Miscellany

With four weeks remaining before the Olympic swim trials, 15-year-old Brooke Bennett won her fourth U.S. national title at the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championship in Orlando, Fla.

Bennett, who snapped Janet Evans’ eight-year winning streaks in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle last summer, won the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:12.66.

Bennett has now won six straight major national and international titles in the 400-meter freestyle beginning with the 1994 U.S. Open Championships.

In a perfect fight promoter’s world, Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez would have sold their respective fights tonight in Las Vegas as risky bouts against tough contenders eager to spoil their multi-million dollar paydays.

Even with $9 million purses at stake, however, both have had trouble convincing even themselves that Darryl Tyson and Scott Walker are anything more than tuneup fights for their June 7 showdown.

De La Hoya and Chavez share the same ring but with different opponents at Caesars Palace, in their final fights before they meet in their planned June 7 fight.