Women's golf finishes eighth for second time

Competing without sophomore Nicole Dalkas, the No. 5 USC women's golf team struggled to its second straight eighth-place finish last weekend at the Ping Arizona State University Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.

Dalkas is out with a back injury that should keep her out until later this month.

In the meantime, her team finished with a 72-over-par 936 total for the two-day tournament. The Women of Troy ended 52 shots behind host Arizona State, who took home the tournament crown. The Sun Devils finished 20 shots ahead of second-place Duke.

USC sophomore Jennifer Rosales, the nation's top-ranked golfer, shot a 13-over-par 229 total and finished tied for 15th.

Rosales has averaged 73.4 strokes per round this season, but struggled early on in Arizona. She shot 78 and 80 in her first two rounds, respectively. However, she finished strong with a 1-over-par 71 in the final round.

Freshman Leila Chartrand placed 23rd with a 15-over-par 231 total. Junior Linda Ishii finished in 40th place, senior Johanna Josefsson was 62nd and senior Alison Czetli placed 87th.

The Sun Devils' Grace Park, the No. 26 golfer in the nation, won the individual crown with a 3-over-par 219 total.

The tournament featured an impressive lineup of 17 schools, including top-ranked Duke, No. 2 Arizona, No. 4 Tulsa and No. 8 Stanford.

- from staff reports

Men's golf struggles at U.S. Collegiate

The USC men's golf team's woes continued Sunday as they placed 10th out of 12 teams in the Compaq U.S. Collegiate Championships held in Lecanto, Fla.

In the year's only nationally-televised collegiate men's golf event, the Trojans started off on a poor note, ending the first round with a 7-over-par 295, which landed them in ninth place.

USC's play only worsened from there when it ended the last round with a 28-over-par 892 while UNLV, the defending NCAA champion won the event, shooting a 25-under-par 839.

The Trojans' problem with inconsistent individual play was evident again as senior Jorge Corral ended Friday tied for second place with a 4-under-par 68, but slipped to a tie for 22nd place Sunday.

His score grew as each round ended, but his final score at 1-over-par 217 was not enough to contest with the Rebels' Chris Berry who won the individual crown.

Berry, originally from Yorba Linda, ended the weekend with an outstanding 8-under-par 208, which still was not enough to win. Hunter Haas of Oklahoma tied with Berry, forcing them to a playoff. Berry won at No. 17, a "quarry lake" hole for which the course at Black Diamond Ranch is famous.

One bright spot for the Trojans was freshman John Ray Leary, who was competing in only his fifth tournament. He tied for 22nd with a 1-over-par 217.

Meanwhile, the woes of the upperclassmen continued as junior Nick Webb and sophomore Nick Jones finished at 47th and 50th, respectively.

- Natalie Wyeth

Francis is sixth at world meet

After facing national swimming competition at the U.S. Nationals and NCAA Championships last month, several USC swimmers traveled to Hong Kong to face international swimmers at the FINA World Short Course Championships, which began Thursday and ended Sunday.

Junior Paige Francis was consistent as she placed sixth in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke with times of 1:01.27 and 2:11.30 for the American team.

Fellow Trojan and senior co-captain Mike Williams, who was also part of the United States contingent, came in ninth in the semifinals of the 50 butterfly but didn't place in the finals.

Another USA team member, sophomore Philippe Demers, came in 14th in the 200 butterfly and 24th in the 50 backstroke during the preliminaries.

The other senior co-captain, Mark Kwok, who represented Hong Kong, came in 19th in the trials of the 400 individual medley.

As a team, the United States tallied three gold medals and one silver. Australia had the most medals with 27, including nine golds.