University Easily Wins Southern Section Regional

University High continued its season-long dominance by posting a 19-stroke victory Tuesday in the Southern Section South team regional at Los Serranos Golf Course in Chino Hills.

Angela Won led the top-ranked and undefeated Trojans with a four-over-par 78 on the difficult 5,954-yard South Course that played longer because of the damp fairways created by Monday’s rain.

Sunny Lee had an 81 and Michelle Barth shot 88 for the defending Southern Section champion Trojans, who shot 247 and were the only team in the 23-team field with all three scores below 90.

Tournament co-medalist Priscilla Park shot 76, leading Villa Park to a 268 and a tie for second with Corona del Mar, which got a team-best 84 from Taylor McCormick.

Santa Margarita, led by Meghan Mulhaupt’s 82, shot 276 and finished fourth. The surprise of the day was Irvine, which tied Serra League champion Torrance Bishop Montgomery at 280, then won a tiebreaker to claim the final qualifying spot in the Southern Section finals Monday at Temeku Hills in Temecula.

University is favored to repeat as Section champions, but the Trojans aren’t taking anything for granted.

“We want to show that we can continue to be successful,” said Barth, a University co-captain. “Everyone’s out to get us. We’re not at the top of our game, but this was a pretty good score because it was a hard course.”

The course length, boosted by six par-5 holes, played into the hands of Corona del Mar. The long-hitting Sea Kings finished second to University in the Pacific Coast League this season and went largely unrecognized.

“Allison [Schauppner] and Taylor [McCormick] are both long hitters,” Coach Mike Starkweather said. “I thought we had a shot at this, but I wasn’t going to say anything. We were eighth last year and we had a real positive mental attitude all year.”

Irvine, which finished the regular season 8-6, needed to win three Sea View League matches in the final week of the season to clinch third place and get a berth in the regional.

The Vaqueros were without their usual No. 2 player, Nina Nam, who stayed at home for personal reasons. Junior Stella Lee shot 77 to pace Irvine, which was among three teams that finished in near darkness.

“We knew we had a good team,” Vaquero Coach Gary DuBeaubien said. “We lost some really close matches against Newport Harbor and Woodbridge. It wasn’t like we were getting blown out. Our girls seem to play well when it comes to the big tournaments.”

Sea View League champion Newport Harbor, which was 17-0 and ranked No. 2 in the county in the regular season, shot 283 and finished eighth.

Park, who tied with defending Southern Section champion Young Pak of Cerritos Gahr, was medalist in the regional for the second consecutive year. She shot 77 at Temeku Hills last year while playing for Foothill.

“I didn’t have any three-putts,” Park said. “That’s always my goal. The course was playing hard, but my shots were pretty stable.”

Park had birdies at Nos. 2 and 18.

OTHER REGION QUALIFIERS

Qualifiers from the North regional Monday at Santa Barbara Country Club (par 72) were North Hollywood Harvard Westlake (246), Newhall Hart (264), Thousand Oaks La Reina (264), West Hills Chaminade (269) and Santa Barbara San Marcos (270).

The Central regional Monday at Soboba Spring Royal Vista was cut to 13 holes because of darkness. Scores were not reported, but the top five teams were South Torrance, Lakewood, Redondo Union, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Murrieta Valley, in that order.

EARLY BIRD GETS THE LEMON

Santa Margarita Coach Tim O’Hara thought he might be in for a long day when he arrived at school early Tuesday and found a maintenance worker charging the battery in the school van O’Hara planned on driving to Los Serranos.

After receiving assurance that the van was operational, O’Hara drove to a meeting spot to pick up the team.

He shut off the engine to help load the clubs but when he tried to restart the van, the engine wouldn’t turn over.

Fortunately, the father of one of the Eagle players was there and drove the team to the course in plenty of time for their tee times.

O’Hara stayed behind, called the automobile club and got a jump start. He made it to the course just in time to see his players tee off.

“Van 6 is officially banned from our team,” O’Hara said. “The girls don’t like it anyway because it doesn’t have a cassette player. They think I get it just so I don’t have to listen to their music.”

After the round, O’Hara checked the ignition to make sure he could get home before he knew if his team had qualified for the finals.

“It started, but it was a little shaky,” he said.

He left the van running in the parking lot for about a half hour before learning the Eagles had made the cut.

GET YOUR WINNING CAPS ON

University team members and Coach Patti Anduri unveiled their new hats for the regional tournament.

Provided by Jin Young Won, father of Angela Won, the hats displayed each players initials on the front and an inscription honoring the Trojans’ 1998 Southern Section championship along the side.

Jin Young Won brought them as presents from a recent trip to his native South Korea.

Anduri quickly earned the nickname “Pa” because of her initials. “I feel more like a ma,” Anduri said.