Seven CIF Titlists Set to Compete

Seven athletes who won individual titles in the California Interscholastic Federation state track and field championships last year will compete in the L.A. Invitational indoor meet at the Sports Arena on Saturday.

However, the boys’ 55-meter dash, which has no defending state champions among its entrants, might be the most intriguing event of the meet.

That’s because the race will include the top three returning sprinters in the state in Reggie Bush of La Mesa Helix, Noah Smith of Woodland Hills Taft and Derrick Jones of Long Beach Poly.

Bush, a USC-bound running back, placed third in the 100 and 200 in last year’s state championships.

Smith, a wide receiver who has accepted a football scholarship to California, placed fourth in the 200 and seventh in the 100.

Jones, a junior, finished fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200.

Billie Jo Grant of Arroyo Grande and Ashlee Brown of Riverside North top the list of returning state champions.

Grant, the top-ranked girls’ discus thrower in the nation last year, will compete in that event and the shotput, both to be held at USC.

Brown, the second-ranked 300-meter low hurdler in the nation, will compete in the girls’ 55-meter sprint and hurdle events.

The meet starts at 9 a.m. with the boys’ shotput and the girls’ discus competition at USC. The first events at the Sports Arena begin at 10:30 a.m.

-- John Ortega

Tarzana Stoneridge Prep will not appeal a ban from the playoffs that the Southern Section levied against it after an investigation revealed three boys’ basketball players are ineligible, Commissioner Jim Staunton said.

Stoneridge Prep administrators met Thursday with the commissioner to discuss compliance issues for the future, Staunton said. The three ineligible players are all transfers who failed to fill out the proper paperwork, making them ineligible. “There was an admission that some of the [transfer] things got past them,” Staunton said.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 2 in the Division V-A rankings with a 23-1 record, will have to forfeit victories in which any ineligible transfers played. Staunton said Stoneridge Prep officials believed it would be at least 19 victories.

-- Dan Loumena

Corona del Mar boys’ water polo players Artie Dorr and John Mann, Times’ all-star and Southern Section Division I first-team selections, have committed to four-year schools.

Dorr, the 2001 Division II co-player of the year, has signed with UCLA. Mann, a U.S. junior national team member, has signed with NCAA runner-up California.

Other commitments:

* Brett Reid, a setter for the Huntington Beach Edison boys’ volleyball team, to UC Irvine.

* Tracy Lansing, a forward for the Westlake Village Westlake girls’ soccer team, to USC.

* Jocelyn Hein, a midfielder for the Saugus girls’ soccer team, to USC.

Shannon Tuttle, a former women’s volleyball assistant coach at Georgia Tech and Kent State, has been hired as the girls’ volleyball coach at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High.

A 1992 graduate of Notre Dame who also played setter at the University of Notre Dame women’s team, the 28-year-old Tuttle replaces Stefanie O’Connell, who recently had a baby and resigned to spend more time with her family.

Nori Parvin, girls’ basketball coach at Newbury Park for 29 years, won her 400th game Monday night, when the Panthers defeated Westlake Village Westlake, 56-41.