LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. -- Derek Thorn of Bakersfield earned his first career NASCAR victory late Saturday at the APA Auto Parts 150, holding off fellow Bakersfield resident David Mayhew for the win.

Thorn, who recorded his first career Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, went back-and-forth with Dylan Kwasniewski -- the pair exchanged leads six times -- for most of the K&N Pro Series West race before winning the closing laps.

Six former Bakersfield High players, along with three 1930s teams, will be added to the school's football hall of fame in a ceremony Friday in the Marriott Hotel Ballroom.

This year's inductees are: Russell Hampton (Class of 1952), Roger Smith ('53), Denny Schmidt ('58), Rick Van Horne ('79), Jason Oliver ('90) and Chad Provensal ('90). The 1933, '35; and '36 Central Section championship teams also will be honored.

RIVERSIDE -- Dylan Christensen's first collegiate home run broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the eighth inning and gave Cal State Bakersfield a 2-1 win over UC Riverside Saturday afternoon and a split of a doubleheader.

Riverside won the opener 7-0 to break a three-game losing streak. It was only the third Highlanders' win in 10 games.

The talent never left Wasco's wrestling team, but to coach Juan Gallardo, something wasn't quite right midway through the season.

"The middle of the year was up and down," Gallardo said last week. "The kids were getting kind of flat."

The Garces boys swim team won just two of the 11 events in Saturday's Garces Memorial Invitational, but that was plenty for the Rams to earn the team title at Bakersfield College.

Thanks to an abundance of top-10 performances, Garces dominated the team scoring, wrapping up a 28-point margin of victory over second-place Tulare Union.

WALNUT -- Bakersfield College freshman Chris Schwartz set school records in the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters Saturday while winning both events at the Mount San Antionio College Relays.

Schwartz ran 3:49.19 in the 1,500, topping the old BC mark of 3:52.08 set by Charlie Wallace in 1981. Schwartz timed 14:34.38 in the 5,000, bettering the old record of 14:52.8 by Angel Carrillo in 1978.

On a day when Bakersfield College ace pitcher Tyler Painton was not at his best, he still put up good numbers.

Painton tossed seven innings and allowed only one unearned run, and the Renegades survived a ninth-inning scare to beat Los Angeles Mission College 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at Gerry Collis Field.

Heavy rain overnight Thursday into Friday prompted numerous postponements.

Friday night's scheduled Cal League baseball game between the Blaze and San Jose Giants in San Jose was postponed by noon Friday and will be made up as part of a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Sunday, which was previously scheduled as a single game.

A.J. Ramirez is routinely among the Central Section's leader in triples, and he's no stranger to the stolen base. But even he wasn't ready for a turnaround as fast as he experienced last fall.

In October, Ramirez scarcely registered a blip on the college baseball recruiting radar. By November, the most prestigious baseball program in the country wouldn't leave him alone.

For a game that continues to gain momentum in the US, rugby still remains, to most sports fans, as British as tea.

And while it may not be the most popular sport in American culture, some famous Americans have played rugby, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who both played rugby in college.

It's that time of year again, when stadium lights become strobe lights, sidelines become walls and the running game -- wait, what running game?

The Arena Bowl, Kern County's annual indoor high school football senior all-star game, is back for an 11th edition at 7 p.m. next Friday in Rabobank Arena.

Jessica Quinones knew better than anyone how tough a Stockdale-Centennial softball game can be on the batters -- and the nerves.

So she took matters into her own hands Thursday, hitting two doubles and keying both Stockdale rallies as the host Mustangs beat Centennial 4-1 to build a 21⁄2-game lead in the Southwest Yosemite League standings.

Kern County, southern San Joaquin Valley

LAKE ISABELLA: The trout bite has remained pretty good with the rainbows showing around much of the lake, but the auxiliary dam has remains one of the top spots. The best action has been on dough baits, Power Mice Tails and inflated nightcrawlers. The catfish bite has also picked up with most of the action in the bays in 10-15 feet of water on clams and cut baits. Few reports on crappie, and the bass and bluegill action is just starting to turn around.

Earlier kick-off times for home games and a few new opponents highlight the 2012 Bakersfield College football schedule.

The Renegades (4-6 last season) play in the National Northern Conference as part of the Southern California Football Association.

GLENDORA -- Two days after failing to collect hits in key situations, the Bakersfield College baseball team blasted 21 hits and romped past Citrus College 17-9 on Thursday.

The game was decided early. BC (21-9 overall, 9-6 Western State Conference South) had an eight-run second inning and led 16-2 after four innings.

Baseball

Bakersfield 10, Independence 2

John Austin finished 9th and Doug Denesha finished 22nd in their respective flights in the 78th SCGA Amateur Net Championship at Industry Hills Golf Club this week.

Both were medalists in their respective flights in qualifying but the Industry Hills course proved to be a bit tougher for most of the field in all four flights, except for the few who finished in the top five or so.

Andy Varner told himself he wouldn't get emotional about the end of Natrelle Demison's high school wrestling career, but the last month pretty much rendered that impossible.

And so, as Varner spoke Wednesday about Demison at a signing ceremony for four Division I-bound athletes at Bakersfield High, his voice cracked a few times. Demison, for his part, got a tissue from his mother and dabbed his eyes.

Liberty High's Kaulyn Lee-McNeill deserves an asterisk -- the good kind -- for this performance.

Not only did Lee-McNeill break her personal record by nearly a second in the 300-meter hurdles at the Southwest Yosemite League track and field meet Wednesday at Liberty, but she did it in wet, rainy conditions that caused many of the SWYL's coaches to pull out their stars.

The hardest part, Tony Bernardin said, was the vow of silence.

Bernardin, who still worked at Frontier High School but had been hired as the women's golf coach at Cal State Bakersfield, knew he wanted two of his first recruits to be Michelle Martel and Lexi Keeter, part of the group that helped the Titans to three straight Central Section championships under Bernardin.