Thousand Oaks High Selects Radnoti to Replace Farrell

Robert Radnoti has been hired as the boys’ and girls’ cross-country coach at Thousand Oaks High.

Radnoti, 40, replaces Jack Farrell, who stepped down in June after 20 seasons at the school.

Farrell was regarded as one of the top high school cross-country coaches in the state after leading the Thousand Oaks boys to state Division I titles in 1993 and ‘94, and to Southern Section titles at either the Division I or 4-A level in 1980, ‘84, ‘86, ‘92, ’93 and ’94.

“I’m excited about it,” Radnoti said. “This is the stuff I dream about.”

Although Radnoti has no experience coaching high school cross-country runners, he has been a runner for most of his life.

He helped Colorado win Big Eight Conference cross-country titles from 1976-79 and he founded the U.S. Corporate Athletic Assn. in 1984.

He has been a chemical engineer at Exxon for the last 17 1/2 years, but will resign that position in two weeks in order to focus on coaching.

“I really wanted to be able to do this and put my whole heart into this,” Radnoti said.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself and I want to take [this program] to an even higher level.”

SOFTBALL

Maureen LeCocq of Chaminade High and Summer Richardson, a Cal State Northridge recruit, combined on a two-hitter Wednesday in the Stealth’s 8-0 six-inning victory over the Minnesota Blizzard in a second-round game of the Amateur Softball Assn. 18-and-under national tournament in Sacramento.

BASEBALL

Woodland Hills Recreation Center’s Minor Division all-star team for 9- and 10-year-olds defeated Sun Valley, 2-1, to win the valley-area regional championship for the first time.

Woodland Hills beat Wilmington, 6-5, in the Los Angeles City Recreation and Parks tournament semifinals last weekend. Woodland Hills plays Evergreen of Los Angeles for the title at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Balboa Park in Encino.

GOLF

Scott Fulkerson of Simi Valley tied for the low round of the tournament when he shot one-under-par 69 in the second round of the AJGA Ashworth/Golfweek Junior at Pala Mesa Resort in Fallbrook.

Fulkerson, who has a two-day total of 147, is tied for seventh, four strokes behind leader Brett Bockmann of Palm Desert.

Andy Brisbois of La Canada (75-74--149) is tied for 13th and Brian O’Flaherty of Westlake Village (73-78--151) is tied for 19th.

Ryan Wyman of Valencia (74-79--153) and Charlie Smith of Santa Clarita (75-78--153) are in a nine-way tie for 30th.

In the girls’ division, Saki Uechi of Panorama City shot a second consecutive eight-over-par 80 and is tied for fifth, 16 strokes behind leader Yunny Cho of Torrance.

Charlene Alfonso of Agoura (83-80--163) is tied for eighth.

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Julie Park of Granada Hills and two others from the region advanced to match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Penn.

Park, third after a first-round of even-par 70, shot 81 in the second round to finish tied for fifth. She will play Shannon Barr of China Spring, Texas, in the first round of match play today.

Anne Lee of Northridge (83-78--161) plays Candie Kung of Fountain Valley in the first round and Harvard-Westlake sophomore Ina Kim of Los Angeles (78-76--154) plays Shayna Miyajima of Wailuku, Hawaii.

SWIMMING

Ian Prichard of Buenaventura Swim Club finished second in the men’s open 1,500-meter freestyle at the Junior Championships West on Wednesday in San Jose, but his time of 16:05.7 left him short of the 16:03.49 he needed to qualify for nationals.

No other swimmers from the region had qualifying times.

Aaron Gyuris of Thousand Oaks High finished eighth in the men’s open 50-meter freestyle, but his time of 24.46 seconds fell short of the 23.79 qualifying time.