Sports

PREPS

The Whitney High water polo and boys’ soccer teams and the Long Beach Wilson boys’ swimming team have been named winners of the 1995 Southern Section Team Academic Award. The Whitney water polo team had a cumulative grade-point average of 3.61 and the soccer team had a 3.59 average. The Wilson soccer team compiled a 3.55 average.

Individual boys’ winners include Thushan Rajapaksa of Artesia (3.50), Liem Ngyuen of Glenn (3.96); Phillip Bogoanoff of La Mirada (4.00), Michael Hale of La Serna (3.77), Robert Devine of Mayfair (3.74), Eric Velazquez of Paramount (3.54), Brian Perry of St. Anthony (3.92), David Slager of Valley Christian and Rufino Cuevas of Whittier (3.70).

Girls’ winners include Stacy Markovitz of Artesia (3.64), Adriana Villalobos of Bell Gardens (3.67), Yvonne Perdomo of Bellflower (3.85), True Duong of Glenn (4.00), Diane Asis of Long Beach Jordan (4.00), La Nae Baker of La Mirada (3.70), Molly Magnuson of La Serna (3.77), Jill Heth of Lakewood (3.82), Jessica Chavez of Millikan (3.74), Alisa Sato of Montebello (3.62), Romelia Calzada of Paramount (3.50), Jennifer Mallet of Valley Christian (3.54), Joyce Suzuki of Whittier (3.52) and Megan Ericson of Whittier Christian (3.89).

The students were honored during a ceremony before the Oakland A’s-California Angels baseball game Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

* Long Beach Poly became the first U.S high school to win the 400- and 1,600-meter relays at the 100th Penn Relays.

Zahalea Showe, Aminah Haddad, Pam Simpson and Andrea Anderson combined to win the 400-relay in 45.81 seconds to end the 13-year streak of St. Jago of Spanish Town. St. Jago was second in 46.14. Myesha Williams, Haddad, Simpson and Anderson teamed on the Jackrabbits’ 1,600-meter relay which timed 3:43.95.

Poly’s Jamil Hill, Erin O’Keefe, Sherron Rhetta and Williams also turned in the state’s top time in the 3,200-meter relay, placing second in 9:07.77.

COLLEGES

The Cerritos College baseball team clinched its first South Coast Conference title since 1992 with victories over Pasadena City and El Camino. The Falcons close out the season this afternoon at home against Long Beach City.

David McRill had three hits and drove in two runs and Jose Alvarez scored two runs for Cerritos (30-10, 18-3 in conference) in the Falcons’ 10-9 victory over El Camino. Jason Marr (7-4) pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory.

Matt Eeles and Santos Cortez had three hits each and Tony Vasquez scored four runs in Cerritos’ 11-1 victory over Pasadena City. John Ruiz gave up only six hits in eight innings to improve to 9-1.

* Four players from Cerritos College’s South Coast Conference men’s basketball team have signed letters of intent to play at four-year universities.

Forward Darius Rutledge, the Falcons’ leading scorer (17.0) and rebounder (11.6), has signed with San Diego State. Point guard Monty Owens and off-guard Kelly Hambrick will attend the University of Pacific, and guard Derrick Barnes has signed with Cal State L.A.

* Michelle Coleman, who set three Cerritos College women’s basketball records this season, will attend Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Coleman, an all-state and South Coast Conference selection, averaged 15.5 points and 11.6 rebounds. She set school records for most rebounds in a season, highest rebounding average and most rebounds in a game with 25.

* Former Cerritos College running back Reggie Pitchford has signed a contract to play for the Shreveport Pirates of the Canadian Football League. The Lynwood High graduate played at Cerritos during the 1987 and 1988 seasons, rushing for 635 yards, before playing at Oregon State for two seasons.

* Long Beach City College won 11 of 18 events to earn its second consecutive South Coast Conference women’s track and field title at Veterans Stadium.

Long Beach, which won its third title in six years, totaled 228 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio College (143) and El Camino (127).

Cavetra Mitchell led Long Beach sweeps in the 100 and 200 meters, winning in 12.08 and 24.33 seconds.

Other Long Beach winners included Cathy Trotman in the 800 (2:20.37); Karen Vigilant in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles in 14.54 and 1:03.41; Michelle Nelson in the 400 (55.63); Marquita Knight in the long jump (18 feet, 10 inches); Nichole Wilson in the high jump (5-2), and Cecilia Noel in the triple jump (39-3 1/4).

In the men’s competition, Mt. San Antonio won with 253 points to end Long Beach’s streak of 18 consecutive conference titles. Long Beach was second with 236 and El Camino was third with 115.

Eric Boykin won the long jump (25-0) and triple jump (49-7 3/4) for Long Beach. Other winners included Mike Harris in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.67), Henry Seeney in the 800 (1:55.09), Jason Brownlee in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (52.44) and Greg Jones in the shotput (51-7).

* Wintress Lang won five events to lead the Compton College women’s track team to its fifth Southern California Athletic Conference title in six years Friday at L.A. Southwest College.

Lang, who had a hand in 51 of Compton’s 101 points, won the 100-meter hurdles (16.48), 400-meter hurdles (1:10.08), triple jump (36-4), long jump (17-3) and high jump (5-0), and ran on Compton’s victorious 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams. She also finished second in the javelin (83-1) and third in the discus (87-5).

Lang was chosen as the SCAC field athlete of the year for the second year in a row and Roosevelt Porter of Compton was selected as the conference women’s coach of the year. Monique Mejia of East L.A., a graduate of Artesia High, was named the track athlete of the year after winning the 800-, 1,500-, 3,000- and 5,000-meter races.

* Jaime Barragan and Le’Gretta Hinds of Long Beach State set meet records en route to individual titles in the California/Nevada State track meet at Fresno City College last weekend.

Barragan won the 100 meters in 10.42 to break the meet record of 10.45 set by UCLA’s Marcus Reed. Barragan also placed third in the 200 in 21.25 and ran the second leg on the 49ers’ 400-meter relay team of Gary Cablayan, Jacob Glickman and Brandon Thomas, which finished second in 40.17.

Jason Hinkin and Jason Frudakis were second and fifth in the pole vault (17-5 1/2) and long jump (22-9) for the Long Beach men’s squad, which placed sixth in the team competition with 57 points. Fresno State won with 137 points. California and Stanford were second and third with 127 and 90 points, respectively.

Hinds had a hand in 18 of the 49ers’ 24 points in the women’s team competition for sixth-place Long Beach. She won the 400-meter hurdles in 57.70 seconds, breaking her school record of 57.82 set last season and the meet record of 57.87 held by Keisha Marvin of UCLA. Hinds’ time automatically qualifies the junior for the NCAA championships in Knoxville, Tenn., May 31 through June 3. Hinds also placed second in the 100-meter hurdles in 13.57.

UCLA won the team title with 154 points. California and Fresno State were second and third with 118 and 90 points, respectively.

Kirran Moss was fourth in the women’s hammer (145-2) for Long Beach. Damon DeVault (153-6) and Tighe Jaffe (149-4) were fifth and seventh in the discus, respectively. DeVault also placed seventh in the shotput (49-4 1/4) and Mike Marshall was eighth in the pole vault (16-0 3/4) for the 49ers.

* Volleyball player Tom Hoff of Long Beach State has been selected to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation first team. The 6-foot-8 swing hitter set a national record by averaging more than 20 kills a match in 25 matches. He also led the 49ers, averaging 7.22 kills and 1.69 blocks a game. Teammates Neil Mendel and Steve Walker earned honorable mention honors.

Jeff Nygaard of UCLA was selected the MPSF player of the year for the second consecutive season.

* Rocky Biddle and Jeff Liefer of Long Beach State were selected the Big West Conference pitcher and co-player of the week.

Biddle, a freshman right-hander, pitched a complete game with 14 strikeouts Sunday in a 9-2 conference victory over Pacific to help complete a three-game sweep. Biddle, who gave up five hits and walked three, is 3-1 with a 5.09 earned-run average.

Liefer went seven for 11 with four runs scored and four runs batted in against Pacific. Liefer, who is batting .353, leads the 49ers with 59 hits, 43 runs, eight homers, 38 RBIs and a .563 slugging percentage. He leads the team with 11 doubles, 25 walks and 13 stolen bases.

Long Beach (27-19-1, 13-5) trails first-place Cal State Fullerton by two games with a three-game series remaining against Nevada Las Vegas Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Blair Field.

* Long Beach State will play host to the first Big West Conference baseball tournament and the 26th Big West track and field finals May 12-14.

Final standings from the Big West Conference regular season play will determine the tournament’s four entries. The games will be played at Blair Field.

The track and field finals will be staged at Long Beach State for the first time since 1976.

Information: (310) 985-4949.

* The Pyramid will serve as the site of the Fila Summer Pro League. Teams representing the Lakers, Clippers, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, national teams from Canada and Mexico, a UCLA alumni squad and the Harlem Globetrotters are scheduled to compete in the league, which will run between July 12 through Aug 2.

Information: (818) 995-2961.

MISCELLANY

Former UCLA and Artesia High basketball player Ed O’Bannon and Bruin assistant Lorenzo Romar will be the featured speakers at the Artesia High boys’ basketball awards banquet Wednesday at the Sycamore Center Plaza in Lakewood.

Information: (310) 926-5566, Ext. 14430.