SportsScope : UCLA’s Women Gymnasts Favored in NCAA Championships on Weekend

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team is seeded first in the NCAA championships Friday and Saturday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The Bruins are coming off a record win in the NCAA West Regional in Seattle. Led by freshman Kim Hamilton and sophomores Tanya Service and Birgit Schier, UCLA’s score was a sparkling 190.75, a school record and the fourth-highest mark ever in women’s college gymnastics. Hamilton won the all-around with a personal best mark of 38.40, Service was second at 38.30 and Schier third at 38.05.

Utah is defending NCAA champion. The Bruins were seventh at last year’s national meet.

The 1987 West Hollywood Criterium, bicycle races sanctioned by the U.S. Cycling Federation, will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday on a closed course on Melrose Avenue and San Vicente, Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards near the Pacific Design Center.

The 25-mile featured race for professional riders and Olympics aspirants will start at 9:30 a.m. There will also be three 12-mile races, one starting at 8 a.m. for veteran men, one for senior women at 8:45 and another for senior men at 11:30. A “Celebrity and Chefs Cycling Challenge” is set for 11 a.m. Net proceeds from entry fees will benefit Los Angeles chapters of Meals on Wheels.

Registration for riders on race day starts at 7 a.m., and entry fees range from $10 to $17. Admission is free.

Pepperdine’s baseball team, which clinched the West Coast Athletic Conference championship and an NCAA tournament berth last week by sweeping three games from St. Mary’s, is ranked third in the nation this week by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, the school’s highest ranking ever in the polls.

The Waves, 35-8-3 overall and 17-1 in conference, will play at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Loyola Marymount and play host to Loyola in a double-header at noon Saturday in Malibu. Pepperdine also will entertain UC Santa Barbara at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and travel to Cal State Long Beach at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The Waves have won 12 consecutive games and 23 of their last 26.

The top-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team, which has clinched the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. title with an 18-0 record and is 36-3 overall, became the first team to earn a berth in the NCAA championships, which will be held May 1 and 2 at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins won their last 25 regular-season matches, were 15-0 at home and won two tournaments: the UCLA/Reebok and the UC Santa Barbara. UCLA has twice defeated two-time defending NCAA champion Pepperdine, beaten USC six times and has defeated Penn State, the top team in the East, twice.

Pepperdine is the top seed in NCAA Western Selection Tournament, which begins tonight in San Diego State’s Peterson Gymnasium.

The Waves (21-6 overall) will meet fourth-seeded Stanford at 6 tonight, and second-seeded USC (26-10) goes against third-seeded UC Santa Barbara (28-11) at 8. Saturday’s championship match is at 7:30 p.m.

Pepperdine is aiming for its seventh NCAA western tournament championship in 11 appearances and its fifth consecutive berth in the NCAA championships.

The UCLA men’s and women’s tennis teams will compete in the Pac-10 singles and doubles championships for individuals, which will be held today through Sunday as part of the 88th Ojai Valley Tournament at Ojai.

The Pepperdine men’s and women’s tennis teams will be in the West Coast Athletic Conference team tournaments this weekend. The men’s portion will be played Friday through Sunday at Santa Clara, the women’s on the same days, beginning at 8 a.m. at Pepperdine. Pepperdine’s Martin Laurendeau and Craig Johnson will compete in singles and as a doubles team in the college division of the Ojai tournament.

The No. 3 UCLA men are 20-6 overall and finished second in the Pac-10 with a 6-3 mark. The No. 2 UCLA women are 20-5 overall and 7-2 in the Pac-10.

The No. 10 Pepperdine men are 16-5 overall, the No. 24 Pepperdine women 9-21.

The No. 3 UCLA women’s softball team, 32-6 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-10, will play top-ranked Cal State Fullerton in a double-header at 4 p.m. today at Fullerton. The Bruins also will play conference double-headers in the Northwest this weekend, meeting Oregon State on Sunday and Oregon on Monday.

Last week UCLA split a double-header with Cal Poly Pomona and swept two from U.S. International. Senior outfielder Sandra (Sam) Arledge leads the Bruins with a .402 batting average, 7 stolen bases and 63 total bases.

The UCLA men’s and women’s track teams, which both remained unbeaten last week in a home meet against Houston, will compete this weekend in the Mount San Antonio College relays at Walnut.

The Bruin men, 8-0 in dual matches, defeated Houston, 98-44. The UCLA women (5-0) triumphed, 76-60.

Double winners for the men were sophomore Mike Marsh, who won the 100 in 10.3 and the 200 in a season-best and Pac-10 qualifying 20.5 and also anchored the winning 400 relay team (39.99), and senior weight man Jim Banich, who took the shot put in a season-best and NCAA qualifying 63-10 and the discus at 187-2.

UCLA junior Gail Devers ran the fastest 100 in the world this year with an 11.15, won the 200 meters with a 23.2 and qualified for the NCAA meet in the long jump by winning with 20-10 1/2. She also anchored the 4x100 relay team, which ran an NCAA-qualifying 44.32.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team will play in the West Coast Athletic Conference championships Friday through Sunday in Portland. The Waves are led by Jim Johnson, who has won individual titles this season in the Pacific Collegiate Tournament and the UC Irvine invitational.

The UCLA men’s soccer team will defend its championship Friday in the International College Cup at Las Cruces, N.M. Other teams include NAIA champion Sangamon State (Ill.), Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico’s college champion, and Ireland’s college champion, University College-Dublin.

UCLA women swimmers and divers who were in the recent NCAA meet will compete Saturday and Sunday in the first Avis Swimming Championships. Other women’s teams in the meet include NCAA champion Texas, NCAA runner-up Stanford and USC, which finished eighth in the national championships.