LOCAL NOTES : Dukes Clinch Division Title

The Dukes rallied to beat the Phoenix Smash, 26-25, Wednesday in Phoenix to clinch the World TeamTennis West Division championship.

Trailing 25-21 and 5-3 in the final set, the Dukes (12-0) won the next three games in mixed doubles, one game in overtime and the super-tiebreaker to stop the Smash (7-5).

Newport Beach’s mixed doubles team of Trevor Kronemann and Katrina Adams provided the rally, beating Ellis Ferreira and Mary Lou Daniels. Kronemann’s returns helped break Ferreira at 5-3 and then Kronemann held serve to force a tiebreaker.

Adams then held serve to win the only game in overtime, which set up the Dukes’ 7-3 advantage in the super-tiebreaker.

The Dukes won all their doubles matches--Adams and Amy Frazier beat Carrie Cunningham and Daniels, 6-4, and Kronemann and Rikard Bergh beat Jimmy Connors and Ferreira, 6-4--and lost all their singles matches--Cunningham beat Adams, 6-3 and Connors beat Bergh, 6-3.

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Fred Hanser signed a letter of intent to play tennis at UC Irvine, Anteater Coach Steve Clark said Wednesday.

Hanser, from Neuolsach, Austria, was the No. 3-ranked community college player in the state at College of the Desert this season. Hanser, who was the top-ranked Austrian junior from 1988 to 1991, will be a sophomore at Irvine in the fall.

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Ashley Bethel of Lake Forest won the pentathlon at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics in Baton Rouge, La., Wednesday at Louisiana State.

Bethel, 13, finished with 3,092 points, nearly 200 points ahead of second-place finisher Laura Swanson of Seattle.

Bethel, who set a national youth record in the long jump earlier this month, will compete in the 200-meter hurdles semifinals this morning and the high jump finals tonight. The competition, which features more than 5,000 participants, concludes this weekend.