Spring Sports Notebook : Newhall Wed to New Bride, Occidental

Brian Newhall is getting married in Portland, Ore., on Sunday but his best wedding gift is waiting for him in Los Angeles.

Newhall, 28, who coached the Occidental College men’s junior varsity basketball team to a 13-11 record, 8-4 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, replaces Bill Westphal as varsity coach.

Westphal, who had a 136-104 record in his nine years at Occidental, will assume head coaching responsibilities at Grand Canyon College in Phoenix, Ariz. Grand Canyon won the 1988 National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Championship. He is taking over for his brother, Paul, who will move to an assistant coaching position with the Phoenix Suns.

Newhall, who played at Occidental and was 1983 SCIAC Player of the Year before playing basketball professionally in France for two years, led the Tigers to a co-league championship with no starters taller than 6-2.

“This is going to be one of our best recruiting years ever,” he said. “We’ll be starting from scratch but if we can mold players together we have a chance to do good things in league next year.”

Tom Kendall of La Canada won the International Motor Sports Assn. GTU-class race Sunday at Summit Point, W. Va. and moved into fourth place in overall IMSA standings. But his older brother Bart is still ahead of him.

Bart, 23, who is ranked third, and finished fourth Sunday with co-driver Johnny Unser.

“I was in a brand new car and was still learning about it during the race,” Bart said. “Tom was breathing down my neck the whole time.”

Both Kendalls moved closer to IMSA leader Amos Johnson, who broke down with transmission problems mid-race.

The next race on the IMSA series is the June 5 Mid-Ohio in Mansfield, Ohio.

The Glendale High boys’ volleyball team (17-4, 7-2 in Central League play) lost to Arcadia (17-2, 9-0) Saturday in the Southern Section 3-A final, 13-15, 13-15, 3-15 at Westminster High.

“They were the best team this year,” said Glendale Coach Jack Trotter, whose team lost in league play to Arcadia this year. “They were primarily a senior team.”

But Trotter is optimistic about next year, especially with all-league selections Chad Blatchley and Brent Hoxie returning.

Add Glendale: For only the third time in the school’s history, the Dynamiters (21-0) clinched the Southern Section 4-A badminton championship. They did it by beating Buena Park, 12-7, Tuesday.

Sung Hong, 18, who is 42-1 in singles play, led off with the most impressive performance--a 15-11, 15-13, 14-18, 15-5 win over Chulki Song.

But Coach Pat Rogerson said the team had its hands full in the semifinals Thursday with No. 4 seed Colton High at Colton.

“They had the same strengths we had,” she said.

But few teams have players the caliber of the Armendariz twins, Angela and Christiane, who are United States Badminton Assn. champions and have won the Southern Section doubles title for three years in a row.

Crescenta Valley Gymnasts Wendy Cohen (36.15), Jennie Jensen (36.05), and Jill Devore (35.95) placed second, third and fourth, respectively in the Southern Section 4-A championships at Westlake High Saturday.

Jensen, the 1986 champion, had won every event until her two falls on bars knocked her out of first place. “It’s really unusual that any one team could place so high,” Falcon Coach Laree Martin said.

Add Crescenta Valley: After a personal best and school record 800-meters time of 152.87 seconds at the CIF 4-A Track and Field Finals last Saturday, Morgan Bateman is seeded No. 1 in the CIF Masters Meet Friday night at Cerritos College starting at 6:30 p.m..

Brent Lewis, who pole-vaulted 14’-6” Saturday, also qualified for Friday’s meet.

Of the Glendale-area baseball teams, only La Canada advanced to the second round of the Southern Section playoffs with a 3-2 win over Ontario Christian in the 2-A Division. Hoover lost, 3-0, to Simi Valley while Glendale was blanked, 10-0, by Riverside Poly.

In the second round Tuesday, La Canada defeated St. Joseph of Santa Maria, 4-1. The Spartans advance to round three Friday at 3:15 p.m. to face Norte Vista at La Canada.