Cook Leads Harvard-Westlake to Toring Water Polo Title

Senior driver Brooks Cook scored two of his three goals in a five-goal fourth quarter and North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake defeated Long Beach Millikan, 12-1, in the championship game of the Jim Toring Memorial water polo tournament Saturday afternoon at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Harvard-Westlake (5-0), ranked No. 4 in The Times’ preseason rankings, has won the tournament three times in the four years the event has been played since Toring, a former Harvard-Westlake and UCLA standout, died after being struck by a bus while traveling with the U.S. national team in France in 1998.

Harvard-Westlake and unranked Millikan were locked in a scoreless tie through the first quarter, but the Wolverines took a 4-0 halftime lead. Sophomore goalie Jay Connolly made 12 saves for Harvard-Westlake.

In the third-place game, Zach Beckmann had three goals and two assists to lead South Pasadena (3-1) to a 17-7 victory over Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula (2-2).

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Sonya Reynolds of Quartz Hill defeated Alisha Herrera of Valencia, 10-2, in the singles final match, and Granada Hills scored 17 points to win the team title of the Valencia girls’ tennis tournament for the fourth consecutive year. Granada Hills’ Tracey Takeshita and Alexandra Margolin took the doubles title, defeating teammates Randi Levine and Lessica Linder, 10-3, in the finals.

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Freshmen Brenda Cohen and Courtney Granger paced the Canyon Country Canyon girls’ cross-country team to a meet-record victory in the Seaside Invitational meet Friday at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura.

Cohen and Granger finished first and second, respectively, in the freshman girls’ race with times of 17 minutes 48 seconds and 17:51 over a flat, three-mile course run on bike paths.

Their times bettered the previous freshman meet record of 18:01 set by Palmdale Highland’s Rachel Guerrero in 1996. They also helped Canyon to a cumulative team time--the total of its top five runners’ times from the four races--of 90:21. That broke the previous record of 91:36 set by Yucaipa in 1996.

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Steven Chang of Santa Monica was released from Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura on Friday night after suffering a broken nose in the Seaside meet. Chan, a senior who was running his first race since moving from Michigan this summer, was accidentally tripped just after the start of the race and landed on his face. X-rays revealed a broken nose, and he received several stitches.