Johnny O Meet Has Dual Purpose

Its official title is the Johnny O Invitational, but the Oct. 30 cross-country meet at Moorpark College also will serve as this year’s Southern California junior college championships.

The top eight teams in each of the men’s and women’s races in the Johnny O meet--named after the late Yuba College Coach John Orognen--automatically qualify for the state championships in Fresno on Nov. 20. The ninth-through-14th-place teams will tentatively qualify.

However, if a team finishes 15th or worse at the Johnny O meet but wins its respective conference title in November, that team would qualify for the state championships instead of the 14th-place team from the Johnny O meet.

If two teams fail to place among the top 14 at the Johnny O meet but win conference titles, they would replace the 13th- and 14th-place teams, and so forth.

Although the Johnny O meet will be held one to two weeks before the six conference championships in Southern California, most coaches believe it is an improvement on last year’s format.

“I think most coaches would rather qualify for the state championships based on the results of a meet than on voting by a committee,” Moorpark Coach Manny Trevino said. “I think they would rather decide it in a head-to-head competition.”

The Southern California championships were not held last year because of budget cuts. Instead, winners of the six conference titles automatically qualified for the state meet and eight teams were awarded at-large berths based on their performances in conference and invitational meets.

Volleyball

Longtime Canyon High girls’ volleyball Coach Ardyce Masters has found a suitable replacement to take over the Cowboy program. Masters, 53, said she no longer will coach the girls’ team but remains as the boys’ coach.

Masters, the girls’ coach from 1970 to 1988, returned to coach the girls last season. Ray Sanchez, 21, was named the new coach during the off-season.

“I had really decided to take it for one year and then look around (for a replacement),” said Masters, who started the boys’ program in 1987. “It becomes too much to coach both teams after a while.”

The Canyon girls won 14 Golden League championships during Masters’ tenure.

Sanchez played for Masters and was a member of Canyon’s 1990 Southern Section 2-A runner-up team.

Football

Eliel Swinton, who rushed for 2,384 yards and 24 touchdowns as a senior in 1991 at Montclair Prep, will serve as captain of special teams Saturday night for Stanford against visiting Colorado.

Swinton (5-feet-11, 190 pounds), a freshman at Stanford, rushed for 5,904 yards and 67 touchdowns in his prep career.

Three area players were selected for the J.C. Grid-Wire preseason All-American first and second teams. Richard Beattie, a 6-6, 285-pound sophomore tackle at Glendale, was named to the first team offense, and Moorpark running back Gil Carrillo and Antelope Valley’s Randy Clemons, a 6-4, 275-pound guard, made the second-team offense. Carrillo was the second-leading rusher in the Western State Conference last season with 1,103 yards.

Soccer

Mustapha Sesay, a junior midfielder, made his debut for Cal State Northridge on Tuesday against UC Irvine.

Sesay, who helped El Camino College win last year’s state junior college championship, had been academically ineligible pending official recording of his Associate in Arts degree, Northridge Coach Marwan Ass’ad said.

Sesay scored 23 goals and had eight assists in two years for El Camino.

Yachting

Yacht clubs from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties will set sail this weekend in pursuit of the Ventura Cup.

The 15th annual competition will include 32 boats from eight clubs throughout both counties. The competition includes three races Saturday and two on Sunday. Information: 805-642-0426.