Saddleback’s Poling Wins 200 IM at Conference Meet

Former Laguna Hills swimmer Steve Poling won the 200-yard individual medley for Saddleback, finishing almost two seconds ahead of Palomar’s Travis Lansing on the first day of the Orange Empire Conference men’s swimming championships Thursday at Saddleback College.

Poling finished in 2 minutes 0.82 seconds.

Geraldo Ferreria of Orange Coast won the 50 freestyle in 21.68.

In the women’s competition, Miyuki Hiraoka of Saddleback won the 500 freestyle in 5:22.50. Teammate Jennifer Cadenhead won the 100 IM in 1:00.83.

Competition continues today with preliminaries starting at 9 a.m. at Saddleback College.

In Orange Empire Conference baseball:

Riverside 13, Cypress 6--Riverside got two home runs from Antoine Cameron and one from Jason Fransz as the Tigers (29-10-1, 13-8) moved to within a half-game of second-place Cypress.

The Chargers (30-8, 13-7) scored four runs in the top of the sixth inning to cut the Riverside lead to 9-6, but starter Derrick Van Dusen (6-1) shut them down the rest of the way and earned the victory. Matt Huggett took the loss for Cypress, which trails first-place Santa Ana by 3 1/2 games.

Josh Snook and Kevin Snapp homered for the Chargers, who also got a double from Jeff Ruziecki.

Santa Ana 17, Saddleback 3--Carlos Pasillas had four hits, including three-run and two-run home runs, and C.J. Wilson hit a grand slam and a solo home run for visiting Santa Ana (31-5-1, 17-4).

Orange Coast 8, Fullerton 6--Ryan France had a double, two singles, scored two runs and drove in three for host Orange Coast (17-21, 7-12), which put the game away with a five-run seventh inning.