Golden West Receives Berth

Golden West, which has won seven consecutive state water polo titles, was one of four Orange County teams to receive berths when Southern California playoff pairings were announced Monday.

Citrus (25-5) was seeded No. 1, Long Beach (24-6) second, Golden West (28-1) third and Grossmont (23-3-3) fourth. All received first-round byes.

In Wednesday’s first round: No. 9 Chaffey (18-14-1) is at No. 8 Orange Coast (14-11-2); No. 11 Cypress (16-12-1) is at No. 6 Ventura (18-10-3); No. 10 Saddleback (14-14-1) is at No. 7 Fullerton (15-9) and No. 12 Cerritos (7-20) is at No. 5 Cuesta (18-10-4).

The second round is Friday and the finals are Saturday at Long Beach Belmont Plaza. The top four teams move to the state tournament Nov. 15-16 also at Belmont Plaza.

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Runners’ World: The Orange Empire Conference men’s and women’s championships will be decided Saturday on a course in the Newport Back Bay.

The women’s race at 9 a.m. features Orange Coast’s Donna Mills, Rancho Santiago’s Elly Estrada and Irvine Valley’s Brenda Francek.

Mills was second, Francek third and Estrada fourth at the Southern California Qualifier Saturday. Estrada won the conference preview run in mid-September and Mills was third.

The men’s race, expected to be dominated by Rancho Santiago, is at 10 a.m.