Athletes in Action Will Move Operation to Cincinnati

Athletes in Action will move its operation from San Diego to Cincinnati this summer. AIA, a Christian-advocacy organization that played a schedule of college teams in exhibition games, had moved from Vancouver, Canada, to San Diego in 1985.

The move comes as part of a structural and leadership change within the national organization. The national offices also will be moved to Cincinnati from Irvine.

The AIA will operate a West Coast branch in San Diego and continue to offer summer camps and its three-on-three tournament.

AIA will move to Cincinnati with no coach and only one confirmed player--Lorenzo Romar.

Coach Rle Nichols left the team in January and AIA is searching for a coach and general manager.

AIA was 83-49 in four seasons in San Diego. The organization was in Vancouver for eight years.

TENNIS

Steffi Graf, the top-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, will compete in the $200,000 Great American Bank Tennis Classic at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club July 31 to Aug. 6.

Graf became only the fifth player to win tennis’ Grand Slam--the Australian, French, U.S. Open and Wimbledon--last year. This will be her only tournament appearance on the West Coast this year.

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

Michael Hudson and Shawn Jamison, both of Pratt Community College near Wichita, Kan., signed national letters of intent with San Diego State Tuesday.

Jamison, 6-foot-8, had verbally committed to the Aztecs last Tuesday. He averaged 19.9 points and 9.2 rebounds for Pratt. Hudson, a 6-2 guard, averaged 13.8 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Jamison is a graduate of Gahr High in Cerritos. Hudson prepped at Los Angeles Washington. In 1987-88, both played at Casper College in Wyoming where they finished sixth in the national community college tournament. Last season, they led Pratt to a fourth-place finish in the national tournament.

GOLF

Judy Furst of Palm Desert holds a two-stroke lead going into today’s final round of the San Diego Women’s Classic at the Chula Vista Golf Course.

Furst shot a 37 on the front nine Tuesday, then came back with a 35 on the back nine for a combined score of 72. Teresa Schreck and Kim Saiki followed at 75.

Shelly Tulao, a Chula Vista amateur, is among a group of three golfers three back at 75.

BASEBALL

UC San Diego scored seven runs in the third inning, including back-to-back home runs by Gary Fessia and Jim Martinez, to lift the Tritons over visiting Pomona-Pitzer, 9-3.

Also in the third, eight batters reached base, the first seven scoring, before Fessia’s grand slam and Martinez’s solo home runs. The Division III eighth-ranked Tritons improved to 18-14. Pomona-Pitzer dropped to 7-21-1. Rick Rupkey (8-3) picked up the win.

Freshman Bruce Moutaw hit a three-run homer in the ninth to get US International close, but the Gulls (16-27) still fell to UC Riverside, 7-5, in a nonconference game. Scott Einhorn hit a solo homer for USIU.

University of San Diego broke its 15-game losing streak by winning the second game of a doubleheader with UC Irvine, 1-0. UC Irvine won the opener, 3-1.

DISTANCE RUNNING

Ultra distance runner Sarah Fulcher of Pacific Beach will run in the Soviet-sponsored Pravda International Super Marathon June 15-30 in Russia.

Fulcher, an assistant track coach at Mission Bay High, is one of 10 Americans on a relay team that will run 1,000 miles--approximately 20 miles a day per runner--beginning in Tynda, 200 miles east of Lake Baykal in eastern Siberia. The marathon will finish at Pyongyang, on the border of North Korea.

There are 12 teams, mostly Eastern bloc countries, running in the relay, according to Fulcher, 27. The race is a warmup to the May 1990 “Run Down Russia,” a 16-city, 3,100-mile, four-month race that Fulcher has spent five months organizing.