SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Roars to Third-Place Finish at National Rowing Championships

The UCLA men’s crew team finished third in last week’s National Collegiate Rowing Championship at Cincinnati, the best finish in school history by a varsity eight. Wisconsin won the race in 5 minutes, 52.5 seconds, defending national champion Harvard was second in 5:56.84 and UCLA third in 5:56.87.

Kelly Salonites, the UCLA women’s crew coach, was named Pacific 10 Conference coach of the year for the second consecutive year. Her varsity eight, which won the Pacific Coast Championship this year, finished fourth at the women’s nationals on June 4 in Madison, Wis.

Zenon Babraj, the UCLA men’s crew coach for the past four years and a three-time Pac-10 coach of the year after winning three consecutive Pacific Coast titles, said that finishing third at Cincinnati was significant. In three previous nationals under Babraj, the Bruins were fourth once and sixth twice.

“We broke through the wall at nationals this year and it was a great experience for this team,” he said.

“We are a young team and have everyone back from this year’s boat except for one rower (senior Stefanos Volianitis of Greece). Next year we could be one of the favorites to win the national title.”

UCLA women named to the All-Pac-10 team were Leilani Johnson, Kim Cromer, Leslie Lewis and Cathie Heacox. Bruin men on the all-conference squad were Greg LeSage, Brad Marquardt and Volianitis.

UCLA gymnasts Chris Waller, Chainey Umphrey and Scott Keswick have been named to the U.S. national team for the second consecutive year as a result of their performances at the U.S. Gymnastic Federation Championships in Denver.

Waller, who finished second in all-around competition to John Roethlisberger of the University of Minnesota at the federation meet, also was named to the U.S team for the Goodwill Games, which will be held July 2-Aug. 5 in Seattle. Yefim Furman, the UCLA assistant men’s coach, will be an assistant at the Goodwill Games.

Waller is a senior. Keswick and Umphrey, both sophomores, finished fifth and eighth, respectively, at Denver. The trio will compete against the Soviet Union Aug. 3-5 in San Jose.

Keswick and Umphrey will also compete at the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival on July 6-15 in Minneapolis. Art Shurlock, UCLA men’s coach, will be one of four head coaches at the festival.

Felice Lipscomb of Santa Monica High lost her first race of the year in the 100-meter hurdles two weeks ago at the Golden West Invitational in Sacramento, but she avenged that loss Saturday at the Keebler Invitational in Elmhurst, Ill.

Lipscomb, a two-time state champion in the event, finished second at Golden West to Ayo Atterberry of New Rochelle, N.Y. The two raced again last weekend and Lipscomb edged Atterberry, 13.92 seconds to 14.02. She then came back to win the 300 hurdles in 42.47. She leads the nation in the 300 hurdles this season.

The Keebler meet invites the nation’s top high school talent to compete.

The USC-bound Lipscomb won the 100 and 300 hurdles at the state meet June 3 with personal best times of 13.58 and 41.69, respectively.

Thirteen baseball players have signed national letters of intent with Pepperdine.

They include pitcher Patrick Ahearne of Harbor College, pitcher Jerry Aschoff of Rancho Santiago College, catcher-outfielder Keven Dell’Amico of Loyola High, pitcher Mauricio Estavil of Culver City High, pitcher Curt Gossett of Glendora High, pitcher Sky Lasowitz of Harbor College and infielder-outfielder Damon Lembl of Burlingame High.

Others are infielder Chris Milton of Hacienda Heights’ Wilson High, outfielder George Paz of Claremont High, catcher Bruce Petillo, a transfer from the University of the Pacific; infielder John Sacchi, a transfer from UC Berkeley; outfielder Ben Simonton of Pittsburg High in California and outfielder Jason Thompson of Saddleback College.

Senior pitcher Dan Choi, who led Fairfax High to the Los Angeles City 3-A championship, shared 3-A City player of the year honors with senior utility player Rene Lopez of Bell High on All-City teams selected by the baseball board of the First Interstate Bank-Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

Choi, the winning pitcher in all four of the Lions’ playoff games, had a 12-1-1 record and an earned-run average of 1.31. Lopez hit .444 with six home runs, had 44 runs batted in and was 5-1 with a 0.80 earned-run average as a pitcher.

Others named to the All-City 3-A team included senior outfielder Alex Dyachenko of Fairfax, junior outfielder Edwardo Payan of Fairfax and Hamilton senior infielder Jay Fields. Dyachenko hit .403, Payan .500 and Fields .376.

All-City 4-A selections included Palisades senior outfielder John Myrow, a .500 hitter; Venice senior outfielder Mariano Pacleb, who hit .400, and University senior catcher Isaac Yoshinaga, who hit .390.

Westsiders named to the All-CIF Southern Section 5-A team were senior pitcher Mauricio Estavil of Culver City (11-2, 1.4 ERA) on the first team, and third-team selections Troy Dunlap (.395), who was a senior infielder at Culver City, and Reed Aljian (.463), who was a senior catcher at Beverly Hills.

St. Bernard senior infielder Jeff Richardson (.468) was named to the All-Southern Section 2-A first team and St. Bernard senior outfielder John Coleman (.370) was a second-team selection.

The UCLA water polo program will hold a reception to announce the publication of the late J.R. (Jimmy) Smith’s book “The World Encyclopedia of Water Polo,” from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on campus.

The book, compiled by Smith during a 50-year career in water polo, was published by Olive Press Publications. Smith was assistant director of aquatics at Stanford, coached at Fullerton High and Fullerton College and was coach of the U.S. team at the 1955 Pan-American Games.