SPORTSCOPE : Bruins to Compete in NCAAs

The UCLA men’s gymnastics team, ranked third in the nation, will be trying for its third NCAA championship under Coach Art Shurlock on April 18-20 at Penn State University.

Other teams in the field include No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Stanford, No. 4 Minnesota, No. 5 Penn State, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Nebraska and No. 12 Iowa.

Team competition begins April 18 and ends April 19. Individual competition is April 20. Bruins who qualified for more than one individual event are Scott Keswick, Chainey Umphrey, Brad Hayashi and Terry Notary.

Last week Stanford won the West Regional meet and UCLA finished second. The all-around competition was won by Jair Lynch of the Cardinal with a 58.30 and Keswick was second at 57.95. Umphrey was third at 57.75.

In other individual events, UCLA’s Brad Hayashi won the floor exercise with a career-high 9.80 and Umphrey was first on the rings at 9.85 and tied for third on the horizontal bar at 9.75.

The UCLA women’s and men’s track teams will play host to USC, Houston and Texas Christian in a quadrangular meet on Saturday at Drake Stadium. Field events will begin for women at 11:30 a.m. and races at 1:30 p.m. Men’s field events will start at 1:15 p.m. and running events at 2.

At last week’s Sun Angel meet at Tempe, Ariz., several UCLA women and men had strong performances.

In the women’s shot put, Tracie Millet placed second overall and was the top collegiate finisher with a school-record throw of 54 feet, 8 1/4 inches and was named the Pacific 10 Conference woman athlete of the week. Eric Bergreen was the top collegiate finisher in the men’s shot put at 61-3 and Tony Miller was third in the 100-meter sprint with a season-best 10.5. Miller was named the Pac-10 male athlete of the week.

At last week’s Riverside Invitational, Bruin freshman Beth Bartholomew won the 3,000-meter run in 10:13.8.

The Santa Monica College men’s and women’s track teams will compete Friday and Saturday in the Bakersfield Relays at Bakersfield College.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (37-1 overall, 7-0 in Pac-10 play) will play double-headers on Friday at No. 8 California and on Saturday At Sacramento State.

Last week the Bruins swept double-headers from No. 3 Arizona and No. 10 Arizona State, extending their winning streak at home to 33 consecutive games. Against the Arizona schools, Bruin outfielder Lorraine Maynez had five hits in eight at-bats with two triples and five runs batted in.

UCLA pitcher Heather Compton has not given up an earned run in 98 innings this season.

The No. 7 Pepperdine baseball team (26-5-1 overall, 15-3 in West Coast Conference play as the week began) will not play this weekend because of final examinations.

Last week the Waves swept a two-game series against Cal State Fullerton and a three-game series against the University of San Diego. Pepperdine pitcher Patrick Ahearne improved his record to 9-1 with a one-hit victory over San Diego and was named Collegiate Baseball’s national co-player of the week with Craig Clayton of Cal State Northridge.

The Santa Monica College baseball team (15-16 overall, 5-7 in Western State Conference play at the start of the week) will play host to College of the Canyons at 2 p.m. today. On Saturday, they play at Glendale at 1 p.m. On Tuesday, Santa Monica will play host to Ventura at 1 p.m.

UCLA’s top-ranked men’s tennis team, which lost its first match of the season last week to USC, 5-2, will get a rematch against the Trojans on Friday. The Bruins (23-1, 6-1 in Pac-10 Southern Division play) will be at No. 2 USC at 1:30 p.m.

In other matches last week, UCLA defeated No. 3 Stanford, 5-2, and Cal, 5-2. In dual matches this season Bruin Bill Behrens is 20-2 and Fritz Bissell is 19-4.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s tennis team (17-3, 6-1 in Pac-10 Southern Division play) will play host to the University of San Diego at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

Last week the Bruins beat Cal, 6-3, but lost to No. 2 Stanford, 6-3. Against the Cardinal, UCLA’s Mamie Ceniza, ranked 71st nationally in singles, upset No. 14 Heather Willens, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 4 singles.

The No. 5 Pepperdine women’s tennis team concluded dual-match play with a 22-4 record. The Waves will next play in the West Coast Conference championships on April 19-21 at Pepperdine.

In dual-match singles for the Waves, Camilla Ohrman had 20 victories, Anna Brunstrom, 19 and Noelle Porter, 17.

The No. 7 Pepperdine men’s tennis team, idle this weekend, has won 13 consecutive matches, including last week’s victories over Nevada Las Vegas, 6-0, San Diego State, 7-2, and Fresno State, 6-0.

In dual-match singles, Ashley Naumann has 18 victories, freshman Ari Nathan, 17 and Brian Dick and Alejo Mancisidor 16 each.

The Santa Monica College men’s tennis team (12-1, 10-1 in Western State Conference play as the week began) will play host to Ventura at 2:30 p.m. today and to West Los Angeles College at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Jean-Bernard-Keen, No. 1 in singles for SMC, was undefeated at week’s end.

The Santa Monica College women’s tennis team will play at 2 p.m. today at Ventura.