Girdlestone Twice Sets Backstroke Marks

Charles Girdlestone of Ventura lowered the National Junior Olympic West record in the 200-meter backstroke twice Saturday at the NJO West swimming championships in Minneapolis.

Girdlestone clocked 2 minutes 4.66 seconds in the preliminaries, eclipsing John Simmons’ 1992 mark of 2:06.49. In the final, he touched in 2:04.57.

“It just flowed in the preliminaries,” Conejo-Simi Aquatics Coach Gardner Howland said. “Tonight (in the final), he was a little fatigued. He really had to work for it. It was a real thrill for him.”

The South Carolina freshman-to-be entered the meet with a career-best time of 2:08.20.

In the girls’ 200 backstroke, Nicole Beck, 13, of Buenaventura Swim Club placed fourth in 2:19.84, Erin Schatz, 15, of CLASS Aquatics placed fifth in 2:19.86, Miranda Walz, 16, of Buenaventura was sixth in 2:20.04 and Jennifer Parmenter, 12, of Canyons Aquatics finished 15th in 2:23.65.

In the 200 butterfly, John Lory, 17, placed seventh in the 200 butterfly in 2:07.91 and Clay Flocco, 16, of Buenaventura was 16th in 2:11.23. In the girls’ 200 butterfly, Marissa Roarty, 14, of Buenaventura finished 11th in 2:23.47. Her teammate, Danielle Walker, 16, followed in 12th in 2:23.58. Roarty also was 16th in the 200 breaststroke in 2:44.36. Rebecca Gilman, 13, of Buenaventura, placed 10th in the 100 freestyle in 59.00.

On Friday, Heather Ballard, 18, finished fourth in the 800 freestyle. Ballard, a Cal State Northridge freshman representing Glendale YMCA, clocked a 9:01.65. Brooke Thrasher, 18, of Buenaventura was ninth in 9:04.95. In the 200 breaststroke, Chris Sendejas, 17, of Conejo-Simi Aquatics was 12th in 2:25.60 and Joel Gustafson, 18, of Buenaventura finished 15th in 2:28.76.

Golf

After earning medalist honors with a 72-hole total of 277, Jason Gore of Valencia was eliminated in the first round of match play Saturday at the Western Amateur Championship at Point O’Woods Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Gore, a 1992 Hart High graduate who plays at Arizona, was defeated by Oklahoma State All-American Chris Tidland of Placentia, 2 up.

Gore completed the last five holes of his final round of stroke play Saturday morning, and he finished at seven under par overall. Gore, the Pacific 10 Conference champion, edged NCAA Division I champion Todd Demsey (279) of Rancho Santa Fe and U.S. Amateur champion Justin Leonard (280) of Dallas for medalist honors.

Gore shot a 64 in the morning round Friday, tying a course record.

Chris Zambri of Thousand Oaks, a Westlake High and USC graduate, finished in a five-way tie for the final two of 16 match-play berths, but was eliminated in a playoff. Tidland was one of the playoff survivors.

Tennis

Twins Mike and Bob Bryan of Camarillo won their first-round matches in the USTA National Juniors tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich. Playing in the 16-and-under division, Mike beat Rick Warren of Tyler, Tex., 6-1, 3-6, 6-0, and Bob defeated Nick Quatrochi of Boulder, Colo., 6-3, 6-1.

Other area first-round winners were Jason Weiss of Calabasas and Dylan Mann of Canoga Park.

Jason Cook of Woodland Hills, Nick Varvais of Simi Valley and Jeremy Testwuide of Bell Canyon lost their opening matches.

Three area players are among the top 12 seeded singles players in the USTA Girls’ 18 National Championships in San Jose. Meilen Tu of Northridge is seeded fourth.

Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks, who finished fourth in singles at the U.S. Olympic Festival two weeks ago, is seeded ninth.

Krissy Hamilton of Agoura Hills, 13, who won the 18 singles draw in the Southern California Sectionals in June, is seeded 12th. Janet Lee of Rancho Palos Verdes is seeded No. 1. The tournament starts today.

Basketball

Eric Brown, a 1991 graduate of Grant High, will walk on next season at Arizona. Brown, a 6-foot guard, played in 1991-92 at Valley College but sat out last season.