COMMUNITY COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Favorites Clear in Cross-Country Finals

There is little question about the favorites in the Orange Empire Conference cross-county championships at 2:30 today at Irvine Regional Park.

Irvine Valley is the obvious choice on the women’s side. The Lasers have dominated all season and come into the meet as the top-ranked team in Southern California.

On the men’s side, Riverside, boosted by several African runners, should take first. The Tigers took the first seven places and eight of 10 last year at the conference meet.

The Irvine Valley women’s team, only in its second season, already has tallied a long list of accomplishments, including a co-state championship last season, tying Mt. San Antonio.

Irvine Valley, coached by Bill and Julie Leach, also won the state’s academic award for the cross-country team with the best grade-point average (3.75).

The Lasers don’t have a dominant runner as they did last season, when Sue Davis won the conference title, but this team could be stronger overall.

Nancy Hunsaker, Stacey Skeie and Donna Prioa have consistently finished in or near the top 10 in each invitational this season.

Riverside’s Alemayeuh Jimma is the favorite in the men’s division. He has won twice on this course and set the course record of 19 minutes 18 seconds last month.

Water polo: Golden West is the top-seeded team in the Southern California water polo playoffs, which take place this week. The Rustlers, the three-time defending state champions, are 27-2 and don’t play until Friday at Long Beach Belmont Plaza.

Grossmont (31-7), the No. 2-seeded team, No. 3 Cuesta (24-7) and No. 4 Long Beach (28-8) also received first-round byes.

In Wednesday’s first round: Fullerton (19-16-1) is at Rancho Santiago (17-10), Chaffey (14-7) is at Orange Coast (17-8-1), Cypress (15-18-2) is at Citrus (27-6) and Rio Hondo is at San Diego Mesa (25-11). Matches are at 3 p.m.

The winners of Wednesday’s four matches advance to Long Beach when play starts Friday. The final four teams from the regional and the four from the Northern California regional advance to the state tournament Nov. 20-21 at Belmont Plaza.

The Southland Poll won’t be out until later this week because Monday was a school holiday, but it’s a sure bet Saddleback (8-0) will remain No. 1.

The Gauchos won a very physical contest Saturday against Orange Coast, 17-12.

Saddleback needs to win one of its next two games to win the Central Division title and a berth in the Dec. 5 Simple Green Orange County Bowl.

Saddleback is at Riverside Saturday and plays host to Golden West Nov. 21.

Perhaps the most impressive facet of the Saddleback-OCC game occurred when players from both teams stood around and talked about the game afterward and wished each other well the rest of the way.

Such was not the case a few miles away at Santa Ana Stadium, where a postgame fight broke out between players from Rancho Santiago and Riverside.

It was the second postgame brawl this season involving an Orange County team. Golden West and Grossmont did battle after a game two weeks ago.

Women’s volleyball: Golden West has won the last two state titles, and the Rustlers might make it three in a row.

Golden West (22-0, 9-0) clinched a tie for the Orange Empire Conference title Friday with a three-game sweep over district rival Orange Coast. Golden West is 9-0 against teams ranked among the top 10 in the state and have won 66 of 67 games this season.

The Rustlers can win the conference title outright Friday with a victory at Cypress. Golden West has won four state titles, six consecutive conference titles and nine of 10 under Coach Albert Gasparian, who has a career mark of 202-28.

The Pirate and the President: It isn’t often a community college can call on such an important figure as President-elect Bill Clinton to help sell hats, but that was the case Saturday during OCC’s football game with Saddleback.

OCC public address announcer Jim Carnett, almost in passing, told the crowd that Clinton had been seen earlier that day on television wearing an OCC hat while playing golf in Arkansas.

Clinton was given the hat when he was at OCC for a press conference before the Democratic rally at the Pacific Amphitheatre.

Moments after Carnett made the announcement, a group of fans came to the press box looking to buy OCC hats.

Men’s soccer: Riverside, Fullerton and Irvine Valley are tied for first in the Orange Empire Conference with 14 points entering the final week of the season. Orange Coast is fourth with 12 points.

In today’s matches that will have an impact on the conference standings, Irvine Valley travels to Fullerton and Orange Coast is at Riverside. Both matches begin at 3 p.m.

Today’s match is the regular-season finale for Irvine Valley.

In Friday’s final regular-season matches: Fullerton is at Rancho Santiago, Cypress is at Orange Coast and Riverside is at Golden West.