Amherst Becomes the Place of Pace in Division II Meet

Having a national swimming and diving championship in Amherst, N. Y., in March may sound like a bad idea to most people. But the swimmers competing at the NCAA Division II meet at the University of Buffalo this week certainly don’t feel that way.

After all, the meet is indoors. And in a very fast pool.

Buffalo’s natatorium is only 1 year old and it is well-equipped. The results prove it.

Of the seven swimming events Wednesday--the first day of the four-day meet--six of the times were faster than the times that won championships in the same events last year at the Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach.

The lone exception: Jeanna Giessinger of Northridge won the women’s 500-yard freestyle in 4:55.08, which was almost 8 seconds slower than Laurence Bensimon’s effort last year. Bensimon’s time is a Division II record, however.

Three meet records fell Wednesday. Northridge’s women’s 200-yard medley relay team recorded a time of 1:46.51 to break its own record set in 1986.

“The pool is great,” said Jude Kylander of Northridge, who swam the anchor leg on the relay. “It’s much better than last year. There’s no comparison.”

Hilton Woods of Oakland, Mich., had a time of 20.23 in the 50-yard freestyle and Mark Vandermey clocked 1:50.31 in the 200-yard individual medley. Both times established records.

Middle ground: Most of Northridge’s swimmers are across the country from their families, but one, Tina Dodson, is about as close as she is going to get for a while.

Dodson is from Long Island, N.Y., a 7 1/2-hour drive from Amherst.

Dodson didn’t disappoint her parents, who made the trek Wednesday. She swam the butterfly leg of the Northridge’s 200-yard medley relay team that set a meet record.

The freshman said she chose to attend Northridge because she did not want the pressure of competing at the Division I level, and CSUN’s program was the best in Division II.

But wasn’t there pressure having mom and dad drive all that way to watch her swim?

“Not at all,” Dodson said. “I love having them here. They’re my good luck charm.”

Today she will find out if the luck lasts. She competes in the 200-yard butterfly in the morning. The top six advance to the finals at night.

Breaking records: Steve deLaveaga set six records and tied another for Cal Lutheran to cap his best season for the Kingsmen.

The 6-4 junior was named the district and Golden State Athletic Conference player of the year last week.

DeLaveaga, who scored 22 points in CLU’s 84-63 loss to Biola in the NAIA District III semifinals on Saturday, has 1,763 career points. He needs just 77 points to tie Gary Bowman as CLU’s all-time scoring leader.

DeLaveaga set records this season for field-goal attempts (596); field goals (300); three-point shot attempts (118); three-point goals (52): most points in a season (821) and highest season scoring average (27.4).

DeLaveaga, who has the highest career scoring average (20.5), also tied a CLU record for most points in a game (42). He became the first junior to surpass 1,500 points.

Junior guard Jeff Logsdon, who made 54 of 58 free throws, set a Kingsman record for highest field-goal percentage in a season (93.1%). Freshman Dave Rowlands had the best three-point shooting percentage in a season (50%).

Honor roll: Dametra Johnson was the only player from Valley named to the state junior college all-tournament team.

The 5-10 sophomore forward joined teammate Bernadette Tillis on the all-state team.

More honors: Karina Hardman, the leading scorer in the Western State Conference, was the only player from Moorpark named to the all-state team.

The sophomore forward averaged 25 points to lead the WSC in scoring. She was also first in free-throw percentage (81.6%) and third in the WSC in assists (4.0 average).

Hardman led Moorpark in seven categories this season, including scoring (24.7 average).

Knapp time: Andrea Knapp, an All-Southern Section forward from Louisville High, is UC Berkeley’s third-leading scorer (11.5) and rebounder (4.6).

Cal (15-13, 6-10 in Pacific 10 play) plays host to UCLA on Friday and USC on Saturday in its season finale.

Horsehide Skinner: Tod Skinner, who is batting .457 to lead The Master’s, is making the most of the Mustangs’ busy schedule.

Master’s (7-11, 5-5 in district play) played four games in three days this week, including a non-NAIA District III doubleheader against Regis College on Monday.

Skinner went 4 for 7 against Regis and 3 for 4 Tuesday against Westmont. He leads the team with 19 runs batted in. Senior Jeff Holen is second on the team in batting at .364.

As a team, Master’s is batting .320. Freshman right-hander David Black (2-2) is the Mustangs’ leading pitcher.

This is the life: Ken Lowther, a sophomore shotputter and discus thrower at Moorpark, recorded a lifetime-best mark of 145 feet, 1 inch in the discus event last weekend in the Santa Monica invitational.

But even though it may have been a lifetime best, it was still second best in the meet; Lowther placed second in the event.

He also took second place in the shotput Saturday with a mark of 52 feet.

Broken promises: Going into the Raiders’ Western State Conference tri-match against Ventura and Santa Barbara City colleges Monday afternoon, Moorpark College golfer Keith Thykeson had been the low medalist in all five of his team’s previous outings.

But Monday at Simi Hills Golf Course, the sophomore transfer from Cal State Northridge had his highest score of the year with an 82.

“He made a vow at the beginning of the season that he wasn’t going to shoot anything over an 80,” Moorpark Coach Buck Andreasen said. “But it was just one of those days.”

Moorpark (4-2, 2-1 in conference play) won the tri-match despite Thykeson’s sub-par outing as the Raiders scored a team total of 394, while Ventura was second at 397 and Santa Barbara had a 407.

In Thykeson’s place, the Raiders’ Brent Smith and Brodie Munro shared low-medalist honors with scores of 76.

Second-year blues: The California Lutheran invitational softball tournament has hit the “terrible twos.”

The invitational, in its second year, has shrunk in size from eight teams last season to four this year. The four-team tournament, two-day tournament starts Friday and includes CLU, Christ College of Irvine, the University of San Diego and a USC club team.

CLU opens against USC Friday morning at 9:30. The semifinals will be played Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The championship game will be played at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.