UCSD in 8th Place in Golf Tourney

UC San Diego remained in eighth place after the second round of the NCAA Division III Golf Tournament on Wednesday in Lincoln, Neb.

UCSD’s four scorers are tied with Knox at 635 strokes, one behind Washington and Lee. Methodist leads the field with 604.

Bob Knee carded a 77 and leads UCSD with a 14th-place 153 on the par-71 Firethorn Golf Club course. Devin Thomas is at 160, Dale Abraham 162 and Matt Stottern 163. Bill Arliss of Methodist shot a 72 and holds a two-shot lead at 145.

Point Loma Nazarene was eliminated from the NAIA National Tournament in Oklahoma City, Okla., after failing to make the team cut after two days of competition.

North Florida was the team leader with a 597 at the par-72 Twin Hills Country Club course. The Crusaders missed the 630 cutoff after shooting a 646 after 36 holes.

PLNC was among 17 teams cut from the 33-team field. Mark Hellman (81-76--157) was the Crusaders’ top finisher.

TRACK AND FIELD

UCSD’s Scott Sargeant, with a throw of 198 feet, 7 inches, was the day’s top qualifier in the hammer throw at the first day of the NCAA Division III championships at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

Sargeant also qualified in the discus, where he had the fifth best qualifying throw (155-1). Tritons who qualified for Friday’s final were J.J. Cisneros in the long jump (22-10), Erica Washington in the women’s 200 (24.87), the women’s 4 x 100 relay team (48.83) and Bobbie Octavo in the women’s javelin.

Shannon Quigley qualified for Saturday’s finals in the women’s shot put with the fourth longest throw.

BASEBALL

Mike Saipe, a pitcher and shortstop at University City, has signed a national letter of intent to attend USD, Athletic Director Tom Iannacone announced.

Three-year letterman Saipe led the Centurions with a .425 batting average this season and hit one home run, had nine doubles, scored 18 runs and led his team with 26 RBIs in the fourth spot.

Saipe, 6-foot-1, was 8-3 in 1991 as a pitcher, had a 1.88 earned run average, allowed 15 earned runs in 72 innings pitched and struck out 70.

This year he was the Western League player of the year. He was named to the All-Western League second team as a junior.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Liz LaPlante, coach of three UCSD national champion teams in the 1980s, was named NCAA Division III Coach of the Decade at the national championships, which ended Wednesday in Atlanta. She was honored in a special presentation hosted by Emory University.

LaPlante is the most successful coach in Division III women’s tennis history, with national title in 1985, 1987 and 1989. Her teams finished second in 1982, 1984 and 1990, and third in 1988 and 1991.

Under LaPlante, a 1979 SDSU graduate, 22 Tritons have earned All-American honors. She has a career record of 188-73 in 11 seasons at UCSD.