Villa Park Gets Extra Credit

Villa Park must have set a record this season for having its boys’ basketball record reported incorrectly.

For the record, the Spartans are 20-4. But when playoff pairings were released Sunday, the Century League representative from Santa Ana Valley reported to the Southern Section that Villa Park had 21 victories.

On Monday, The Times received statistics supplied by Villa Park that listed the Spartans with 22 victories. But player totals were calculated on 24 games, which corresponds to the 20-4 mark.

Coach Kevin Reynolds confirmed Monday that Villa Park is 20-4 and blamed the snafu on the Spartans’ trip to a holiday tournament in Florida.

“I don’t phone in all the results to the newspapers,” he said. “Somehow everyone thought we played four games in Florida, but we only played three.”

Southern Section rules allow teams to play up to 24 contests in a regular season. Tournaments count as two games regardless of the number of games actually played.

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For some coaches, it might seem that Calvary Chapel’s wrestling team might be more at home in the X-Files rather than the Southern Section postseason. At least, that’s probably what Ventura High thinks.

After Ventura received a pounding by Calvary Chapel in the finals of the section Division I Dual Meet Championship Saturday at Cerritos College, the teams lined up after the game for the customary handshakes. As the coaching staffs from each team passed each other, one of Ventura’s assistant coaches yelled out, “Just where are you guys from, anyway?” To which Calvary Chapel Coach John Azevedo responded in a matter-of-fact tone, “From Mars.”

With that said, Ventura’s 140-pounder Robert Runguist said, “I knew they weren’t from this planet.”

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Cerritos Valley Christian’s Sarah Middlebrook, who played previously at Brea Olinda, said she transferred this season for academic reasons and because she wanted to get into a Christian environment. Middlebrook scored a game-high 19 points in the Crusaders’ 53-39 victory over second-place Brethren Christian in the Olympic League finale, giving Valley Christian its sixth consecutive league title.

Middlebrook, a junior who was injured most of last season, said her involvement in AAU basketball--and her days at Brea--helped her in the playoff-like atmosphere.

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The first Orange County high school girls’ water polo all-star game will be 1 p.m. Sunday at Villa Park High.

Irvine’s Scott Hinman will coach the South team. Mike Giles of Canyon will coach the North.

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Capistrano Valley’s Jenny Jennings said the pursuit of La Crescenta Crescenta Valley’s Sarah Hagman’s Southern Section record for three-point baskets in a season wasn’t nearly as nerve-racking as the pursuit of the Orange County record, previously held by Edison’s Debbie Fischer (105, 1989-90).

“The county record got me over the nerves,” said Jennings, who needed three baskets against Dana Hills to break Fischer’s record and got only two. But she admitted the circumstances between the Dana Hills and Mater Dei games were different too. “[Mater Dei] played to win. Dana Hills didn’t play to win; they played to stop me.”

Jennings made two of her first three three-point attempts against Mater Dei on Saturday to tie Hagman, who made 121 during the 1993-94 season. She made two of her last four to extend the record to 123. She was four for 12 from the three-point line.

The state single-season record is 169 by Fair Oaks Del Campo’s Danielle Viglione (1991-92).

Jennings needs 18 to tie Culver City’s Jenny Nakanishi for the section career record (277).

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Times staff writers Martin Beck, Erik Hamilton and Martin Henderson contributed to this report.