Daniel Niednagel

Shelley Taylor of Edison High School sported a new hairstyle Saturday at the Laguna Hills Cross-Country Invitational. But nothing else was much different as Taylor won the girls' medium schools junior/senior race, repeating last year's victory. Taylor, who was undefeated last season until she finished seventh at the state meet, ran unchallenged Saturday, finishing the three-mile course in 17 minutes 29 seconds. Diamond Bar's Monique Smith was second, in 19:02.

After a nerve-wracking week, Mel Silva looked refreshed, rejuvenated and very much relieved after watching his Saddleback High School boys' team run to a second-place finish at the Southern Section 4-A cross-country championships Saturday at Mt. SAC. Although Camarillo, the 4-A's top-ranked team, came away with the title after placing five runners in the top 16, good for 56 points, Saddleback defended its No. 1 ranking among Orange County teams.

After one play Friday night, Gary Bladow of Villa Park High School could have been excused for going into hiding. A fake handoff by Esperanza quarterback Keith McDonald froze free safety Bladow long enough for receiver Jarod Smith to break free on a 68-yard touchdown pass play. After a two-point conversion, Esperanza had an 8-0 lead in the Division III playoff game, and Villa Park Coach Pat Mahoney was upset. "I could have killed him," Mahoney said.

Danin Bryant scored 22 points as Southern California College rallied to defeat host Fresno Pacific, 79-77, in a Golden State Athletic Conference game Saturday night. SCC (17-11, 6-4) trailed by 13 points at halftime. Eric Carmichael added 15 points for SCC. Fresno Pacific (10-17, 4-7) got 15 points from Ricky Sanchez. In Golden State Athletic Conference men's basketball: Christ College Irvine 73, Cal Baptist 62--Agustin Heredia had 21 points to lead Christ College Irvine (15-12, 5-5).

Almost certainly, Danny O'Neil's football future will be determined on offense. One of the Angelus League's top quarterbacks, O'Neil has passed for 1,204 yards and 10 touchdowns in Mater Dei's six games this season. Recruiters call O'Neil weekly, jockeying for position to make him their quarterback of the future. But Friday night in the Monarchs' league opener at St. Paul, the Mater Dei coaches asked O'Neil to play defense, at safety, in addition to quarterback.

Sara Nelson had 12 kills, leading undefeated Laguna Beach High School to a 15-4, 15-8, 15-12 victory over host Woodbridge in a Pacific Coast League girls' volleyball match Wednesday. Keali Clark had 10 kills for Laguna Beach, which improved to 10-0 overall, 5-0 in league play. Laguna Beach, ranked fourth in the latest Southern Section 5-A division poll, has lost only one game this season.

The Capistrano Valley High School girls' cross-country team has not been one of the South Coast League's top-ranked teams this season. In the Orange County Cross-Country Coaches Assn. weekly poll, the Cougars have never been ranked higher than sixth. San Clemente, El Toro and Irvine have been grouped at the top of the rankings all season. But Friday at Irvine Park, Capistrano Valley knocked all reason from the rankings and won the South Coast League title with 53 points.

After being told that they had just lost the Southern Section 4-A title by 2 points Saturday, members of the Dana Hills High School boys' cross-country team gathered together, commiserated, and set off on a slow and sorry cool-down. And then . . . the news. An error had been made in calculating the team scores. A recount was taken and the revised results were in.

Mel Silva, coach of the Saddleback boys' cross-country team, was surprisingly calm after the Roadrunners won the Division I-AA championship in the Southern Section finals Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. "We came here to win a CIF championship, and we accepted what we had to do," said Silva, whose team finished second last year. "Our team is more experienced this year, so I didn't need to hold my breath about whether we would win or not."

The night before a cross-country race, Eddie Salinas neatly lays out his Saddleback High School uniform--neon yellow shorts, white singlet, blue racing socks and shoes--on his bedroom floor. He then loads his cassette deck with heavy metal tunes, dons his headphones and goes to sleep--on the floor beside his uniform. "I'm not really superstitious, but a lot of times when I do this it gives me luck," Salinas said.