Canyons Shows Lot of Hart in State Golf Final

As long as Hart High continues to produce good golfers, College of the Canyons could be a fixture at the junior college golf state championships. And maybe even win a few more.

Canyons, with four former Hart standouts among its top six players, prevailed despite gusty winds and fast greens Monday at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club to win the school’s first state title.

The Cougars, who won the Western State Conference title with a 28-2 record, finished with a 792 total to defeat Desert by one shot. Monterey Peninsula was third at 800.

Canyons shot 391 in the first 18-hole round, played at the par-72 Rancho Canada West in Carmel, and trailed Desert by six shots going into the second round at the par-71 Monterey course.

Strong winds made for difficult playing conditions during the second round, but Cougar Coach Gary Peterson said his team actually benefited from the fast greens created partly by the winds.

“We are used to that because we practice and play at Valencia Country Club, which has lightning-fast greens,” said Peterson, Canyons’ coach for 11 years. “That turned out to be very advantageous.”

Bryant Stover, the WSC individual champion, and Shane O’Brien each had two-round totals of 153 to lead the Cougar charge and tie for third in the individual standings. Chad Butler shot 155 for fifth place in the competition won by Mission’s Mike McCune with a 151. Darren Chini of Palomar was second with a 152.

O’Brien and Butler, along with fellow sophomore Bill Crawford and freshman Adam Hill, played at Hart, a traditional force in high school golf. But Peterson said he’ll probably have to wait two more seasons before getting other outstanding Hart players at Canyons.

“The well is drying for a year,” Peterson said. “Hart, Canyon and Saugus all have real good juniors.”

JUNIOR COLLEGES

SOFTBALL

Antelope Valley entered the first round of the Southern California regionals Friday led by two of the better pitchers in the state, right-handers Angie LePage (22-4) and Heather Meyer (16-4). But the Marauders, who opened the playoffs with a 39-8 record, also have a top slugger in shortstop Yvette Allen.

Allen led Foothill Conference players with a .576 slugging percentage and batted .472 in conference play. She had four home runs, seven doubles, three triples and 27 runs batted in. . . .

LePage, a freshman from Palmdale High who struck out 199 batters in 178 innings, became the first player from Antelope Valley to make the all-state team. Meyer and Allen were All-Southern California picks. . . .

Moorpark Coach Will Thurston, still recuperating after fainting at a recent Dodger game, said he decided to skip his team’s regional playoff games this weekend at Palomar College.

“I’m not quite ready,” Thurston said. “I don’t want to push my luck and I don’t want to be a distraction for the team or the tournament.”

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE

TRACK & FIELD

The Matadors got a nice surprise Monday when they received the official results from last Saturday’s S&W; Invitational at Modesto College and discovered that Kim Young had tied the school record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Matador assistant Tony Veney knew Young had run 13.62 seconds to win the fourth heat of Saturday’s meet, but he thought the time was wind-aided, which would have disallowed it for record purposes.

“Tony thought the wind reading was 4.8 (meters per second),” Coach Don Strametz said. “But when they faxed us the official results, we found out it was only 1.8.”

The maximum wind for record purposes is 2.0 meters per second, which means that Young tied the school record set by Jodi Anderson in 1979. . . .

Chris Perry appears to be regaining the form that propelled him to the 1990 NCAA Division II title in the men’s long jump.

Perry, a junior from Muir High, leaped a season best of 25-1 1/4 to place second in the open division of the S & W Invitational. It was his best jump since the 1990 season, when he had set a then-Northridge record of 25 feet 10 1/4 inches as a freshman.

After being hampered by injuries in 1991 and redshirting last year, Perry began 1993 with a solid indoor season, but he had performed inconsistently outdoors until the last two meets when he has jumped 24-9 and 25-1 1/2. . . .

Charlotte Vines took a big step toward qualifying for the NCAA championships for the fourth consecutive year when she ran a wind-aided 11.51 seconds in the 100 meters to place fifth in the S&W; meet.

Although wind-aided marks are not allowed for personal best or record purposes, they can count as qualifying marks for the NCAA championships. Vines is well below the provisional qualifying standard (11.70) for the Division I championships and within striking distance of the automatic standard of 11.43.

While an athlete must equal or exceed the automatic qualifying standard in an event to guarantee a spot in the Division I meet, provisional qualifiers can be invited if the number of automatic qualifiers is below the desired number.

Vines qualified for last year’s Division I meet with a wind-aided time of 11.50 and Strametz said last week that a similar time would probably get her in this year. . . .

Hamstring injuries to junior Troy Collins and freshman Akiem Brown are expected to sideline them for the rest of the season and put a damper on the Matadors’ chances of lowering the school record in the men’s 1,600-meter relay.

Although Marshall Evans, Nate Wright, Collins and Jason Stein had timed a Northridge record of 3 minutes 9.81 seconds in a meet at UCLA on April 10, Veney figured the Matadors were capable of running a couple of seconds faster under optimum conditions.

When Brown lowered his personal best to 48.27 in the 400 the following week, Northridge’s chances looked even better. But with Evans and Collins out, the Matadors do not have enough healthy 400 runners left to put together a high-quality 1,600 relay team. . . .

Junior Dee Dee Small and freshmen Chris Brown, Cherice Ellison and Christine Burton are expected to be granted redshirt years after missing most of the season with assorted injuries.

SOFTBALL

Junior slugger Beth Calcante is having the best year of her career. Heading into this weekend’s games, she leads the Matadors in batting average (.361), hits (53), doubles (six), triples (three), home runs (11), total bases (98), slugging percentage (.667), average with runners in scoring position (.482), runs batted in (46), runs (29) and sacrifices (13).

She is one RBI away of tying the school single-season record set by Beth Onestinghel in 1988.

Are these numbers enough to earn Calcante All-American honors? She’ll find out May 26 when All-Americans are announced in Oklahoma City, a day before the start of the College World Series.

* Who’s hot: Junior shortstop Vicky Rios is working on a nine-game hitting streak (12 of 28, .429) and has hit safely in the past 10 WAC games. . . . Tamara Ivie has a hit in 17 of 18 WAC games and is batting .431 in conference action, .301 overall. . . . Jen Fleming is batting .419 with runners in scoring position, .299 overall.

BASEBALL

Senior catcher Mike Sims is batting .436 (34 for 78) during his team-leading 17-game hitting streak. Sims was eight for 13 (.615) last week. He ranks third on the school’s career list in at-bats (837) and is fourth in hits (250).

Senior shortstop Andy Hodgins had four hits against Cal State Long Beach on Tuesday and one Friday against Fresno State to extend his hitting streak to 11 games and improve his average to .336. In the past 15 games, Hodgins is batting .432 (29 for 67).

Junior center fielder Joey Arnold was four for five against the 49ers and had one hit against Fresno State, raising his average to .258. In his past five games, Arnold, the seventh batter in the lineup, has driven in seven runs.

FOOTBALL

Matador punter/quarterback Albert Razo is eager for quarterback/volleyball player Coley Kyman to decide whether he is returning to the football team next fall. Kyman exhausted his athletic eligibility in volleyball last Saturday night in the NCAA championship match, a 3-0 loss to UCLA.

If Kyman makes the U.S. national volleyball team, he might not return to school and the football program. Razo will focus his efforts this summer on punting or passing depending on Kyman’s status.

Staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Mike Hiserman, Theresa Munoz and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.