JC NOTES : El Camino Has an Outside Shot at National Grid Championship

An almost sure match-up, not official yet, is El Camino and Riverside in the Orange County Bowl, formerly the Pony Bowl, on Dec. 2 at Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium.

The bowl gives an automatic bid to the winner of the Mission Conference Central Division, in this case Riverside (9-0, 8-0), the only undefeated team besides El Camino (Northern Division) in the 16-member conference.

The opponent is chosen by a bowl committee. If the Warriors beat Cerritos on Saturday, they’ll wrap up the season untarnished (10-0), which means an Orange County Bowl victory is possibly equivalent to a mythical national championship, a title El Camino won in 1987.

Riverside, ranked second in the state and third in the nation, has never won the title. Unlike El Camino, the Tigers like to keep the ball on the ground. Their rushing offense is tops in the conference, and overall they’re third (El Camino is second) with an average of 401 yards a game.

Running back Daryl McChristian of Riverside is the league’s second-best rusher with 1,456 yards on 193 carries for 10 touchdowns. Mt. San Antonio College’s Leonard Russell is first with an average of 162 yards a game.

Riverside will end the regular season Saturday against Golden West (4-3, 4-4).

The JC Grid-Wire, which ranks teams nationally, says that the winner of the Orange County Bowl won’t necessarily be the national champion. A lot depends on the outcome of this week’s games.

The winner of the Mid-American Bowl in Tulsa is the other possibility. It will feature Navarro, Tex., the nation’s top-ranked team, and Ellsworth, Iowa, which is ranked fourth nationally. Both are 9-0.

The JC Grid-Wire predicts that L.A. Southwest (7-1-1, 6-1-1) will play Palomar in the Hall of Fame Bowl at Balboa Stadium in San Diego on Dec. 2. Palomar heads the weak Southern Division of the Mission Conference with a 5-3 record.

Comet quarterback Scott Barrick leads the conference in passing with 2,747 yards and 18 touchdowns.

If the prediction is right, it will be the first time Southwest competes in a bowl.

Kristy Loesener looked to a neighbor for the perfect game plan, and if the El Camino Warriors’ season-opener is an indication, it works. The second-year women’s basketball coach follows the Cal State Long Beach fast-break attack that’s tough to keep up with.

She got the idea from Joan Bonvicini, who heads one of the strongest Division I women’s basketball programs in the nation. Bonvicini has led Long Beach to the playoffs in each of her nine years there.

“I’ve studied her program a lot and I’ve studied her style a lot,” Loesener said. “This year we’re using it a lot because we’re super quick and we have an excellent fast break.”

On Monday it resulted in a 70-32 trouncing of Glendale, where Loesener coached from 1982 to 1984 and led the Vaqueros to their most successful season ever.

El Camino looks strong up front with returning center Cheri Bullet (6-feet) and freshman power forward Jill Reid (6-1). Bullet had 16 points and 18 rebounds against Glendale.

Guards Tammy Booker and Kim Bly make up a speedy backcourt with Lynn Sherman, a transfer from Long Beach City College. Bly led the Warriors with 20 points against Glendale and Sherman had 16.

“Lynn is a very good all-around player,” Loesener said. “She has an excellent outside shot and she moves very well.”

El Camino will go to Orange County to play in the Golden West tournament this weekend.

“Fresno, here we come!” That’s a happy tune if you’re on a junior college cross-country team, and that’s what the El Camino women are chanting after placing third at the Southern California Regionals last week.

The finish earned the Warriors a trip to Fresno’s Woodward Park for Saturday’s state meet, which features the top five teams in Southern California and the top five from Northern California.

Conference rival and cross-country powerhouse Mt. San Antonio College placed first at the regional meet with 50 points, and Bakersfield was second with 86.

Diana Tracy led El Camino with a fourth place, the best performance in the school’s history in a regional race. The 36-year-old ran the three-mile Mt. Sac course in 18:38, surpassing Chris Hamilton’s 18:49 finish last year.

Carla Swaim placed second for El Camino and 14th (19:31) in a field of 115 while Sharrette Garcia came in 20th (19:50) and Shena Mills 27th (20:04).

“I had a reasonable notion that we would do very well at the end of the season because a few of the girls made the transition from training to racing,” Coach Dean Lofgren said. “This team was underrated all year, and it’s good to see it coming on strong.”

The injury-plagued men’s team didn’t qualify for the state meet because it placed 13th at the regional meet. However, Phil DeMontigny qualified for the state championship as an individual. He finished 19th in the four-mile.