OLM athlete wins running title
Our Lady of Malibu Catholic School sixth-grader Conor McMahan on May 7 won the Catholic Youth Organization Championship and broke the CYO record in the boys “B” (fifth- and sixth-grade) 400-meter dash. The CYO Track and Field finals took place at Serra High School in Gardena on. There were 64 other Catholic schools in the competition.
Conor competed against seven other top qualifiers from around the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He ran relentlessly, leading from start to finish, holding off his pursuers and taking the race by less than a length. His finishing time was 1 minute, 3.56 seconds.
Conor is only one of four CYO track and field champions in OLM’s 50-year history.
Also at the meet, OLM eighth-grader Carolyn Pushaw placed sixth in the varsity girls shot-put.
Waves tennis falls in NCAA tournament
Playing without top player Andre Begemann, the No. 14 Pepperdine University men’s tennis team fell to No. 3 Georgia, 4-1, on Friday in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Division I Team Championship at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Begemann, ranked 11th in the country, had flown back to his home in Germany to attend his mother’s funeral. He had learned of her death the night before. The Waves wore white bands on their arms with the initials “A.B.” to honor their teammate during the match.
“I’m so proud of this team,” said Pepperdine head coach Adam Steinberg. “They played with so much heart, yet none of us are going through what Andre is experiencing with the loss of his mother.”
Begemann and teammate Bassam Beidas play this week in Tulsa in the singles tournament. Also a team of Begemann and Omar Altmann are competing in the doubles competition.
Silvia Kosakowski and Bianca Dulgheru are also playing for the Waves in the women’s doubles tournament this week. The women’s team was eliminated from the team tournament in the second round by USC.
Pepperdine baseball clinches berth in WCC Championship Series
The Top 25-ranked Pepperdine baseball team secured second place in the West Coast Conference on Sunday with a 6-4 win over Santa Clara. The team finished with a 14-6 record in the conference. The Waves had a 35-17 record when The Malibu Times went to print on Tuesday, with one regular season game remaining on the schedule for that night.
The second-place conference finish means the Waves will face league leader UC San Diego this weekend in the WCC Championship Series. The best-of-three series will take place in San Diego beginning on Friday at 2 p.m. A victory in the series would give the Waves an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, although the team is expected to receive an at-large bid if it does not win this series.
For WCC Championship ticket information, call 866.WAVE.TIX.
-Jonathan Friedman