Northern Arizona Sweeps Titles at UC Irvine Meet

Northern Arizona captured both titles at the UC Irvine Cross-Country Invitational Saturday at Central Park in Huntington Beach. Five of the top 10 runners in the men’s race belonged to the Lumberjacks, who finished with 26 points.

John Howell led Northern Arizona, finishing second with a time of 24 minutes 55 seconds, one second behind race winner Derek Kite of the Future Track Club. Howell’s teammate, Web Shelley, finished third (24:57). Jim Cera, Matt Smith and Tim Martin finished seventh, eighth and ninth for the Lumberjacks.

UC Irvine’s Shawn Frack was the top local finisher, finishing 11th. The Anteaters (144) finished sixth.

Northern Arizona’s Rikke Pedersen won the women’s race in 17:12 over 5,000 meters. Emebet Shiferaw (17:14) of USC finished second and Northern Arizona’s Katie Dawson was third.

UC Irvine (107 points) finished fourth, 71 points behind champion Northern Arizona. Cal State Fullerton finished fifth.

The Titans’ Sarah MacDougall was 14th in 18:20. Teammate Teresa Santana finished 17th.

Holiday Molway was UC Irvine’s top finisher, finishing 19th.

At the Whittier Cross-Country Invitational:

SCC finishes fifth--Nikee Chambers finish ninth as Southern California College finished fifth in the Whittier Invitational at Ralph B. Clark Park. Chambers finished with a time of 23:45 over 6,000 meters. Team Urbanek’s Terri McAllister finished first in 22:25.

Westmont won the women’s title with 38 points. Chapman finished 12th.

Orange High graduate Jaime Martinez finished third in the men’s race for meet winner Azusa Pacific (40 points) with a time of 19:28 over 6,000 meters.

SCC finished sixth. Larry Holland finished 19th for the Vanguards.

In nonconference women’s volleyball:

Long Beach State 3, Utah 0--Brian Gimmillaro gained his 300th victory in 12 years as coach of the 49ers as Long Beach State beat Utah, 15-5, 15-3, 15-10.

Benishe Dillard had 10 kills and six blocks and Jann Snyder had 14 kills for the 49ers, who are unbeaten in eight matches this season.

At the Southern California water polo tournament:

UC Irvine 16, UC Davis 11--Ryan Bailey scored a season-high seven points to lead fourth-ranked UC Irvine (3-0) past UC Davis in pool play of the Southern California tournament in Newport Beach. Teammate Omar Amr had four points for the Anteaters.

Senior Craig Watson scored four points in UC Irvine’s 12-8 victory over fifth-ranked Stanford in an earlier pool-play game.