College Football

Athlon Sports continues the release of its preseason Top 25 poll at www.athlonsports.com. No. 14 was released on Friday, and it's BYU.

Bronco Mendenhall's BYU Cougars claim the No. 14 position with 11 players selected as All-MWC performers. Athlon Sports predicts BYU to win the Mountain West Conference.

"BYU should be the best non-BCS conference team in the nation this year," says Athlon Sports senior editor Mitch Light. "The Cougars are absolutely loaded on offense, and with Bronco Mendenhall's background, you know his team will be good defensively, even though they will have a lot of new faces on that side of the ball."

Athlon Sports' preseason magazines hit retail locations June 3 with the BYU Western regional edition cover featuring quarterback Max Hall.

Baseball

River Cats down Bees

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Eric Chavez had two doubles and drove in a run as the Sacramento River Cats defeated the Salt Lake Bees 7-4 on Friday night.

Chavez, in his second rehab appearance with the River Cats as he recovers from offseason back surgery, was 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI. Jeff Baisley towered a home run onto the roof of the River Cats clubhouse in left field in the third inning, finishing 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.

Auto Racing

Hot Kyle Busch wins All-Star race pole

CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch continued his dominance with a flawless qualifying effort Friday night to capture the pole for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

Busch, the Sprint Cup points leader with three wins and seven top-10 finishes in 11 races, was the last car to hit the track. In a unique format that called for three laps and a four-tire pit stop, Busch was the fastest in and out of pit road and finished in 2 minutes, 1.956 seconds.

Busch was more than a half-second faster than Jeff Gordon, who will start on the outside of the front row for Saturday's non-points race.

"Being able to go out last definitely helped out," Busch said of the cooler conditions as darkness fell on Lowe's Motor Speedway. "It was a fast race car, that's for sure."

Kurt Busch, Kyle's older brother, qualified third, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray. Gordon sat on top of the speed chart for more than hour before being overtaken by NASCAR's 23-year-old star. Busch, whose aggressive style has ticked off fans of other drivers, namely Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s throng, was greeted again by boos after his latest conquest.

The qualifying format placed great importance on the pit stop, with drivers penalized for speeding on pit road, loose lug nuts or other mistakes by their crews.

Jimmie Johnson will start from the rear of the field after he stopped outside the pit box. Denny Hamlin will join him in the back after he spun out as he entered pit road. Earnhardt qualified 11th.

Today's race will feature four 25-lap segments, with a $1 million first prize. And Busch will come in as the overwhelming favorite.

Olympics

Amputee runner wins appeal

MILAN, Italy -- His Olympic dream suddenly revived, Oscar Pistorius can get back to what he loves most -- running.

The double-amputee sprinter from South Africa was cleared Friday to compete in his bid to qualify for the Beijing Games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics Federations that barred the 21-year-old runner from the Olympics and any other able-bodied competition because of his prosthetic racing blades.

Pistorius broke into a broad smile to a roomful of applause when the decision was announced. He reached toward his manager, Peet van Zyl, for a victory handshake.

"I am ecstatic," Pistorius said. "When I found out I was crying. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It's a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people."

He is the first to acknowledge it will be a challenge to make it to the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games. He holds the 400-meter Paralympic world record of 46.56, but must reach the qualifying time of 45.55 to compete in the individual event in Beijing.

"My hopes are very big for the Olympics for 2008," Pistorius said. "I think the time period at the moment is very short. Obviously, I have the opportunity, so I am not going to let it go ... but it is going to be very difficult in order to run those times."

However, Pistorius also could be invited to join the South African relay team, which would not require him to qualify.

"We are very much hopeful that he will be part and parcel of our team," said Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa.

If Pistorius does go to the Olympics, he will be competing alongside another amputee South African athlete: Natalie du Toit, who qualified for Beijing in open-water swimming.