moguls in the freestyle skiing World Cup at Inawashiro, Japan.
Olympic silver medalist Shannon Bahrke of the U.S. was fourth.
Finland’s Mikko Ronkainen won the men’s event. U.S. Olympian Jeremy Bloom was second.
Austria’s Renate Goetschl had surgery on a knee and an elbow at Schruns, Austria. Goetschl was injured Saturday in a crash during a downhill at Lenzerheide.
Miscellany
Former NBA player Jayson Williams is scheduled to make his first court appearance today in the case of a fatal shooting at his New Jersey mansion.
Williams is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the Feb. 14 shotgun death of limousine driver Costas Christofi.
Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia set a world record for the 800 meters and Svetlana Feofanova of Russia broke the pole vault world record for the fifth time this year.
They provided the highlights of the European Indoor Championships at Vienna, where Spain won the most medals, 11.
Ceplak finished in 1 minute 55.82 seconds, eclipsing the record of 1:56.40 set by East Germany’s Christine Wachtel in 1988 at Vienna.
Feofanova cleared 15 feet 7 on her first attempt, adding half an inch to her previous best.
Jamie Dantzscher scored 10s in the vault, bars and floor exercise, and the UCLA women’s gymnastics team set a team record with 198.35 points to win the UCLA Invitational. Michigan finished second with 196.775 points, followed by Minnesota (196.2) and Cal State Fullerton (194.075).
Matt Herrington became the winningest scholastic wrestler in U.S. history when he retained his 160-pound title Saturday in the New York State Public High School Athletic Assn. tournament at Syracuse, N.Y.
Herrington, a two-time state champion and a senior at La Salle Institute in Troy, finished 48-0 this season and 243-9 for his career.
Seattle Slew, horse racing’s 1977 Triple Crown winner, is recovering in Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital at Lexington, Ky., after surgery Saturday to fuse a joint between two vertebrae in his neck.
