Orange County Roundup : Titan Women Gymnasts Seeded First in Regional

The Cal State Fullerton women’s gymnastics team will be seeded first in Saturday’s NCAA West Regional meet in Gill Coliseum at Corvalis, Ore.

The Titans, ranked No. 6 in the nation, take an 11-8 record into the meet against No. 2 Washington (22-5), No. 3 UCLA (12-5), No. 4 Oregon State (9-4), No. 5 Cal (9-7) and No. 6 Stanford (10-15).

The teams will compete for a berth in the NCAA championships in Gainesville, Fla., April 19-20. The top 10 teams from the five regionals will advance to the championships. Seedings at the championships will be based on regular-season and regional scores.

Fullerton will be led by three-time All-America Taunia Rogers, who holds Titan season-high scores in every event, including all-around (37.90) and vault (9.8). Joining Rogers in the all-around for the Titans will be Tami Elliott, Callie Glanton and Roni Barrios.

Fullerton has already beaten three of the five teams in the regional this season--the exceptions being Cal, with whom the Titans have not competed, and Washington, which beat the Titans in the Shanico Invitational in Corvalis March 2.

Crews from UC Irvine and Orange Coast College will compete in the 13th annual San Diego Crew Classic Friday and Saturday on Mission Bay, along with such opponents as Cal, Washington, Cornell and Navy.

The field will include crews representing 50 clubs, colleges and universities from the United States and Canada competing in 61 events. The course has been moved this year to accommodate crowds of up to 50,000. The new course runs from Dana Landing to Crown Point in Fiesta Bay.

The Anteater varsity rows in a Copley Cup heat at 9:50 Saturday morning. The top three boats from all heats will advance to the Grand Final at 3:15. The Irvine junior varsity will race in its preliminary heat Saturday morning at 6:50 with the two top finishers advancing to the finals at 12:05.

UCI’s novice boat rows in a preliminary heat Friday at 2:30. The novice final is scheduled for 11:40 Saturday. The Anteater freshman will race at 1:30 Friday with the final scheduled for 10:30 Saturday.

Orange Coast has three crews entered in the Classic.

Its top boat, a junior varsity eight, will race in a preliminary heat Saturday morning at 7 against Navy, Cornell, USC, Santa Clara, San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach.

The Pirates’ novice eight will compete in its preliminary heat at 2:40 Friday against Cal, UC Santa Barbara, the California Maritime Academy, Sacramento State and UC Davis. The Pirate freshman eight rows Friday afternoon at 1:20 against UCLA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Loyola and UC Davis.

The Chapman College women’s volleyball team recently signed Cypress College’s Janet Jensen, Orange Coast’s Michelle Lazorek, Delta College’s Brooke Hayselden and Bonita Vista High School’s Dana Beardsley to letters of intent.

Jensen, a 5-foot, 10-inch middle blocker, was Female Athlete of the Year at Western High School, where she earned all-league honors in basketball and volleyball, and additional letters in track and softball. Lazorek, a 5-11 middle blocker, was a second team all-South Coast Conference selection at OCC. An Estancia High School graduate, she lettered in volleyball and track and set the school record of 5-3 in the high jump.

Hayselden, a 5-8 setter, led Delta to the NorCal and state titles this season and was the team and NorCal Most Valuable Player. She was an All-America swimmer at Lincoln High School.

Beardsley, a 5-10 setter and outside hitter, was first team All-CIF in San Diego this season. She was also an all-league soccer player.

Around the Area

Chapman College will host its first track meet in several years Saturday when Masters College, Christ College Irvine, Cal Lutheran and Cal State Fullerton compete with the Panthers in a 27-event meet starting at noon in Chapman Stadium. . . . UC Irvine’s Brian Pajer will compete in the NCAA swimming championships at Indianapolis, Ind., this weekend. Pajer swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 56.3 at the PCAA championships to become the first Anteater ever to qualify for the NCAA Division I championships.