Northridge Signs 2 More for Women’s Basketball

Joanna Leese of Edmonds, Wash., and Maureen Batiste of Long Beach Poly High have signed letters of intent to play women’s basketball at Cal State Northridge. Coach Kim Chandler has now signed seven players. Leese is the first out-of-state player signed.

Leese is a 5-foot-11 forward who earned seven varsity letters, four in basketball and three in volleyball, at Meadowdale High in Lynnwood, Wash.

As a senior, Leese led Meadowdale to a 19-2 record. Leese, team captain for three years, set school records for points (1,168), rebounds (608), steals (202) and blocked shots (151) in a career. She averaged 17.3 points a game in her career.

Batiste, a 6-2 center, was a four-year letter winner at Long Beach Poly, where she averaged 10 points and seven rebounds as a senior.

The American Final, the premier event in speedway motorcycle racing, has been canceled by promoter Harry Oxley of San Clemente after he failed to reach agreement with the sanctioning American Motorcycle Assn.

The race, traditionally the first step for American riders toward the world championship, was scheduled for May 30 at Ventura Raceway.

“The event is not financially viable under the AMA,” Oxley said. “The AMA increased the insurance premium from $630 to $4,000 and its sanctioning fee from $250 to $5,000. Paying the AMA $9,000 to put on an event in a 3,000-seat stadium doesn’t work.”

Members of the Raiders will play the Cleveland High football coaches and selected alumni in a basketball game June 12 at the Cleveland gym to raise funds for the football team. Before the game, the campus tennis courts will be dedicated to longtime tennis Coach Arnie Leckman, who died last summer, shortly after his retirement from teaching.

Among those expected to play for the coaches-alumni team is former Cleveland standout Adonis Jordan, the point guard at Kansas.

Information: 818-349-8410, ext. 335, or 818-986-8973.

Swimmer David Lowham and volleyball player Jill Trehearne were named scholar-athletes of the year at the inaugural Cal State Northridge Varsity “N” & scholar-athlete awards banquet.

The Ventura Channel Dash for D.A.R.E., which will include more than 35 of the West Coast’s best off-shore powerboat racing teams, will be held today at Ventura Harbor Village.

The 60-mile open-ocean race course will begin three-quarters of a mile outside Ventura Harbor, run south to Mandalay Beach then head north, past the start/finish line toward Santa Barbara. It turns again at a point off shore, and returns to the finish line outside Ventura Harbor.

The race is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Proceeds will benefit the Ventura Police Department’s D.A.R.E. program.

Several area gymnasts are competing in the U.S. championships at Ohio State, which began Thursday and will finish Sunday.

The top 18 men and the top 12 women in the all-around at the meet will advance to the U.S. Olympic Trials, June 11-13, in Baltimore. The top seven men and women at the Olympic Trials will compete in the Summer Olympics.

National team member Bob Stelter, 23, graduated from Burroughs High in 1986 and from Nebraska in 1990.

Former U.S. Olympian Charles Lakes is a six-year veteran of the national team. Lakes’ 19th-place finish in the all-around in the 1988 Olympics was the highest U.S. finish. Originally from Newhall, Lakes is coached by Dan Connelly at Gymnastics Olympica in Van Nuys.

Two other male gymnasts from Gymnastics Olympica will participate at the U.S. championships: Kris Carrison, 20, of Northridge, and James Guay, 20, of Canyon Country. Carrison attends Pierce College and Guay attends Cal State Northridge. Jeff Bender, from Lancaster, is a junior on the Stanford men’s gymnastics team.

Stephanie Lau, 13, of the Pacific Coast Gymnastics Club in Camarillo, will compete in the junior division.