The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 68

VALLEY SPORTS Qos Angeles (Eunee 18 Part III Sunday. March 19. 1989 Vr Sil Martinez Pays for Mistake as CSUN Falls to Riverside Burnham Upstaged Twice at Northridge 1- Diana Fuhrman placed fourth in her ROBERT DURELL Lea Angela Tlmei weight class in the women's world weightlifting finals in Indonesia in 1988. Iron Lady Van Nuys' Diana Fuhrman, a Compact Combination of Power and Grace, Harbors Long-Term Aspirations for Her World-Class Weightlifting Career By JOHN ORTEGA, Times Staff Writer. There is an adage that holds that getting to the top is often easier than staying there.

Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa High, the top-ranked sprinter in the country by Track and Field News magazine last year, probably would agree with that maxim after losing twice at the Northridge-Ale-many Relays at Cal State Northridge on Saturday. Burnham, the defending state champion in the 100 and 200 meters, was defeated by Muir junior Inger Miller in the 100 and Bakersfield freshman Janile Nichols in the 200, doubling the number of defeats she suffered in high school competition last season. Burnham took the surprising losses in stride. "This is just another meet," she said. "I knew the 100 was going to be close either way.

I wasn't surprised I got beat. when I came off the turn in the 200 and saw her (Nichols out ahead of me, I just decided not to strain myself." Miller defeated Burnham, 11.70 to 11.74. in the 100, and Nichols ran 24.75 in the 200, ahead of Burnham's hand-timed 25.2. Burnham's loss in the 100 came against a known quantity in Miller, the runner-up in the 100 at the state championships last year who has run a hand-timed 11.6 seconds this season. But the loss in the 200 was a bit surprising in that Burnham lacked her characteristic strong finish, instead easing up in the final 30 meters.

Burnham, who won both events at the Northridge meet last season, anchored the Rio Mesa 400-meter relay team to a fourth-place finish (48.1) behind Muir (46.7), Hawthorne (46.8) and Bakersfield (47.9) earlier in the day. "My best race of the day," she said. "I felt good in that one." Jeff Ingalls of Agoura felt he could have won after finishing second in both the 200 and 400, the latter in a personal best of 48.66, just .01 behind Tony Borquez of Alemany. Borquez, who placed eighth in the 400 in last year's state championships, held a five-meter lead as he entered the final stretch, but Ingalls pulled even with 20 meters left before losing by inches. "I really thought I had him with 50 meters to go," Ingalls said of Borquez.

"But he held me off. He's a strong runner and he proved it at the end today." Ingalls, whose previous best in the 400 was 49.61, clocked 22.45 in the 200. Hawthorne sophomore Erik Allen won the event in 21.97. Bryan Dameworth of Agoura won the 3,000 meters in 8:37.43 after finishing second in the 1,500 Dameworth, the two-time defending state Division I cross-country champion, pulled away from Thousand Oaks' Mike Williamson (8:42.35) in the final lap of the 3,000, but he was unable to hold off Palos Verdes' Blake Boggess (3:58.22) in the final 100 of the 1,500. Williamson, second to Dameworth in the 1988 state cross-country championships, ran a 4:16.7 mile on the anchor leg of the four-mile relay as Thousand Oaks (18:28.80) placed third behind Dos Pueblos (18:18.38) and Canyon Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall, the defending state champion in the high jump, cleared a meet-best 5-8 but was disqualified for competing in cycling shorts.

by loud banging. Walking toward the source of the noise, it becomes more distinct. Ka -bang Across a small field and down a set of stairs in the basement of the school, the Van Nuys Weightlifting Club is meeting. Five young men and two young women slap giant plates of steel onto barbells and yank them off the floor to the accompaniment of enormous sounds from their mouths. When an exercise is over, the barbell with the massive weights is simply dropped from shoulder height onto a plywood platform.

Ka-boom! Along one wall a barbell is hoisted overhead. Twin 33-pound metal plates rest on each end of the bar, with several smaller plates tucked against them. The approximate total, with the weight of the bar, is 170 pounds. Clutching the bar is a small pair of hands with long, perfectly manicured pink fingernails. Just below them is long brunette hair, pulled back tightly into a ponytail, and large, silver hoop earrings that frame a pair of deep, brown eyes.

The body is covered with flashy black and pink tights, a pink sweat shirt and black weightlifter's shoes, shoes with built-up heels and rounded toes. The exercise is over now, and the bar crashes down onto the plywood deck. The floor shakes. "Yow," says Fuhrman, sharply. The yow was not caused by the barbell falling on her toes.

It was, simply, a yow of relief. There would be another lift in about a minute or so, and many more after that. But for a moment, she could rest. The training session would stretch Flcase see FUHRMAN, Page 20 By RICHTOSCHES, Times Staff Writer There is nothing remarkable about Diana Fuhrman. She works part time at a health club in Simi Valley.

Holds down another job at Royal High. Played the oboe and saxophone for six years. Likes to sew and embroider. Dabbles in photography. Nothing remarkable at all, really.

Except for the fact that the 5-foot-4 brunette could, with her bare hands, jerk the sink out of your kitchen along with most of the galvanized steel plumbing. And carry it all out the front door. Over her head. "Oh, and I like watching movies, too," Fuhrman said. "But I don't have much spare time to do it." You would imagine not, with the two jobs and a five-day-a-week training regimen that basically consists of repeatedly lifting an object that most men would ask a neighbor to help them with.

Fuhrman is a weightlifter. It is a sport for people who grunt a lot and who realize they are getting better at it when their pants don't fit anymore, their legs having expanded to roughly the size of Vermont. And, to be honest, when you think of weightlifters, don't you first think of men? Giant, rotund men? Of course you do. And if you think of women weightlifters, don't you think of ladies with first names like Gerd or Samanko, ladies who appear to be a very subtle blend of Al Pacino and Pete Rose? Of course you do. No high school homecoming queens in this bunch.

i By GARY KLEIN. Times Staff Writer Jeff Goodale did not have to look at the professional scouts wielding radar guns in the stands at the Riverside Sports Complex to know that Cal State Northridge pitcher Kili Martinez can be difficult to handle. "He's tough," said Goodale, UC Riverside's left fielder. "Basically, you have to look for one pitch, and if you get it, you better take advantage of it. Because if you don't, he's going to beat you." Goodale got the pitch he was looking for in the sixth inning of Saturday night's California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

game. A fastball that Martinez intended for the outside part of the plate instead found the middle portion and Goodale deposited it over the left-field fence for a solo home run that proved to be the game -winning hit in Riverside's 3-1 victory over Northridge. Riverside is 9-19 overall and 5-7 in conference play. Northridge is 13-7, 5-7. Martinez, a senior left-hander, allowed six hits, struck out nine and walked only one in dropping to 1 -4.

The pitching spotlight belonged to Riverside's Bill Jordan, who improved to 5-1 with a seven-hit, seven -strikeout, no-walks performance. Jordan, a freshman right-hander from Norte Vista High in Riverside, pitched his first complete game and never appeared frazzled against a Matador team whose only other game under the lights was an 8-6 win over Cal State Los Angeles in the CCA A opener at Cal State L. A. on Feb. 24.

Northridge scored the game's first run in the fifth when J. D. Haendiges singled up the middle to drive in Greg Shockey who had led off the inning with a bloop double down the left-field line. Martinez, who pitched 10 innings against Riverside on Tuesday when the teams played to a 5-5, 11 -inning tie a game that will be replayed issued his lone walk to Mark Saugstad to lead off the home half of the fifth and Saugstad moved to second on a bunt by John Holmes. Brian Carricaburu followed with the Highlanders' first hit off Martinez, a double into the gap in left-center field that drove in Saugstad and tied the score, 1-1.

"As soon as we got runs on the board I got pumped up," Jordan said. "I wanted to get these guys." Riverside took the lead in the sixth when Goodale hit his sixth home run of the season. The Highlanders added an insurance run in the eighth on back-to-back doubles by Goodale and Logan Ostrander. Northridge threatened in the eighth when Ted Weis-fuss singled with one out and Craig Clayton followed with an infield single. Jordan, however, forced Clayton at second on a comebacker by Chae-Ho Chong, then induced Rusty McLain to ground out to first to end the inning and the Matadors' final threat.

"That was a great pitching performance by Jordan," Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. "There's some things that you do in those situations to try to get some momentum going and get some people on base besides just swinging the bat. We weren't able to do those things." Northridge will play a nonconference game against University of the Pacific on Wednesday at Matador Field. The Matadors will resume conference play with a two-game series at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Friday. Sisco, Moorpark Batter Valley in 16-11 Victory By PAUL OLSON For Moorpark College second baseman Steve Sisco, practice makes perfect The Raiders had been taking extra batting practice last week and the hard work paid off Saturday as Sisco collected five hits, scored four runs and had drove in two runs to lead visiting Moorpark to a 16-1 1 Western State Conference upset of Valley.

Valley (17-3-1, 5-2 in conference play) hardly expected a slugfest with starter Steve Slattery on the mound. Slattery entered the game with a 3-0 record, a 2.98 earned-run average and a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings. But Saturday he could control neither the ball nor Raider hitters, lasting only 3 innings and giving up eight runs and 10 hits and walking five. Moorpark 15-6, 5-3) had its own pitching problems as starter Todd Gerbovaz and reliever Paul Perce gave up eight runs in three innings. Sisco broke an 8-8 tie in the fifth inning with his fourth hit, a 350-foot double to the left-center-field wall that scored Dan Smith.

Sisco collected his final hit in the sixth inning to drive in Kris Kaelin as the Raiders took a 13-8 lead. "We've all been working real hard on our batting this week and it really helped us today." said Sisco. who extended his hitting streak to 19 consecutive games while leading an 18-hit attack. "I went up Please sec MOORPARK, Page 21 ROBERT DURELL Lot Angela Tlmei For a dedicated weightlifter such as Fuhrman, there is little time to rest. Diana Fuhrman, 148 pounds, has lifted more weight than all but three women in her weight class in the world.

And she, as you might expect, was not her high school's homecoming queen. She was runner-up. Long shadows have fallen across the campus of Van Nuys High. Most of the students have departed for the day and it is quiet. Suddenly, the stillness is broken LJ! I 1.1 I II II.

Ml. Ill III I III. 11.1111 I V-V--. MB 1 The Visiting Team Ecuadorean Exchange Students at Birmingham Warm to New Country on the Baseball Field By VINCE KOWALICK'. Times Staff Writer Had Ernesto Alvarez and Diego Arcos been forewarned about the snowfall in the San Fernando Valley, they might have said no, gracias to the offer of enrolling as exchange students at Birmingham High.

But Alvarez and Arcos, two eager Ecuadorean baseball players, jumped at the opportunity as if it was a belt-high, 2-and-0 fastball. Says Alvarez in halting English: "We wanted to learn English and play baseball. And this is the capital of baseball in the world." Yet, after glancing at the frosty surprise that blanketed the neighborhood one morning last month, heading for home sounded like a capital idea to Alvarez. "Never, never, never does it snow in Ecuador." he said. "It was the first time in my life I had seen snow.

I was frozen. I thought. The weather here is cold' Arcos, sitting on the bleachers behind the giant backstop at Birmingham, arms folded tightly across his chest, still hasn't thawed after six weeks in Southern California. "The weather is cold." he said. "But we like it here." And Birmingham likes them.

Alvarez, a junior first baseman, and Arcos, a senior catcher, are friendly, polite, humble. eager to please and eager to play. Both started in Tuesday's Mid-Valley League opener against Monroe. Alvarez was hitless in two at-bats; Arcos was one for two. "They're very polite and intelligent young men," Coach Wayne Sink said.

"I think they're going to be big contributors. Any good athletes like that are a welcome addition to any team." Alvarez and Arcos, who hail from Guayaquil, Ecuador's most populous city, live in the Granada Hills home of Jose Freire, soccer coach and Spanish teacher at Birmingham. Freire, a native of Ecuador and a family friend of both players, arranged for their stay. "In Ecuador, the temperature never drops lower than 70 degrees," Freire said. "So, for them, the snow was a shock.

They said, 'Are we going to practice like Alvarez and Arcos knew that Southern California would be a far cry from the intense heat and tropical climate near the Equator. What they did not know is that snow hits the San Fernando Valley about as often as a big-leaguer hits .400. And both know how often that occurs. "Ted Williams," Arcos said, speaking in profound awe of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer. "He was the last player to hit .400.

And he hit a home run in his last turn at-baL" Alvarez's favorite hitter is an active Please see ECUADOR, Page 20 TORU KAWANA Lot Ancek Time. Exchange students Ernesto Alvarez and Diego Arcos of Ecuador share a purpose at Birmingham: "We wanted to learn English and play baseball.".