With Segerstrom winning this afternoon, the semifinal lineups are now complete:
BOYS TENNIS
DIVISION I
Semifinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
#1 Irvine University at #4 Peninsula
#3 Mater Dei at #2 Santa Barbara
DIVISION II
Semifinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
Palm Desert at #1 San Marino
#2 Diamond Bar at #3 San Luis Obispo
DIVISION III
Semifinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
Santa Monica at #1 Brentwood
#3 Crossroads at #2 Beverly Hills
DIVISION IV
Semifinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
#1 Cerritos at Buckley
#2 Rowland at #3 Viewpoint
DIVISION V
Semifinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m.
#1 Cate at #4 La Salle
#2 Thacher at #3 Segerstrom
Notes: Championships, May 28 at Claremont Club (Div. III, 11 a.m.; Div. II, 11:30 a.m.; Div. I, 1 p.m.; Div. IV, 2 p.m.; Div. V, 2:30 p.m.)
Individual championships: Sectionals, Friday at Cate/Carpenteria, Arcadia HS/Arcadia County Park, Costa Mesa Tennis Center, and U. of Redlands. Final rounds, May 23-24 at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
One of the standouts of Monday's Southern Section-Toyota boys' golf individual Southern Regional was Santa Margarita freshman Kevin DeHuff.
DeHuff, pictured, finished tied for second with a score of one-under 71 at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach. He had four birdies, with two coming on his last two holes.
DeHuff, whose older brother, Bo DeHuff , is a redshirt freshman on USC's golf team, said he practiced as much as he could just to make the Eagles' team. The practice paid off as he got a hole-in-one the day of the tryout.
"That was a good day," he said.
DeHuff will be looking for another good day at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs on Monday, when he'll try to qualify for the CIF/SCGA tournament on May 29 at the SCGA Member's Course in Murrieta. To view a full list of Monday's participants click here.
SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS VOLLEYBALL
DIVISION I
Quarterfinals, Friday, 7 p.m.
San Clemente at #1 Newport Harbor
#4 Santa Margarita at Woodbridge
#3 Loyola at Los Alamitos
#2 Mira Costa at Orange Lutheran
There have been some date/time/site changes since Monday -- here's the latest information we have:
SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
DIVISION I
First round, Thursday, 3:15 p.m. unless noted
Long Beach Poly at #1 Los Alamitos
Royal at Anaheim Canyon
Valley View at Capistrano Valley
Corona Roosevelt at Mater Dei
Tustin vs. Lakewood at Blair Field (Long Beach), 6:30 p.m.
Fountain Valley at Valencia
JSerra at King
Vista del Lago at #4 Simi Valley
Westlake at #3 Hart
Corona Santiago at Canyon Springs
Riverside Poly at Tesoro
Edison vs. Long Beach Wilson at Blair Field (Long Beach)
Millikan at Thousand Oaks
Saugus at Norco
Aliso Niguel at El Modena
Riverside North vs. #2 Orange Lutheran at Hart Park (Orange), 7 p.m.
The opening-game schedule for the Nike Fairfax Summer Basketball Classic June 24-29 at Fairfax is loaded with quality matchups.
The June 24 schedule: Loyola vs. Pasadena, 4:30 p.m.; Harvard-Westlake vs. Santa Monica, 5:50 p.m.; Dominguez vs. Leuzinger, 7:10 p.m.; Campbell Hall vs. Orange Lutheran, 8:30 p.m.
The June 25 schedule: Westchester vs. Dorsey, 5:50 p.m.; Crespi vs. Mater Dei, 8:30 p.m.; Taft vs. Long Beach Poly, 4:30 p.m.; Fairfax vs. La Canada, 7:10 p.m.
Top teams: 1. Crescenta Valley (26-0), 2. Burbank (21-2), 3. Los Altos (20-5), 4. Beckman (21-6).
Dark horse: Oak Park’s Julia Rice is probably the best pitcher in the division and should keep the Eagles (20-6) in every game. Only problem, she’s been out the last two weeks with a sore shoulder. Supposedly, she's now healthy.
How it shakes out: This should be a wide open division simply because the two favorites, both from the Pacific League, are so completely untested. Crescenta Valley, for example, hasn’t played a single opponent in the Division I or II playoff field. Oak Park, Beckman and No. 5 La Serna (22-4) would be CV's toughest tests of the season. In the lower bracket, it’s hard not to like No. 6 Laguna Hills (20-6-1) or No. 7 Fullerton (21-7), though Cajon (20-6) has an offense that could prove difficult to stop.
Top Teams: 1. La Palma Kennedy (26-3), 2. Etiwanda (22-3), 3. Lakewood (23-5), 4. Mission Viejo (22-6-1).
Dark horse: Pacifica (17-12) doesn’t have its typical pitching, but the 11th-seeded Mariners hit like sledgehammer and could definitely knock off a favorite.
How it shakes out: Kennedy, led by twin sister outfielders Elia and Jamia Reid, is the best all-around team, but a potential semifinal against El Modena (21-8-1) could be the real championship game. That’s because unproven Etiwanda was placed at No. 2 and the dominoes stacked the bracket elsewhere. In Kennedy’s half of the bracket are two of the three teams it has been beaten by, Long Beach Wilson (20-8), a potential quarterfinal opponent, and Ayala (19-10-1). Hard-hitting Lakewood and Anaheim Canyon (22-7) are the class of the field in the lower bracket, but the latter has four freshman starters, including pitcher Cheyanne Tarango, and it may be too much for them to make a run this year.
Top teams: 1. Simi Valley (27-0), 2. Corona Santiago (24-3), 3. Valencia (24-5), 4. Norco (26-5).
Dark horse: Rosary (20-9) is a longshot in the truest sense. It could lose in the first round, or make noise throughout. It got off to a poor start, but the young pitching, in particular Alex Peyton, has come around and the Royals have won 10 in a row.
How it shakes out: The three likeliest candidates to emerge are Santiago, Norco and Hart because they have superior pitching in Kamerin May, Teagan Gerhart and Destiny Rodino. Losses the past two weeks show a vulnerability in Santiago which is hard to ignore, even though it won the 2006 title after losing three of its last five games heading into the playoffs. Still, it has an easier path than Norco and Hart, who could meet in the quarterfinals. Simi Valley must deal with the pressure of being No. 1 – and unbeaten – after having not been challenged much outside its league.
The CIF state football championship bowl games have been expanded from three to five games for 2008, but the only one that most folks are going to care about is the new open-division game that will be played on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
That game will match the best team in Northern California, regardless of enrollment, against its counterpart from Southern California. It's the closest thing yet to crowning a true state champion in football.
The remaining bowl games are about school pride. Only the individual schools and their fans will really care. The CIF can't even guarantee if all five games will be televised. It's negotiating a new contract after FSN's contract to televise the three bowl finals each of the last two years has expired.
With the first round of the Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoffs scheduled to start Friday, I wanted to get your thoughts as to which team will win the divisional title.
Los Alamitos, which is located just down the road from the section offices, was seeded No. 1 in the division, but also drew the toughest road to the semifinals, in my professional opinion. The best team in the division not to win a league championship is Mater Dei, and the Monarchs and Los Alamitos will meet in the quarterfinals should both win their first two games.
Not sure why the Monarchs couldn't have been placed in Valencia's spot in the same half of the bracket, forcing fourth-seeded Simi Valley to go through Mater Dei to reach the semifinals.
When Los Alamitos' John Kim came up to No. 18, a hole with a water hazard, the sophomore had two choices: Play it safe and get on the green in three shots or attempt to get on in two.
He wanted to try to clear the water but decided against it. He birdied that hole, and three others. It was smart decisions such as those that allowed Kim, 16, to shoot a four-under-par 68 at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach to finish first in the Southern Section-Toyota boys' golf individual Southern Regional on Monday. He didn't have a bogey on the day.
Here's an interview with Kim, who will be playing in the section's individual championships next Monday at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs.
The Southern Section-Toyota boys' golf individual Southern Regional was unable to hold a playoff to settle a tie for the final four spots
because of a church's fundraiser tournament that was set to tee-off soon.
Sophomore John Kim of Los Alamitos had the low score at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach on Monday with a four-under 68, but seven players were tied with 76. Unable to decide it with a sudden-death playoff, officials went with the second tie-breaker, a card-off-- which is when a player's scores on the finals nine holes are added up.
The players that advance to next week's section's individual championships were Kwang Yi of Valencia, Amar Vanmali of Cathedral, James Taylor of Foothill and Arturo Saro of Warrenn.
The other three will be on the alternate list in the following order: Rak Cho of Brea Olinda, Brett McGaughey of Laguna and Jeff Fuzzard of Marina.
For a full list of the players that advanced keep reading. The championships will played at Mission Lakes Country Club next Monday.
BOYS' VOLLEYBALL DIVISION I Second round, Tuesday, 7 p.m. #1 Newport Harbor at Tesoro San Clemente at Long Beach Wilson Woodbridge at Peninsula Thousand Oaks at #4 Santa Margarita Mission Viejo at #3 Loyola Los Alamitos at Huntington Beach Orange Lutheran at Fountain Valley #2 Mira Costa at Crespi
DIVISION I Quarterfinals, Tuesday, 3 p.m. Troy at #1 Irvine University #4 Peninsula at Harvard-Westlake Dana Hills at #3 Mater Dei #2 Santa Barbara at Thousand Oaks
Being three strokes better than the rest of the field apparently wasn't good enough for sophomore John Kim of Los Alamitos.
Kim, after playing 18 holes, was on the putting green working on his game though it was pretty good throughout the day.
The 16-year-old shot a four-under-par 68 Monday to finish first at the Southern Section-Toyota boys' golf individual Southern Regional today at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach. Four players broke par, but Kim was the only one to shoot under 70.
Kim, along with 29 others from the regional, advance to the section's individual championships next Monday at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs.
DIVISION I First round, Thursday, 3:15 p.m. unless noted Long Beach Poly (Moore T4) at #1 Los Alamitos (Sunset 1) Royal (Marmonte 3) at Anaheim Canyon (Century T1) Valley View (Inland Valley T2) at Capistrano Valley (South Coast T1) Corona Roosevelt (Mountain View 2) at Mater Dei (Trinity 2) Tustin (Century 3) vs. Lakewood (Moore 1) at Blair Field (Long Beach), 6:30 p.m. Fountain Valley (Sunset 3) at Valencia (Foothill 2) JSerra (Trinity 3) at King (Ivy 1) Vista del Lago (Inland Valley T2) at #4 Simi Valley (Marmonte T1) Westlake (Marmonte T4) at #3 Hart (Foothill 1) Corona Santiago (Mountain View 3) at Canyon Springs (Inland Valley 1) Riverside Poly (Ivy 2) at Tesoro (South Coast T1) Edison (Sunset 2) vs. Long Beach Wilson (Moore 2) at Blair Field (Long Beach) Millikan (Moore 3) at Thousand Oaks (Marmonte T1) Saugus (Foothill 3) at Norco (Mountain View 1) Aliso Niguel (South Coast 3) at El Modena (Century T1) Riverside North (Ivy 3) vs. #2 Orange Lutheran (Trinity 1) at Hart Park (Orange), 7 p.m.
It's almost noon at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach, but it feels as if it's 7 p.m. It's cold, skies are gray and it feels as if a downpour is about to be unleashed on the golf course.
Hardly perfect golfing weather for the Southern Section-Toyota boys' golf individual Southern Regional. Thirty of today's participants from each of the three regionals -- Central is taking place at the Landmark at Hemet Golf Course and the Northern at the Sterling Hills Golf Course in Camarillo -- will move on to next Monday's finals at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs, from which 24 will move on to the CIF/SCGA tournament on May 29 at the Member's Course in Murrieta, the final qualifying tournament for the CIF state championships on June 3 at the Santa Maria Country Club.
Results are being tabulated as I type this.
We should know who advances soon, but a playoff for the finals spots are expected. There are no ties today.
The picture is of Estancia's Ryan Knapp teeing off on the first hole.
Since Villa Park started a badminton program in 1999, the school has won 30 Southern Section titles, including at least one every year -- in case you're wondering, the breakdown is six team, six boys' singles, three girls' singles, five girls' doubles, three boys' doubles and seven mixed-doubles.
Brothers Calvin and Marvin Lin kept the streak going Saturday by winning their second consecutive boys' doubles championship at the Orange County Badminton Club. With Calvin set to graduate next month some might be hoping that Villa Park's nine-year run comes to an end next season but don't count on it.
Marvin, a sophomore, said he is teaming up next season with incoming freshman Phillip Chew, the grandson of Don Chew, owner of the OC Badminton Club. The duo of Lin and Chew will be the top boys doubles team next season.
If you want to know who's going to be competing at next week's Southern Section-Toyota Division Championships, be sure to check out these links for complete results. Special thanks to DyeStatCal.com for making all the divisional preliminary results available in such a timely fashion -- you saved my fingers.
Anaheim Canyon's Howard Shu, who has a fascination with basketball shoes, won his third consecutive Southern Section-Toyota badminton boys' singles title at the Orange Badminton Club on Saturday. Shu, a junior, isn't stopping at three, however.
The No. 1-ranked boys' singles player in the nation in the 19-and-under age group wants to win a fourth one.
Garden Grove's Thuy Hoang won her first Southern Section-Toyota badminton girls' singles title Saturday, but will it be her last?
Hoang, a junior, hinted in a post-match interview that she might not compete next season to focus on school. If Saturday's three-game win over Hacienda Heights Wilson's Qiu-ming Wu was her last high school match, than what a match to walk away on. Hoang, after losing in the finals the last two seasons, won the girls' singles and mixed-doubles titles this season.
Here's a short interview with Hoang and Garden Grove coach Paulina Tran.
We're through two rounds of the Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoffs and each of the top four seeded teams are still alive. On Tuesday's slate are two particularly intriguing quarterfinals.
The first pits No. 5 Harvard-Westlake against No. 4 Peninsula in a rematch of a regular-season meeting won by Peninsula. In the other, second-seeded and unbeaten Santa Barbara should get its first real test from a Thousand Oaks squad that features a formidable singles trio in Kyle McMorrow, Denis Lin and Marcos Giron.
Reigning champion and top-seeded Irvine University is rolling along, having won 35 of 36 sets so far, and will be a heavy favorite to eliminate Troy and advance to the semifinals. Third-seeded Mater Dei, which has lost only to University, must knock off Dana Hills to set up a final four showdown against the Thousand Oaks-Santa Barbara winner.
The Newhall Hart girls’ swimming team opened the Southern Section-Toyota Division II finals in record-breaking fashion and ended it as team champion.
The Indians scored 207.50 points at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, easily outdistancing runner-up Westlake, which had 165. Flintridge Sacred Heart was third with 139.
Hart won the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay in 1 minute 47.81 seconds, surpassing the previous meet record of 1:48.59 set by Corona del Mar three years ago. Sophomore Maggie Hanson led off, followed by junior Jordan Danny, senior Rachael Krager and junior Rachael Stoffel.
A pair of brothers and sisters took home the Southern Section-Toyota badminton individual boys' and girls' doubles titles at the Orange County Badminton Club.
The top-seeded duo of Calvin and Marvin Lin of Villa Park won their second consecutive boys' title by beating the second-seeded team of Derrick Poon and Hy Ia of Alhambra, 17-16, 15-13. Poon and Ia were up, 14-5, in the first game, but the Lins rattled off nine unanswered points to tie the score. They used the momentum they gained to win the match.
The second-seeded team of Cheryl and Chloe Chow of San Marino upset the top-seeded team of Isabel Zhong and Victoria Bundy of Mira Costa, 15-4, 11-15, 15-1, to win the girls' title.
When it comes to team efforts, few can keep up with the Westlake Village Oaks Christian boys’ swim team. The Lions set meet records in the 200-yard medley and 200 freestyle relays at the Southern Section-Toyota Division IV finals Saturday afternoon at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, giving the program all three meet relay records in only its second year in the division.
Oaks Christian broke the 400 free relay mark last season en route to setting a meet record with 419 points.
The Lions came close to matching that mark on Saturday, winning six of eight individual events and all three relays to help bolster their winning point total to 377. Cerritos finished a distant second with 169 points.
Garden Grove's Thuy Hoang and Hacienda Heights Wilson's Qiu-ming Wu proved that the girls' singles finals was the finals match to watch.
After losing in the finals each of the last two seasons, top-seeded Hoang, pictured, finally broke through and won her first Southern Section-Toyota badminton individuals championship, but needed three sets to do it, winning, 11-1, 6-11, 11-4.
Second-seeded Wu had only lost only one point the entire day as she headed into the finals at the Orange County Badminton Club. She was tough, but Hoang proved tougher.
Hoang's drop shots and ability to set the pace proved the difference. Both girls are juniors, so it's quite possible they will meet in the finals again next year.
Anaheim Canyon's Howard Shu, pictured, didn't need a lot of time to win his third consecutive Southern Section-Toyota boys' singles title.
Shu, a junior, needed fewer than 20 minutes to beat Fountain Valley's Eric Kuo, 15-5, 15-7, in the finals at the Orange County Badminton Club. Shu, the top-seeded player, did not lose a game all day.
After the match Kuo, a junior and the third-seeded player, was in good spirits and kept saying to anyone who would listen that Howard was at "full-power" for their match.
Here's a quick look at some of the more notable performances to come out of the final hours of the Southern Section-Toyota Division II preliminaries at Moorpark:
For the last two hours, people have been poking their heads into the press box and asking if we had the boys' and girls' 3,200-meter results. Well, consider yourselves lucky to find out Rex Nelson of Newport Harbor posted an impressive time of 9 minutes 18.52 seconds -- more than six seconds faster than his seeding time. Whittier's Luis Dorantes was second (9:19.12) and James Kostelnik of Loyola qualified third (9:20.78).
Villa Park's Calvin and Marvin Lin are up to their old tricks again. The brothers, the defending Southern Section-Toyota badminton individual boys' doubles champions, are that much closer to repeating.
Lin2 (as they were amusingly referred to on the scoreboard at the Orange County Badminton Club) just beat Gary Lui and Billy Xiao of Rosemead, 15-4, 15-8, to advance to the semifinals.
Calvin, a senior, pictured on the right, is going for his fifth Southern Section title, and Marvin, a sophomore pictured on the left, is going for his second.
Three athletes shared the top height in the boys' high jump at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills, where Vista Murrieta junior Nick Ross, San Gorgonio senior Reggie Jackson and Diamond Bar junior Sam Rockwood all reached 6 feet 7 inches.
Ross qualified No. 1 based on fewer attempts.
Mike LaRocca of Dana Hills, who qualified for state last year, failed to advance to the divisional championships next Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. Though he was among eight athletes at 6-5, he lost out on attempts.
Ross is the state leader, having jumped 7 feet on April 20 in a dual meet.
Riley Sullivan, ranked No. 2 in the state in the boys' 3,200 meters, easily qualified first out of the Southern Section-Toyota Division I prelimiinaries at Trabuco Hills.
Sullivan, a senior from Trabuco Hills, ran a 9:14.63 on his home track. He has run 8:56.09 this season at the Arcadia Invitational. The only other runner to go below 9:24 was Highland's Jeremy Acosta.
Saugus freshman Kaylin Mahoney dominated the 1,600 meters at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries, then she turned her attention to the 3,200 and did the same thing.
Mahoney pulled away from Crescenta Valley senior Claire Collison over the last 300 meters and clocked a meet-best time of 10 minutes 41.93 seconds. Collison finished in 10:47.41.
Mahoney's best time of the season is 10:31.86, which she ran at the Arcadia Invitational. It was the state's fifth-best time coming into the day. She looks as if she's going to be a great talent over the next few years.
Alexandra Dunne, a San Clemente junior, dominated her heat and ran a 10:49.39 to qualify third.
One of the biggest surprises of the boys' 300-meter hurdles at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills was the failure of Fountain Valley's Kevin Jones to advance.
Jones was the winner at the Orange County Championships. Although he finished in 39.75 seconds, he was only 14th in the field on Saturday.
The winner of each of five heats, and the next four fastest times, advanced.
The top qualifier was Cameron Stepney, a senior at San Gorgonio who clocked 38.34 seconds, just a tad quicker than Walnut senior Cordell Almond's 38.44.
Blake Poole of Esperanza was more than 2 1/2 feet better than his nearest competitor in the boys' shot put in the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills.
Poole, a senior who was the Southern Section leader coming into the day, had a winning put of 59 feet 8 1/2 inches. It's still off his best of the season, 61-0, thrown on March 13 in a dual meet. He is ranked third in the state.
Daniel Swarbrick of Saugus qualified second at 57-2, and Jeramy Cutler of Lakewood was third at 54-9 1/2.
An announcement over the two-way radio earlier today noted that the Redcoats -- the meet officials who can be picked out of a crowd by the red coats they are wearing -- were complaining that they had not been fed one hour into the running events.
Well, at 4:45 p.m., well before the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills are scheduled to be finished, another announcement has come over the radio: "We've got a Redcoat who wants to know why he hasn't been paid yet."
Last I looked, most of the world gets paid after the job is completed. I'll say one thing: This is an excellent advertisement to become a track and field official.
A couple of sophomores were the top qualifiers in the girls' long jump at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills. Alycia Herring of Rancho Verde jumped 18 feet 10 1/2 inches to emerge No. 1, and she was followed by Olivia Hudson of Long Beach Wilson, who jumped 18-5.
On the state level, Hudson came into the day ranked No. 4 with a jump of 19-1 1/2, and Herring was No. 5 at 19-0.
A third sophomore, Monica Todd of Trabuco Hills, qualified fifth with a leap of 17-6.
At the Division III Southern Section-Toyota preliminaries, here are a few more top performers, whom I don't want to skip over...
Orange Lutheran's Sam Delgado clocked a first-place 1:55.68 in the boys' 800 meters, edging out Servite's Mike Villasin, who ran a 1:56.33.
One of the day's closest battles was between El Segundo's Allison Reaser and Santa Margarita's Kelly Collins in the 300-meter hurdles. Reaser won with a time of 44.54 seconds, beating Collins by one-tenth of a second. Can't wait to see these two standouts compete at the championship.
Corona del Mar's Shelby Buckley ran a 2:17.18 to win the girls' 800 meters, edging out a dynamic freshman, Palos Verdes' Erica Capellino, who clocked a 2:17.27.
Maylaythong coached Villa Park to a record sixth consecutive Southern Section team title in 2006 and Lee, the No. 1-ranked womens' singles player in the nation, won four Southern Section titles (two singles and two mixed-doubles) while at the school in 2003 and 2004.
The other two players expected to get invites are Howard Bach, Malaythong's doubles partner, and Raju Rai, the No. 1 men's singles player in the nation. Some of you, even if you don't follow badminton, may recognize Bach and Malaythong from this Vitamin Water commercial.
Michael Andraszczyk, a senior from Aliso Niguel, ran a personal best in the boys' 800 meters to be the event's No. 1 qualifier from the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills.
Andraszczyk came into the day with the fourth-best time in the state, 1:53.51, which he ran at the South Coast League finals. He bettered that with a 1:53.44. He didn't move up the ladder -- he is still fourth -- but made his point just the same.
Saw a T-shirt on the way in to the Division I prelims at Trabuco Hills selling for $15. It was the Tommie Smith tribute shirt, with the iconic image of Smith with his raised fist from atop the podium after the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games.
Competition is underway at the Southern Section-Toyota individual badminton championships today at the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange.
Up first are the girls. The favorite to win in singles is Garden Grove's Thuy Hoang, who's the top-seeded player. Hoang, a junior, is looking for her first career singles title after losing to La Quinta's Jamie Subandhi in the finals the last two years. Hoang won her first career high school title Thursday when she paired up with Thinh Nghi to take the mixed-doubles championship.
Some of the boys' singles players are passing the time playing cards. Others are eating yogurt or talking with teammates.
James Cameron, the state leader in the boys' 1,600 meters, was the only runner to break 4:14.5 at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills. Cameron, a junior from Mission Viejo, clocked 4:14.79, which was off his state-leading time of 4:12.37.
Riley Sullivan, second in the state, finished second in his heat on his home track with a 4:17.11 and qualified seventh overall. He was beaten by Raul Arcos of Corona, who turned it on the last 200 to pass several runners and finish in 4:16.13 to qualify third. Arcos had been seeded seventh in his heat.
Toby Villalva of El Toro qualified second at 4:15.54.
The first big performance of the afternoon came in the girls' 1,600 meters where defending state champion Christine Babcock of Woodbridge easily won her heat in a time of 5 minutes 2.07 seconds.
Hillary Hayes of Edison actually posted a quicker time of 5:01.66, but the performance was more than enough to earn Babcock a ticket to next week's divisional championships at Mt. San Antonio College.
Babcock is the Division II record holder in the 1,600 and 3,200 and has posted the state's second-fastest times in each event this spring. Look for the defending Division II state cross-country champion to finish somewhere around the 4:40 mark next week.
I'll try to get a word with Babcock after she runs the 3,200 later this afternoon.
She's only a freshman, but Kaylin Mahoney of Saugus turned in the most impressive time of the girls 1,600 meters at the Southern Section-Toyota Division I prelimiinaries at Trabuco Hills. Mahoney clocked 4:54.10, which would rank her fifth in the state coming into the day. Mahoney outpaced the top-seeded runner in the heat, Crescenta Valley's Claire Collison, who ran a second-best 4:56.61.
There was a good run by Burbank Burroughs' Sadee Martinez, whose 4:58.81 was sixth overall among the 50 runners; she was seeded seventh in her heat with Mahoney and Collison.
San Clemente's Alexandra Dunne, who had run 4:53.01 converted that was fourth in the state, easily won her heat and was the No. 5 qualifier at 4:58.78.
The infrastructure at Trabuco Hills is breaking down!!! A report on the radio has just announced that "the Redcoats are complaining that they haven't been fed."
The "Redcoats" are the event officials. It's 1 p.m. Although field events began at 10 a.m., the track events didn't begin until noon. That's 60 minutes of work before they complained.
There's good and bad news from the guys down on the field at the Southern Section-Toyota Division II preliminaries:
First, we're more than 30 minutes behind schedule thanks to problems with the timing computer. The girls participating in the 400-meter relay were called away from the starting blocks after waiting in place for about 10 minutes and are sitting in the infield (see photo). There's murmurs the redcoats might resort to stopwatches!
Fortunately, the same radio communication from the field informed the press box that complimentary sandwiches were on the way up. At least the event organizers are doing everything they can to make the media happy. And they should since it looks as if we're going to be here for a while.
I just arrived in Moorpark for the Southern Section Division II preliminaries and I'm pretty stoked I found a parking lot with relative ease. Of course, I arrived more than an hour ahead of the scheduled start of the running events, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Anyway, once the results start pouring in, I'll be sure to let you know who's advancing to next week's divisional championship meet. The top nine performers/teams in each event move on.
The field events have already started, and I managed to snap a shot of Torrance discus thrower Esther Uini.
SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS VOLLEYBALL
DIVISION I
First round, Saturday, 7 p.m.
Crespi at Lakewood
Second round, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
#1 Newport Harbor at Tesoro
San Clemente at Long Beach Wilson
Woodbridge at Peninsula
Thousand Oaks at #4 Santa Margarita
Mission Viejo at #3 Loyola
Los Alamitos at Huntington Beach
Orange Lutheran at Fountain Valley
#2 Mira Costa at Crespi/Lakewood winner
Foothill ended up winning the unofficial Southern Section championship for boys' lacrosse with an 11-7 victory over Palos Verdes in a rematch of last year's title game.
That makes Foothill a back-to-back winner since the Southern Section began sanctioning the sport, although because fewer than 20% of its member schools participate, it does not sanction the championship.
Tyler Brown scored four goals and Trent Jones three for Foothill. The game most valuable player was defenseman Michael Clenshaw, who held Palos Verdes scoring machine Nolan Semel to just two goals and one of those was when Foothill was short-handed.
But man, you had to feel for Foothill's senior goalkeeper Sam Goings,who had nine saves on the night.
In the unofficial Southern Section boys' championship, Foothill leads Palos Verdes at halftime, 6-4, in a rematch of last year's title game won by Foothill, 11-10. The Knights might have had an even bigger lead, but PV goalkeeper Matt Schladen did a nice job of keeping the Sea Kings in the game early.
Tyler Brown needed fewer than seven minutes to score three unanswered goals that gave Foothill a 3-1 lead. The Knights led by as much as 5-2 in the first two minutes of the second quarter, but PV closed to 5-4 with 7:56 left in the half.
Trent Jones seized the momentum back for Foothill with a nice reverse and score with 1:18 left.
Lauren Ciccomascolo scored six goals and also had an assist to lead St. Margaret's to a 16-8 victory over Palos Verdes in the unofficial Southern Section girls' championship at Trabuco Hills on Friday.
Mary-Rachel Walsh added four goals, and Anna Maria Carabini and Jackie Marloe had two goals apiece as the Tartans (17-7) never trailed. They finished the season on a 12-game winning streak.
DIVISION I Second round, Saturday, 3 p.m. unless noted #1 Irvine University at Dos Pueblos Troy at Palos Verdes Harvard-Westlake at Santa Margarita, 1 p.m. #4 Peninsula at Woodbridge #3 Mater Dei at Mira Costa Dana Hills at Northwood Thousand Oaks at Corona del Mar #2 Santa Barbara at Marina
