Giltner Beats Pentathlon Rival

Liz Giltner of Chaminade High defeated Ashley Bethel of Mission Viejo for the first time in three tries Saturday to win the pentathlon in the National Scholastic Indoor championships at Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Mass.

Giltner, a junior, totaled 3,509 points to defeat Bethel by 95 points and move to 10th on the all-time national high school list.

Bethel’s 3,414-point total was a national sophomore record and moved her to 18th all-time.

“I just wanted to win,” said Giltner, who placed fourth in last year’s meet. “It was nice to beat Ashley. . . . It was a good competition.”

Giltner opened the competition with a personal best of 9.24 seconds in the 60-meter high hurdles and then cleared 5 feet 8 inches in the high jump to tie her personal best.

She followed that with marks of 32-7 1/2 in the shotput, 17-7 1/2 in the long jump and 2 minutes 40.37 seconds in the 800.

“I’m very happy,” Giltner said. “[Chaminade Coach Stefan Hoelzel] was viewing this meet as a steppingstone to the World Junior championships this summer, but I’m pretty happy with the present.”

Soccer

Thousand Oaks High junior soccer player Kristie Nakamura was named offensive player of the year in the Marmonte League, sophomore Susan Shivokevich was the top defensive player, and Gail Kanney was coach of the year.

Baseball

Former El Camino Real High and Valley College pitcher Kevin Szymanski has been named junior varsity baseball coach at Cleveland High.

Szymanski was the winning pitcher for the Conquistadores in the 1993 City Section 4-A Division championship game against Chatsworth.

Contributing: John Ortega, Brian Schulman, Tris Wykes.