Alimonda Leads No. 1 Dos Pueblos to Golf Title

Vicki Alimonda, Nicole Dishman and Sara Ovadia swept the top three spots to lead Goleta Dos Pueblos to victory in the San Marcos Invitational girls’ golf tournament at La Purisima.

Alimonda, a junior transfer from Brazil, earned medalist honors with a five-over-par 77 to win her second tournament title of the season. The Chargers, ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, finished with a 414 total, 69 strokes ahead of runner-up and No. 3 Palm Desert.

Rounding out the top five were Irvine Woodbridge (496), Santa Ana Foothill (503) and Moorpark (529).

Don Crosby, the former high school coach for Tiger Woods at Anaheim Western, has resurfaced as girls’ golf coach at Fullerton Rosary.

Crosby retired from Western High in 2000 after 16 years as golf coach and 34 years as a teacher. He spent the last two years helping with the boys’ junior varsity team at Cypress -- a position in which he will continue. He had hip-replacement surgery on both hips, but said he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to coach a varsity team again.

“It sounded like too much fun,” Crosby said.

He inherits a team that includes talented senior Jen Sanders, a Times’ second-team all-star last season. Rosary won the Serra League last season and finished 11th in the Southern Section championships.

Peter Yoon

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The state girls’ golf championship will be Nov. 25 at the PGA of Southern California Golf Club in Calimesa, and the boys’ championship will be June 8 at the Santa Maria Country Club.

State golf championships are being reinstated beginning with the current school year as a result of a May vote by members of the CIF’s Federated Council.

Previous state golf championships had short runs, from 1977-81 for the girls and from 1976-81 for the boys.

Sophomore Brenda Cohen will make her only varsity appearance of the season for the Canyon Country Canyon girls’ cross-country team Sept. 27 when the Cowboys compete in the Great American Cross-Country Festival in Cary, N.C.

Cohen had the third-fastest time by any Canyon runner when she won the sophomore race at the Colton Invitational on Sept. 13. But she is ineligible to run at the varsity level in any CIF-sanctioned meets this season because she lives outside Canyon’s attendance area.

Cohen and her parents moved from Valencia to Canyon Country before her freshman year at Canyon. But when they moved back to Valencia earlier this year to reside in the house they had been renting out, she was required to lose a year of varsity eligibility if she remained at Canyon.

She is allowed to run in North Carolina because the meet is not sanctioned by the CIF.

“We understand that rules are rules and that’s the way it goes,” Canyon co-Coach Paul Broneer said. “She definitely would give us more depth, especially up front, in something like the state meet. But we understand that we’re not going to have her.”

-- John Ortega