Sport Shorts

HOT STOVE BANQUET . . . Former Palo Alto High baseball standout Pete Fukuhara and current Stanford freshman John Gall will be among those being honored at the 13th annual Hot Stove Banquet on Feb. 3 at Lou's Village restaurant in San Jose. Fukuhara will receive the Community College Player of the Year Award for the 1996 season. He was the MVP of the Coast Conference while playing for Canada College last season. Fukuhara now is playing for Cal State Fullerton, which plays host to Stanford in a three-game series beginning Jan. 31. Gall will receive the High School Player of the Year Award after starring at St. Francis last season. He's now a freshman outfielder at Stanford. The top awards will go to former San Jose State star Ken Caminiti, the MVP of the San Diego Padres, and to ex-College of San Mateo pitcher John Wetteland, the 1996 World Series MVP from the New York Yankees. The Master of Ceremonies will be new San Francisco Giants announcer Jon Miller. For ticket information: 408) 446-3443 or 245-1946.

RUN WINNERS . . . USA Olympian Matt Giusto led the field in the first Juana Run 8K race last weekend in Palo Alto, touring the 4.1-mile course in 23:40. J.R. Meloro of the Stanford-based Farm Team was second in 25:08. Becki Kriege won the women's Open race in 30:23. Tom Tateno captured the men's Masters race in 27:39 while Kim Rupert was the first women's Masters to finish in 31:13. In the one-mile open race, Jim Howarth topped the men in 4:28 while Debbie Roche led the women in 5:37. More complete race results in in Scoreboard on page 24.

PINNING DOWN A WIN . . . The Palo Alto High wrestling team came up with six pins, helping the Vikings to a 40-33 SCVAL El Camino Division victory over host Lynbrook on Wednesday night. Sophomore Tony Hopkins, who captured the 275-pound division at the Jim Root Classic last weekend, continued his winning ways with a first-round pin against Lynbrook. Teammate Robert Thomas produced the fastest pin of the night, in just 56 seconds, while winning the 171-pound division.

STANFORD ROUNDUP . . . Stanford freshman Kerri Walsh was featured in the Jan. 13 edition of Sports Illustrated, in the magazine's "Faces in the Crowd" section. Walsh was honored for producing 17 kills, eight digs and six assists in Stanford's sweep of Hawaii in the NCAA championship match in December. She was named the NCAA Final Four MVP . . . The Stanford baseball team was scheduled to open its season Saturday against St. Mary's in Sunken Diamond at 1 p.m. The Sunday game scheduled for Moraga, has been switched to Stanford. If Saturday's game is rained out, a doubleheader will be played Sunday--tentatively scheduled for noon. The forecast for the weekend, however, is rain both days . . . The Stanford women's tennis team will open its 1997 home season Tuesday against Loyola Marymount at 1:30 p.m.



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