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Garcia Wins in Playoff

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From Staff and Wire Reports

Sergio Garcia retooled his swing so it would hold up under the intense pressure of the final round. On Sunday, he only had to let the other guys fall apart in the Byron Nelson Championship at Irving, Texas.

Garcia made enough clutch pars to get into a playoff with Dudley Hart and Robert Damron, then won for the first time in two years on the PGA Tour by tapping in for par on the first extra hole.

Garcia closed with a one-over-par 71, the first Byron Nelson winner in 11 years to fail to break par in the final round. He, Hart and Damron finished at 10-under 270.

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Hart, who birdied three of the last five holes to close with a 67, missed the fairway on the 18th and hit into a terrible lie right of the green. He duffed a chip and wound up with double bogey.

Damron, who shot 66 to get into the playoff, lagged his 50-foot putt to four feet, stepped up to it quickly and pulled it left.

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Lorena Ochoa won her first pro title, finishing with a four-under-par 68 for a one-stroke victory over Wendy Ward at the inaugural Franklin American Mortgage Championship in Franklin, Tenn.

Ochoa, the 2003 LPGA rookie of the year, finished at 16-under 272. Ward closed with a five-under 67.

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Motor Racing

Three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Jack Sprague won for the 24th time with a dominating performance in the UAW/GM Ohio 250 race at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway.

Sprague led the last 54 laps of the 250-lap race for his first victory since Sept. 9, 2001. Sprague took the lead from fellow Chevrolet driver Dennis Setzer on Lap 197. Sprague then held off Setzer on four restarts to win by 0.394 of a second, about a truck length.

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Cory McClenathan ended a two-year winless skid at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

McClenathan, who last won at Pomona Raceway in 2002, beat Clay Millican in the top-fuel event. His dragster crossed the finish line in 4.651 seconds at 320.74 mph, just ahead of Millican, who finished in 4.700 at 315.93.

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College Tennis

The second-seeded USC men’s tennis team defeated California, 4-1, in the second round of the NCAA Division I tournament at USC’s Marks Tennis Stadium. The Trojans (21-3) advance to the round of 16 to face Arkansas Saturday at Tulsa, Okla.

Fourth-seeded UCLA (18-7) will make its 28th consecutive final 16 appearance after defeating Pepperdine, 4-0, at the L.A. Tennis Center. The Bruins will play Texas A&M.;

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Miscellany

The UCLA men’s and women’s teams won Pacific 10 Conference track and field titles Saturday night at Tucson. It was the first time since 1998, when UCLA accomplished the feat, that one school won both titles.

The Bruin men won with 143 points. Oregon was second with 130 points. USC (95) finished fourth, behind Arizona State (120). The women, who won their eighth consecutive title, scored 174.50 points. Stanford (153) was second, followed by USC (111).

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UCLA is the top-seeded team in its eight-team regional as the NCAA Division I softball tournament pairings were announced. The defending champion Bruins (39-9) open against Mississippi Valley State on Thursday.

Long Beach State (48-11), which won the Big West Conference title, is seeded third in the double-elimination regional and will play Cornell.

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