Young, but skilled
James Townsend of the Malibu Wrestling Club completed his season Saturday by placing third at a Southern California Wrestling Association tournament in Palmdale. During the season he also place fourth at a California Age Group Wrestling Association tournament in Temecula and third at the Tri-County Wrestling tournament in Lompoc. James competed in the U8 Bantam division at 65 pounds. He is a first-grader at Our Lady of Malibu.
Swimming in the fast lane
Malibu resident Ry Arnoldi, a senior at Crossroads School, was named MVP of the Fountain League High School championships. He broke his personal record in the 100-yard-freestyle (48.1 seconds) and the 50-yard-freestyle (21.8).
Pepperdine men’s tennis advances in tournament
The Pepperdine University men’s tennis team defeated Texas Christian, 4-0, at home on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament, advancing the Waves to the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive season. Pepperdine (32-2) will meet the University of Florida (17-7) on Saturday at 12 p.m. at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.
The Waves dominated their match against TCU from the start. The doubles team of Ivor Lovrak and Pedro Rico defeated Andrei Mlendea and Cosmin Cotet, 8-3, at court two, while the team of Scott Doerner and Andre Begemann put away Jordan Freitas and Rafael Abreu, 8-5, at court one to win the doubles point.
Pepperdine took a 3-0 lead when Richard Johnson crushed Radu Barbu, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 5 and Rico defeated Abreu, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 2. After a 3-0 deficit in the first set, Omar Altmann fought back to defeat Freitas, 6-4, and then clinched the match with a 6-2 win in the second set.
When the match was abandoned, Doerner led 6-1, 4-3 over Mlendea at No. 1, while Lovrak led 7-5, 3-3 at No. 3. Begemann lost the first set to Cotet, but was leading 4-2 in the second set at court four.
Pepperdine women’s golf qualifies NCAA tournament
All-Americans Carolina Llano and Eileen Vargas shot even-par scores of 72 to help the No. 7 Pepperdine women’s golf team finish third at the NCAA Central Regional Championships that concluded Saturday at the par-72, 6,289-yard Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas.
The third-place showing qualified the Waves for their seventh NCAA championships appearance in the last eight years. Pepperdine will travel to Columbus, Ohio, seeking its first national championship when it opens play at the Scarlet Course on Tuesday.
USC captured the team title with a 54-hole score of 19-over par 883 to register a two-shot victory over top-ranked Duke, which finished at 21-over par 885. Pepperdine, which shot a final-round 8-over par 296, concluded the tournament with a 39-over par total of 903.
Vargas and sophomore Leanne Bowditch tied for ninth place as individuals with 8-over par scores of 224 to lead the Waves.
Llano tied for 15th with a 10-over par total of 226 while sophomore Marina Choi and freshman Jayvie Agojo tied for 31st and 44th, respectively.
Pepperdine baseball wins regular season WCC title
Senior second baseman David Uribes and junior catcher Chad Tracy led a 13-hit attack with three hits apiece and senior right hander James Johnson pitched his first career complete-game to help No. 20 Pepperdine to a 12-2 victory over Saint Mary’s Sunday afternoon at Luis Guisto Field to sweep the series and claim a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title.
The Waves (36-18, 15-6) captured a portion of their first regular season title since 1995 and will make their eighth consecutive appearance in the WCC Championship Series. Pepperdine’s opponent in the best-of-three series that determines the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament will be San Francisco, which claimed a share of its first-ever WCC title after completing a three-game sweep of Loyola Marymount on Sunday.
The Dons (36-19, 15-6) earned the right to host the WCC Championship Series after taking two of three from Pepperdine earlier this season at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The two teams will open play at Benedetti Diamond on May 26.
Pepperdine enters the WCC Championship series seeking its third straight conference title and fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Waves’ longest stretch of consecutive NCAA appearances is five, accomplished from 1985-89. In Sunday’s series finale, the Waves broke open a 1-1 game with a three-run third, added three more in the fifth, scored once in the sixth and tallied four runs in the eighth for a 12-2 lead as they equaled their season-high output for runs scored.
Tracy put Pepperdine out in front for good in the third inning as he doubled to right-center field to drive in two of his season-high tying four RBI. Uribes scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch. It was the first of three runs scored by Uribes, who increased his Pepperdine career runs scored record to 332.
The double was also the 55th of Tracy’s career, moving him into sole possession of third place, two shy of tying for second place and five shy of equaling the Pepperdine all-time record of 60.
Sophomore shortstop Danny Worth also had a solid game offensively for the Waves as he collected a career-high four RBI.
Meanwhile, Johnson (6-1) limited Saint Mary’s (26-25, 9-12) to five hits, two runs, walked three and struck out three. It was his sixth consecutive win and marked the third straight game that he has worked into the ninth inning.
In his previous two starts, Johnson went 8.2 innings before receiving relief help and in his last three starts he has a 3-0 mark and 2.10 ERA while striking out 13 in 25.2 innings.
Pepperdine was scheduled to play against USC on Tuesday after The Malibu Times went to print.
-Pepperdine game summaries obtained from Pepperdine Sports Information