IN BRIEF

POLO TRAGEDY

Supplement given to horses mixed wrong

Unable to legally bring a supplement into the United States to make its horses more resilient, a Venezuelan polo team used another way to get ready for a champion match: have a pharmacy mix up the concoction.

What happened next, though, was disastrous. The chemicals were mixed wrong, and 21 horses given the brew died in rapid succession, some collapsing just before taking the field in a championship polo match.

The others fell soon after, one by one, shocking a well-heeled crowd gathered to watch the U.S. Open at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Fla.

The Lechuza polo team had hoped to get a compound similar to a name-brand supplement used safely around the world to help horses with exhaustion. But the Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved the supplement.

A Florida pharmacy that mixed the medication said Thursday that an internal review found "the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect."

Jennifer Beckett, chief operating officer for Franck's Pharmacy in Ocala, Fla., would not say whether the incorrect amount was specified in the order that came from a Florida veterinarian.

GOLF

Wadkins finally makes world hall of fame

Lanny Wadkins never was one to waste time on a golf course. He committed to a club, picked his target and fired at the flag, a routine that carried him to 21 victories, a major at Pebble Beach and a record-tying eight U.S. Ryder Cup teams.

A much slower process was his election to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

After spending much of the decade watching other players get inducted with fewer PGA Tour victories, Wadkins was elected on the PGA Tour ballot with 61 percent of the vote.

"It's a huge honor," Wadkins said from Savannah, Ga., where he is playing a Champions Tour event. "Even starting out on tour, I never envisioned this day happening.''

Also: Defending champion Lorena Ochoa shot a bogey-free 8-under-par 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Michelle Wie and Na Yeon Choi after the first round of the LPGA Tour's Corona Championship.

"It was a good day. There is really not much more to add if you look at the score," said Ochoa, the top-ranked Mexican star.

Wie, who started on No. 10, eagled the par-5 fifth and birdied three of her final four holes.

"The greens were interesting," Wie said. "They are in great condition. They give character to the golf course."

MISCELLANEOUS

UNR considers gun ban for Wolf Pack athletes

UNR athletic director Cary Groth said she will consider prohibiting Wolf Pack athletes from possessing handguns after freshman forward Ahyaro Phillips was arrested and kicked off the team for bringing one on campus.

But Groth and basketball coach David Carter said star point guard Armon Johnson did nothing wrong under school policy by having a .25-caliber pistol at his off-campus apartment.

It was that gun that dropped from Phillips' pocket during a confrontation with two UNR football players last week that led to his arrest.

Also: The top-seeded UNLV women's tennis team breezed through its quarterfinal match, winning 4-0 over eighth-seeded Wyoming, to open play at the Mountain West Conference Championships in Albuquerque, N.M.

UNLV will face New Mexico at 1 p.m. today.

The sixth-seeded UNLV men's tennis team avenged a close regular-season loss to Utah by upsetting the third-seeded Utes 4-2 in quarterfinal action of the MWC Championships in Albuquerque.

UNLV will meet New Mexico at 1 p.m. today.

UNLV (26-17) jumped out of conference softball action for an 8-1 victory over Northern Colorado (16-27) in Greeley, Colo.

The Rebels snapped a three-game losing streak.

Rafael Nadal breezed to his 23rd straight victory on clay, beating Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 6-0 in the third round of the Barcelona Open.

The top-ranked Spaniard is looking to win a fifth straight Godo trophy in Barcelona. He got one step closer when quarterfinal opponent David Nalbandian withdrew with a right hip injury.

Chester "Chet" Herbert, a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame who helped develop an exhaust header that blew smoke away from a dragster's rear tires to improve traction, died Thursday. He was 81.

A year after anchoring her Tennessee team to three second-place finishes at the Penn Relays, senior Sarah Bowman returned and made sure the favored Volunteers didn't come up short.

Bowman held off a late charge by Georgetown's Maggie Infield as Tennessee won the college women's distance medley championship on the opening day of the 115th Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Alain Bernard of France broke the world record in the 100-meter freestyle at the French championships in Montpellier, France, becoming the first swimmer to go under the 47-second mark.

Bernard won his semifinal race in 46.94 seconds.