Every Match They Play, Track & Field Sets Records; Baseball has Strong Performances; Girls Lacrosse is Red Hot on Offense

Track and Field

Three more school records were broken on Saturday at the St. Francis Invitational! Corey Gonzales, grade 10, set a record in the mile run with a time of 4:31.58. Senior Isabelle Connell set a record in the 400m with a 58.17,  and, Sumit Minocha, grade 12, topped the previous Harker mark in the 100m with an 11.05.

These outstanding achievements come on the heels of Harker kicking off their season right with two school records set in the very first league meet of the season! That time, Connoll ran a 12.82 league-leading 100m, and sophomore Julia Wang threw the shot 25’10.5″.

In the rest of that season-opening meet last week, Wang also set a personal record in the discus at 65’1″ to become number two on Harker’s all-time girl’s throw list. Michael Chen, grade 12, moved up his personal best in discus to 121’0″, and Rohan Kapatkar, grade 11, set a personal best with a 96′ 9.5″. Claudia Tischler, grade 11, and Gonzales each ran personal bests in the 400m, with a 65.49 and a 57.40, respectively. The boys relay team of Spenser Quash, Varun Gudapati, Robert Deng and Sumit Michocha, all seniors, ran a league-best 45.45 in the 400m relay. Senior Tyler Yeats had himself a day, winning the mile and the two mile, running the 300m hurdles for a personal best, and anchoring the Harker 4x400m relay. Whew.

That all set the stage for those record-smashing races this past Saturday at St. Francis. When Harker was kind enough to give the record-keepers a breather for a moment, the boys 400m relay team embarked on a great, exciting run: Michocha received the baton in sixth place and sprinted to finish second. Then, Tischler and Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, each ran personal bests in the varsity girls 800m, finishing with a 2:27.30 and 2:30.56, respectively. Freshmen Calvin Kocienda and Nadia Palte both set personal records in their frosh/soph hurdle race. It’s an outstanding start to the season for the track and field team, and one which begs the question: are we to expect a new batch of records with every match?

Baseball

Harker’s sluggers defeated University High Friday, 7-2, to even up their record at three wins and three losses. Jacob Hoffman, grade 12, took away honors for the best offensive game on the team with a 3-4 day in which he circled the bases with home runs, twice. Those two dingers helped him to six RBIs for the day out of Harker’s seven runs, and outscoring all of University High’s lineup. Of course, he had some help from Kevin Cali, grade 12, keeping University High bats quiet by pitching the complete game with 10 strikeouts. Want to catch these guys in action? The boys take on Summit Prep this week at Blackford.

Lacrosse

Girl lacrosse bested Christian Brothers – Sacramento on Friday to the tune of 19-13, bumping up their record to a strong 4-1 overall. So, which Eagles put the ball in the net? That would be Michelle Douglas, grade 12, with five goals; Wendy Shwe, grade 12, with six; Hannah Bollar, grade 10, with five; and Tiphaine Delepine, grade 12 with three.

The girls’ 19-point effort comes two days after they put up 18 in an 18-7 trouncing over Santa Catalina last Wednesday. That day, Douglas added four goals, Shwe muscled in  eight, Bollar had five, and Delepine had one. Your next chance to see the girls’ surging offense is when they travel to play Stevenson today in an away game.

 Golf

Boys golf has won two in a row, finishing off a busy stretch with victories over Crystal Springs and King’s Academy. When we’d last left our heroes, they were in the midst of dropping a tight game to Menlo 200-205 last Wednesday. But, they followed that up with their 189-229 statement game against Crystal Springs and, now that they’ve topped their week off with the win over King’s Academy for good measure, the boys’ record now stands at 3-2 overall. Maverick McNealy , grade 12, demands attention for two of his outstanding games; he was the low scorer in the Crystal Springs game with a 34 and then shot a 31 against King’s Academy. As this is written, the boys are heading into a big tournament in Marin County.

Volleyball

In their league opener, the boys officially started this season’s race to the playoffs with a win against King’s Academy in four games last Wednesday, which at the time evened up their overall record at 2-2. Since then, the boys lost to Mountain View on Friday, but recovered with a very strong showing at the Aptos Tournament on Saturday. At the tournament, the boys won their pool and qualified for the gold bracket where they would place third overall in a 12-team tournament. Harker slid into the top three by defeating Oak Grove in a dramatic game. Now the boys head home to host Los Gatos at Blackford this Wednesday. Come support ’em!

Tennis

Boys tennis defeated Fremont last Wednesday, but then lost to Crystal Springs. After last week, their record stands at 5-2 overall and 4-2 in league as they prepare to face off against Menlo and Sacred Heart Prep this week.

The JV squad, meanwhile, has improved to a scorching 6-1 after defeating Crystal Springs.

Softball

Softball fell to Silver Creek by a score of 4-0 Wednesday. Briana Liang, grade 10, and Nithya Vemireddy, grade 11, did manage hits in the midst of the shutout, but the Eagles’ record dropped to 2-3 overall. They remain, however, undefeated in league play, with a 1-0 record. The team travels to Menlo and then hosts Mercy this Friday at Blackford.

Swimming

Harker’s swimmers travel to Sacred Heart Prep, today. Happy swimming!

GO EAGLES!

March 20, 2013Tags: Featured Story, In the News, Sports