Prep Review / Elliott Teaford : Parity Leaves Top Boys’ Tennis Teams Scrambling for Position

Corona del Mar High School beat Newport Harbor last Wednesday. Laguna Beach beat Corona del Mar the next day.

So who is No. 1 in Orange County boys’ tennis?

Any one of the three could stake a claim to the top spot, but Laguna Beach, with its 10-8 victory over Corona del Mar, can, for order’s sake, be called the top team this week.

Next week? Who knows?

County teams are more competitive and balanced than ever this season.

“It’s kind of unusual in tennis,” Corona del Mar Coach Dave Heffern said. “Usually it’s pretty cut and dried as to who’s the best. Now it’s like a lot of other sports now. On any given day, any one of them can be No. 1.”

Laguna Beach has one of the strongest singles lineups in the Southern Section.

Sophomore Jon Leach was the Southern Section singles champion last season and has lost a grand total of one set in high school play. Leach, the Artists’ No. 1 singles player, was 65-1 last season and is 18-0 this year.

Graham Gilles, a freshman who plays at No. 2, is unbeaten at 12-0. He won the Ojai Valley tournament’s 14-year-old singles title last season.

The improved play of Lee Kirner, a No. 3 player, also has provided a big boost to Laguna Beach. Kirner, the MVP on the junior varsity basketball team, is 18-3 and has only recently begun to take his tennis seriously.

“He’s an excellent athlete,” Laguna Beach Coach Bob Walton said. “And a lot of people don’t know who he is.”

Kirner, a junior, is ranked No. 21 in Southern California in the 16-year-old age group.

The Artists are 7-1 going into today’s nonleague match against University. Their only loss was to Mission Viejo when Leach and Gilles were at the Easter Bowl tournament in Miami.

Corona del Mar’s strength is its doubles play.

Partners Rob Atkin and David Bain and Doug Schulein and Rich Han are tough to beat. Atkin, Han and Schulein are seniors. Atkin and Schulein are the team’s co-captains. Bain is a freshman.

Corona del Mar is 8-3.

Newport Harbor (7-3) is Corona del Mar’s big rival in the Sea View League.

Chris Rabbitt is Newport Harbor’s top singles player. Chase Warmington and Jamie Hardin are the Sailors’ No. 1 doubles team.

But, thanks to its victory over Corona del Mar and Corona del Mar’s victory over Newport Harbor, Laguna Beach is on top. For the moment, anyway.

Gone to the dogs? Tustin’s baseball team has developed a curious way of disrupting a pitcher’s concentration.

The Tillers bark at him.

The Tustin players, standing on the edge of the dugout, start barking as soon as the pitcher leans back to begin his windup.

So far, their bark is worse than their bite.

Wednesday against Estancia, the Tillers managed only four hits and an unearned run off Estancia’s Gabe Javage in a 1-0 victory.

Versatile: Laura Sawin of Corona del Mar put together quite a performance in a dual track and field meet against University Thursday.

It wasn’t that her marks were so impressive, but it was the range of her events.

She won the 880-yard run, outrunning University’s Tanya Brix, 2:22.76 seconds to 2:25.22. It was only the second time Sawin had run an 880.

Sawin also won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet.

She added a second-place finish in the 220 in 27.71 and a third-place in the shotput with a 27-6 1/2 throw.

So which is her best event?

The 440. She ran 58.09 at the Orange County Championships meet last season, the fifth-best time among county runners last season.

Record-breaker? Lori Svoboda of El Dorado leaped 5-10 3/4 to win the girls’ high jump at the Bishop Amat Relays Saturday at Mount San Antonio College.

She’s just 1 1/4 inches short of the Orange County record of 6 feet set by Anaheim’s Yleana Carrasco in 1984.

Saturday’s jump was a personal best for Svoboda, a senior whose previous best was 5-10. Only Carrasco and Ursula Lovely, who jumped 5-11 for Kennedy in 1985, have jumped higher.

More track notes:

Denise Surmon of Costa Mesa broke her own school record in the 100-meter low hurdles by finishing second with a time of 15.91 Saturday in the Dana Hills Invitational track and field meet. Surmon, who established the mark of 16.01 two days before, was edged out Saturday by Debbie Lewis of Maranatha, who set a meet record of 15.72. In the 300-meter hurdles, Surmon again finished second behind Lewis with a 49.46 time. Lewis’ winning mark was 49.30.

Tim Martin, only a sophomore at San Clemente, turned in impressive victories in the 100 and 200 meters Thursday in a dual meet against Irvine. He ran 10.7 in the 100, which ties him with Kerwin Bell of Edison for the fifth-fastest time ever by an Orange County runner. He also ran 22.4 for the 200 and anchored the Tritons’ winning 400-meter relay team, which ran 44.6.

Last add track: The girls’ discus at the Arcadia Invitational next Saturday at 5:30 p.m. will feature four of the nation’s best, including Allison Franke of Canyon.

Franke is scheduled to meet Dawn Dumble and Melisa Weis of Bakersfield and Jennifer Peters of Gunn High in Palo Alto.

Franke threw 154-8, a personal best, Thursday. The same day, Dumble threw 170-11, the best mark in the country this season. Weis set a national record for sophomores with a 163-0 throw last year. Peters has thrown 154-8.

Basketball accolade: Joni Easterly of Katella was named second team all-state by California Basketball magazine. She was the only Orange County player, male or female, to be named.

Easterly, a 5-10 guard who will attend USC next fall, led Katella to its first State championship berth and a Southern Section 4-A championship. She was named The Times’ county player of the year Sunday.