ajor prospects ‘Iwo local players attracting professional interest A 22-YEAR-OLD baseball player from West Vancouver has just signed with the Texas Rangers while the Los Angeles Dodgers have recently drafted a North Vancouver — te . penasee NEWS photo Neil Lucente PAT POYNER (left) of West Vancouver shakes the hand of Texas Ranger scout Don Shwery who recently signed Poyner with the Rangers. Poyner, 22, played his first game with the Rangers’ farm team, the Butte Copper Kings, last Friday. N. Shore athletes shine in duathlon SIX NORTH Shore residents travelled to Kamloops recently to participate in the B.C. Tel Kamloops Duathlon, and phac- ed in the top four of their respective categories, Thomas Ballingall of West Vancouver placed first: in the fat tire, men’s 30-34 category with a time of 34.18. North Vancouver residents who did well in the event were: dim Swadiing, second in men’s 40-44 with 1:29.39; Dave Haukshaw, third in boys’ 16-19 with = §:32.07; and Cathy Brown, fourth in women's 20- 24 with 1:56.44. Sole entrants in their categories were North Vancouver residents Gill Curry, fat tire men’s 45-39 with a time of 35.44 and Peter Durham in the Clydesdales (over 200 ibs) division for men, 40 and over with a Gime of 1:53.09, Best Gime overall in the regu- lar event was clocked by Ferg B. Hawke of White Rock at $:23.17 and in the fat tire event by Rob Forman of Richmond 33.40. The B.C. Tel Kamloops Duathlon was the sixth of vight events in the 199} B.C. Tel Duathlon Series, organized by the Vancouver International Triathlon and taking place in communities througheut B.C. his summer. Each event features a regular series race with a S-km run, 30-kKm_—s cycle, S-kmm run se. quences, ao fat fire event for mountain bike enthusiasts with ao 2-km run, 10-hm cyele, kas route and relay divisions both categories. Fat) tire en- trants must use a mountain bike with 26 inch x 1.2) inch fires and flatoor rise handle bars. The temainder of the series inghides events in) Vietoria on July 14 and Cultus fake on Sepr. &. player. Pat Poyner iefi Vancouver Fri- day afternoon for Salt Lake City to play his first game with the Butte Copper Kings, the Rangers’ farm team which is based in Mon- tana. Fie was signed by West Vancouver-based Rangers scout Don Shwery. Meanwhile. Brent Crowther, 19. has chosen to play out another year with the National Baseball Institute (NBE) before deciding his options with the L.A. Dodgers. Poyner, a towering 6°5", 225- pound figure, has played first base and outfield at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma for the past two years. Majoring in English, Poyner’s goal is to even- tually attend !aw school. He also spent two years at Lower Colom- bia College in Longview By Elizabeth Collings News Reporter Crowther, a 1990 Windsor grad, wants to. play another year with NBI before deciding his pitching career. In May, he was chosen the Rookie of the Year, receiv- ing the award before a game in Ottawa against the Toronto Bluc- jays in froni of a crowd of 16,000. Crowther learned he was drafted by the Dodgers last month after he was contacted by Tsawwassen scout Jim Chapman. Instead of signing this year, Crowther said he will stay with NBI where he has a scholarship, and complete his second year of