Briefly 11/4/02

Colleges

Baylor football coach Kevin Steele was fired Sunday but agreed to finish out the season with the Bears.

Steele, in his fourth season at Baylor, is 9-33 and his teams have won just one Big 12 conference game during his tenure. The Bears are 3-6 this season, including 1-4 in the Big 12.

Baylor lost to Texas Tech 62-11 on Saturday. Since beating Kansas 35-32 on Oct. 5 to break their 29-game Big 12 losing streak, Baylor has been outscored 181-21 in four games.

Running

Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya pulled away from her last challenger with a fierce charge to win Sunday's New York City Marathon for her first victory in two years.

Chepchumba finished the 26.2 miles in 2:25:56 in temperatures in the 40s and no wind.

Another Kenyan, Boston Marathon champion Rodgers Rop, won the men's title in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 7 seconds. Countrymen Christopher Cheboiboch (2:08:17) and Laban Kipkemboi (2:08:39) followed.

Lyubov Denisova of Russia was second among the women, 21 seconds behind. Olivera Jevtic of Yugoslavia was third.

Marla Runyan, the first legally blind Olympian and attempting a marathon for the first time, was the top U.S. finisher. She was fifth.

Tennis

Slovakia beat Spain for its first Fed Cup title Sunday in Maspalomas, Canary Islands.

The Slovaks won both singles to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five competition, the women's version of the Davis Cup. Spain was trying for a sixth Fed Cup title.

Daniela Hantuchova beat Conchita Martinez 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-4 and Janette Husarova downed Sanchez-Vicario 6-0, 6-2.

Marat Safin won his first title of the year, easily beating Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (4), 6-0, 6-4 Sunday in the Paris Masters.

-- From wire reports