Small Colleges : Dominguez Point Guard Wins Postgraduate Scholarship

John Nojima has always been considered a heady ballplayer and to the NCAA, that’s worth something.

The senior from Cal State Dominguez Hills is one of 10 basketball players nationwide--and the only one from Division II--to be awarded a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship by the NCAA to be used toward a master’s degree.

Nojima, who started 71 straight games for the Toros and earned second-team all-conference honors this season in helping Dominguez Hills to the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, has managed to maintain a 3.89 grade-point average going into his last semester.

Nojima, a business administration major, said he plans to pursue a master’s degree in that field. He has already been accepted at Loyola Marymount and also has applications in at USC and Claremont College.

Nojima was also one of 15 California finalists interviewed over the winter by the Rhodes Scholarship committee.

Nojima led the CCAA with 74 three-pointers, including eight in one game, and finished second in school history with 306 assists.

Redlands baseball Coach Ken Miller nominates first baseman Tom Giannelli as the strongest hitter in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Giannelli, a 6-4, 230-pound senior who has been a three-year starter since transfering from UCLA, is one of the hottest hitters in the SCIAC with a .438 league average and overall marks of .372, 7 home runs and 30 runs batted in through 30 games. But it is where Giannelli hits the ball that has impressed Miller--and several professional scouts.

How dominant is Occidental in SCIAC women’s track? In a recent triangular meet with Pomona-Pitzer and LaVerne, Oxy’s Michele Trimble won the 800, 1,500 and 3,000-meter runs. Teammate Cresey Stewart placed second in all three and Amy Cathcart third.

A week later against UC Santa Barbara, Trimble was equally impressive, winning the 1,500 and running the 3,000 in 10:05.03 to qualify for the Division III national meet.

Trimble, a sophomore, has been the conference’s top distance runner since she entered school, and Occidental is trying to win its eighth straight women’s SCIAC track and field title.

Small-College Notes Gymnasts Mimi Phene and Kimm Zernik of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo received All-American status on the uneven parallel bars, and teammate Kim Weeks made All-American in balance beam. They led Cal Poly to a .sixth-place team finish in Division II, its best ever. . . . Golfer Chip Haugen of Cal State San Bernardino sank a hole in one in competition against Pomona-Pitzer. The junior aced the 164-yard ninth hole at Mountain Meadows.