COLLEGE NOTEBOOK / JIM LINDGREN : Weekend Will Mean a Lot to Local Teams

Spring is a busy time for area college athletic programs, as this weekend proves. Dozens of teams and individuals will be in important competitions, most with playoff ramifications.

--Men’s and women’s tennis teams from SDSU, USIU and PLNC are playing in the Ojai Tournament, which begins today and runs through Sunday. No. 13-ranked SDSU is seeded No. 1 in the Big West Conference women’s championships. The SDSU men will be at the WAC championships at Colorado State beginning Monday.

--USD’s men’s team, fresh off its upset victory in the West Coast Conference tournament last week at USD, will travel to No. 4 Pepperdine for a dual meet Friday. No. 15 USD won the WCC title for the second year in a row after Pepperdine won the 16 previous.

--The No. 18 Pepperdine women have already clinched the WCC championship over No. 15 USD, but the singles championship is still to be decided after being rained out last weekend. USD’s Sakolwan Kacharoen, seeded seventh, will play top-seeded Ginger Helgeson of Pepperdine Saturday or Sunday at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club.

--San Diego State’s baseball team, first in the Western Athletic Conference at 12-4 (32-7 overall) will play second-place Wyoming (26-13, 11-5) in a four-game series beginning Friday night at 5 p.m. at Smith Field. There is a doubleheader Saturday at 5 p.m. followed by a single game Sunday at 2, to be televised live by Prime Ticket.

The Aztecs, ranked 24th in the Collegiate Baseball-ESPN poll, broke into the top 25 Tuesday for the first time since April 1988.

--The baseball and softball teams at UCSD, each with postseason aspirations, play doubleheaders against Cal State San Bernardino Saturday at home at noon.

The baseball team (16-12-2 and ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III) swept a doubleheader from San Bernardino earlier this year.

The softball team lost two games at San Bernardino earlier this year but avenged them by winning twice at home in the UCSD tournament.

--UCSD will try to defend its Pacific Coast Volleyball Conference championship this weekend at Santa Clara. The Tritons (8-16) have not lost a match in the two-year existence of the conference.

--UCSD’s golf team will play its final match Friday at Torrey Pines against Cal State Dominguez Hills in hopes of securing a NCAA Division III tournament berth.

--And finally, UCSD will play host to the City Collegiate Track and Field Championships Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. The meet features the men’s and women’s teams of SDSU, PLNC and UCSD.

Last week was not quite as busy (it came close), but there were some noteworthy performances:

--Former Crawford High runner Goshu Tadese of PLNC entered the 10,000 meters with the world-class runners at Mt. SAC and finished with a personal best of 30 minutes 28.24 seconds. The national qualifying time is 30:50.

--In its doubleheader loss to The Master’s, UCSD’s Henry Jimenez was five for six and reached base safely eight of nine times. Jimenez, a senior left fielder, leads the Tritons in average (.425), hits (45), runs batted in (25), home runs (three) and slugging percentage (.594). And in 122 at-bats, he has struck out only four times.

--Kevin Herde, a freshman at USD, had four RBIs in a game last Friday and two more Saturday to increase his team-leading total to 41. Herde, from San Pasqual High, also leads the Toreros in hits (56) and doubles (14) and is second in average (.344) and home runs (seven).

Senior John Jerome, who set two USD scoring marks in 1989-90 with 540 points and a 19.3 average, was selected the most valuable player at the team’s awards banquet. Sophomore Wayman Strickland received the coaches award as the most improved player. Other awards went to sophomore Kelvin Woods (scholar athlete), junior Anthony Thomas (leadership) and junior Pat Holbert (athletic excellence).