Murphy, Griffin, Kobrine champs

JT Murphy, Jake Griffin and Kevin Kobrine, also known as the Newport Beach Stars, won the Fourth-Grade Elite Division in the inaugural Lakers 3on3 basketball tournament Sunday outside the Staples Center.

The event had over 600 teams from all over Southern California competing.

The Newport Beach Stars went undefeated in the tournament. They beat the Redondo Beach Knights in the final, 20-9. Murphy, Griffin and Kobrine scored a 20-10 victory in the semifinals.

CdM SWIM CLUB WINS TITLE

Tucked away in the shallow end of the Corona del Mar High swimming pool is a small year-round 18-and-under swim team.

Often dwarfed by the ever present water polo programs and larger swim programs, this small group swam its way to its first Orange County Swim Conference summer swim league division title in team history on Aug. 8 in Anaheim.

The team won the OCSC Division IV title.

“It is easy to walk into the pool in the afternoon and miss what is going on in the shallow end,” said team owner Ted Bandaruk. “This is a great and well coached group of swimmers.”

The Corona del Mar Swim Club is a joint venture with the City of Newport Beach and Bandaruk, a longtime swim coach.

CdM Swim Club fielded a team of 28 swimmers for the division finals and went up against larger teams around the county. They started out strong and really never looked back.

“Every swimmer came home with a handful of medals,” CdM Coach Christy Wiggley said. “I am really proud of everyone who swam. They all did great. We even won the Linda Kamp OCSC Pentathlon this summer and took half of the team back to championship finals.”

GREAT FINISH FOR AXTON

Willy Axton, a 9-year-old from Costa Mesa, finished sixth in his first international race, the Championship Karting International, Aug. 9 at California Speedway in Fontana.

Axton competed in 14 race over a five-day period and entered the final in the third position.

The event had been originally scheduled to be run in Washington, but at the last minute it was moved to California Speedway, a nice move for Axton, considering it was his home track.

Axton was the youngest competitor in the field. He had been successful in Kid Kart racing two years ago. Axton, who has been in a race car since he was 4, is in his third year of competitive Kart Racing and has won over 30 races and two local club championships with the Los Angeles Kart Club and the Tri-C Kart Club. He also has two regional wins.

GLOVER HIGH-POINT WINNER

Allie Glover was the high point winner for the Newport Beach Junior lifeguards AM girls’ ‘A’ group.

In a close race to the end, it was a decisive win on the final day of competition that locked up the victory for Glover, who is 14.

Competition points are earned during the eight-week junior guard program by winning or placing in a combination of running and swimming races weekly.

This fall, Glover will be attending Mater Dei High as a member of the national champion song leading squad. She is a recent graduate of Our Lady Queen of Angels in Corona del Mar, where she had been since pre-school.

SLAMMERS BATTLE IN TOURNEY

 Submitted by Dewain Campbell

This past weekend, the Newport Beach-based Slammers U9 boys’ team played in the Irvine FC Showcase.

This was the Slammers’ second tournament of the year, and the boys played against some very seasoned clubs. The Slammers played three spirited games, unfortunately all in losing efforts.

Head Coach Russ Martin saw a steadily improving team, as the boys start to blend together.

“We are a new team that is still trying to figure out how to really play competitive soccer, at this new, higher level of play,” Martin said. “I am really excited about the improvements we have made this past month as the team has begun practicing together. It was especially fun to see the boys starting to work better together, as the tournament progressed. We are playing against some seasoned teams, with many returning veteran players. I see lots of potential; we just need the boys to season ... over the season. I am really excited about our boys”.

Will Anderson was the primary goalie, and performed well with some very athletic stops, including an amazing diving one-hander in the game on Saturday morning, against an experienced Cypress FC team.

Jack Stone played primarily as an attacker, but also made some great stops in goal.

“Jack completely shut them down in the second half of Sunday’s game, against a very good Laguna Niguel FC,” Martin said.

Midfielders Blake Rovsek, Aidan Rodriquez, Wyatt Burris, and William Stomber played increasingly well together as the weekend progressed, with more effective passing and “getting the ball outside,” noted Martin.

Caden Campbell and Chris Rosensitto primarily played in a defensive role, and were able to hold the Laguna Niguel FC to only one goal in the second half of Sunday’s game.

Each game the “goals against decreased, as the boys got the hang of marking their men better, and minimizing the mistakes in front of our own goal,” Martin said.

The scoring highlight for the team was when Clay Rolfes placed a sharply struck free kick into the high right corner over a jumping goalie in Saturday afternoon’s match against the Downey FC team.