5 Players From Area Named to 5-A 1st Team

The Southern Section 5-A Division baseball team includes five area players: Royal High’s Dave Landaker and Shane Slayton, Channel Islands’ Angel Aragon, Hart’s John Aguilar and Simi Valley’s Kevin Nykoluk.

Aragon, a right-handed pitcher, was 10-3 with a 1.23 earned-run average. Slayton, a catcher, batted .529 and Landaker, an infielder, batted .526. Aguilar, an infielder, batted .457 and Nykoluk, an outfielder, batted .423.

Channel Islands catcher Jose Gastelum, who batted .422, was selected to the second team. Aaron Whitley, a Simi Valley outfielder who batted .412, was selected to the third team.

In the 4-A Division, Jon McMullen, an infielder for Rio Mesa who batted .500, was selected to the first team. Second-team selections from Rio Mesa were pitcher Jeff Howatt (9-1) and John Mitchell, an outfielder who batted .375.

In the 3-A Division, Saugus pitcher Bobby Cowan, who was 12-2 with a 1.97 ERA, and Harvard-Westlake outfielder Rian O’Meara, who batted .472, were selected to the second team. Saugus infielder Jayme Riggio, who batted .458, was a third-team choice.

Jessica Graham, a Westlake High middle-distance runner, will attend UCLA as a walk-on rather than accept a scholarship offer from California.

Graham placed sixth in the Southern Section 3-A Division finals in the 800 meters and advanced to the 4-A finals in the 1,600 as a freshman and a sophomore. Graham, who has a best of 2 minutes 15.50 seconds for the 800 and 5:08.19 for the 1,600, chose UCLA because of her familiarity with the school. Her father and sister attended UCLA.

Six of seven sophomores on the Mission College baseball team graduated June 12 with Associate of Arts degrees. One of the graduates, Eric Duncan, was a top pitcher for Mission (17-18-1) with a 3.47 ERA in 88 innings. Another player, Lazaro Campos, 19, was the youngest graduate.

Ashot Smbatyan of Glendale and Mai Chi Tiece of Pierce were selected as California Community College tennis All-Americans by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. Smbatyan, eighth-ranked in the final men’s singles rankings, is from Yerevan, Russia. Tiece, who fell from second to fourth in the final women’s singles rankings, is from France.

The Lull Special Education Center in Encino, a school for the severely handicapped, will hold a special mini-Olympics for its 200 students Thursday and Friday. Opening ceremonies are at 9:45 a.m. Thursday and the 16 events will be held Friday at 10 a.m.

The Southern California Volleyball Officials Assn. is registering new officials through July 13. The training classes for the San Fernando Valley unit will begin July 6 and continue on Mondays, 7-9:30 p.m., through July 22, at Birmingham High. Officials who complete classes are eligible for assignments in high school and Junior Olympic tournaments. Information: Donna Hess, 805-298-2258.