Congratulations to this year’s grade 8 athletes who were recognized at an end-of-year ceremony. These student athletes all participated in at least three sports this past year, while those asterisked played four sports this year. Impressive!
Grade 8 boys:
Marcus Anderson (Athlete of the Year)
Rosh Roy* (Athlete of the Year)
Bayden Yazalina*
Arya Maheshwari
Anton Novikov
Nick Coulter
Gowtham Irrinki
Levi Sutton
Grade 8 girls:
Hunter Hernandez (Athlete of the Year)
Maria Vazhaeparambil*
Anna Weirich*
Dylan Williams
Renee Page
Olivia Guo
They say you can’t go back, but you can – after you’ve graduated college (Harvard!) and been in the work force for a decade – anyway. Karan Lodha ’04 spent the last five months substituting for Harker teacher Cyrus Merrill, who has been out on paternity leave. Lodha taught grade 8 history classes and had his own learning experiences along the way.
“It’s been a thrilling semester learning how to be a guide and a mentor for my students,” said Lodha. “In the first few weeks, there were moments where I felt like an impostor, but I was lucky to have two weeks with Mr. Merrill in which he taught me how to balance sharing my personality with the students, while maintaining the order and discipline necessary to be an effective teacher. Of course, the most rewarding part has been watching my students learn and grow over the last five months.”
Lodha reached a point in his post-academic career where he was looking for a way to contribute more to society. “I’ve often thought about a career transition to teaching,” he said. “Although I enjoyed my experience in the technology industry, I was always searching for a way to have a more direct impact. I fondly remembered my experiences as a student at Harker, and I stayed in touch with some of my former teachers – and it struck me just how much they had shaped my life.”
After a frustrating experience at his last job, Lodha decided to try moving into full-time teaching. He reached out to former teachers, including Bradley Stoll, his former calculus teacher at Harker. “Mr. Stoll was kind enough to arrange for me to come visit Harker to shadow in the history and math departments, which included sitting in on a class with Donna Gilbert (my former AP European History teacher!).
“Spending those two days at Harker made me realize how connected I still felt to the community here. I visited the Harker careers page and, with the encouragement of Ms. Gilbert and Ruth Meyer in the high school history department, I applied to the opening for the long-term substitute to fill in for Cyrus Merrill while he was on paternity leave.”
Once in the classroom, Lodha had to make it all work. “I had two big challenges,” he said. “The first was learning to call my former teachers and coaches – now my colleagues – by their first names! It was awkward for a few weeks, and even now, I have to fight the feeling that I’m being disrespectful, even when I know I’m not.
“In the classroom, the most challenging aspect for me was learning what pace, depth and difficulty was appropriate for my students. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the eighth grade, so I often found myself leaning on my colleagues, especially Ramsay Westgate, a fellow eighth grade history teacher, to get a better grasp of how best to adapt material, homework and tests to make them accessible to all my students. Of course, many of my students weren’t too shy about expressing their own opinions on the matter!”
The return has been rewarding. “The most fun part of teaching at Harker has been being part of the larger community. I’ve loved going to my students’ concerts, performances and sporting events. After all, Harker students are talented in so many ways, and it’s great to see my students express their passions outside the classroom. As a former Harker athlete and debater, I also still feel the pull of the rivalries with other schools from all those years ago!”
Being on the other side of the teacher’s desk has been enlightening and memorable. “Almost every day and every week has something to remember: a student exceeding his or her potential in an unusual way, a particularly creative project or interpretation that caught my eye, or a joke or a moment that had the whole class in laughter,” said Lodha. “My recollection of this semester will be like one of those collages that has many small photos creating a larger one; there may be one or two bigger themes, but it’s those hundreds of individual memories that really build up to what I’ll take into the years of teaching to come.”
And those years will gain traction at Harker. “I was fortunate enough to receive an offer to join the middle school math department next year,” said Lodha, “so I will be transitioning subjects but remaining a part of this wonderful community.”
The annual middle school trip to Japan in mid-May took 23 grade 6 students across the Pacific to meet with their buddies at Tamagawa Academy, and see many of the country’s cultural and geographic landmarks. After arriving in Tokyo on May 11, the students spent a couple of days exploring the city. They visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Sumo Museum and the Anime Museum, where they learned about the process of making an animated film.
Tamagawa Academy gave Harker a warm welcome on May 13, despite less-than-savory weather conditions. “Despite the heavy rain, we were greeted with excitement, big smiles, and hugs from Tamagawa buddies, parents and teachers,” reported Alana Butler, middle school dean of students, who served as a chaperone on the trip. Both Tamagawa and Harker students gave speeches, and Tamagawa’s middle school headmaster welcomed the Harker representatives and offered his appreciation for the 21-year relationship between the two schools. Following the ceremony, Harker students left with their homestays for the remainder of the weekend.
The Harker students spent much of their first full day at Tamagawa attending classes with their buddies, including English, math, science and foreign languages. During a stop at Tamgawa’s agricultural department, “We learned that the university is producing lettuce, selected herbs and fruit using specific LED lights and light combinations,” said Butler. “It was an amazing sight to see!”
The next day started with a brief welcome meeting with Tamagawa head of school Yoshiaki Obara, after which the group headed to the school’s planetarium. “As Keiko of the planetarium program explained, it is rare that a planetarium is attached to a school,” Butler wrote. “Therefore, having one at Tamagawa is truly special.” Later that day, the students attended a special assembly that included performances of karate, ballet, fencing and comedy. Harker students Ashley Ruan, Arissa Huda and Aria Jain performed as well.
The final day of Harker’s visit to Tamagawa began with students participating in the Tamagawa lower school’s morning assembly and daily exercise routine. “As Harker guests, we joined in and brought smiles to many faces,” wrote Butler. They later attended English and music classes at the lower school. “Since the students are very young and at the beginning stages of learning English, lessons involved students walking around and introducing themselves to their new Harker friends,” Butler said.
The students spent the rest of the day with their Tamagawa buddies, attending classes and enjoying lunch before emotional farewells were exchanged. “Hugs, smiles and tears were all present as our Harker students said goodbye to their Tamagawa buddies,” Butler wrote. “Feeling like most parents saying goodbye to their children, the Tamagawa moms and dads were just as sad to see their Harker guest children leave.”
Upon arriving in Kyoto the next day, the group set out to explore the former Japanese capital with their tour guide, Akira. “As we drove around, Akira pointed out foliage, statues and other things that were specific to the area,” wrote Butler. The students and chaperones had a great time watching a kimono fashion show at the Nishijin Textile Center and seeing the Fushimi Shinto shrine. Once the large crowds had subsided, they also walked through Kiyomizu Temple.
On May 19, the group spent their final full day in Japan in Hiroshima, where they toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Local guides Mito and Michiko provided historical facts and personal stories regarding the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. The students presented 1,000 paper cranes that they had folded, which were left at the Children’s Peace Monument in memory of the wish of Sadako Sasaki, who fell ill following the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and folded origami cranes in the hopes that she would be granted a wish upon folding 1,000 of them, in accordance with an ancient legend.
Their final cultural stop on the trip was at Miyajima Island, where they walked with deer and viewed the Itsukushima Shrine, built more than 1,400 years ago.
Rosh Roy, Marcus Anderson and Hunter Hernandez, all grade 8, were named middle school athletes of the year on Monday. Roy excelled in flag football, basketball, soccer and track; Anderson was a star, playing flag football, basketball and baseball; and Hernandez was amazing in her sports of softball, basketball and volleyball. The annual award dates back to 1979. Congratulations Rosh, Marcus and Hunter. Go Eagles!
Earlier this month, eighth grader Jacqueline Au and junior Matthew Lee received accolades in the 2017 Growing Up Asian in America Awards, organized by the Asian Pacific Fund. Au was named Best in Class among students in grades 6-8 in the art category for her piece, titled “Together, We Lead.” Lee received an honorable mention in the essay category for grades 9-12.
More than 600 Bay Area students in grades K-12 entered this year’s contest, which offers more than $20,000 in prizes for artwork, essays and video projects. The theme of this year’s contest was “Letter to the Senator,” in which students were encouraged to send messages to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who made history in the 2016 general election as the first Indian-American and second African-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Harker students had another stellar year at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, which took place in late March. Two students – junior Amy Jin and recent graduate Manan Shah ’17 – were grand prize winners, earning them trips to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Synopsys Championship website includes the full list of middle and upper school winners, which also can be found below.
Middle School
Arohee Bhoja, grade 8: $250 to the winning student or team in middle school bioscience, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Sidra Xu, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Russell Yang, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Alexandra Baeckler, grade 8: Nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th Grade; first award, biological science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, NASA Earth System Science Award.
Ankita Kundu, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Akshay Manglik, grade 8: Nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th Grade; first award, physical science and engineering category.
Elizabeth Szeto, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Upper School
Akhil Arun, grade 11: Second award, biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Cynthia Chen, grade 9: Second award, physical science and engineering category; $100 first place, certificate of achievement and letter, Inez M. Lechner Award.
Karena Kong, grade 11: Honorable mention student award, $50 and certificate of achievement, Association for Computing Machinery, San Francisco Bay Area Professional Chapter; first award, physical science and engineering category.
Eileen Li, grade 9: BBC Microbit development kit, TechLab Education.
Millie Lin, grade 11: Certificate and nomination to enter 2018 Sustainability Soutions Festival in Arizona, Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives; certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association; honorable mention, certificate of achievement and goody bag, Association for Women in Science, Palo Alto Chapter.
Emily Liu, grade 9: BBC Microbit development kit, TechLab Education.
Maya Shukla, grade 9: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Sahana Srinivasan, grade 11: Second award, biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Krish Kapadia, grade 10, and Anjay Saklecha, grade 10: $500 to the winning student or team in high school bioscience, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; high school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; first award, RRI biological science and engineering category.
Katherine Tian, grade 10: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Kevin Xu, grade 10, and Raymond Xu ’17: Certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association.
Katherine Zhang, grade 10: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 10: Honorable mention, biological science and engineering category; certificate and nomination to enter 2018 Sustainability Soutions Festival in Arizona, Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives.
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 11: Honorable mention, biological science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, United States Public Health Service.
Shaya Zarkesh, grade 11: Honorable mention student award: $50 and certificate of achievement, Association for Computing Machinery, San Francisco Bay Area Professional Chapter; honorable mention, physical science and engineering category.
Jerry Chen, grade 11: High school – one packet with letter, certificate of achievement, ONR Medallion and form for $50 gift card, United States Navy and Marine Corps.
Amy Dunphy, grade 11: IEEE Electro-Technology $50 gift card and a certificate, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Amy Jin, grade 11: Grand prize – best of championship, physical sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI physical science and engineering category; $100 and a certificate of achievement, IBM award.
Cameron Jones, grade 10: Second award, biological science and engineering category.
Arnav Joshi, grade 9: High school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Rishab Gargeya ’17: $100 first prize, Morgan Lewis; second award, RRI physical science and engineering category.
Anastasiya Grebin, grade 11: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Jimmy Lin, grade 11: First award, RRI biological science and engineering category.
Sandip Nirmel ’17: Second award, RRI physical science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, American Meteorological Society.
Evani Radiya-Dixit ’17: Second award, RRI biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and Membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Manan Shah ’17: Grand prize, best of championship, biological sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI biological science and engineering category; $100 and a certificate of achievement, IBM Award; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Arjun Subramaniam ’17: Grand prize alternate, biological sciences, trip to state science fair and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; second award, RRI biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Maddie Huynh, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
Michelle Kwan, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
Carolyn Lu, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
The second part of this year’s exchange with the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy kicked off in late March. Thirteen middle school students – accompanied by global education director Jennifer Walrod, lower school English teacher Kate Shanahan and technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga – traveled to China to visit with their SWFLA buddies and experience some of the country’s rich history, culture and geographic landmarks.
Upon arriving on March 28, the Harker students met up with their SWFLA buddies and families who would be their homestays for the following few days. The students received a very warm welcome on their first day at SWFLA, where they were treated to a flag raising ceremony and introduced themselves to the school in Mandarin. “Apparently … on our drive back from the airport, the SWFLA buddies were busy teaching our kids how to introduce themselves in Mandarin,” said Walrod. Later, the Harker students attended a class on Shanghai history and participated in an art class. The students spent the afternoon learning how to make dumplings and spring rolls,” Walrod said. “Luckily, they did a good job as that is what we ate for dinner.”
Harker students embarked on a field trip the next day to the town of Zhujiajiao, often called the “Venice of China” because of its large network of canals. The visit started with a boat ride to the Fangsheng Bridge. “Once we arrived, everyone bought bags of fish and turtles to set free in order to give them a second life,” said Erica Cai, grade 7. “We then strolled down the many streets and shops of Zhujiajiao, bargaining with the merchants there. All of the vendors were kind and willing to lower prices for us.”
April 1 was the final day for Harker students to spend time on campus with their SWFLA buddies. The day started with morning exercises and a martial arts class, followed by a class on Tibetan-style dance. In music class, the students learned about movements from the Peking opera and Chinese instruments such as the pipa and guzheng. At the end of the day, the Harker guests were treated to a farewell ceremony that included performances by both Harker and SWFLA students.
Harker students spent the next few days with their homestays before departing for Beijing on April 5. Their first stop in China’s massive capital city was the Temple of Heaven, where they learned of the temple’s history as a symbol of the relationship between heaven and earth. After a brief tai chi lesson on the temple grounds, the group headed for the Hutongs, a network of narrow streets and alleyways, where they visited a traditional home known as a “siheyuan,” which consists of a group of small dwellings situated around a courtyard. They also whipped through the alleyways on rickshaws, which Saumi Mehta, grade 7, described as “less bumpy than expected, but fast!”
The next day in Beijing started with a stroll through Tiananmen Square, where they learned about the Monument to People’s Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. Later, they visited the Forbidden City, one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which contains 9,000 rooms in 800 buildings. They later visited the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, which features a corridor that stretches for more than 700 meters.
The students’ final day in China was a full one, starting with a trip to the Spirit Walkway of the Ming Tombs, which serves as the resting place for 13 Chinese emperors. “We wandered down the pathway, taking numerous photos of opposing pairs of animal and human statues lining the way,” said Walrod. Later, the group headed to the Great Wall of China, walking along the world-famous fortification, taking photos and marveling at the massive structure. “As we descended from the wall, we basked in the fact that we had just seen one of the wonders of the world!” recalled Emma Andrews, grade 8.
At dinner that evening, the students enjoyed Peking duck while viewing a shadow puppet show, and went shopping one last time before leaving the next day.
Congratulations to Vivian Wang, grade 11, and Ethan Hu, grade 9, each of whom placed fourth at the CIF State Swimming Championships. Wang competed in the 100 breaststroke and Hu in the 100 butterfly. Congratulations!
Boys Tennis
Harker sent two doubles teams to compete in CCS last week. Ed Tischler, grade 12, and Ram Vegesna, grade 9, defeated Monterey in the first round before falling to Cupertino in the second round. Juniors Neil Bai and Randy Zhao lost their first round matchup with Pioneer. Congrats on a great season!
Track and Field
Over the weekend, Davis Dunaway, grade 12, represented Harker at the CCS track prelims in the pole vault. Although Dunaway did not make it to the finals, he had a great season!
Alumni Golf
On Monday, Maverick McNealy ’13 made his third trip to the Ben Hogan Award ceremony, and this time he was named the top men’s collegiate golfer. McNealy is one of only two golfers in the award’s history to be a finalist three times, and he is currently one of only two golfers to be ranked in the top 10 in all four major college and amateur ranking systems. Check out the full story and video from the event:
Lower and middle school results provided by Theresa “Smitty” Smith.
VA (Grades 7-8) Baseball: The Varsity A team, coached by Jeff Paull, Matt Arensberg and Richard Amarillas, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 5-0. This is the first lower or middle school baseball team to win a league title since the league started back in 2008! Team awards went to Marcus Anderson, grade 8, and Nicholas Coulter, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Levi Sutton, grade 8 (Eagle) and George Wehner, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 4-6) Baseball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Tim Hopkins and Jeff Martarano, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Drew Diffenderfer, grade 4 (MVP), Jack Ledford, grade 5 (Eagle) and Wyatt Cote, grade 6 (Coaches).
Intramural (Grades 4-5) Baseball: Team awards went to Nathan Wilcox, grade 4 (Eagle) and Anderson Chung, grade 4, and Advay Monga, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen, Tobias Wade and Justin Sullivan.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by Lindsey Trinh, grade 12, and Lauren Napier, grade 11, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 5-3. Team awards went to Julia Yusupov, grade 8 (MVP), Emma Dionne, grade 8 (Eagle), and Shreya Srinivasan, grade 8, and Anvitha Tummala, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B team, coached by Xiaofeng Foret, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 7-0. The team did not lose a single set all season! Team awards went to Catherine Feng, grade 7 (MVP), Alivia Li, grade 7 (Eagle) and Brooklyn Cicero, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Josh Miller, finished tied for third place in the WBAL with a record of 5-2. Team awards went to Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 8 (MVP), Sarah Leafstrand, grade 7 (Eagle) and Lucy Ge, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Sara Pawloski, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-4. Team awards went to Allison Zhu (MVP), Sonya He (Eagle) and Austina Xu (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Belle Carley, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Riya Gupta and Amruta Dharmapurikar (Eagle) and Shea Bryden (Coaches).
JVB1 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Michelle Wei (Eagle) and Alice Tao (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Sydney Voss, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Ava Pakravan (MVP), Emily Kwan (Eagle) and Claire Bauschlicher (Coaches).
Intramural (Grade 4) Girls Volleyball: Team awards went to Saira Ramakrishnan (MVP), Angelina Burrows (Eagle) and Menaka Aron (Coaches). The team was coached by Allison Pereira.
VA (Grades 7-8) Boys Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. The team went 7-2 overall. Team awards went to Marcus Page, grade 7 (MVP), Avery Young, grade 8 (Eagle) and David Gong, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 6-7) Boys Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Julie Meline, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. Team awards went to Sam Boucher, grade 7, and Sujith Pakala, grade 7 (Co-MVP), Jack Lyon, grade 6 (Eagle) and Carlo Banzon, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Water Polo: The Varsity A water polo team, coached by Ted Ujifusa and Allie Lamb, finished the season with a league tournament. Although the team went 0-2 in that tournament, the scores were very close and the team improved tremendously over the course of the season. Team awards went to Bayden Yazalina, grade 8 (MVP), Elizabeth Fields, grade 8, and Daniel Fields, grade 7 (Eagle) and Anna Arnaudova, grade 8 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity A tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished in second place in the WBAL at 3-1 and third place in the MTP at 3-1. The team finished the MTP tournament in third place and had an overall season record of 8-3. Team awards went to Santoshi Tirumala, grade 8, and Gowtham Irrinki, grade 8 (Co-MVP), Dhruv Saoji, grade 7, and Sachi Bajaj, grade 8 (Eagle) and Dawson Chen, grade 7, and Tuhin Chatterjee, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity B tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished tied for first place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1. Team awards went to Anishka Raina, grade 7 (MVP), Madeleine Hansen, grade 7, and Victoria Han, grade 7 (Eagle), and Samuel Jonker, grade 6, and Kailash Ranganathan, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Golf: The Varsity A golf team, coached by Ie-Chen Cheng, took first place in the WBAL spring tournament, held at a tough Crystal Springs Golf Course. The team shot a 164 on the front nine. They beat the rest of the field by 21 strokes! The top four golfers were Natalie Vo, grade 8 (39), Aditya Tadimeti, grade 8 (39), Bowen Yin, grade 8 (42) and Marcus Page, grade 7 (44).
LS (Grades 4-5) Boys Track: The lower school boys team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. The top fifth grade performance was turned in by Veyd Patil (second place in the 800). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Vyom Vidyarthi (first place in the 400 and 800 and second place in the 200), Ori Muramatsu (second place in the 800), Robert Fields (second place in the 400) and Oskar Baumgarte (second place in the long jump).
LS (Grades 4-5) Girls Track: The lower school girls team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top fifth grade performances were turned in by Katherine Fields (second place in the 800) and Mira Goodwin (second place in the 400). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Chiling Han (first place in the 800), Claire Anderson (second place in the softball throw) and the 4×100 relay team (third place with Claire Anderson, Chiling Han, Genieve Malinen and Sidak Sanghari)
MS (Grades 6-8) Boys Track: The middle school boys track team took first place overall at the WBAL track meet for the first time ever! Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anton Novikov (first place in the 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Bayden Yazalina, McCoy Buchsteiner and Rosh Roy) and Arya Maheshwari (first place in the 1200). Top seventh grade performances were turned in by Justin Fung (first place in the 50, 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Ishaan Mantripragada, Muthiah Panchanatham and Harsh Deep) and Harsh Deep (first place in the 400). Top sixth grade performances were turned in by Rigo Gonzales (first place in the 100, 200 and 400) and Siddharth Selvakumar (first place in the softball throw).
MS (Grades 6-8) Girls Track: The middle school girls track team took fifth place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anna Vazhaeparambil (first place in the long jump) and Anna Weirich (second place in the 800 and 1,200). The top seventh grade performance was turned in Ashley Barth (third place in the long jump).
Harker’s middle school speech and debate team, coached by Christopher Thiele, had a successful trip to the Middle School Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend. Harker students earned numerous awards at the event, in which 33 schools representing 145 of the best middle school debate/speech entries across 15 states participated.
Policy: First place, Deven Shah, grade 7, and Julia Biswas, grade 8; second place, Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 8; third place, Akshay Manglik and Aditya Tadimeti, both grade 8; and fifth place, Helen Li and Deven Parikh, both grade 8. Manglik got eighth speaker, Lee got fourth speaker, Biswas got third speaker and Shah got first speaker.
Lincoln-Douglas: Akhilesh Chegu and Rishi Jain, both grade 7, and Aditi Vinod, grade 8, all placed fifth. Chegu got eighth speaker, Jain got seventh speaker and Krishay Mukhija, grade 8, got fourth speaker.
Public Forum: Second place, Anshul Reddy and Sascha Pakravan, both grade 7; Reddy got fifth speaker.
Congress: Third place, Andrew Sun, grade 8.
Dramatic Interpretation: First place, Rhea Nanavati; second place, Arusha Patil, both grade 8.
Original Oratory: Fourth place, Arusha Patil, grade 8.
Dozens of middle school students won medals in this year’s National Mythology Exam, the results of which were published last week.
Bronze medals (awarded for answering 90-94 percent of the exam questions correctly) were given to Atri Banerjee, Anthony Tong, Linette Hoffman, Nicholas Wei and Isaac Yang, all grade 6; Ishaan Parate, Aaron Tran, Prakrit Jain, Thresia Vazhaeparambil, Ysabel Chen and Akhilesh Chegu, all grade 7; and Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Shalini Rohra and Maria Vazhaeparambil, all grade 8.
Silver medal winners (answered 95-99 percent of exam questions correctly) were Hita Thota, Jeremy Ko, Alan Jiang, Jasmine Li, Andrew Fu, Andrew Pluzhnikov, all grade 6; Nicole Tian, Anoushka Khatri, Arnav Jain, Brandon Park, Jacqueline Hu, Angela Jia, Aaron Lo, Alez Zhang, all grade 7; and Betsy Tian, Angela Cai, Akshay Manglik, all grade 8.