Sports briefs

LOCAL

TSC accepting fall registrations  

The Tahlequah Soccer Club is now accepting registrations for the fall.

The league will be open to children ages four to 17. The fee is $35 prior to July 15 and $50 after that.

Forms can be picked up and returned at Phillips 66 on the west bypass, at Felts Shoes or printed from our website (www.tahlequahsoccerclub.org).

Also, the club is in need of volunteers to coach, referee and field maintenance.

For more information, contact Serena Foster at 457-7388 or Melissa Foreman at 453-3838.

Stingrays finish strong in Fort Smith

The Boys & Girls Club/Tahlequah Stingrays swim team came home with several top-eight finishes at the 2010 Fort Smith Recordsetter meet last weekend.

The Stingrays were the only Oklahoma USA swim team who joined top teams from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri.

Breonna Barker won gold in the 13-14 women’s 50-meter freestyle with a time of 29.53 seconds. Barker's performance qualified her for the 2010 USA Zone Championships, which will be held the first weekend in August in Lincoln, Neb.

Two other swimmers, Nick Lawson, 14, and Connor Schapp, 11, placed in the top eight in all seven of their events while 10-and-under swimmer, Zach Owens, advanced to finals in five of his events.

Leslie White finished third in both the women’s 13-14 100- and 200-meter breaststroke. Teammate Emma Hunsaker placed fifth in the 13-14 women’s 800-meter freestyle and Sara Nichols, 12, finished with a ninth-place finish in the 50-meter backstroke.

Other solid performances by the Stingrays included Brandon Walker, Kristin Berry, Jordan Robertson, Sareena Barker and Erikka Tuie.

The Stingrays head to Ponca City this weekend.



NATION

Rangers activate Cruz from DL

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz has been activated from the disabled list and is back in the lineup.

Cruz is scheduled to bat sixth and play right field in Tuesday night's game against Pittsburgh. To make room for him on the roster, the Rangers optioned outfielder Craig Gentry to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Cruz was hitting .327 with 10 home runs and 34 RBIs in 34 games before going on the DL on May 30 with a strained left hamstring. He had only been back about two weeks after a 15-day DL stint for a sore right hamstring.

Cruz slipped from third to fourth in the American League All-Star fan voting this week. Teammate Josh Hamilton, who took a 16-game hitting streak into Tuesday's homestand opener, now ranks third.

NBA finale draws big TV audience

NEW YORK (AP) — Not since Michael Jordan's final championship has a pro basketball game drawn a bigger audience than last week's seventh game of the Lakers-Celtics series.

The Nielsen Co. said Tuesday that 28.2 million people watched Kobe Bryant's Lakers win their second straight NBA championship. It was the most-watched NBA game since Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to their sixth championship over the Utah Jazz in 1998.

Except for the Olympics, Nielsen said last Thursday's game was the most-watched show on network TV in the summertime since the finale of the first "Survivor" season in August 2000.

It follows a trend of big ratings for big events on TV. This year's Super Bowl reigns as the most-watched event in U.S. television history.

Text Only