U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL ROUNDUP : USC’s Harris Helps Lift West Over the South

Joseph Blair of Arizona scored 21 points and Burt Harris of USC added 18 as the West opened the U.S. Olympic Festival basketball competition with a 117-111 victory over the South.

The West, which outrebounded the South, 73-52, overcame a seven-point halftime deficit.

In the late men’s game, Derek Anderson of Ohio State scored 29 points as the North beat the East, 129-120. His Ohio State teammate, Gary Trent, had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Rasheed Wallace, who will be a freshman at North Carolina this fall, led the East with 17 points and six rebounds. Johnny Rhodes of Maryland added 16 points.

In women’s basketball, Darlene Saar of George Washington and Jennifer Boucek of Virginia each scored 15 points as the East beat the North, 81-76, in overtime. Tawona Al-Haleem of John A. Logan College scored 17 and Cindy Lamping of Purdue added 15 for the North.

In the other women’s game, Latina Davis of Tennessee scored 15 points in leading the South to a 68-61 victory over the West. The South made only 16 of 61 field goals (26%).

In other events:

--Sibby Flowers of Macon, Ga., set an American record in the 101 1/4-pound weightlifting class with a combined 319 1/2 pounds in the snatch and clean-and-jerk. It was her fourth consecutive festival gold medal.

--In swimming, Catherine Fox of Kansas City, Mo., won the 100-meter freestyle in 57.09 seconds. That broke the longest-standing women’s record in the festival, 57.36 by Cynthia Woodhead of Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1979.

“I had no clue. I didn’t know what the record was,” she said.

Christian Claytor of Walnut Creek, broke the men’s 200 breaststroke festival record, finishing in 2 minutes 18.01 seconds.

Both the men’s and women’s festival records fell in the 200 backstroke. Tate Blahnik of Airmant, N.Y., erased Rich Hughey’s 1982 mark of 2:03.61 with a time of 2:01.81. Rachel Joseph of Springfield, Ore., cut more than three seconds off the record with a time of 2:13.42.

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Orange County Watch: Linda Brenneman of Mission Viejo, who took a gold medal in the 33-mile team trials Friday, won a bronze medal in Saturday’s 27-mile race, finishing in 1 hour 4 minutes 11.8 seconds.

Los Alamitos’ Janie Eichhoff, 23, third Friday, was sixth.

--In team show jumping, Valerie Parr of Santa Ana, riding Cardiff, helped the West to second place.

--In swimming, John Simmons of El Toro and the Irvine Novaquatics, finished third in the finals of the 200 backstroke in 2:06.77. Allison Mijares of Huntington Beach was eighth in the 800 freestyle in 9:10.31.

--In Greco-Roman wrestling, Heath Sims, 21, of Irvine won by decision over Chris Saba of Glenmont, N.Y., 4-3, at 5:31 of overtime at 149 1/2 pounds.

--In racquetball, Bill Sell of Huntington Beach and Joel Bonnett of Grand Rapids, Mich., defeated Hart Johnson of St. Paul, Minn. and Todd Stead of Minneapolis, 15-6, 15-10.

--In women’s figure skating, Keri Anne Thomas of Costa Mesa scored a 2.5 to put her in fifth, and Caroline Song of Fullerton was seventh with a score of 3.5 after the technical program.

--In women’s basketball, former Brea-Olinda star Jody Anton, now at USC, scored two points for the South in the loss to the West.

--In softball, catcher Leah Braatz, 18, an Estancia graduate, went the distance for the North in a 4-2 loss to the West.