Briefs: Balester, Conger to have golf charity event

A pair of local professional baseball players, along with Toyota of Huntington Beach, is staging the Collin Balester-Hank Conger Golf Invitational Jan. 7 at Seacliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

Both Balester (2004) and Conger (2006) are graduates of Huntington Beach High and were teammates on the Oilers’ 2004 Sunset League championship team. Balester is playing with the Montreal Expos and Conger with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Other professional baseball players scheduled to golf in the tournament are Mark Trumbo (Angels), Joe Kelly (St. Louis Cardinals) and Chris Tillman (Baltimore Orioles).

Proceeds from the event benefit the Huntington Beach High baseball program’s Dream Field Foundation. The ballpark project would provide stadium seating, a clubhouse, weight room and sunken dugouts.

For more information, visit https://www.hbhsoilersbaseball.com/golf.

— From staff reports

*

Weissinger brothers win NSSA events

Brothers Kirk and Erik Weissinger of Huntington Beach nabbed their first victories of the current National Scholastic of Surfing Assn. season by winning their respective divisions Saturday at the NSSA Northwest Conference Open Season Event No. 2 at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz.

Kirk Weissinger, ranked fourth in the Open Juniors division and considered one of the top surfers in the Southwest Conference, won the Juniors division. Davis Freud of Huntington Beach placed third in the division.

Erik Weissinger took the Open Mini Groms division, finishing ahead of AJ Menna and Santiago Hart, both of Santa Cruz. Weissinger also took second place, behind Menna, in the Open Mini Groms division at the Northwest Conference Open Season Event No. 3 Sunday at Steamer Lane in San Clemente.

— From staff reports

*

Kim brings home gold medal

Master Claire Kim of Huntington Beach (Victory Martial Arts) and her pairs partner, Master Jason Hwang of Beverly Hills (Hwang’s Taekwondo Center), won the first gold medal for the U.S. at the seventh annual World Poomsae (TKD) Championships in a competition held Dec. 6-9 at Tunja, Colombia.

Kim, a five-time USA National Team member and two-time coach for the team, and Hwang competed in the Pairs II division. The duo had entered the final round of competition in third place but their performance in the form, Chonkwon, catapulted them to the title.

Kim and Hwang will compete in February at the US Open Taekwondo Championships in Las Vegas.

— From staff reports