Wright Trails the Leaders by Two Shots in U.S. Amateur

Chad Wright of USC, a former standout at Buena High, shot a one-under-par 69 Tuesday in the first round of the 95th United States Amateur Golf Championship in Newport, R.I.

Wright’s score left him two strokes back of co-leaders Justin Roff of Conway, S.C., and Steve Scott of Coral Springs, Fla.

Defending champion Tiger Woods of Cypress was one of seven players tied for third at 68.

Darren Angel, a June graduate of Granada Hills High, Jason Gore of Pepperdine and Mitch Voges of Simi Valley also are playing in the tournament.

Angel, who will be a freshman at Arizona State next month, shot a 72, with former Hart High standout Gore at 75 and Voges at 78.

Gore won the Pacific 10 Conference championship twice while at Arizona before playing at College of the Canyons last spring.

Track and Field

Ty Gaines, a 50-foot triple jumper for Palmdale High in 1993, and Moses Backus, runner-up in the 400 meters for Taft High in this year’s City Section championships, have enrolled at Antelope Valley College and are expected to compete for the Marauders in the spring.

Gaines, fourth in the triple jump in the 1993 State championships, attended Bakersfield College during the fall of 1993, but withdrew from school in the spring of ’94. His best of 50-1 3/4 ranks second on the all-time region list behind Russell White of Crespi, who bounded 50-6 in 1989.

Backus is the latest is a long line of standout quarter-milers from Taft. He has bests of 48.5 seconds in the 400 and 21.66 in the 200.

Basketball

Point guard Angie White of Nevada Las Vegas has transferred to Pepperdine, said Waves’ Coach Mark Trakh.

White, a 5-foot-7 guard from Capistrano Valley High in Orange County, must sit out the 1995-96 season in accordance with NCAA rules and has two years of eligibility remaining.

Emmanuel Evans, a 6-foot-2 forward who led Faith Baptist High in scoring as a freshman, has transferred to Birmingham.

Evans, who averaged 14.8 points a game, has been practicing with the Braves’ football team as a fullback since workouts began last Thursday.

Former Santa Clara High standout Tami Adkins was named assistant coach of the women’s team at the University of San Francisco.

Adkins, a guard at San Francisco until 1992, finished as the women’s all-time leader in steals for the Dons with 270.

Softball

Kim Maher of Ventura scored from first base on a triple by Michelle Smith to give the Redding Rebels a 1-0 victory over the Southern California Commotion in the championship game of the Amateur Softball Assn. women’s open national tournament in Decatur, Ill., last weekend.

Maher, a graduate of Buena High who is Fresno State’s all-time leader in runs batted in, is also a member of the U.S. National softball team who is expected to make the 1996 Olympic team.

Soccer

Former Moorpark High forward Patrick Russo is playing for Ohio Wesleyan University, the nation’s top-ranked team in NCAA Division III.

Russo, who led Moorpark to a berth in the 1995 Southern Section Division IV playoffs, scored 20 goals and had seven assists for the Musketeers last season.

Terry Davila, the boys’ soccer coach at Reseda High the past two seasons, has resigned his position and has become an assistant for the Cal State Northridge men’s soccer team under Coach Marwan Ass’ad.

Davila, who graduated from Reseda in 1988 and Northridge in 1994, was a standout defender for both the Regents and the Matadors.

He was coach of the year for The Times’ all-area team last season, after leading Reseda to a 23-2-5 record and the City Section semifinals.

Jose Mejia of Reseda, The Times’ area player of the year in boys’ soccer last season, has enrolled at Northridge as a Proposition 48 student-athlete.

Mejia received a passing score on the Scholastic Assessment Test, but he did not have the proper number of core classes in high school to be eligible as a freshman.

The 6-foot-1 sweeper cannot practice or play for the Matadors this season, but is expected to be on the team in the fall of 1996.

Cycling

Adam Czech of Santa Barbara outsprinted Chris Walker of Ventura to win the Camarillo Criterium on Tuesday.

John Wordin of West Hills, Walker’s teammate on the Nutra-Fig squad, placed seventh in the 30-mile race.

Baseball

Toluca Baseball is having sign-ups and tryouts for players ages 5 to 14 on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at North Weddington Park in North Hollywood.

Information: 818-763-7083 or 818-769-9662.

Contributing: Rob Fernas, Jeff Fletcher, Michael Lazarus, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega, Bryan Rodgers, Tris Wykes.