Fight on! Smith faces future teammate

DALY CITY — Turlock's Sam Smith and Martin Trainer of Palo Alto soon will bond as teammates at USC, but today they're opponents.

The two 18-year-old recent high school graduates — Smith from Turlock and Trainer from Gunn High School — will collide in the round of 16 of the 98th California State Amateur Championship. Both former junior stars scored impressive first-round wins Wednesday at Lake Merced Country Club.

"My teammate-to-be," Smith said in reference to Trainer. "It's too bad we ran into each other so early."

Smith opened the match-play portion of the tournament by rallying from an early 2-down deficit to a 6 and 5 win over Northwestern's Joshua Dupont of Poway.

The former Bulldog coasted along at even par for the 13-hole match while Dupont struggled. Smith won seven of the last eight holes, including holes 6 through 10, then finished it by holing a downhill 15-footer for birdie at Lake Merced's par-4 13th. He needed only to two-putt but got the job done with one.

"Joshua didn't make too many putts. I played good today, but I'll probably have to do better to keep winning," Smith said.

Trainer, who placed fourth in the State Amateur's 36-hole stroke-play qualifying (Smith tied for 12th), eliminated James Erkenbreck of San Diego 3 and 1.

Co-medalists Nick Delio of Valencia and Geoff Gonzalez of Diablo both advanced to the second round. Delio, the defending champion, used his power to stop Kevin Lozares of Mountain View 2 and 1. Gonzalez, a senior at Cal Poly, beat Logan Goettsch of Fresno 2 and 1.

Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, a four-time qualifier for the U.S. Open, defeated former U.S. Public Links champion Tim Hogarth of Northridge 4 and 3 in a duel of the state's top mid-amateurs. Hogarth appeared in the 2007 Masters.