Golden West’s Hadfield Swimming in Fast Lane Again

In the last two weeks, Lisa Hadfield of Golden West College has set a national record in the 50-yard butterfly at the state championship and been named state swimmer of the year.

But maybe her most surprising feat of the spring was simply swimming competitively at all.

Hadfield’s career has been in doubt since December, 1988, when she broke her wrist in an auto accident. She spent three months out of the pool, the longest period she had gone without swimming since she started the sport at age 3.

Hadfield returned late in her senior season at Westminster, but was out of shape and not sure if she wanted to continue.

“That was the first setback of my career,” Hadfield said. “It brought me down. It was a tough time.”

Hadfield worked out on her own last summer and decided to give swimming a try at Golden West.

Still bothered by the wrist injury, which still requires her to wear a brace, Hadfield swam inconsistently during the season.

But in the state tournament, she won the 50 butterfly in 25.84, beating the record of 26.36 set in 1987 by Suzanna Brown of Diablo Valley.

Baseball playoffs: Any doubters of the overall strength of the Orange Empire Conference should be convinced after last weekend.

Four of the eight teams left in the Southern California playoffs are from the conference, including three in one regional at Riverside.

Rancho Santiago, Fullerton and Riverside will be joined by Moorpark at Riverside in Friday’s opening round. Fullerton (26-14) plays Moorpark (24-12) at 11 a.m. and Rancho Santiago (34-10) plays Riverside (29-15) at 3 p.m.

At Cerritos, Golden West (27-12), the other Orange Empire playoff entrant, plays San Bernardino Valley (31-13) at 11 a.m. and Los Angeles Harbor (45-5) takes on Rio Hondo (22-17) at 3 p.m.

The double-elimination regionals continue through Sunday with the two winners advancing to the May 25-27 state tournament at UC Irvine.

The Orange Empire Conference is pretty strong when it comes to softball as well. Champion Cypress and third-place Golden West will be in the state tournament, which starts Friday at Sunnyvale.

Golden West (33-14) takes on West Valley (39-2), Cypress (40-6) plays Ohlone (41-9), Sacramento City (41-4) plays Moorpark (29-9) and defending state champion Palomar (44-4) plays Fresno (44-18). All of the first-round games of the double-elimination tournament start at 10 a.m.

The tournament will be a reunion of sorts for Ohlone Coach Donna Runyon. Runyon coached at Cypress from 1981-86 and had a record of 152-95. Runyon left Cypress and coached for two seasons at City College of San Francisco. She is in her second season at Ohlone.

Brad Pickler took over for Runyon and has a record of 123-56 in four seasons. This is the second consecutive season he has led Cypress to the state tournament.

Perfect chance: The Saddleback men’s tennis team will try to complete its dual-match season undefeated, when the Gauchos play for the state title Friday at Santa Barbara.

Saddleback (23-0) defeated Santa Barbara, 5-1, Friday to take the Southern California championship. Saddleback takes on West Valley at 1 p.m.

“We’re pretty excited about the chance to go undefeated,” Saddleback Coach Bill Otta said. “It would really be something. This is the best team I’ve had.”

The OCC women’s tennis team plays Grossmont for the Southern California dual team title at 2 p.m. today at La Costa Country Club.

The teams played to a 4-4-1 tie earlier this season. The final doubles match was called because of darkness.

OCC won the Southern California women’s title over the weekend at Long Beach as Gina Garcia won in singles and Garcia and Iliana Adame won in doubles.

Garcia defeated Zarina Galvan of Grossmont, 6-3, 6-0, for the title. She also won the Orange Empire Conference singles championship last weekend.

Garcia and Adame defeated Galvan and Kristi Douglass of Grossmont, 7-6, 7-5, for the doubles title.

Community College Notes

OCC high jumper Liz Bauer set a school record in the event at 5 feet 6 1/2 inches in the Southern California finals at Cerritos. Gary Kirchhoff of Saddleback was the lone Orange County winner. He had a throw of 56-5 3/4 in the shotput. . . . Alex Kreps, a 6-7 forward from Golden West, has signed with Idaho State. Kreps, who was an All-Orange Empire selection, averaged 20.5 points and 8.7 rebounds. . . . Randy Graves, a first baseman at Riverside, set the Tigers’ single-season record for hits with 71. Graves played at Cal State Fullerton last season.