Wilson Seeks First State Title

Long Beach Wilson (36-3) will try to win its first girls’ volleyball state championship Saturday at Cypress College, although the opponent, Mountain View St. Francis (30-1), has been close to unstoppable.

Wilson, with standout sophomore Cynthia Barboza -- 33 kills Tuesday against Clovis Buchanan in the Southern California final -- will only win if it can control junior outside hitter Jessica Gysin, who had 37 kills in last season’s Division II championship victory over Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.

St. Francis won four of the last five Division II championships before moving up to Division I. The match is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Torrance Bishop Montgomery (28-8), trying for its third Division III title in seven seasons, plays San Jose Presentation (29-7) at 1:30 p.m. The Knights won Division III championships in 1998 and 1996, and lost in the 1999 final.

Middle blocker Noelle Quinn, who had 18 kills and 14 blocks in a four-game victory Tuesday over North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, and opposite hitter Nicole Read were freshmen on the team that lost in 1999.

L.A. Marymount (35-4) is trying for a third consecutive state Division IV championship against a familiar opponent, Atherton Menlo (24-6), in an 11 a.m. match.

The Sailors swept Menlo in last year’s title match, 15-5, 15-6, 15-7, as well as two years ago, 15-4, 15-10, 15-4.

Championship play begins at 9 a.m. with Solona Beach Santa Fe Christian (25-7) playing San Franciso University in Division V. In Division II, Bakersfield Liberty (31-4) plays Los Gatos (27-6) at 5 p.m.

-- Mike Bresnahan

Costa Mesa Estancia girls’ basketball Coach Tami Rappa has accused a former player’s parent of assault.

Rappa filed a police report that said Linn Brady shoved her shoulder into Rappa’s chest because Brady was upset that her daughter hadn’t played Tuesday night in a 71-16 victory over Westminster La Quinta.

Brady’s daughter, who Rappa said missed four practices and a game with unexcused absences, has since been removed from the team for violating the team’s code of conduct, which includes dismissal for missing three or more practices without a justifiable excuse.

Rappa said she couldn’t play Brady’s daughter Tuesday because “she didn’t know any of the plays.”

Costa Mesa Police Officer Dale Birney said the investigation into Rappa’s accusations will be concluded within a week or two and that a determination of whether to forward the case to the Orange County district attorney for possible prosecution will be made at that time.

-- Dan Loumena

Seniors Michael Poe of Etiwanda and Phillip Reid of Oxnard Rio Mesa and junior Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte have each won Southern Section and state cross-country championships the last two weeks. But finishing among the top eight --not winning -- will be their main goal Saturday in the West region championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

The top eight finishers in the boys’ and girls’ seeded races qualify for the national championships at Morley Field in San Diego on Dec. 14.

Reid posted the fastest time in the state meet when he won the Division II race with a 15-minute 1-second clocking over the 5,000-meter course at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Poe, who ran 15:06 in the Division I race, and Trafeh, who timed 15:13 in the Division IV final, appeared to be well within themselves in winning their races by large margins.

Junior Michael Haddan of Irvine Woodbridge, who placed second to Reid in the section and state championships, is another runner from the Southland who appears to have a solid shot at a top-eight finish.

Junior Liza Pasciuto of Murrieta Valley, runner-up in the state Division I final, appears to be the runner from the Southland with the best chance at finishing among the top eight in the girls’ race.

The meet will start at 7:25 a.m with a race for seventh- and eight-grade boys. The seeded girls’ race will start at 10 a.m. and the seeded boys’ will begin at 10:40.

The Division II boys’ race of the state meet lived up to its billing and then some.

The race was regarded as the most talent-laden of the meet and the results proved that as a record-high 11 runners broke 15 minutes 30 seconds and 31 broke 16.

Reid set a Division II meet record with his winning time of 15:01 and the times for the fifth- through 13th-place finishers and for the 21st through 29th-place runners were the fastest ever recorded for those places at any level in the state championships.

The times for the runners in 14th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 30th place tied the fastest ever for those positions in the meet that began in 1987.

Runners from the Southern Section won 12 of a possible 20 titles in the state championships, but nowhere was the section’s dominance more pronounced than at the Division I level.

Murrieta Valley led Southern Section teams to a sweep of the first seven places in the Division I girls’ race and Los Angeles Loyola paced a section sweep of the first six places in the boys’ race.

In addition, runners from the section took 16 of the top 20 places in the boys’ race and 26 of the top 40 in the girls’.

-- John Ortega