Vikings’ Bennett May Miss Season

Michael Bennett said that he will sit out the Minnesota Vikings’ training camp because of a slow-healing foot injury that could also keep him out for the season.

“It’s tough. I was looking forward to being back to training camp,” he told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis. “I missed mini-camp. It really burned me to my stomach to sit around and watch the other guys practice.”

Bennett, who rushed for 1,296 yards last season and made the Pro Bowl, injured his left foot in March when he came down on it awkwardly while running on a treadmill. He had surgery a few weeks later.

Candidates to fill in for Bennett are Doug Chapman, Moe Williams and this year’s fourth-round draft pick, Onterrio Smith of Oregon.

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Tennis

Venus Williams and Monica Seles will not play for the United States in the Fed Cup quarterfinals because of injuries. They will be replaced by Chanda Rubin and Alexandra Stevenson, U.S. captain Billie Jean King announced.

Williams strained her groin and aggravated a recurring abdominal injury during her semifinal victory over Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon last week.

Seles will skip the matchup against Italy because of a foot injury that kept her out of Wimbledon and led to a first-round loss at the French Open.

Meghann Shaughnessy and Lisa Raymond round out the roster for the July 19-20 quarterfinal at Washington.

Italy made a roster change when Silvia Farina Elia withdrew because of a left foot problem and was replaced by Antonella Serra Zanetti.

Tennis player Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic is weighing possible legal action against the ATP Tour after drug charges against him were dismissed this week.

Bob Bryan advanced to his first career semifinal by beating Cyril Saulnier, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Hall of Fame championships at Newport, R.I.

In other matches, fourth-seeded Robby Ginepri needed only 62 minutes to beat Dennis Van Scheppingen, 6-4, 7-6 (3), and seventh-seeded Justin Gimelstob defeated Zack Fleishman, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Wimbledon champion Roger Federer won his 14th consecutive match, beating Jean-Rene Lisnard, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open at Gstaad. He’ll face David Sanchez, who beat defending champion Alex Corretja, 6-4, 6-4.... Second-seeded Tommy Robredo needed more than two hours to defeat Hicham Arazi, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, and advance to the quarterfinals of the Swedish Open at Bastad.

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College Football

Connecticut will become a full-time member of the Big East Conference next year. The conference also announced that it won’t add any new schools before the 2005-06 season.

The decisions were made after meetings of presidents and athletic directors of the Big East’s football-playing schools.

With Miami and Virginia Tech off to the Atlantic Coast Conference beginning with the 2004 season, the Big East will have seven football-playing schools -- one short of the required eight needed by the 2005 season to remain I-A.

Army’s football team will leave Conference USA after the 2004 season to play as an independent again. The decision comes after the Knights compiled a 7-27 record in five seasons in the conference.

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Women’s Basketball

The Charlotte Sting (12-6) took over first place in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference with a 65-58 victory over the Detroit Shock (10-5) in front of 5,620 at Charlotte, N.C.

In other games: LaToya Thomas made a short jump shot with 3.2 seconds left to give Cleveland a 68-67 victory over Phoenix in front of 9,420 at Phoenix.... Sacramento gave John Whisenant his first victory as coach with an 89-76 victory over San Antonio in front of 9,635 at Sacramento.... Tamika Catchings’ 15-foot basket with 45 seconds left lifted Indiana to a 76-69 victory over New York in front of 7,192 at Indianapolis.... Katie Smith scored 34 points to lead Minnesota to an 83-75 victory over Connecticut in front of 5,444 at Minneapolis.

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Miscellany

Michael Haddan of Irvine Woodbridge High finished second in his first-round heat of the boys’ 800 meters in the World Youth track and field championships at Sherbrooke, Canada, to advance to the semifinals. He was timed in 1:53.39.

Kalyn Keller of Arizona Desert Fox and Sung Mo Cho of Mexico won the 800-meter freestyles on the opening day of the Janet Evans Invitational at USC.

Keller won the women’s 800 free in 8 minutes 33.23 seconds, .07 off the meet record set by Janet Evans in 1995. Kaitlin Sandeno of the Trojan swim club was second in 8:38.93.

Cho won the men’s event in 8:02.77.