CHATTER: HIGHLAND BASEBALL SLIPPING.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Staff Writer

After craving respect, Highland's baseball program seems on the verge of losing it.

The Bulldogs started the season ranked fourth in the Daily News poll, then moved up two notches after John Santor's grand slam beat Thousand Oaks.

Then the bottom fell out. A loss to Granada Hills followed a 10-run defeat to El Camino Real of Woodland Hills. Although the Bulldogs recovered to beat Ventura in a nonleague game, catcher Daniel Champieux is out two to three weeks with a sprained ankle. Then the Bulldogs lost their Golden League opener to Palmdale and Matt Harrington.

``Last year, we weren't top 10. We had something to prove,'' Champieux said. ``This year, it got to some of our heads. After the losses to El Camino and Granada Hills, we had something to work on.'' . . .

Local activist Duke Russell and his backers will attend the Los Angeles Community College District board meeting on Wednesday and ask the board to instruct Mission College interim president Tom Oliver to resume the school's athletics program in 2001, the time Oliver has said he wants to bring back baseball, softball, men's soccer and men's golf and introduce women's golf and women's soccer. Mission last had an athletic program in 1997.

USC coach Mike Gillespie, who was a JC coach earlier in his career, and UCLA coach Gary Adams both wrote strong letters of support. Russell asks supporters to fax Chancellor Marshall Drummond before Wednesday's 3:30 p.m. meeting at [phone]. . . .

Former Granada Hills swimmer Jennifer Parmenter, now a USC freshman, finished fourth in the 400-yard individual medley at the Pacific-10 championships in 4:14.64, which automatically qualified her for the NCAA meet. She also was 13th in the 200 IM (2:02.49). This season, she has swam 1:50.45 in the 200-yard freestyle, 50.86 in the 100-yard freestyle and 4:50.7 in the 400-meter IM. . . .

Three local collegiate men's water polo players, Dan Hackett and Sean Kern of UCLA and USC's Drew Netherton, are on the U.S. national team that will compete in the Olympics. The team left Thursday for Australia for four matches against the Australian national team.

Several other area water polo athletes, Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood graduate Peter Hudnut (now at Stanford), USC's Rich McEvoy and Stever O'Rourke and UCLA's Adam Wright and Brian Brown, are on the B national team. . . .

Glenn Michibata, a former USC assistant men's tennis coach, has been named Princeton's coach. Michibata, a graduate of Pepperdine, will take over after this season. . . .

Glendale resident Rhaina Echols, competing for the University of Chicago, established an NCAA Division III record in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Division II Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships at Illinois Wesleyan.

Echols won in 16 minutes, 41.49 seconds, breaking the nine-year record by 7.3 seconds. Previously, Echols won the national title in women's cross country. . . .

Two USC and UCLA swimmers made the Pac-10 All-Academic first team in their respective sports: USC's Bret Awbrey and UCLA's Keiko Price . . .

Reseda forward Jesse Servin signed to play soccer at Oregon State. . . .

Agoura graduate Deena Drossin and Lauren Fleshman from Canyon were the top Americans in last weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Portugal. Drossin finished 12th in 26:59 over the 8,000-meter course, and Fleshman was 26th in the junior women's race in 22:08. . . .

Girls wanting to play basketball in college can attend a one-day event at UCLA on Saturday. Registration is at 8 a.m. and the games begin at 9. Athletes will play three games in front of college recruiters. Information: Steve Kavaloski, [phone] or Sports Camps, Inc. at [phone].