Mission Viejo Swimmer Wins Gold

Mission Viejo High student Juan Veloz won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly on the first day of the World Cup short-course event Tuesday in Shanghai, China.

Veloz, who trains with the Mission Viejo Nadadores but represents Mexico, won in a time of 1:57.33, defeating Massimiliano Eroli of Italy by a half second.

Chinese swimmers dominated the first day, winning 13 races. The U.S., Hungary, Mexico and Canada each won one gold. Chad Carvin of Laguna Hills was the only U.S. winner, cruising to victory in the 400-meter freestyle in a time of 3:45.47.

BASEBALL

Cal State Fullerton is a consensus No. 2 in the preseason college baseball rankings.

The Titans were ranked second by Baseball America this week after earlier taking the No. 2 spot in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll. Stanford is ranked No. 1 by both publications.

Alabama is ranked No. 3 in Baseball America, followed by UCLA, Miami, Houston, Florida State, Louisiana State, Georgia Tech and Baylor. USC is ranked 11th.

Fullerton and Stanford play a season-opening three-game series Feb. 4-6 in Palo Alto.

EQUESTRIAN

The Interscholastic Equestrian League competition continues from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The league provides horseback riding competition on four levels--varsity, junior varsity, freshman and novice--for more than 120 students representing more than 40 public and private high schools.

For more information, contact Charlene Guarriello at (949) 459-7584, or Diana Ramsey at (949) 589-7444.