Sports Shorts Sports Shorts (March 19, 2004)

SWIM MASTERS MEET . . . More than 6,000 world-class adult athletes from 50 countries will converge upon the Bay Area in August 2006, to compete in the world's largest competitive aquatic meet. La Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international governing body for aquatic sports, has awarded the XI FINA World Masters Swimming Championships to the United States for only the second time in history. The last time the event took place in North America, was when Montreal played host in 1994. The two week-long aquatic championships will take place at the Stanford University Avery Aquatic Center and include competition in swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. The open water competition will be held at Lake Del Valle. FINA, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, awarded the competition based on the bid made by United States Aquatic Sports (USAS). United States Masters Swimming (USMS), part of USAS, and its local Bay Area organizing committee, Pacific Masters Swimming, will organize and host the event. "Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center is a tremendous venue for this event," says Michael Moore, chair of the local organizing committee. Moore also noted that Northern California is a great destination for aquatic competitors from all over the world. Richard Quick, five-time Olympic swimming coach and member of the 2006 Local Organizing Committee said: "I'm thrilled to death that FINA has recognized Stanford University and the Stanford facilities as an outstanding place to hold this prestigious event."

CARDINAL CORNER . . . Stanford will host the 2004 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's gymnastics championship tonight and Saturday in Burnham Pavilion at 7 p.m. The conference's five participating member schools -- Air Force Academy, California, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Stanford - will be vying for the MPSF team title. Oklahoma, the defending MPSF and the 2002 and 2003 NCAA champion, returns five All-Americans from the past two seasons and is ranked No. 2 nationally. Cal is No. 3, Nebraska is No. 8, Stanford is No. 9 and the Air Force Academy is No. 16. The five teams will compete for the team championship and the individual all-around title tonight. The top eight competitors in each event will advance to the individual event finals on Saturday. An adult all-session pass for the two-day event is $15 or a single-day pass is $8. An all-session pass for students with ID, children and senior citizens is $10 or $6 for a single-day pass.

OF LOCAL NOTE . . . Menlo College junior Sean Scott earned National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Hitter of the Week for the period ending March 7 following a three-game series in which he had 12 hits in 16 at-bats, with 11 RBI and nine runs scored. He boosted his batting average to .510 while becoming the first Menlo College player has won the award.

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