The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Fast-Climbing Freyne Is on a High

Brigid Freyne of Riverside Poly was on the outside looking in, a self-acknowledged unknown in girls’ cross-country circles.

A junior, she won at Mt. San Antonio College in October, but, most figured, that was only because Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park chose not to run. When the two met a month later, Sutton beat Freyne by 12 seconds for the Southern Section 4-A title.

Another meeting in early December brought similar results. Katy McCandless of Palo Alto won in the Kinney Western Regionals, finishing ahead of Sutton and Freyne. Freyne was drawing a bead, though, and her time of 17 minutes 24 seconds left her just one second behind Sutton and three behind McCandless.

Finally, the raised eyebrows were accompanied by dropped jaws as Freyne, who hadn’t made it past the Southern Section preliminaries last track season in the mile, finished sixth in the national cross-country meet a week later in San Diego. As the top L.A.-area finisher, she became the one people were chasing.

Now, she is on the inside, in more ways than one. She will return to track Jan. 16 in the Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena. That will also be her first time ever on a banked track. Tracey Williams of El Monte Mountain View and Sutton and McCandless will be there, too, but not to lend assistance.

Here, as was the case at the start of the cross-country season, goals are not being set too high.

“I just don’t want to fall down,” Freyne said last week.

Kinney national champion Marc Davis of San Diego will race in the boys’ two-mile, in a field that will also include Aaron Mascorro of Rosemead, who ran ninth in the national meet, David Scudamore of Palos Verdes who was 15th, and Bryan Dameworth of Agoura, the only freshman male to make the final in the eight-year history of the Kinney competition.

The lineup for the football 60-yard dash has Patrick Rowe of San Diego Lincoln, Ricky Ervins of Pasadena Muir, W.C. Morrison of Pasadena, Mike Orwat of Paraclete and Alvin Goree of Carson. Sophomore Russell White of Encino Crespi declined an invitation.

Calvin Holmes of Carson, Corey Ealy of Muir, Martin Cannady of Duarte, Brian Bridgewater of L.A. Washington and Kirk Ayers of Anaheim Western will race in the regular 60.

The high jump competition will have two seven-foot jumpers, Dennis Swanson of Mission Hills Alemany and Jeff Martinez from Illinois.

California is one of only six states that do not conduct postseason football playoffs to determine state champions, a national survey by the National Federation of State High School Assns. has found.

Forty-five of the 51 bodies questioned--including the District of Columbia--do. Those that don’t: Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and California. The latter two are the most surprising considering their reputations as hotbeds of high school football.

And what of the time element, long said to be one of the stumbling blocks here? Texas and Indiana have five-game playoffs, 18 states have four-game postseasons and eight states play three games. Thirteen allow teams to play more than once a week--Monday-Saturday--in the playoffs, the majority going with either three or four days in between. Illinois requires only two days’ rest.

On another matter, California is the only state that does not sponsor and conduct rule interpretation clinics for officials.

Basketball center Bobby Joyce of Santa Ana, one of the best juniors in the area, was suspended from the team after the Saints’ 65-54 loss to San Ramon in the semifinals of the Irvine tournament Dec. 19.

It seems that two officials were locked inside the dressing room after the game when a soft-drink vending machine was used to barricade the door. “All the evidence points to the fact that Bobby was involved,” Santa Ana Coach Greg Coombs said.

Joyce will miss the Orange tournament, ending tonight at Chapman College, and will then rejoin the team.

The family of Jack O’Hara, the co-coach of the Westminster football team, who died last Monday after a morning jog, plans to establish a scholarship fund in his name at the school and asks that those wishing to honor his memory donate to the fund.

The Orange County coroner’s office has confirmed that O’Hara died of a heart attack.

Prep Notes Santa Ana Mater Dei finishes up in the Orange tournament tonight, with an 8:30 game, then will play again Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.--in the King of Cotton Tournament in Arkansas. . . . The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced that it will sponsor the Naismith Award for the nation’s top boy and girl high school basketball players. The pair will be honored along with the winners from the college ranks April 2 in Atlanta. . . . Robert Webster, swim coach at Newport Beach Newport Harbor, on receiving an expenses-paid trip to Capanduva, Brazil, to speak at a swimming clinic: “I can’t believe it. I must have done something right this year to get this late Christmas present. I’ve never even heard of Capanduva. It sounded like Katmandu, so I figured, hey, I’m there.” Webster flew to Brazil Saturday and will spend New Year’s Eve in Rio de Janeiro before heading to the six-day clinic Jan. 2. . . . Jim Boeheim, basketball coach at Syracuse, estimates that he traveled 26,000 miles in pursuit of recruits for the November signing period and still came up empty-handed.