Mustangs

With mostly sophomores and juniors on its roster, most prep track aficionados expected the Muir High School girls to win the CIF state title next year. In winning the state title last week at Cerritos College in Norwalk, the Mustangs finished a year ahead of schedule. The Mustangs were hardly the favorite with only five qualifiers. But Jim Brownfield, who also coached the Mustangs to a state title in 1985, said he never counted his team out. "We had doped it out and there were 10 teams that had a legitimate chance to win and we figured out a way to win," he said.

After trailing by as many as nine points early in the second half, Azusa Pacific University came back to beat The Master's College, 77-62, Tuesday night at The Master's. The Cougars didn't manage to take the lead until the 11:11 mark of the second half, when Rick Johnsen hit an outside jumper, giving Azusa Pacific a 45-43 lead. The Cougars then went on a 17-2 streak and the Mustangs (5-10), who have now lost five straight games, couldn't recover.

Shelmarie Tatum recorded game-high totals of 22 points and 12 rebounds as The Master's College snapped a two-game losing streak with 54-32 victory over Redlands in a nonconference women's basketball game at Master's. Tatum, a 5-11 junior center, made 8 of 14 field-goal attempts and 6 of 7 free throws as Master's equaled its win total of last season when the Mustangs finished 6-20. Michelle Spink added eight points for Master's (6-2). Balda Vitolins scored 14 points for Redlands (1-7).

Muir 39, Hueneme 14--Kelvan Price ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more for the host Mustangs (4-1). Price completed all four of his passes for 96 yards and added 94 yards in 16 carries. The Muir secondary limited Gordie Pinedo to 18 yards passing in the first half while taking a 17-0 lead. Pinedo completed five of 11 passes for 55 yards. The Vikings (2-3) scored all of their points in a 5:04 span.

If the first weekend of the 22nd annual Los Angeles Games are indicative, the 1989-90 school year could be very good for Muir High School of Pasadena. The Mustangs made the biggest impression of any San Gabriel Valley school, advancing to the final rounds in boys and girls basketball and football. In Saturday's games, Muir will face Manual Arts in the fourth round of boys basketball at 11 a.m. at North Torrance High; the Mustangs will meet Fontana in the quarterfinals in girls basketball at 9 a.m. at the El Camino College south gym, and Muir will play Lincoln in the third round of seven-man passing football at 8:45 a.m. at North Torrance.

Pete Coeler scored 30 points and Scott Goff had a career-high 28 as The Master's College defeated Christian Heritage, 97-72, Tuesday night in an NAIA District III basketball game. The victory broke a five-game losing streak for the Mustangs (2-17, 1-4) and a 10-game conference losing streak dating to last season. Goff, a freshman guard, scored 19 of his team's first 21 points and had 25 points in the first half. Coeler, a senior forward, led all scorers to go along with 11 rebounds.

Throw the home-team, home-court, home-fan advantage out the gym door; the Cal Poly (San Louis Obispo) women's volleyball team certainly did. The Division II school nearly chucked UCLA's 1984 national championship trophy with it Saturday night as the Mustangs upset the second-ranked Bruins to win the National Invitational volleyball tournament at Pauley Pavilion. The scores were 15-12, 12-15, 15-13, 15-13. Despite the fact that Cal Poly (15-1) is ranked No.

Astride sturdy mustangs Okanogan and Spurs, U.S. Border Patrol agents Darrel Williams and Justin Hefker ride along a ridgeline above the Similkameen River Valley. The only sound is the gentle plodding of the horses' large hooves -- and an occasional snort -- as they move through the pine forest just east of Washington state's Pasayten Wilderness Area with a sure-footedness that makes them a perfect fit for scaling the steep hillsides along the border with British Columbia. Williams and Hefker, both senior patrol agents, have added old-fashioned horse wrangling to their list of skills, riding once-feral mustangs as they patrol areas where the agency's boats, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and high-horsepower patrol vehicles can't go. The mustangs are among a dozen that the Border Patrol's Spokane Sector has bought to patrol a 308-mile section of the U.S.-Canadian border from the crest of the Cascade Range in Washington state to the Continental Divide in Montana.