Lottman Scrambles for Share of Lead in City Final

Josh Lottman of Chatsworth High shot an even-par 72 to grab a share of the lead Wednesday after the first round of the City Section golf championships at Griffith Park’s Harding course.

Ed Turner of Palisades and Fairfax’s Steve Chung also shot 72.

Carey Evans of El Camino Real, Alex Paek of Marshall and Evan Lieb of Hamilton are tied for second, one stroke behind.

Lottman shot a 34 on the back nine to pull even with Turner, runner-up last season and champion as a freshman in 1999.

“I just hit all the greens,” said Lottman, a junior who practices at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills. “Evans isn’t going to let anyone go and Turner can shoot low any time. I’m not getting my hopes up.”

Evans was disappointed by his performance.

“I’m in the hunt,, but I could have shot a much lower score,” Evans said. “I pulled every putt I hit from the ninth hole on. But the pins were in tough spots today. Even par is going to be the score to beat.”

Evans was paired with Turner and both were two under par through six holes. Turner birdied the par-five 18th, while Evans missed his birdie attempt.

Twenty-one golfers are within five strokes of the lead heading into the final round today, which will be played on Griffith’s longer Wilson course.

Chatsworth (384) leads the team competition, followed by Granada Hills (385), Hamilton (391) and defending champion Palisades (392).

Swimming

City Section preliminaries--Seniors Amy Jones of Cleveland and Jennifer Ward of Granada Hills earned top seedings for next week’s City Section finals despite swimming in new events at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Jones recorded the fastest times in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.62) and 500 freestyle (5:07.36).

She also helped Cleveland finish second in the 200 freestyle relay (1:47.34) and did the butterfly leg on the 200-medley relay team that qualified fourth.

Ward will be top-seeded in the 100 butterfly (1:01.10) and second-seeded in the 200 individual medley (2:15.49) behind defending-champion Elizabeth Inai of El Camino Real (2:15.34).

The top six finishers in each event qualified for the finals Wednesday at Belmont Plaza.

The next six finishers qualified for consolation finals.

Ward was City champion in the 50 and 100 freestyles last year.

Jones won City titles in the 50 and 100 freestyles as a sophomore and in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly last season.

“I just chose events that I wanted to have fun with,” Jones said. “It kind of mixes things up, and sometimes you can surprise yourself.”

Said Ward: “It’ll probably be a good race, but I’m out to win. I wanted to try something different because I’m known as a sprinter, but I can do other things, too.”

Inai, defending champion in the 100 backstroke, timed 1:02.18 and is seeded second.

Granada Hills is among the favorites to win the boys’ team title, but the Highlanders will be hurt by the absence of junior Tyler Clark, who broke his foot playing basketball this week.

Clark won titles in the 200 medley and 500 freestyle last season and was top-seeded in the medley and 100 butterfly this year.