GOLF BEAT.

Ace of a captain: Notre Dame senior Clark Pingree demonstrated leadership and some pretty fair iron play in the Knights' April 1 Mission League match with Loyola, recording a hole-in-one on the 150-yard, par-3 fourth hole at Wilshire CC.

``The ball hit left of the flagstick and spun three feet into the hole,'' said Knights co-coach Chris Perez.

Notre Dame stayed close in that 203-217 loss to the perennial league title contenders despite playing without freshman star Anne Lee. She was competing in the medal round of the Los Angeles Junior Championships that day at Griffith Park, where her three-round, 14-over-par total of 73-75-82 was one stroke shy of first place.

Pingree, one of only two seniors on a young Notre Dame team, gave the Knights another solid tournament effort in last week's DeBell tournament. He was second to state junior champion Jason Semelsberger of Hart in individual scoring with a 73 to lead Notre Dame's second-place team finish behind Hart.

Too much talent: In winning the DeBell tournament for the fourth time in five years, Hart averaged 6.5 strokes over par with its first-place team of Semelsberger, Charlie Smith, Carlos Robledo and Brandon Wallace.

That was Hart's official team. But the Indians were nearly as impressive with their unofficial, second-team entry of Brian Buck, sophomore Adrian Tann and freshmen Ryan Wyman and Travis Carruthers. That quartet averaged 10 over par for a 324 total that would have edged Notre Dame for second place by two strokes.

Matchup of the Year: Hart will get to test its deeply talented team April 22 when the Indians face undefeated Westlake in a nonleague match that has been switched from North Ranch CC to Camarillo Springs GC because of groundskeeping work scheduled for North Ranch that day. Notre Dame also will compete in that 1 p.m. nonleague match.

Westlake (18-0) handed Hart (12-1) its only loss with a 324-327 decision at par-61 Vista Valencia on March 14. Since then, the undefeated Warriors have used 16 of their 17 players in matches, had a 75 count for their fifth-best score in a match on a par-70 course and had six scores in the 70s in a match on a par-72 course.

Westlake, which started the season with Ross Fulgentis committing to a golf scholarship at UCLA, also will send two players to USC next season. Linda Ishii will go on a full women's golf scholarship while Matt McCrite, who also will play college golf, joins the Trojans on an academic scholarship.

SWIM BEAT

DIVER SPOTLIGHT

Headfirst dive: Westlake diver Eric Patton recently qualified for the Junior Olympic Western Nationals Diving Championships in Minneapolis on April 27-28.

Patton will be joined by Newbury Park senior Charles Law, who qualified in the boys' 16-18 division.

Also qualifying were 13-year-olds Melanie Henson of Van Nuys and Kevin Parmenter of Granada Hills. Both finished in sixth place in the 3-meter competition at the Junior Olympic Regional Championships in Las Vegas two weeks ago.

TREND WATCH

Surprising year: It's almost a foregone conclusion that the Van Nuys boys' and girls' teams will hand coach Steve Kaplan two more East Valley League championships.

The Wolves still have a meet left against Sylmar, but all indications point to league titles for the boys and girls.

Kaplan is somewhat surprised, but he doesn't have to search far to find the reason Van Nuys has done so well.

``It's all due to hard work,'' Kaplan said. ``I'd like to say coaching has something to do with it, but in all honesty the kids have shown tremendous desire.''

The Wolves typically practice at 6 a.m. each weekday morning.

``It takes a special kid to get up that early and work out,'' Kaplan said. ``Not a lot of people are up at that hour in the morning, let alone be in a pool working out.''

On the boys' team, Hadi Jorabchi has been the guiding light. A senior, Jorabchi competes in a number of events, including the 200 and 500 freestyle.

``I've been waiting a long time for his senior year,'' said Kaplan, who predicted that Jorabchi would be one of the Wolves' leaders in his final season.

On the girls' team, Cynthia Macinnes, a freestyler and backstroker, has also done well.

As for the rest of the team, some youngsters have grown up in a hurry.

``They've shown me who they really are,'' Kaplan said. ``As far as I'm concerned, they're no longer youngsters. They're seasoned veterans now.''

Brave new world: Despite the emergence of league rivals Cleveland and Taft, Birmingham is still gliding along in the West Valley League.

``This is the first time in a long time that the league has this much depth,'' said Braves coach Nick Rodionoff. ``In that regard it's been a real good year.''

Two swimmers who have stepped up for the Birmingham boys' team are Chris Costales and Mark Noma. Costales, a senior, figured to do well, but Burris, a junior, has been a pleasant surprise.

``He just came up from the frosh/soph team,'' said Rodionoff of Burris, a breaststroker who is undefeated on the varsity level. SOURCE: Dave Shelburne and Vincent Bonsignore

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Photo

Photo: Fulgentis