SportsScope : Olympic Hopefuls Expected to Sail in Flying Dutchman Tourney

The Flying Dutchman North American sailing championship, an eight-race regatta featuring boats from the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be determined for the first time in Santa Monica Bay this week and next.

The Flying Dutchman is a 20-foot Monohull sailboat, said to be the fastest in that class.

The regatta will open with ceremonies Saturday evening at the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, followed by four days of ocean racing on courses about two miles offshore. The courses are an Olympic 10.8 miles and an extended Olympic 15.6 miles.

The field has many Olympic hopefuls, including J.B. Braun and Bill Kenney of Massachusetts, the defending North American and U.S. champions who were also members of the U.S. team in last year’s Goodwill Games. Others include Alan Lindsay, named the top collegiate American sailor four times, and Cam Lewis, a member of the 1983 North American Flying Dutchman championship team.

Top Southern California teams vying for a berth in the 1988 Olympics include Ron Baerwitz, helmsman of the winning boat in a recent Puerta Vallarta race, and his teammate Tom Pollack, tactician for the winning boat in this year’s MEXORC regatta. Other accomplished Southern California sailors include Kimo Worthington, who was main-trimmer for the America’s Cup boat Eagle and a winner of the Finn North American title with partner Hartwell Jordan, and Ron Rosenberg and Steve Rosenberg, former champions in the Snipe nationals and the 1986 Olson 30 winners.

Mort Bloom, rules consultant to the 1987 America’s Cup champion skipper Dennis Connor and Stars and Stripes, is chief judge for the regatta.

The North American championship is one of several regattas held during the year to determine the top five U.S. boats. It is also a qualifying event for the Flying Dutchman world championships.

Pepperdine’s baseball players may qualify for janitorial jobs if they keep on sweeping series from opponents.

Last week the Waves swept three games at home from the University of San Francisco, raising their West Coast Athletic Conference record to a league-leading 8-1 and their overall mark to 22-7-2. Pepperdine has won two other three-game series, against WCAC opponent Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga, and also won a double-header at San Diego.

Pepperdine, ranked No. 6 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 7 by Baseball America and with a 2 1/2-game lead over St. Mary’s (4-2) in the WCAC, will play non-conference road games against Cal State Sacramento on Saturday and Sunday and return to Malibu for a non-conference game against Cal State Long Beach at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

When the Waves defeated USF, 5-4, last Sunday in the first game of a double-header it was the 700th career victory for Coach Dave Gorrie, who came to the school in 1979 after 19 seasons at UC Santa Barbara. Gorrie’s overall record in 28 years was 701-570 as the week began.

In sweeping three from the Dons, Pepperdine batted .394 as a team, had 43 hits, including 7 home runs, and scored 31 runs. Pete Kuld returned to action after sitting out two weeks with a broken thumb and was 7 for 10 at the plate, including 3 doubles, 2 homers and 7 runs batted in. Kuld leads the team with a .402 average.

The UCLA men’s track team, 6-0 in dual meets and 1-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference, will face Cal in a Pac-10 meet Saturday at Berkeley.

The UCLA women (4-0) will face Stanford on Saturday at Palo Alto.

Before taking last week off for final examinations, the Bruin men recorded quadrangular and dual wins over Cal State Northridge, Azusa Pacific and Cal State Long Beach. Double winners for UCLA, both with season-best marks, were senior Jim Banich with a 63-9 in the shot put and a 191-9 in the discus and junior Raymond Young with a 14.35 in the 110-meter high hurdles and a 52.54 in the 400 intermediate hurdles.

With his winning shot put and discus marks in the quadrangular, Banich joined three other Bruins who have qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships in June at Baton Rouge, La. The others are junior Kevin Young with a 50.49 in the 400 intermediate hurdles, senior Jim Connolly with a 240-5 in the javelin and sophomore David Wilson with a 202-1 in the hammer.

The No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team, 27-3 overall and 11-0 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn., will play host to No. 14 Hawaii, 6-8 both overall and in conference at the start of the week, at 7:30 tonight at Pauley Pavilion.

In February, the Bruins defeated Hawaii in three games and were led by seniors Jeff Williams and Arne Lamberg, each with 13 kills, and freshman Trevor Schirman with seven blocks. Last Sunday the Rainbows defeated Cal State Long Beach in three games. UCLA leads the series with Hawaii, 12-2.

Complimentary tickets to tonight’s match and home matches against Loyola Marymount next Tuesday and San Diego State on April 17 are available on a first-come, first-served basis by calling 206-6744.

The No. 2 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, 15-5 overall and 10-2 in the WIVA as the week began, will play host to Stanford in a conference match at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Firestone Fieldhouse at Malibu.

The Waves, who have lost only two matches (both to UCLA) in their last 13 outings, will play a conference match at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cal State Long Beach.

Pepperdine, second to UCLA in the WIVA, was only half a game ahead of third-place USC (10-3) as the week started, and Wave Coach Rod Wilde said, “We cannot afford any mental letdowns at this stage of the season.”

While the No. 3 UCLA women’s tennis team plays host to Arizona State and Arizona this weekend, the No. 3 UCLA men will play road matches against the Arizona schools.

The Lady Bruins, 16-0 overall, will face Arizona State at 11 a.m. Saturday and go against the Wildcats at 1 p.m. Sunday at the on-campus Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Coach Glenn Bassett’s men, 13-4 overall, will meet the Sun Devils on Friday at Tempe and take on Arizona on Saturday at Tucson.

The UCLA women last played March 14 when they defeated USC, 6-3, their first victory over the Trojans since 1982. Earlier, they defeated Arizona, 5-4, and Arizona State, 7-2.

Neither Arizona school has ever defeated the Bruin men, but Bassett said that both are capable of upsetting UCLA.

Bassett said that his team’s 6-3 victory over Arizona State at UCLA in February was “tough. It figures to be even tougher on Friday at Tempe.” The featured singles match should be at No. 1, where Bruin Otis Smith will face Doug Sachs, the former Pepperdine player.

“Both Smith and Sachs are playing extremely well,” he said, “and are moving up fast as two of the country’s most promising collegians.”

The No. 2 UCLA women’s softball team, 15-1 as the week began, will compete Friday through Sunday in the San Jose Tournament.

Last week the Bruins lost their first game of the year, 2-0, to Utah State in the first game of a double-header. But they bounced back in the second game as senior outfielder Sandra (Sam) Arledge knocked in the winning run with a solo homer in a 3-2 victory.

UCLA’s women gymnasts (15-3) will compete Saturday in the first Pacific 10 Conference championship meet for women at Washington State in Pullman.