Weightlifter Ciarelli to Compete in Canada

Huntington Beach freshman Maryn Ciarelli, 15, leaves this weekend to compete in Canada for the United States national weightlifting team.

Ciarelli, who competes at 59 kilos (130 pounds), is on the under-16 age-group team.

She competed at the Junior National Championships in March and finished fourth among competitors 20 and under. Her best clean and jerk is 65 kilos, 143.3 pounds; her best snatch, where the weight is lifted from the floor over the head with a wide grip, is 52 1/2 kilos--115.7 pounds.

“They’re taking the top eight or 10 lifters who are under 16,� said her dad, Tony.

Maryn comes from good weightlifting stock. Tony is the strength coach at Newport Harbor and her mother and coach, Stephanie, is the strength coach at Huntington Beach.

“I think she’s stronger than just about any freshman I have at Newport, right now,� Tony Ciarelli said.

Maryn also competes in the shotput (her best this year was 31 feet 9 inches) and discus (102-0) on the Oilers’ freshman team. She also plays volleyball.

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Lori Hurlbut, who was impressive shooting three-pointers in Mater Dei’s drive to the state championship, built upon her reputation with her recent performance in the Nike/Lady Foot Locker 3-For-All National Finals in Philadelphia.

Hurlbut, 17, took second place in the 15-17 age-group division in the skills competition.

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Woodbridge defeated Foothill, 172-178, in a nonleague golf match Wednesday, but medalists Kyle Song and John Hafner of Woodbridge weren’t the only ones who played well.

Although Song and Hafner finished with four-under 32s at Rancho San Joaquin, Woodbridge Coach Tracy Roberts had the shot of the day, making a hole-in-one at the 145-yard par-3 second hole with a nine-iron.

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Baseball league races are down to their final two weeks. Several of them could be decided by week’s end.

Canyon (Century League), Laguna Hills (Pacific Coast) and Calvary Chapel (Olympic) have three-game leads and can clinch a share of their league titles with two victories, or with one victory and a loss by their closest pursuers--Foothill, University and Cerritos Valley Christian.

Top-ranked Mater Dei has a two-game lead on Capistrano Valley in the South Coast League. They will play twice this week.

Servite leads Westminster by one game and Tustin by two in the Golden West League. The Friars clinch if they beat Westminster twice and Tustin splits with Santa Ana.

Magnolia has a two-game edge on Brea Olinda in the Orange League and can win the title by winning both games this week, including Friday’s game against the Wildcats.

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Only three softball teams lead by as many as two games: Foothill (Century), La Habra (Freeway) and Mater Dei (South Coast).

Other league races will become clearer on Thursday when Kennedy hosts El Dorado and can force a tie in the Empire League with a victory. Bolsa Grande can do the same in the Garden Grove League with a victory at Pacifica.

Laguna Hills and Aliso Niguel are tied in the Pacific Coast, having already split with each other, and hold a two-game lead on everyone else. Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach are tied in the Sunset League with a one-game lead over Los Alamitos, which plays Thursday at Fountain Valley.

And Calvary Chapel and Cerritos Valley Christian are tied in the Olympic League and hold a one-game lead over three teams.

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Foothill pitcher Marie Gieron was named Diamond Player of the Week by XTRA radio over the weekend. The prize? A pitching machine donated to the school in Gieron’s name.

“We’ve been thinking about buying one,� Coach Joe Gonzalez said. “I think those things are worth $500-$600. . . . She can be the first to bat off it.�

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Former Anaheim sprinter Cleveland (Jimmy) Adams turned in a personal best of 45.7 seconds in the 400 meters at the Mt. Sac Invitational recently.

A 1985 Anaheim graduate who occasionally returns to his alma mater to help coach runners, Adams, 29, was awed just to be on the same track with some of the world’s best runners. He was the Orange League’s double sprint champion in his senior year, but he has not trained regularly for several years because he holds two jobs.

He also ran in a heat in the open division of the 100-meter dash at Mt. SAC, where he finished last.

Correspondent Michael Itagaki and staff writers Paul McLeod and Mike Terry contributed to this story.