The 2017 Winterfest water polo tournament took place in Orange County in mid-February, and many Harker athletes brought home hardware for their club teams.
Riyaa Randhawa, grade 7, and Cassandra Ruedy, grade 9, competed with the bronze-winning 14U Girls West Valley Water Polo Club. In addition, the 10U San Jose Express team coached by Victor Adler and Ted Ujifusa, also took third place. That team included Harker students Summer Adler, Marcus Blennemann, Angelina Burrows, Julia Ernsting, Robert Fields, Theodore Kratter, Stefan Maxim, Adam Pawlinger, Melody Yin, all grade 4, Alejandro Cheline, Jasmine Hansra, both grade 3, and Ian Cheline, grade 2.
Lower and middle school update provided by Theresa “Smitty” Smith
The lower and middle school winter sports season is split into two seasons, early and late winter. This past winter was one of the most successful lower and middle school winter sports seasons we’ve had in a very long time! We started off with boys basketball and girls soccer and finished with girls basketball and boys soccer, as well as wrestling.
Please take a moment to read through the accomplishments of our student-athletes and their coaches from this past winter!
Early Winter
VA (Grade 8) Boys Basketball: The varsity A team, coached by Josh Miller and Richard Amarillas, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1 and went 8-3 overall. Team awards went to Jonathan Chao and Ray Wang (co-MVPs), Arjun Virmani (Eagle) and Marcus Anderson (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Boys Basketball: The varsity B team, coached by Edward LeGrand-Sawyer, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record and went 7-2 overall. Despite not winning the league, the VB team did come back to win the WBAL tournament! Team awards went to Luke Wancewicz (MVP), Alexander Zhang (Eagle) and Gowtham Irrinki (Coaches).
VB2 (Grade 7) Boys Basketball: The varsity B2 team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in 10th place in the WBAL with a 0-7 record. Team awards went to Jack Hayashi (MVP), Kaden Kapadia (Eagle) and Marcus Page (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity A team, coached by Mike Delfino, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-1 record and won the WBAL tournament, finishing with a 9-1 record overall. Team awards went to Matthew Chen (MVP), Zeke Weng (Eagle) and Brandon Wang (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B6 team, coached by Matt Arensberg, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record. Team awards went to Rahul Santhanam (MVP), Michael Pflaging (Eagle) and Nicholas Delfino (Coaches).
MS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Zachary Clark, grade 7 (MVP), Dyllan Han, grade 6 (Eagle) and Rohan Rashingkar, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Jeff Martarano and Raul Rios.
JVB1 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B1 team, coached by Dan Pringle, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record and took second place in the WBAL tournament, finishing with an 8-1 record overall. Team awards went to Om Tandon and Dean Pakel (co-MVPs), Kai Stinson (Eagle) and Justin Chao (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B2 team, coached by Kristian Tiopo, finished in 10th place in the WBAL with a 1-6 record. Team awards went to Nathan Liu (MVP), Kyle Leung (Eagle) and Zachary Blue (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity C team, coached by Jeff Paull, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record! Team awards went to Camp Lacorazza (MVP), Drew Diffenderfer (Eagle) and Liam Jeffers (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Caleb Tang, grade 4 (MVP), Max Zhai, grade 4 (Eagle) and Nathan Wilcox, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen and Karriem Stinson.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Soccer: The varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Aria Wong, grade 8, and Dylan Williams, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Hannah Grannis, grade 8 (Eagle) and Ashley Barth, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Soccer: The junior varsity A team, coached by Dan Williams and Dini Wong, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-2. Team awards went to Lexi Wong (MVP), Divya Sivakumar (Eagle), and Maya Hernandez and Haley Hernandez (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Soccer: The junior varsity B team, coached by Justin Sullivan, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 4-2. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Katie Reed (Eagle) and Anya Chauhan (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Soccer: Team awards went to Kylie Anderson, grade 4 (MVP), Claire Anderson, grade 4 (Eagle) and Sophia Roufas, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Brittney Moseley.
Late Winter
VA (Grade 8) Girls Basketball: The varsity A team, coached by Josh Miller and Dan Pringle, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 6-1 record and won the WBAL tournament, finishing 8-1 overall. Team awards went to Courtni Thompson and Hunter Hernandez (co-MVPs), Mariamma Vazhaeparambil (Eagle) and Arya Tandon (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Girls Basketball: The varsity B team, coached by Edward LeGrand-Sawyer, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record and won the WBAL tournament, finishing 9-0 overall. Team awards went to Brooklyn Cicero (MVP), Anya Warrier and Gianna Chan (Co-Eagle), and Ashley Barth (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Basketball: The junior varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 4-2 record and went 5-3 overall. Team awards went to Maya Hernandez and Haley Hernandez (co-MVPs), Sonya He (Eagle) and Avery Olson (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Basketball: The junior varsity B1 team, coached by Brittney Moseley, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a 1-6 record. Team awards went to Kate Grannis and Aeliya Grover (co-MVPs), Masha Velikhovskaya (Eagle) and Katherine Fields (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Girls Basketball: The junior varsity C team, coached by Sydney Voss and Belle Carley, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record. Team awards went to Gemma Chan (MVP), Angelina Burrows (Eagle) and Isabella Lo (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Basketball: Team awards went to Callie Yuan, grade 5 (MVP), Brittany Tsui, grade 5 (Eagle) and Yasmin Sudarsanam, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen and Tobias Wade.
VA (Grade 8) Boys Soccer: The varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood and Adyant Kanakamedala, grade 11, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 4-4. Team awards went to Arya Maheshwari (MVP), Rosh Roy and Marcos Acero (co-Eagle) and Nathan Ohana (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Boys Soccer: The varsity B team, coached by Chris Salcido and Dan Williams, finished in first place in the WBAL with a league record of 5-0 and an overall record of 6-0. Team awards went to Ishaan Mantripragada (MVP), Sasvath Ramachandran (Eagle) and Kaden Kapadia (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Soccer: The junior varsity A team, coached by Matt Arensberg and Dini Wong, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a record of 1-6-1. Team awards went to Atri Banerjee and Michael Pflaging (co-Eagle) and Max Pflaging (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Boys Soccer: The junior varsity B team, coached by Justin Sullivan, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 3-2-1. Team awards went to Ryan Barth (MVP), Akshat Mehrotra (Eagle) and Brandon Zau (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Soccer: Team awards went to Advay Monga, grade 4 (MVP), Rahul Yalla, grade 4 (Eagle) and Robert Fields, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Kristian Tiopo and Yvonne Linton.
MS Wrestling: The wrestling team, coached by Karriem Stinson, Charlie Ward and Jeff Paull, did not participate in any wrestling tournaments this season. Team awards went to Dezi Johnsen, grade 7 (MVP) Anish Kilaru, grade 8 (Eagle) and Dylan Parikh, grade 6 (Coaches).
Softball
The softball team picked up two big wins last week, improving to 4-0 on the season. In a 16-1 win over Yerba Buena, Taylor Lam, grade 10, had four hits, with Anika Rajamani, grade 10, and Lily Wancewicz, grade 10, each driving in two runs. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated El Camino 10-0 with Rajamani, Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, Marti Sutton, grade 12, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, each with two RBIs. LeBlanc and Wancewicz combined for a three-hit shutout on the mound. The Eagles averaged more than 13 runs per game during the first four games of the season. They open league play on Tuesday as they host Castilleja, followed by another home game against St. Francis Watsonville on Thursday.
Track and Field
It was a very nice weekend for Harker track and field, as the Eagles were represented at two meets. Many personal and seasonal bests were shattered at the King’s Track Classic held at The King’s Academy. Angel Cervantes, grade 11, set a personal best in the 100M and 200M; Grace Koonmen, grade 11, placed in the top seven in the 100M, 200M and long jump, setting seasonal bests in all three events; Sameer Prakash, grade 9, won his 100M and 200M heat, before placing fourth overall in the long jump with a 16’4″ leap; Henry Wong, grade 10, set a personal best in the mile with a time of 5:09; Gloria Guo, grade 11, ran a 2:39 800M setting a seasonal best; Rishi Chopra, grade 11, set a personal best time of 2:23 in the 800M; and Ananya Krishnan, grade 11, also set personal bests in the shot put and discus.
Across town at the K-Bell Invitational, Niki Iyer, grade 12, set the current fastest 3200M time of the year for California. She defeated the rest of the field by 20 seconds, winning for the third time in her career at this meet.
This Wednesday, the Eagles compete at their first league meet at The King’s Academy, followed by the St. Francis Invitational on Saturday.
Baseball
The Eagles upped their record to 4-1 as they defeated Westmoor 5-1 and Pinewood 15-7 last week. In the win over Westmoor, Dominic Cea, grade 11, drove in two runs as Varun Haltore, grade 12, pitched 6.2 innings of one hit, one run ball, striking out five. Later in the week against Pinewood, Cea once again led the offense with three RBIs, with Karan Gupta, grade 10, adding three hits and an RBI, and Max Lee, grade 9, and Mitchell Kole, grade 11, each delivering two hits and two RBIs. This week, the Eagles travel to Mills on Tuesday and host Crystal Springs Uplands on Thursday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team went 1-1 last week, dropping a 3-0 match to Monta Vista before defeating Los Altos 3-0 later in the week. It’s a busy week for the Eagles as they host Serra on Monday, travel to Mountain View on Wednesday and host Los Gatos on Friday.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team dropped two games last week bringing its season record to 2-3. In a 13-5 loss to Castilleja, Elise Mayer, grade 10, led the scoring with four goals. Next up for the Eagles is a home game against Sacred Heart Cathedral on Tuesday and another home game on Thursday against Carlmont to start league play.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team stayed undefeated on the season as it took care of Valley Christian and Crystal Springs Uplands last week. In the 204-213 win over VC, Sandip Nirmel, grade 12, led the Eagles with an even par 37. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated CSU 186-240 for their first league win of the season. Over the weekend, the boys traveled to Las Vegas to compete at the Pahrump Invitational. The Eagles took third as a team, with Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, and Jin Kim, grade 11, tying for 11th individually. This week, the boys take on The King’s Academy on Monday and Pinewood on Tuesday.
Boys Tennis
Last week, the boys tennis team defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 7-0 before falling to Menlo 7-0, but it ended the week defeating The King’s Academy 5-2. This week, the Eagles stay busy as they take on Evergreen Valley on Monday, Pinewood on Tuesday, Nueva on Wednesday and Priory on Thursday.
Swim
This Saturday, the Eagle swim team travels to Sacred Heart Prep to compete at the Small School Invitational.
Winter All-League
The 2016-17 winter season recently came to a close, and many Harker athletes and teams were honored with All-League and Scholastic Championship Team accolades.
Girls Basketball: Jordan Thompson, grade 12, was given first team honors, while Selin Sayiner, grade 11, made the second team and Satchi Thockchom, grade 11, received an honorable mention
Boys Basketball: Jordan Goheen, grade 12, and Justin Jia, grade 12, both received honorable mentions for their senior seasons. In addition, the boys were named a top five Scholastic Champion with their 3.7 team GPA.
Boys Soccer: Sparsh Chauhan, grade 11, and Rohit Shah, grade 11, were both named to the first team, with Jared Anderson, grade 10, and Joseph Krackeler, grade 12, each making the second team, and Nick Acero, grade 11, and Kedar Gupta, grade 12, receiving honorable mentions. The boys soccer team was also a top five CCS Scholastic Champion with a 3.6460 team GPA.
Girls Soccer: Joelle Anderson, grade 12, was named the WBAL Skyline Division Forward of the Year, as Maile Chung, grade 12, and Lyndsey Mitchell, grade 12, both received first team recognition. Julia Amick, grade 10, and Anuva Mittal, grade 12, received second team honors, and Stephanie Scaglia, grade 11, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, received honorable mentions. The girls also excelled in the classroom as a top five Scholastic Champion with a 3.7410 team GPA.
Wrestling: Taking the top spot in all of CCS wrestling, the Eagles were named Scholastic Champions with a 3.6286 team GPA. Diego Figueroa, grade 12, Justin Su, grade 11, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, Eric Fang, grade 9, Danny Reidenbach, grade 12, and Davis Howard, grade 12, all earned All-League honors.
Starting this fall Harker will expand its student bus service to include picking up and dropping off middle and upper school students at the Santa Clara Caltrain station. A van will meet the northbound train at 7:24 a.m. and the southbound train at 7:36 a.m., then transport students to the upper school campus and then to the middle school campus. The afternoon schedule will be determined as ridership needs are assessed. There will be a nominal per-ride charge. Contact Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs, for more information: greg.lawson@harker.org, 408-345-9600.
On Jan. 31, the grade 6 advisories spent the afternoon rotating among three different activities, while the grades 7 and 8 students watched the Upper School Dance Show.
Sixth graders were split into three groups. Students spent time with English teacher Rebecca Williams doing an activity called “My Multicultural Self” in which they looked at the different things in their lives that make up their individual cultures. Students then discussed the similarities and differences among the groups. With P.E. teacher CJ Cali, the advisories had fun running relays and doing team-building activities in the gym. Finally, with math teacher Margaret Huntley , the students made Valentine’s Day cards, which will be distributed to the elderly through Meals on Wheels. In all, the students made 275 cards with origami hearts and special notes for the recipients.
The kids had a great time and feedback from the advisors was positive.
Last month, sixth grader Sarah Mohammed won a gold medal at USA Archery’s California State Indoor Competition, taking first place in the Bowman Women Recurve category. The event lasted two days, with each day consisting of six hours of intense competition. In the 2016 indoor competition, Mohammed took third and was ranked ninth at the national level.
In February, Mohammed traveled to Las Vegas for the World Archery Championships, where she finished at a highly respectable fourth place in her division, which included competitors from all over the world. Later this month, Mohammed will head to the national indoor competition and state outdoor competition, with plans to compete at the international outdoor competition in the summer.
During the third week of January, 22 students from the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy visited Harker as part of an annual exchange program with the school, which has existed for more than 20 years.
The students arrived on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 14, and met up with their homestays. The WFLA chaperones enjoyed a day of sightseeing in San Francisco courtesy of technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga. The following day, grade 3 department chair Kathy Ferretti shuttled the chaperones to Monterey and Gilroy, and on Monday, lower school English department chair Kate Shanahan took them shopping in the San Jose area.
On their first day at Harker, the students observed classes with their buddies, made crafts in the middle school’s innovation lab and learned how to play American football. The next day, they toured Stanford University and visited the campus’s Cantor Arts Center. Thursday’s cooking class was especially fun for the students, who “had a great time making sloppy Joes, deviled eggs, clam chowder and apple pie,” said Jennifer Walrod, global education director.
Friday was packed with activity, as the WFLA students enjoyed a Chinese paper-cutting activity with lower school students, then headed to Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose to enjoy a bag lunch before exploring the Tech Museum of Innovation. That afternoon, they returned to the middle school for a farewell party, where they and their buddies had great fun using the photo booth and making sundaes.
Just before boarding their flight home on Saturday, Jan. 21, the WFLA students shared an emotional farewell with their Harker buddies.
Over the holiday season, middle school students worked hard to collect gifts for Family Giving Tree, delivering 350 gifts to the organization. With the help of Harker’s students, Family Giving Tree was able to distribute more than 76,000 gifts during the 2016 holiday season, surpassing the organization’s goal for the drive.
“I am extremely proud of all our students, families and staff that go over and beyond in the spirit of giving,” said middle school BEST director Lorena Martinez. The goal for the 2017 holiday drive is 400 gifts.
Started as an MBA project in 1990, Family Giving Tree seeks to alleviate Bay Area poverty by organizing major giving drives every year. The annual Holiday Wish Drive works to fulfill holiday gift requests for low-income households, and the Back-to-School Drive provides backpacks with school supplies to tens of thousands of K-12 students.
Middle school students excelled in this year’s American Mathematics Competition 8, a 25-question, 40-minute multiple choice exam administered by the Mathematical Association of America. Alexander Hu, grade 7, earned a perfect score of 25 on the exam, with fellow seventh graders Rishab Parthasarathy, Kevin Wang, Mark Hu and William Zhao receiving scores of 24. Eighth graders Sidra Xu, Eric Zhu, Aditya Singhvi and Vivian Jin also scored 24.
Other high scorers were Ashley Hu and Connie Jiang, both grade 6, Shounak Ghosh and Angela Jia, both grade 7, and eighth grader Arya Maheshwari, who each earned 23 points. Daniel Wang, Mariamma Vazhaeparambil, Anika Fuloria and Luisa Pan, all grade 8; Akhilesh Chegu and David Dai, both grade 7; Riya Gupta and Stephen Xia, both grade 6; and Ethan Liu, grade 5, all scored an impressive 22.
Harker middle and upper school instrumentalists kicked off the new year on Jan. 13 at the annual Winter Concert, held at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in San Jose. The middle school’s Grade 6 Jazz band, Grades 7-8 Jazz Band, Grade 6 Orchestra and Grades 7-8 Orchestra shared the stage with the upper school’s Jazz Band, Lab Band and the Harker Orchestra. The audience was treated to a wide selection of pieces, including works by Stevie Wonder, Brahms, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis and Dmitri Shostakovich, as well as a wonderful piece composed by grade 8 student Anika Fuloria.
Congratulations to Dezi Johnsen, grade 7, for placing fourth in the nation in the 145-pound weight division at the 62nd Annual Flo Tulsa Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., this past weekend. Johnsen was among more than 2,000 wrestlers ages 4-16 years old, representing 40 states, to compete in the “oldest, most prestigious junior wrestling event in the world,” according to World of Wrestling. Awesome job, Dezi!
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team continued its impressive year as it picked up two league wins last week, bringing the team’s season record to 8-2-1. In a 5-3 win over Castilleja, senior Joelle Anderson scored two goals, with senior Lyndsey Mitchell, and sophomores Sara Min and Julia Amick, also scoring goals. Last Friday, at the Kicks Against Cancer game, the Eagles defeated Eastside College Prep 10-1, with Anderson scoring five goals, Mitchell and Sahana Narayan, grade 10, each scoring two goals, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, also scoring. Next up for the Eagles is a home match versus Mercy San Francisco on Thursday.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team started the week with a 4-1 loss to Menlo, but finished the week with an impressive 3-0 victory over Eastside College Prep. Today, the boys team takes on the German International School of Silicon Valley at Davis Field, with a trip to The Kings Academy set for Wednesday.
Wrestling
The Harker wrestling team defeated Saratoga High 45-12 last week at its first home meet of the year. Justin Su, grade 11, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, and Diego Figueroa, grade 12, all won by pin, with Alan Hughes, grade 11, winning by decision and Dolan Dworak, grade 11, winning by DQ. Next up for the Eagles is a league matchup at Santa Clara High.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team lost two league games last week. In a tough 51-47 OT loss to The Kings Academy, Brando Pakel, grade 11, led the Eagles with 11 points and seven rebounds. Later in the week, Justin Jia, grade 12, led all Eagles with seven points in a 64-24 loss to Menlo. This week, the Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday and travel to Sacred Heart Prep on Friday.
Girls Basketball
Picking up a 39-31 win over The Kings Academy last week, the girls basketball team improved to 9-8 on the season. Next up for the Eagles is a trip to Crystal Springs Uplands on Tuesday and a home game versus Notre Dame San Jose on Friday.