SPORTSCOPE : Bruin Swimmers Send 10 to Vie in NCAA Meet

The UCLA men’s swim team, ranked 10th nationally, has eight swimmers and two divers in the NCAA championships, which start today and end Saturday at Austin, Tex. Last year the Bruins placed sixth at the nationals.

The divers are Chris Dudka, Pacific 10 Conference champion on the one- and three-meter boards, and David Fleck.

Swimmers include Mark Thompson, who set a school record of 1 minute, 47.35 seconds in the 200-meter backstroke at the Pac-10 championships. Others are Byron Davis, Mark Thompson, Andy O’Grady, Andrea Cecchi, Stephane Dupont, Michael Picotte and Chris Mann.

The No. 5 UCLA women’s swim team finished fifth at last week’s NCAAs, tying the school’s best placement ever, which occurred last year. Texas won the title with an NCAA-record 746 points to 192 for UCLA.

The Bruins were led by Kris Stoudt, who set a school record of 54.04 and finished third in the 100 butterfly, and the 200-medley relay team, which placed third in a school-record 1:42.15.

The No. 7 Pepperdine baseball team (21-5-1 overall, 12-3 in West Coast Conference play as the week began) will play Cal State Fullerton twice next week. The Waves will play at Fullerton at 7 p.m. Tuesday and play host to the Titans in a makeup game at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Waves were rained out three times last week but beat the University of San Francisco, 13-3. Patrick Ahearne went eight innings for the victory, raising his record to 8-1. Second baseman Steve Rodriguez was four for six against USF and is batting a team-high .460.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s gymnastics team, which won last week’s Pac-10 championships with a season-high score of 285.10, will compete in the NCAA West Regional on April 6 at the University of Oklahoma, the nation’s top-ranked team. No. 2 Stanford was second with 283.15 at the Pac-10 meet.

UCLA’s Scott Keswick won the all-around conference title, but he had to withdraw from individual events because he became ill. Keswick was named Pac-10 gymnast of the year and UCLA’s Art Shurlock, coach of the year.

Bruin Chainey Umphrey, second in the all-around, also won the still rings with a 9.9, and teammate Jason Garman won the horizontal bar with a career-best 9.8.

Brentwood School senior forward Alex Galbraith has been named the CIF-Southern Section offensive soccer player of the year in the 1-A Division for the second year in a row.

First-team 1-A selections included Brentwood senior midfielder Holly Gajanian and Harvard-Westlake sophomore defender Alyse Lowen. Brentwood second-team members were senior forward Joanna Measer and freshman defender Ann O’Brien.

Santa Monica High senior midfielder Kim Ingel was named to the 4-A second team.

Pepperdine’s Ashley Adleta shot rounds of 81 and 85 and tied for eighth place among individuals at last week’s Desert Challenge at Tempe, Ariz. Iowa won the team competition at 644, and the Waves were fifth at 684.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team will compete Monday and Tuesday at the University of Oregon invitational at Eugene.

West Los Angeles College sophomore guard Booker Waugh and teammate Keith London, a freshman forward, and Santa Monica College sophomore guard Donald Smith were named to the All-Western State Conference South Division basketball team.