Track Trio Named as All-Americans

Blaine Bussey, formerly of Taft High, Lauren Fleshman, formerly of Canyon, and senior Josh Spiker of Ventura have been picked to the Track & Field News 1999 high school All-American team.

Bussey, a freshman at Long Beach City College, is ranked first in the boys’ 400 meters.

Fleshman, a freshman at Stanford, is ranked second in the girls’ 3,200 and Spiker is ranked fifth in the boys’ 3,200.

Bussey is the first Taft athlete to be ranked first nationally since Quincy Watts was top-ranked in the 100 and 200 in 1987.

Bussey was academically ineligible during the first half of the season, but set a region record of 46.3 in the 400 in May, won the state title at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento in June and placed second in the National Scholastic Outdoor championships a week later.

Fleshman ran a career best of 10:18.81 to win the 3,200 in the state championships.

Spiker won the state title in the boys’ 3,200 after running a career best of 8:56.66 to place second in the Southern Section Masters Meet.

GIRLS’ SOFTBALL

Darwin Tolzin will return for a second stint as the Westlake High coach, replacing Barbara Jordan, who took a position as an assistant at Cal State Northridge.

Tolzin coached the Warriors in 1997 and ’98 before taking a position at Moorpark College last year.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Pepperdine received two commitments, bringing to three the number of players recruited by first-year Coach Jan van Breda Kolff.

Robert Turner is a 6-foot-7 small forward from Anaheim Western High and Will Kimble is a 6-9 power forward from San Bernardino Pacific.

Turner, who showed great improvement during summer tournaments, visited Northridge and Cal State Sacramento. Michael Hall, a 6-3 guard and teammate of Kimble at Pacific, committed to the Waves last week.