Ventura County Supplying Bulk of Field Hockey Team : Pan American Games: Twenty-eight athletes from region will represent United States in 13 sports in Havana.

Twenty-eight athletes with ties to the region will represent the United States in 13 sports ranging from canoeing to yachting in the 11th Pan American Games in Havana. Opening ceremonies are scheduled for today (5 p.m., Turner Network Television) and competition will begin Saturday and run through Aug. 18.

Another athlete and a coach from the area are also part of foreign delegations. Cyclist Marcello Arrue of Van Nuys, who also holds a Chilean passport, is expected to compete for that nation. Arrue, 28, was bypassed for the U.S. team despite winning a gold medal in the match sprint in last month’s U.S. Olympic Festival. Additionally, Harvard High water polo Coach Rich Corso will guide the Canadian squad.

The spectrum of age and experience ranges from 55-year-old pistol shooter Don Nygord of La Crescenta, who is seeking to add to the 10 individual and team gold medals he has won in the Pan American Games, to 16-year-old rhythmic gymnast Carmit Bachar of Encino.

The biggest area influence will be felt in men’s field hockey; 11 of the 16 players hail from Ventura County. Field hockey is one of several sports in which a team’s Pan American Games finish will determine its Olympic Games status.

Any team winning a gold medal automatically qualifies for next year’s Olympics, but history is against the United States. In six previous Pan American Games, the quadrennial competition for athletes from North, Central and South America, the best the United States could do was bronze-medal performances in 1967 and 1987.

Athletes in other team sports are Cam Rast (soccer), a Royal High alumnus; Barb Booth and Sheila Cornell (softball), of Glendale; Mike Hurdle of Reseda and Kevin Withrow of Thousand Oaks (team handball); and Coley Kyman (volleyball), of Cal State Northridge.

The most dominant area competitor in his or her sport is water polo’s Terry Schroeder. The 32-year-old Agoura Hills resident was voted player of the world in 1981 and 1985 by Swimming World magazine, captained the U.S. national team from 1983-88 and collected two Olympic Games silver medals and Pan American Games gold medals in 1979 and 1983.

Rich Bryon, a Palmdale High graduate, will sail in the Finn class, and David and Fred Spaulding, Buena High graduates, will compete in canoeing.

There are two area track and field competitors: 400-meter runner Quincy Watts and javelin thrower Donna Mayhew. Watts, 21, a Taft High graduate who now attends USC, won a silver medal in the 400 meters and anchored the gold-medal winning West squad in the 1,600-meter relay in the L.A. Olympic Festival and was third in The Athletics Congress championships in June with a personal best of 44.98 seconds.

Mayhew, a 1978 Crescenta Valley High graduate who later attended Glendale College, was third in both the 1990 and 1991 TAC championships and seventh in the 1988 Olympics.

Participants in other individual sports include Thousand Oaks cyclist Maureen Manley, fencer Al Carter (foil), a 1988 Harvard High graduate, and gymnast Bob Stelter of Burbank.