COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Christ College Freshman Overcomes Error to Win

Christ College Irvine freshman Genevieve Graff overcame a lapse in judgment to win the women’s individual race of the Golden State Athletic Conference cross-country championships Saturday at Balboa Park.

Graff’s winning time of 18 minutes 37 seconds would have been even faster had she not misjudged the finish line. Graff, in her first year as a cross-country runner, stopped 30 feet short of the finish line before realizing her mistake.

Westmont won the women’s team title with 38 points. Southern California College (94) was fourth. Christ College Irvine did not have enough runners to compete for the team title and finished sixth with no score.

In the men’s division, Point Loma won with 19 points, SCC (141) was fourth and Christ College Irvine (178) fifth.

At the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo invitational, UC Irvine’s women’s team won with 82 points. Cal State Fullerton finished 12th with 334 points.

Brigid Stirling led Irvine, finishing fifth in 16:50. Teammate Buffy Rabbitt (17:08) was ninth.

In the men’s division, Irvine finished eighth with 249 points. The Reebok Aggies running team finished first (67).

At the All-American tennis championships in Athens, Ga., Mike Saunders of UC Irvine defeated Brian McAllister of South Florida, 7-6, 6-3, to win the first of the three victories required to advance to the qualifying round. Once a player is in the qualifying round, he then must win four matches to enter the 32-player main draw.

Sean Steinour of North Carolina defeated Neel Grover of Irvine, 6-3, 6-1, to eliminate Grover from the competition.

At the ITCA regional tennis championships at UC Irvine, top-seeded Kim Po of UCLA defeated Jeanna Kovacevich of Pepperdine, 6-4, 6-1, to advance to the singles final.

In Big West Conference water polo:

UC Irvine 13, Fresno State 6--Top-ranked UC Irvine improved to 14-2 overall, 2-0 in conference play with its victory at Fresno. Julian Harvey and Skylar Putman each had four goals to pace the Anteaters. Fresno State drops to 6-12, 0-2.