At-Large Bids Given for State Meet

The boys’ teams from Burbank and Nordhoff highs and the girls’ squads from Thousand Oaks, Royal and Ventura have been granted at-large berths in the state cross-country championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday.

None of those teams automatically qualified for the state meet by placing among the top four teams in their respective divisions in the Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday. But the team time--the cumulative time of a team’s top five runners--of each squad in the section finals was fast enough to gain entry into the state meet.

This is the first time that the Burbank boys and Royal girls have qualified for the state championships since the meet started in 1987.

TENNIS

* No. 3-seeded Nina Yaftali of Westlake Village and Lori Stern of Ojai defeated No. 1-seeded Gia Nafarrete of Seal Beach and Lindsey Nash of Temecula, 6-4, 6-1, to win the girls’ 16 division championship of the U.S. Tennis Assn. Southern California Junior Doubles 2000 sectional tournament Sunday at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley.

No. 4-seeded Justin Montgomery of Channel Islands Harbor and Eric McKean of Pacific Palisades defeated No. 7-seeded Jason Mossembekker of Camarillo and Kevin McQuaid of Huntington Beach, 6-3, 6-4, for the boys’ 16 title.

Andrew Lieu of Thousand Oaks and Derrick Bauer of Marina del Rey, No. 4-seeded in the boys’ 18 division, defeated No. 3-seeded brothers Doug and Scott Stewart of Malibu, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, in a third-place match.

In the girls’ 18 division final, top-seeded Brittany Reitz of Newport Beach and Anne Yelsey of Corona del Mar defeated No. 4-seeded Brooke Borisoff of Agoura Hills and Lauren Perl of San Diego, 7-5, 6-2.

Erica Sauer of Somis and Riza Zalameda of Los Angeles won the girls’ 18 third-place match with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Georgette Wright of Burbank and Alexandra Maclennan of Los Angeles.

No. 2-seeded Cosmina Ciobanu of Brea and Camelia Todorova of La Jolla knocked off top-seeded Danon Beatty of Bakersfield and Mykala Hedberg of Oxnard, 6-1, 7-5, in the girls’ 14 final.

No. 3-seeded Sauer and Stephen Amritraj of Calabasas beat No. 4-seeded Lieu and Arpi Kojian of Santa Ana, 6-3, 6-1, in the 18 mixed doubles final.

Nash and Rylan Rizza of Palos Verdes edged Wright and Garrett Leight of Los Angeles for the 16 mixed doubles title, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

FOOTBALL

* Steve Hagen, who played football at Cal Lutheran and Thousand Oaks, was fired Monday as offensive coordinator at California. The Golden Bears finished 3-8 and ranked ninth in the Pacific 10 Conference in offense.

* Ventura College cornerback D.J. Coote said he has several scholarship offers, including ones from USC and Cal.

“I think I know where I’m going,” said Coote, who had 13 interceptions in two seasons at Ventura. “I need to be in a pass-oriented conference.”