Sunday's Sports Briefs

AREA

WILLI SETS PERSONAL BEST, JENKINS WINS IN INDIANA

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Southeast Missouri State University's track program had several strong performances during Saturday's Billy Hayes Invitational at the University of Indiana, in which no team scores were kept.

Jaret Willi won the pole vault with a personal-best 17 feet, 2 3/4 inches that meets the minimum qualifying standard for the NCAA Championships, although Southeast coach Joey Haines said Willi will likely need to vault a few inches higher at next Saturday's season-ending meet at Georgia Tech to qualify.

Southeast's other winner Saturday was Heather Jenkins, who captured the discus (156-11). Jay Heddell was second in the shot put (57-4).

ELSEWHERE

GOLF

Shigeki Maruyama holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 2-under 68 that gave him a three-stroke lead over Cameron Beckman and a good chance to give Asian golfers their second PGA Tour victory in as many weeks at the Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas. Last week in New Orleans, K.J. Choi became the first PGA Tour winner from South Korea.

Maruyama recovered from two bogeys in the middle of his round by making a great par save from the thick rough on No. 15, and his birdie on the 18th put him at 12-under 198.

Beckman earned a spot in the final group with a 66, the best score among late starters when the gusts approached 30 mph.

Ernie Els shot a bogey-free 64 to move into a tie for third at 7-under 203, along with past Nelson champion Loren Roberts (68), Lee Janzen (70), Ben Crane (68) and Jim Carter (71).

Nineteen-year-old rookie Natalie Gulbis shot a career-best 6-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the Aerus Electrolux USA Championship at Franklin, Tenn.

Gulbis, playing only her seventh event since joining the LPGA Tour full-time, birdied four of the first seven holes and finished with seven birdies and just one bogey to reach 11 under.

Brandie Burton, the leader after two rounds, shot a 70 to drop into a tie with Pat Hurst (67) at 10-under 206.

Annika Sorenstam (70) held the lead at 11 under for two holes but slipped with two consecutive bogeys. She was two strokes back along with Grace Park (67).

Bruce Lietzke shot an 8-under 64 and took a 2-stroke lead over Larry Nelson in the second round of the TD Waterhouse Championship at Kansas City, Mo.

Barry Lane shot a course-record 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead over Greg Owen in the Benson and Hedges International at Sutton Coldfield, England.

Hockey

Peter Bondra scored his second goal of the game with 1:40 remaining to give Slovakia a 4-3 victory over Russia and hand the young nation its first Ice Hockey World Championship gold medal at Goteborg, Sweden.

Motorsports

Bobby Hamilton Jr. powered through the pack in the final 60 laps to win the Busch 200 at the New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon for his first victory in 96 starts.

Todd Bodine, who started third and was in contention most of the way, finished second. Jack Sprague was third, and rookie polesitter Shane Hmiel was fourth, his best finish.

Tennis

Andre Agassi defeated Jiri Novak 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the final at the Italian Open in Rome for the first time since a five-set loss to Alberto Mancini in 1989. Agassi will play Germany's Tommy Haas, a 6-1, 7-5 winner over Andy Roddick, in the final of the Masters Series event.

Serena Williams reached her first clay-court final, and Jennifer Capriati fell two victories short of regaining the world's No. 1 ranking by losing to Justine Henin in the German Open at Berlin.

Henin turned the match around after a two-hour rain break, beating Capriati 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the first semifinal.

Williams reached the final with a 6-3, 6-2 rout of unseeded Anna Smashova.

CORRECTION

Terry Kitchen has 216 wins, Leon Brinkopf 176 and Steve Williams 163 to rank as Central's winningest baseball coaches. Incorrect information appeared in Friday's edition.

The Southeast Missourian regrets the error.

-- From staff, wire reports