Mens

Michael Jae Woo Im, a senior at Sunny Hills High, has signed a national letter of intent to compete for the UC Irvine men’s golf program, Anteaters Coach Paul Smolinski announced Monday. Im is currently No. 22 nationally No. 4 in California in the American Junior Golf Association Polo Junior Rankings. He won the AJGA CORE Realty Holdings Junior tournament at Old Ranch Country Club last summer and was second in the 2007 TEE UP Junior Challenge and ReBath Heather Farr Classic.

Could this be the year? The Santa Ana Country Club will be entering the ninth annual Jones Cup looking for its first win in tournament history. Past Jones Cup tournaments have seen the battle for the top spot usually ending with a Big Canyon Country Club victory. The club near Fashion Island in Newport Beach has won the Jones Cup five times. But this year’s very talented group out of Santa Ana Country Club will try to change all that on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Newport Beach Country Club.

The Newport Beach Country Club will have an intriguing man in the mix when it aims for its first Jones Cup since 2004 on Sept. 6 at Big Canyon Country Club. The NBCC men’s representative in the squad of five will be Haesung Lee, who finished third in the club men’s championship. Lee will be playing in place of men’s champ Eric Vallely, who will be out of town. Brian Linley, the NBCC men’s runner-up, was also asked but he won’t be able to make it. Enter Lee. He will join head pro Paul Hahn, Richard Ortega, Debbie Fleming, and Ron Ramsey as they go up against Big Canyon, defending champion Mesa Verde and Santa Ana country clubs.

The 431 student-athletes who earned letters in 22 sports at Orange Coast College during the 2006-07 school year recorded a combined grade-point average of 2.83. Pirates athletes in 12 men’s sports and 10 women’s sports helped the school win the Pepsi Cup, awarded to the top athletic program in the state by the Commission on Athletics and the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators. OCC won state titles in women’s volleyball, women’s cross country and men’s swimming and diving.

UC Irvine student-athletes have earned 2008 Winter Academic All-Big West Conference honors. The 19 Anteaters recognized are spearheaded by the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, including men’s representatives Eddie Erazo, Blaine Fletcher, Danny Giometti, Brian Johnson, David Lefstein, Cina Moheimani, Eric Nugent, Nate Rogers and Walid Wasfy, as well as women’s team members Sarah Deyoreo, Kelly Janicki; Avi...

BEIJING, China — Kevin Hansen, a Corona del Mar High product, helped the steadfast U.S. men’s volleyball team win in the return of its head coach Hugh McCutcheon this morning in China. McCutcheon missed three matches with the team following an attack on his in-laws, who were visiting a popular Beijing tourist site. Assistant Ron Larsen was interim head coach in McCutcheon’s absence, and John Speraw, the UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach, remained the lone assistant.

LINZ, Austria — A.J. Brooks and J.P. Hogan, both Newport Harbor High students, finished second in their heat to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Junior Rowing World Championships Wednesday in Linz, Austria. Brooks and Hogan, representing the U.S. in the junior men’s pair, followed Greece and finished ahead of Serbia. The junior men’s pair featured 25 nations. The teams were divided into six heats with the three boats in each heat, plus the next fastest time, advancing to today’s quarterfinals.

BEIJING — Former UC Irvine All-American Jeff Powers scored two goals as the U.S. Olympic men’s water polo team defeated Germany, 8-7, Monday in China to advance to the medal round for the first time since 1992. Ryan Bailey and Tim Hutten, two other previous UCI All-Americans, scored one goal each as Team USA won Group B with a 4-1 record. The U.S. earned a bye into the semifinals and will face the winner of the Spain-Serbia quarterfinal. The U.S. men’s water polo team is scheduled to play its semifinal Friday at 7:40 p.m. in Beijing (2 a.m., PST)

In support of the UC Irvine Masters Golf Invitational to be held this Monday at El Niguel Country Club, Mark O’Meara has generously donated the opportunity for a foursome to join him for a day of golf at The Madison Club in La Quinta, Calif. A live auction for this unique item will be conducted during the dinner portion of Monday’s event which supports the UCI men’s and women’s golf programs, and UCI’s Department of Education. O’Meara earned 16 PGA Tour victories, including The Masters and the British Open, both in 1998.

The Midtown Men bicker all the way to the stage - as brothers might. The singers could be arguing about which socks look best or which attorney to bring on board, and the next instant, they're straightening ties or tossing towels to one another. "No matter what, we huddle before every show and give thanks," Christian Hoff said. "We encourage each other to go out there and have fun. " The unlikely foursome came together almost by accident nearly 10 years ago - a number that they find hard to believe - as original members of the Broadway hit "Jersey Boys.

The USA Water Polo men's senior national team outlasted Hungary in a shootout, 15-14, in its opening game of the FINA World League Super Final on Tuesday in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Team USA features Corona del Mar High product John Mann and UC Irvine alumni Greg Enloe, Griffin Lerman, Tim Hutten and Brandon Johnson. Team USA plays Japan in its second game of the tournament on Wednesday. — From staff reports

Corona del Mar High product John Mann and three former UC Irvine standouts have been named to the USA roster for the FINA World League Super Final in men's water polo, June 11-16 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Mann joins Anteater alums Tim Hutten, Brandon Johnson and Greg Enloe on the 15-man roster, announced Monday by Coach Dejan Udovicic. Hutten, a two-time Olympian, was the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Peter J. Cutino Award given annually to the top player in the NCAA. He was a two-time All-American while competing for UCI. Mann scored three goals for Team USA in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Vanguard University sophomore Roger Muri and freshman Stefan Kilchofer earned first-team All-American status in men's tennis. They helped lead the Lions to the NAIA National Championship semifinals and a 24-1 record. Muri was 22-1 in singles, while Kilchofer was 23-1. Senior Chris Freeman, a Costa Mesa native, earned first-team All-American status for the second straight for NAIA national champion Embry-Riddle. Vanguard senior Lucas Larsson, who was 11-8 in singles, earned second-team All-American status.

MOBILE, Ala. - A trip to the NAIA National Championship title match appeared so promising for the Vanguard University men's tennis team. The No. 3-seeded Lions, who entered the semifinals with a 24-0 record, built a 2-1 lead in doubles. However, No. 2 seed Auburn Montgomery dominated in singles to earn a 5-2 victory and a spot in Saturday's NAIA National Championship final. Auburn Montgomery will be looking for its 10th national championship when they face Embry-Riddle (Fla.)

MOBILE, Ala. - The Vanguard University men's tennis team is the only undefeated team in the nation. The Lions want to end the season with that distinction because it will mean an NAIA national championship. Vanguard, the No. 3 seed, took one step closer to that goal with a 5-2 victory over Xavier (La.) in the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Championship Thursday. The Lions (24-0) advance to the NAIA semifinals for the first time since 2004. They have not reached the final as they have not placed higher than third.

MEN'S TENNIS Vanguard 5, Warner 1 MOBILE, Ala. - The No. 3-seeded Lions improved to 23-0 by trouncing the Florida-based school in the second round of the NAIA Tournament on Wednesday at the Mobile Tennis Center. Lions freshman Stefan Kilchhofer remained unbeaten in singles (23-0) by topping Julian Ramirez, 6-1, 6-1, in the No. 1 spot. Freshman Daymon Johnson also earned a singles point with a 6-0, 6-2 win in the No. 5 spot Kilchhofer and sophomore Roger Muri outlasted its No. 1 doubles foe, 9-8 (7-5)

LOS ANGELES - Thundering chants of U-C-I and B-Y-U perhaps might have faded under a more resonant echoes of Dy-Nas-Ty Saturday night as the UC Irvine men's volleyball team earned its second straight NCAA championship and its fourth in seven seasons. The No. 2-seeded Anteaters (25-7), who had lost their first two meetings to the top-seeded Cougars (26-5) this season, exploded for a 25-23, 25-22, 26-24 victory in the title match in front of 6,295 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, as well as a national television audience on ESPNU.

UC Irvine freshman Kyle Russell and Corona del Mar High graduate Brennan Anderson, a sophomore at Ohio State, are among 22 players chosen for the 2012 U.S. men's volleyball junior national training team. Russell, a 6-foot-9 outside hitter, and Anderson, a 6-2 libero who earned first-team All-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. honors after leading the MIVA with 3.12 digs per set, will vie for 12 roster spots for the U.S. team that will compete in Federation International de Volleyball's men's U21 World Championship, as well as the Pan American Cup. The world championship is scheduled Aug. 22 through Sept.

With the possible exception of the Olympic Games, it can be argued that there is no bigger stage for a men's volleyball player than the NCAA Championship. UC Irvine (24-7), which battles BYU (26-4) in the NCAA title match on Saturday at 6 p.m. at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, is making its fourth appearance in seven seasons under what first-year Anteaters Coach David Kniffin calls "the big lights. " Remarkably, UCI has won each of its three previous trips to the championship match (2012, 2009 and 2007)