Trafeh, Pasciuto Top Meet

Seniors Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte and Liza Pasciuto of Murrieta Valley head the entrants in the 14th Meet of Champions Distance Classic at Azusa Pacific on Saturday.

Trafeh, who won his second consecutive boys’ Division IV title in the state cross-country championships in November, will run in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

Pasciuto, a three-time runner-up in the Division I girls’ race of the state championships, will run in the 800 and 3,200 meters.

Junior Brandon Bethke of Lake Forest El Toro, who will run in the boys’ 3,200, senior Kelsey Delagardelle of Hesperia Sultana, who will compete in the girls’ 1,600 and 3,200, and senior Alysia Johnson of Canyon Country Canyon, who will run in the girls’ 800, are some of the other top entrants in the meet that starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m.

John Ortega

*

Baseball

Norco, ranked No. 21 by The Times, will play No. 20 Corona for the second time this week today in a Mountain View League game.

Norco defeated Corona, 6-0, in the championship game of the Chino tournament on Tuesday, but neither team’s No. 1 pitcher was on the mound.

Norco Coach Gary Parcell, who plans to start UC Riverside-bound right-hander James Simmons (2-0) today, said that his Cougars (6-1) should get used to playing their league opponents in back-to-back games, because that was how the second half of their league’s play was structured.

“That’s the way baseball was meant to be played,” he said.

Corona is also 6-1 overall.

Dan Arritt

*

Boys’ Tennis

Chad Becker, at No. 1 singles, has been a welcome addition to the Irvine University team, which was without a standout singles player but has decent depth at doubles.

Becker, a junior who transferred from a private high school in San Diego, is 15-2. His only losses came to Irvine Woodbridge’s Mike McClune, 6-4, and Shimpei Suzuki, 7-6, on March 11.

Armed with a powerful serve, Becker is relentless during rallies, which helped him beat Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula’s Whitney Reed, 7-5, on March 9.

The Trojans (4-2), ranked No. 9 in the Southland by The Times, will be tested with nonleague matches against Anaheim Servite on Wednesday, Santa Margarita Tesoro on Thursday and Dana Point Dana Hills on March 31 before visiting top-ranked Corona del Mar for a Pacific Coast League showdown April 1.

Elia Powers

*

Passings

Tom Hamilton, for whom the Pasadena High gymnasium was named in 1991, was an athlete, coach and administrator at the school for more than 30 years. He died Saturday of lung cancer. He would have been 75 on April 21.

In high school, Hamilton was a center in football and an All-CIF pitcher with an 11-1 record in baseball in 1947.

The following year, he enrolled at Pasadena City College, where he was a JC-GridWire All-American center and earned a scholarship to USC. He also helped pitch PCC to the Western State JC Conference championship.

Set to become the Trojans’ starting center, Hamilton suffered a severe concussion that ended his football career as a player.

Following service in the Navy from 1952 to ‘54, Hamilton returned to the Pasadena school system as a junior high school coach. He became head coach at Pasadena High in 1960 and remained in that position until 1984. He retired from teaching in 1991.

Survivors include Lynne Emery, his companion for the last 38 years; son Tom Hamilton Jr. of Hermosa Beach; brother Jim Hamilton of San Dimas; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will take place at 3 p.m. on April 4 in Pasadena High’s gymnasium.

-- Shav Glick