Team Sportsworld finishes in style

Team Sportsworld capped off a championship season May 26 by defeating Morgan Stanley, 16-10, in the Laguna Beach Little league AAA tournament championship game at Riddle Field.

Sportsworld won both the regular season and postseason titles in the division.

Sportsworld enters the District 55 Tournament of Champions with a 18-1 record and a has a first-round bye. The team will put its 12-game winning streak on the line at 3 p.m. Saturday at Riddle Field against the winner of a first-round game between Saddleback and Northwood.

Morgan Stanley, the second AAA team representing Laguna Beach, had a first-round matchup against Aliso Viejo at La Paz Field in Laguna Niguel. The score wasn’t available at press time.

VFW (No. 1) and Rotary (No. 2) are the Majors division representatives for Laguna Beach in the district tournament.

*

Water Polo

The Laguna Beach Water Polo Club girls’ 12-and-under team finished in first-place at the Regional Junior Olympic Qualifying Tournament May 14 and 15. The girls won the Southern Pacific Region by going undefeated over the two-day event.

Laguna began the tournament May 14 with an 8-5 win against the Chino Hills Area Water Polo (CHAWP) of Chino Hills, then finished the first day of competition with a 12-3 win over Los Alamitos. Laguna continued its strong play May 15 and defeated Riverside, 6-3, and in the semifinals, knocked off United of Los Alamitos, 17-8. In the division final, Laguna jumped out to a fast start and never looked back against Saddleback-El Toro (SET) and scored a 14-6 victory.

*

Tennis

Laguna Beach sophomore Teague Hamilton went undefeated Memorial Day weekend and won the boys’ 16s division Monday at the 2011 West Coast Open Tennis tournament. Hamilton scored a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Hosep Orojian of Glendale at Lakewood Tennis Center in Lakewood.

Hamilton didn’t drop a set during the tournament.

In other tennis action, the Laguna Breakers 10-and-Under Junior Team Tennis squad and scored a 41-39 match win over Tustin Hills Racquet Club on Sunday to win its division title of the Junior Team Tennis tournament at Heritage Park in Irvine.

Laguna held a one-game lead through six singles sets but was down one game after two doubles sets. The team’s No. 2 doubles tandem, William Michelson and Pete Szakacs, closed out a 6-3 set victory that led to Laguna’s two-point win.

*

Equestrian

Nina Thornton, a junior at Laguna Beach High, competed April 30 and May 1 at the Orange Coast Cooler, Sycamore Trails Horse show, where she won several ribbons. Thornton, who this year focused on equitation, won ribbons in both OCHSA Equitation Medal and OCHSA Horsemanship Medal classes and second place in Limit Equitation Flat and Open Equitation Flat divisions.

*

Downhill Skateboarding

Jake Fast and Wyatt Gibbs, both 14 and students at Thurston Middle School, competed Memorial Day weekend against some of the top downhill skateboard athletes in the 16-and-Under division at the 2011 Britannia Classic at Britannia Beach, British Columbia.

The event attracted athletes from the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe and South America. Neither Fast nor Gibbs placed in their division but gained valuable experience.

“It was important for us to ride with the top skaters in the world,” Gibbs said. “It helps us become better athletes.”