Locals take to Stanford in droves

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.

Rosa Del Toro (Glendale Community College, 2010) Long Beach State cross-country junior: Having already made a splash with a stellar unattached showing at the Fullerton Season Opener and by winning the Aztec Invitational just a week before Saturday’s Stanford Invitational, Del Toro showed she could hold her own with some of the best competition in the nation.

The former community college cross-country and track and field state champion finished 22nd in 21 minutes 30 seconds in the women’s 6,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational.

Del Toro was Long Beach’s top runner, as she has been in every race thus far this season — though she did not score at Fullerton as she was unattached — with the squad taking third with 127 points behind winner Stanford (41) and second-place California (86).

Also helping Long Beach’s cause was another GCC transfer, Nina Moore. Moore the reigning junior college state individual champion, came to the finish line just six seconds after Del Toro, as the sophomore was 26th in 21:38.

Long Beach takes a break for nearly a month before returning to action on Oct. 16 with its schedule set to take runners to both the Santa Clara Invitational and the Pre-National Invitational in Indiana.

Del Toro and Moore, though the most successful, were certainly not the only runners with local ties at Stanford.

UC Irvine sophomore Carlotta Pham, a former All-Area standout at Crescenta Valley, finished 89th in 22:57. Pham was the No. 4 runner for Irvine, which took 11th with 309 points. Pham was joined by fellow CV grad and current UC Irvine teammate Shelby Pock. The former All-Area Runner of the Year was her team’s No. 6 runner and crossed the line at 105th in 23:18.

Cal State Northridge’s Zitalic Ley, a senior, was 112th overall in 23:30, as the Matadors finished 18th with 481 points, as Ley was their No. 2 finisher.

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy graduate Erin Hartwig came along in 137th place in a time of 23:59. The Santa Clara sophomore was the fifth-place finisher on a Santa Clara squad that tallied 447 points and a 15th-place finish.

Zack Torres (Crescenta Valley High, 2008) UCLA cross-country sophomore: Torres and the Bruins took part in the prestigious Stanford Invitational on Saturday and the two-time former News-Press Male Athlete of the Year took 49th overall in the men’s 8K race.

Torres finished in 24 minutes 53 seconds. He was UCLA’s No. 6 finishers, as the Bruins finished fourth with 130 points. Torres was also the 11th sophomore in the race to finish.

The Bruins return to action on Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational.

Torres’ former Falcons teammate, Brett Matejka, a junior at UC Irvine, finished 69th in 25:09 at Stanford and Irvine was 12th with 329 points. Matejka was his team’s No. 2 finisher.

Former Hoover standout Brian Trejo, a sophomore at San Francisco State, came in at 135th at Stanford in 26:01. He was the top finisher for San Francisco State, which took 19th with 579 points.

Mike McDonald (Glendale Community College, 2007) Southern Oregon junior quarterback: McDonald was lost for the season during Southern Oregon’s home-opening loss to Menlo, 20-13, on Saturday.

McDonald, who entered the game ranked fifth in the NAIA in passing yards, was carted off the field in the first quarter. He reportedly broke the tibia and fibula in his left leg.

McDonald, who was two for four for 15 yards in the game, threw an interception and had his leg injured trying to make a tackle as a teammate was blocked backward into his leg.

He finished his season with 877 yards passing, eight touchdowns, nine interceptions and 62 completions in 116 attempts.

Southern Oregon (2-2), which also features GCC transfers Kalii Robinson and Tanner Farwell, will play Western Oregon on Saturday.

Jenna Orlandini (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, 2009) Washington volleyball sophomore: The seventh-ranked Huskies were dealt their first loss of the season, losing in four to No. 15 Oregon on Saturday in a Pacific-10 Conference showdown, 25-20, 13-25, 25-20, 30-28.

Orlandini had a match-high 20 digs in the loss, however, and is clearly coming into her own in her first season getting major playing time, playing defensive specialist and libero.

In terms of the Pac-10, Orlandini, whose 4.47 digs per set are third in the Pac 10, owns the top three marks for digs in a single three-set match this season. She garnered 18 in her team’s conference-opening sweep of Oregon State on Friday and before that had 20 against Gonzaga on Sept. 4 and 22 against Robert Morris on Sept. 18.

Orlandini’s played in all 13 matches this year for Washington, leading the team with 179 digs. She’s also contributed 22 assists.

Washington, which is 12-1 overall and 1-1 in conference, hosts USC on Saturday to begin a three-match homestand.

Samantha Orlandini (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, 2008) Cal State Northridge junior setter: The Matadors lost their third straight match after having put together a three-match winning streak at the UNLV Classic.

Saturday saw CSUN fall to Cal Poly, 25-22, 25-23, 25-19 and falling to 0-2 in Big West Conference play in the process.

Orlandini had a match-high 35 assists to go with five digs and a pair of kills.

On Friday, in a five-set conference-opening loss to UC Santa Barbara, Orlandini had a season-high 52 assists. It was the third time this season Orlandini’s garnered 50 or more assists in a match.

In the aforementioned UNLV Classic, Orlandini put together a stellar match in her team’s championship win, as the Matadors defeated San Jose State, 25-17, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19. The former All-Area Girls’ Volleyball Player of the Year had 35 assists, six kills and four digs.

CSUN (6-10) travels to play UC Davis on Saturday.

Nick Posthuma (St. Francis High, 2007) Cal State Fullerton junior forward: Despite the former All-Area Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year’s match-tying goal in the 75th minute, Cal State Fullerton couldn’t salvage a tie, falling to UCLA, 3-2, on Sunday at home.

With the loss, Fullerton fell to 1-4-2 on the season.

Posthuma, who has scored in three of the Titans’ last four games, leads Fullerton with four goals on the season and eight points. Posthuma, who had three of his team-high 13 shots against UCLA, has started all seven of his team’s games.

Nick Swart, another St. Francis High graduate, has also started in four games for Fullerton and played in all seven.

The Titans host UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday.