SportsScope : UCLA/Times Gymnastics Meet Attracts Some of Top Women’s Teams in Country

Four of the nation’s top-10 college women’s gymnastics teams will be featured in the annual UCLA/Los Angeles Times Invitational at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The field includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Cal State Fullerton, No. 5 Georgia, No. 10 Arizona State and No. 22 Stanford.

Top individuals include UCLA’s Tanya Service and Georgia’s Corrinne Wright, who are tied for first in rankings in the all-around after each posted scores of 38.28 this season.

Other ranked gymnasts for all events include No. 5 Jill Andrews of UCLA, No. 7 Stacey Harris and No. 8 Lisa Dolan, both of Fullerton; No. 10 Lucy Wener of Georgia, No. 11 Karli Urban of Arizona State and UCLA’s Kim Hamilton, No. 14, and Shawn McGinnis, No. 21.

Hamilton is two-time defending champion in floor exercise and Andrews won last year’s NCAA title in the vault.

The No. 2 UCLA men’s gymnastics team finished third last week in both its own and the UC Santa Barbara invitationals.

Illinois won the UCLA/Times meet, ending the Bruins’ six straight years as invitational champion, and Nebraska finished second. The Illini also won the Santa Barbara meet and Minnesota was second.

Bruin David St. Pierre had a 56.2 to finish third in the all-around at UCLA. At Santa Barbara, UCLA’s Chris Waller won the high bar with a 9.65, and teammate Scott Keswick was first in parallel bars at 9.5.

The Santa Monica College men’s volleyball team, dropped from the athletic program in 1984, opened its season last week with a four-game victory over Mt. San Antonio.

SMC Coach Bill Lawler said the Corsairs were sparked by Steve Anderson, Matt Diaz, Jim Vaughn, Andrew Saleh and Torrance Pearce. SMC will play host to Westmont College at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the school gymnasium.

Santa Monica College men’s basketball team, ranked first in the state, won its second straight Western State Conference Southern Division championship last week by defeating Glendale, 85-71, and Los Angeles Valley, 100-73. The victories extended the Corsairs’ school-record winning streak to 15 games.

Keith Amerson scored a career-high 28 points against Glendale and a team-high 20 against Valley.

SMC (27-3, 12-0 in the WSC at the start of the week) will close the regular season at College of the Canyons (12-16, 3-8) at 7 p.m. Saturday and plays host to Bakersfield (3-21, 1-10) at 7 p.m. Monday.

The No. 9 UCLA women’s swim team (9-1, 3-1 in the Pac-10) ended the regular season by defeating USC, 80-60. Sheri Smith qualified for the NCAA meet with a 16:38.06 in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Bruin double winners were Sue Potrepka in the 100 backstroke (58.97) and the 200 back (2:04.9) and freshman Kristin Stoudt in the 100 free (51.56) and 100 butterfly (56.45).