Wright Can Do No Wrong in NCAA Finals

More of the same would suit Chad Wright just fine.

Wright, a USC sophomore who attended Buena High, shot a sparkling five-under-par 67 Friday to move into third place individually at the NCAA Division I men’s golf championships at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.

Wright’s 67 tied him for lowest score in the 72-hole tournament, which concludes today. Wright is at five-under 211, three shots behind leader Chip Spratlin of Auburn and one behind Chris Tidland of Oklahoma State. Spratlin is a senior and a former walk-on who has never won a college tournament.

Wright, who was forced to play four holes in the morning to complete his rain-delayed second round, led USC into contention in the team competition--which ranks as a major surprise.

The Trojans are in third place at 869, two shots behind co-leaders Texas and Stanford. After the first round, USC was in danger of missing the 15-team cut. The Trojans rallied while completing the second round Friday morning, then tore up the course with a seven-under 281 in the third round, the best score of the tournament.

“Everybody’s pretty pleased,” Wright said. “We barely made it to the regionals, we barely made the cut here, and now we’re in contention.”

Wright shot 73 in the second round and 71 in the first. Friday afternoon, he one-putted three of the final four holes, which included a 15-footer for birdie on No. 18.

Westlake High graduate Charlie Wi of Cal, the Pacific 10 Conference individual champion, fell back with a third-round 74 and is nine shots off the individual lead at 217.

Jerry Chang of defending champion Stanford, who also played at Westlake, shot 73 for a three-round total of 220.

Five schools from the Pac-10 rank among the top eight teams.

Baseball

Calabasas High seniors Brett Niles and Jared Sandler have been named co-most valuable players in the Frontier League.

Niles, the Coyotes’ third baseman and a transfer from Crespi, batted .460 with five home runs and 38 runs batted in.

Sandler, a left-handed pitcher and a transfer from Montclair Prep, was 8-1 with a 1.26 earned-run average. He batted .475 with 22 RBIs.

Calabasas (25-1) won 25 consecutive games and its first outright league title. The Coyotes were top-seeded in the Southern Section Division IV playoffs before a 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Rialto.

Simi Valley High has announced a June 9 deadline for applications for the position of baseball coach.

Information: 805-520-6652.

Rodeo

Aurda Biederman of Thousand Oaks finished as the Western Region points leader in women’s barrel racing and has qualified for the National Collegiate Rodeo Finals in Bozeman, Mont., which start June 12.

Biederman, who rides for the West Hills College team, scored 670 points in 10 competitions.

Cycling

Paul Abrahams, a member of the Valley-based Nutra-Fig Racing team, won the Warner Center Criterium in Woodland Hills.

* Contributing: Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Bryan Rodgers, Tris Wykes.