Men’s Water Polo Event Starts Today

The Men’s Senior Nationals take place today through Sunday at the U.S. Water Polo National Aquatic Center in Los Alamitos.

All 16 members of the U.S. national team will participate, but for different teams in the 12-team field. Tony Azevedo, Kyle Kopp and Sean Nolan will compete for Long Beach Shore Aquatics; Ryan Bailey for Newport Water Polo Foundation; Sean Kern for UCLA; Brad Schumacher and Chris Humbert for Olympic Club; Wolf Wigo, Gavin Arroyo, Dan Hackett and Chi Kridell for New York Athletic Club.

Also competing are five former Olympians: Craig Klass (1988, ‘92), Mike Evans (1988, ‘92, ‘96), Kirk Everist (1992, ‘96), Alex Rousseau (1992, ‘96) and Jeremy Laster (1996).

Today’s schedule: 7 a.m.--Long Beach Shore vs. Big Valley; 8--Concord vs. Newport B; 9--UCLA vs. Navy; 10--NYAC B vs. San Diego Shores; 11--USC vs. Long Beach Shore; noon--NYAC A vs. Concord; 1 p.m.--Newport A vs. UCLA; 2--Olympic Club vs. NYAC B; 3--USC vs. Big Valley; 4--NYAC A vs. Newport B; 5--Newport A vs. Navy; 6--Olympic Club vs. San Diego Shores.

TENNIS

Cosmina Ciobanu of Brea defeated Lauren Jones of Mission Viejo, 6-1, 6-2, to win the girls’ 14 singles title in the National Junior Open Tennis Championships Thursday in Anaheim.

In the boys’ 14 doubles final, brothers Raji and Shan Sondhu of Laguna Niguel lost, 6-3, 7-6, to Blake Muller-Grokenberger and Josh Lederman of Santa Barbara.

SWIMMING

The Southwest Championships will be held at the Heritage Park Swim Complex today through Sunday. The meet features 300 swimmers from Southern California.

Prelims are at 9 a.m. and finals begin at 5 p.m. each day.

BASEBALL

Three players from Orange County were among 18 seniors named to the All-South State team, as selected by the California Baseball Coaches Assn. The players were picked from more than 700 high schools in the Southern, Los Angeles and San Diego sections.

John Hudgins, a pitcher from Mission Viejo High who was The Times’ Orange County player of the year, finished the season 10-2, with two no-hitters. The Stanford-bound Hudgins also hit .438 with a team-high 30 RBIs.

The two other county players chosen--Villa Park’s Brandon Averill and Fountain Valley’s Casey Janssen--also were first-team all-county selections.

Averill, who has signed with UCLA, was 9-2 with a 1.81 ERA. He also batted .374 with 32 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.

Janssen batted .415 and led the county with 12 home runs. His 44 RBIs were a single-season school record.