3 From Pierce Sign to Play Football at 4-Year Schools

Shannon Culver, Charles Gietzen and Rick Luna of Pierce College have signed letters of intent to play football at four-year schools this coming season, Coach Bill Norton said Tuesday.

Culver, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound wide receiver from Palmdale High, signed with Oklahoma State. He led the Brahmas with 31 receptions for 490 yards and five touchdowns last season and earned All-Western State Conference South Division honors.

Gietzen, a 6-5, 315-pound offensive guard from Hamilton High, signed with Memphis State.

Luna, a 6-2, 200-pound inside linebacker from North Hollywood High, signed with Missouri Western State, an NCAA Division II school.

Gietzen and Luna were All-WSC South Division second-team selections.

L.A. Baptist High quarterback Dane Brown has accepted a scholarship from San Jose State. Last season, Brown completed 52 of 134 passes for 944 yards and six touchdowns and also rushed for 344 yards in 50 carries.

Brown has scored better than 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Greg Evangelatos of Encino on Monday won the gold medal in the giant slalom for the blind in the Paralympics in Albertville, France, at the same site of the 1992 Winter Olympics.

Evangelatos, representing the United States, raced against other disabled athletes from around the world.

Earlier this season, racing against blind and partially blind skiers at the Columbia Crest Races in Winter Park, Colo., Evangelatos won two silver medals and one bronze medal. Those performances qualified him for the traveling team for the United States disabled ski team.

Evangelatos lost his eyesight and his hands were severely injured when, at age 18, homemade fireworks exploded in his hands.

Evangelatos won two gold medals in the 1990 World Disabled championships in Winter Park.

After a week in which it split four games against Big West Conference teams, Cal State Northridge held on to the No. 19 position in Baseball America magazine’s poll but fell six places to No. 24 in Collegiate Baseball’s poll.

The Matadors, who will play host to UCLA today at 2:30 p.m., are 19-7-1, the best record of any Division I team on the West Coast. However, Collegiate Baseball has Northridge rated behind No. 9 Pepperdine (21-9-1), No. 10 Cal State Long Beach (19-10-1), No. 12 Stanford (21-10) and No. 16 Cal State Fullerton (22-9).

Northridge has defeated Long Beach, 10-4, and has split with Fullerton, losing, 5-2, and winning, 10-4.

Entries are being accepted for the third Oxnard Duathlon on April 12.

The event, which consists of a four-mile run, 15-mile bike ride and two-mile run, will start at Oxnard State Beach Park.

Information: 805-644-9712.

The Erik Kramer Celebrity-Am Golf tournament will be held at 11 a.m. May 11 at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge.

Proceeds will benefit the Valley College football team.

Kramer, a former Burroughs quarterback who guided the Detroit Lions to the National Football Conference title game last season, played quarterback for Pierce in 1983 and ‘84, when current Valley Coach Jim Fenwick was the Brahmas’ coach.

Information: 818-781-1200, ext. 205.

Former L.A. Ram defensive back LeRoy Irvin and former Arizona assistant Jeff Feldman have joined the coaching staff at Cal State Northridge.

Irvin, 34, will coach defensive backs and Feldman, 30, will coach quarterbacks and wide receivers.