In early December, eighth graders Ashwin Kuppahally, Adrian Liu, Vivek Nayyar, Kabir Ramzan and Om Tandon competed the VEX IQ Challenge robotics tournament in Los Altos, where they earned the Excellence Award, the competition’s highest honor. This award is given to teams who excel in criteria such as event challenges, teamwork and robot design. At a previous competition, the team qualified for the state championship and the US Open Robotics World event after being recognized for the top robot design. They will compete the VEX State Championships in March and the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship the following month.
Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, represented the Eagles this week at the state girls golf finals at Poppy Hills. Vo finished 46th and Chen competed for the top spot all day, finishing in a tie for seventh shooting a 2-over-par 73. Great job ladies!
Cross Country
Good luck to Anna Weirich, grade 11, who will compete at the state cross country finals in Fresno on Nov. 30.
WINTER SPORTS
Girls/Boys Basketball
The girls and boys basketball teams will open their 2019-20 season on the road – in Hawaii! The Eagle teams each have three games scheduled during the Thanksgiving week on the island of Maui. Both teams have their home opener on Dec. 11 as the girls take on Pioneer and the boys face off with St. Thomas More.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team opens its season on Monday at Lynbrook. The first home game of the year is on Dec. 4 against Harbor.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team travels to Saratoga on Tuesday to open its season with the first home game on Dec. 5 against Santa Clara.
At the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) international final, held Nov. 8-10 in Hungary, sixth graders Aidan Okyar and Mikhil Kiran and their teammate achieved perfect scores in a competition to design a SMART city. The team’s final ranking, including its robots’ mission completion times, was 22nd out of 92 teams in the Regular Elementary category, which made the trio the highest-ranking team from the United States across every age group. Congratulations!
On Friday, RHYTHM – a youth outreach organization formed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus – visited Harker’s middle and upper school campuses, where it performed at a pair of assemblies, joined by middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey. The 50-man chorus sang a variety of songs from its repertoire, including George Michael’s “Freedom” and “If You Were Gay” from the musical Avenue Q. In between songs, members of the chorus shared their personal stories about growing up feeling different because of their orientation, providing valuable lessons about love, acceptance and building a more inclusive community.
RHYTHM coordinator Mitch Galli visited Harker the previous week to work with middle and upper school vocal groups as well as each campus’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Each assembly included a special performance of The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge,” featuring Harker singers and students reading aloud hopes, written anonymously, for greater inclusivity in schools and communities.
Krish Mysoor, grade 8, had a record-setting weekend in debate, placing first at the Damus Hollywood Invitational, hosted by the Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame schools in Los Angeles, Nov. 2-4.
Mysoor is the only eighth grader in memory to take first place at a varsity national qualifier to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). TOC-designated tournaments are considered to be the most challenging debate tournaments because they attract the most competitive schools from multiple states. The topic for the event was whether or not the United States ought to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
Students who reach a certain level of elimination-round success at two of those events are invited to compete at the most elite varsity championship at the end of the year. It is extremely rare for a middle school student to even reach early elimination rounds at TOC tournaments, let alone to have a perfect preliminary record and then go on to win five elimination rounds in a row. The team is very proud of his outstanding accomplishment.
Lincoln Garrett, the head debate coach of the University of Kentucky, which hosts the Tournament of Champions, noted of Mysoor’s accomplishment, “That is incredible. To go from learning the activity a short while ago to winning a competitive tournament is remarkable.”
Mysoor is known for his hard work and being a great teammate. His remarkable success has attracted quite a bit of attention from the national debate community. Go Harker speech and debate!
The lower and middle school fall sports seasons recently came to a close. Check out how each team finished, along with all the team awards.
Middle School WBAL Swim Finals:
The middle school boys took third overall and the girls finished fifth overall.
Grade 6 boys 100-yard medley relay team, second place
Ethan Leelanivas, grade 6, boys 25-yard butterfly, third place
Rajas Apte, grade 7, boys 50 yard freestyle, second place
Adam Pawliger, grade 7, boys 50-yard freestyle, third place
Mirabelle Feng, grade 7, girls 50-yard backstroke, second place
Andrew Au, grade 8, boys 50-yard backstroke, third place
Middle School Swimming: Team awards went to Rahul Sundaresan, grade 6 (MVP), Simon Kirjner, grade 6 (Eagle) and Claire Zhao, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Lower School Swimming: Team awards went to Ian Cheline, grade 5 (MVP), Amanda Lee-Shen, grade 4 (Eagle) and Manalee Chowdhury, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Middle School WBAL Cross Country Finals:
Grade 6 boys team, second place
Grade 7-8 boys team, third place
Grade 7-8 girls team, ninth place
Stanley Chen, grade 6, boys, first place
Brian Choi, grade 6, boys, eighth place
Alejandro Cheline, grade 6, boys, ninth place
Shreya Vemulapalli, grade 6, girls, 24th place
Andrew Smith, grade 8, boys, second place
Veyd Patil, grade 8, boys, seventh place
Layla McClure, grade 7, girls, 41st place
Middle School Cross Country: Team awards went to Stanley Chen, grade 6 (MVP), Brian Choi, grade 6, and Andrew Smith, grade 8 (Eagle), and Eric Zhang, grade 7, and Kaleb Goldin, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Samantha Salfen, Sara Pawloski and Ron Paranada.
Middle School Golf: The middle school golf team took second place in the WBAL fall tournament. The top Harker golfer was Ryan Zhang, grade 8 (35), followed by Yu Bai, grade 8 (37), Allison Yang, grade 7 (38) and Ashley Mo, grade 6 (39).
VA (grade 8) Flag Football: The Varsity A team, coached by Randy LeGris and Mike Delfino, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-5 and went 0-7 overall. Team awards went to Ryan Barth (MVP), Kevin Bettencourt (Eagle) and Om Tandon (Coaches).
VB (grade 7) Flag Football: The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins and Dini Wong, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-2-1 record and went 3-3-1 overall. Team awards went to Vyom Vidyarthi (MVP), Bowen Xia (Eagle) and Drew Diffenderfer (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-3 league record. Team awards went to Brennan Williams and Rishaan Thoppay (MVP), Topaz Lee (Eagle) and Ritik Raman (Coaches).
JVB (grade 5) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Karriem Stinson and Tobias Wade, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 3-1 league record and went 4-1 overall. Team awards went to Mason Brooks (MVP), David Kelly and Zackary Delfino (Eagle).
LS Intramural Flag Football (grade 4): Team awards went to Nicky Kerko and Reid Bardin (Eagle) and Ricardo Sanchez (Coaches). The team was coached by Walid Fahmy.
VA (grade 6-8) Softball: The Varsity A team, coached by Adam Albers and Raul Rios, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1 and went 4-2 overall. Team awards went to Keren Eisenberg, grade 7 (MVP), Angelina Burrows, grade 7 (Eagle) and Kira Bardin, grade 6 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 4-5) Softball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Megan Regan and Colleen Campbell, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 3-1. Team awards went to Raeanne Li, grade 5 (MVP), Keira Kelly, grade 5 (Eagle) and Ameera Ramzan, grade 5 (Coaches).
VA (grade 6-8) Girls Lacrosse: The Varsity A team, coached by Morgan Smith and Hannah Grannis, competed in a number of friendly tournaments and a few solo matches with other schools this season. The team went from six participants last year to more than 20 this year! Team awards went to Kate Grannis, grade 8 (MVP), Abby Lim, grade 7 (Eagle) and Shaina Cohen, grade 6 (Coaches).
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.
Grade 7 embarked on its annual national parks trip last week, experiencing the natural beauty and history of some of the country’s most picturesque spots. The trip started in Arizona, where each bus group hiked through Sedona. The following day, the group trekked to one of the world’s most breathtaking natural wonders, the Grand Canyon. On day three, students headed to Mystery Valley to learn about the history of the Navajo people, particularly their relationship to the U.S. military and their ongoing fight to preserve their culture. Navajo historian Wally Brown shared some important aspects of the culture with students, such as the importance of the number 4, which is represented by the four seasons, the four cardinal directions and the first four Navajo clans, among other things.
On the journey to Utah’s Bryce Canyon, the students stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam to learn about the benefits afforded by the dam as well as the problems it posed. During a stop at the Pink Coral Sand Dunes, the students had a great time running up and down the face of the dunes. At Bryce Canyon the next day, the students enjoyed a full-day hike, taking in the spectacular views. The students’ final stop was Zion National Park, famous for its red cliffs.