San Diego Roundup : Top Teams to Play in Tennis Tournament

Six of the top collegiate doubles teams in the country have entered the 97th annual Pacific Coast men’s doubles championships, which begin today at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.

Rick Leach and Tim Pawsat of USC, who won the tournament in 1982 and 1983, are the top-seeded team, with defending champions Dan Goldie and Jim Grabb of Stanford seeded second.

UCLA’s Brad Pearce and Ken Diller are seeded third, and the independent team of Danny Saltz of Newport Beach and Randy Nixon of Coronado is seeded fourth.

Other top entries include U.S. Davis Cup player Eliot Teltscher and Jeff Tarango, and Stanford’s Patrick McEnroe and John Letts.

Play begins at 9 a.m. today and Saturday, with one of two semifinals to be played Saturday afternoon. The other semifinal will be at 11 a.m. Sunday, with the final beginning after its completion. Admission is $4.50.

Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Championship Grand Prix makes its first appearance in the San Diego area March 1 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium with the third round of this year’s races. Series regulars, including Ivan Stewart of Lakeside, will compete on a special off-road course constructed on the stadiums’s playing field. The course will include jumps, hairpin turns and other challenges usually encountered in desert races. Off-road Grand Prix races later in the season will be held in the Rose Bowl at Pasadena and the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The San Diego State men’s and women’s track teams will host some of the nation’s best track athletes in the the fifth annual Bud Light Invitational, which begins Saturday morning at 9 o’clock on SDSU’s Sportsman’s Track.

The Stars and Stripes Track Club, whose men’s 800-meter relay team has not lost in four years, and Judd Binley, who was third in the discus at the NCAA meet last season, are among the top men expected to compete.

The women’s competition will include a showdown between USC freshman Leslie Maxie, world junior record holder in the 400-meter hurdles, and SDSU’s LaTanya Sheffield, the defending NCAA champion in the same event. Triple jump world record holder Wendy Brown is also expected to compete.

Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for non-SDSU students, $1 for children under 12 and free for SDSU students.

Swim San Diego, recent winner of the 1986 San Diego-Imperial Counties Junior Olympics, will host a dual meet against Mission Viejo, the 1985 Senior National champion, Sunday at 8:30 a.m. at UC San Diego’s Canyonview Pool.

Kirk Stackle, a senior national qualifier in the breastsroke and individual medley, and Marilyn Peck, a senior national qualifier in distance freestyle events, will lead Swim San Diego. Distance freestyler Debbie Babashoff, sister of Shirley Babashoff, is expected to lead Mission Viejo.

The meet, which is open to the public, is the second to last chance for swimmers to make senior and junior national cuts.