Wednesday was a big day for a group of Harker athletes as they committed to playing their sports in college. Seniors Ryan Vaughan, Rachel Cheng, Taylor Iantosca, Marti Sutton and Niki Iyer gleamed with excitement as their peers, teachers and families joined them in the quad for the ceremony celebrating their athletic futures.
Vaughan will play golf at the University of California, San Diego. Among his high school accolades, he was named WBAL Player of the Year last season, and received first team and second team honors his sophomore and freshman years, respectively. “I’m really excited because this an experience that not a lot of people get and it keeps me working hard,” said Vaughan.
Cheng will play volleyball for Washington University-St. Louis in the fall. While at Harker, she was a first team WBAL selection during her junior and senior years, and an honorable mention her sophomore year. “I’m really excited to go to a new environment and still have something that I’m familiar with,” stated Cheng. “I’m also looking forward to meeting the team and hopefully making bonds that will last the rest of my life.”
Iantosca, who was a standout volleyball and lacrosse player at Harker, will join the crew team at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s always been a dream of mine to compete at the collegiate level,” said Iantosca. “Crew isn’t a common high school sport, so I always had to do club, but now it’s cool to be a part of a team within the school.”
Sutton will travel to Iowa in the fall to play softball at Dordt College. Sutton received second team All-League honors, as well as an honorable mention, while at Harker and currently sports a .417 average for the Eagles. “I am so excited and really honored,” stated Sutton. “I’m really looking forward to how I can improve myself and my skills.”
Iyer will run cross country and track for the Golden Bears at the University of California, Berkeley. She was named WBAL Cross Country Runner of the Year her freshman, junior and senior seasons, as well as Most Outstanding Track Runner her junior year. She was a CCS champion in the 3200 last spring and also holds the school records in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m. “I’m really excited for both the challenges and rewards that will happen in the future,” said Iyer. “I’m also really looking forward to working with some amazing coaches and having a really fun college experience.”
Congratulations to our amazing student athletes! Go Eagles!
The boys tennis team continues to roll as it picked up 7-0 wins against The King’s Academy, Nueva and Crystal Springs Uplands before the break. The 15-3 Eagles take on Evergreen Valley on Wednesday and Aptos on Friday.
Baseball
Just before the break, the baseball team picked up two big league wins over Westmoor. In an 8-7 win, Tanay Kamat, grade 11, had two hits and two RBIs. Later in the week, Varun Haltore, grade 12, was amazing on the mound as he pitched a complete two-hit, 13-strike out gem. This week, the Eagles host Mills on Tuesday and travel to Mills on Thursday.
Swim
Last weekend, the Harker swim team competed at the Ron Freeman Invitational at Monta Vista. Among the highlights, Vivian Wang, grade 11, won the varsity 500 free, while lowering the school record by 5 seconds; Justin Culpepper, grade 12, and Alex Wang, grade 11, each swam personal bests in the varsity 50 free; Clarissa Wang, grade 10, set a personal best in the varsity 100 free and 100 back; and Alicia Xu, grade 9, set a personal best in the JV 100 breast. This Wednesday, Harker hosts Jamboree No. 4 at the Singh Aquatic Center.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team dropped an 8-7 match with Aragon and a 13-5 match with Sequoia before the break. This week, the Eagles host Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday and travel to Newark Memorial on Thursday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team enjoyed spring break after a busy week that saw them go 4-2. The boys opened the week with a 3-0 victory over Los Altos and a 3-1 victory over Mountain View before a 2-2 showing at the Aptos Tournament, where they picked up wins over San Lorenzo Valley and Harbor. The Eagles are 13-8 on the season and tied for third in the SCVAL De Anza Division. This week, the boys travel to Westmont on Tuesday and Los Gatos on Friday.
Softball
Going 1-2 before the break, the softball team now sits at 6-4 on the season. In a 9-1 victory over Notre Dame San Jose, Cameron Zell, Anika Rajamani and Mahi Gurram, all grade 10, each drove in two runs. After a 15-0 loss to Notre Dame Belmont, the girls fell to Mercy Burlingame 9-8. In the loss, Marti Sutton, grade 12, had three hits and three RBIs, while Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, had four hits. This week, the Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday and Palo Alto on Thursday.
Boys Golf
Over the break, the boys golf team continued to impress, finishing 16th out of 49 teams at the 2017 Champions Invitational held in Indio. Also, the most recent WBAL boys golf stats show that Harker has five of the top 10 scorers in league play, including four of the top five! Next up for the golfers is a match with Pinewood on Monday before a much-needed break in the action.
Track and Field
After a few weeks off, the track and field team competes at WBAL meet No. 2 at Bellarmine this Wednesday, followed by the Bearcat Meet at San Mateo High on Saturday.
Late March was a special time for the students in the Harker School Orchestra, who headed to New York City to perform at the famous Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Sounds of Spring festival, hosted by World Projects. The March 28 performance consisted of pieces by Modest Mussorgsky, Dmitry Kabalevsky and John Williams. The orchestra also had the distinct honor of debuting a piece by composer John Carnahan titled “Les Bourgeon Du Printemps.” The momentous occasion prompted dozens of Harker parents and several alumni to attend the concert. Students also had the pleasure of attending a clinic conducted by Carnahan, who is the director of bands and a professor of conducting at California State University Long Beach’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
Under the direction of upper school music teacher Chris Florio, the orchestra spent months preparing for trip, which Florio had been organizing for two years. Luckily, there was also time to enjoy some of the many sights the big city had on offer. Outings during the trip included a visit to the Statue of Liberty and attending a performance of “Anastasia” on Broadway.
Head on over to Harker Aquila for the full story! Audio recordings of the Carnegie Hall performance are available via Soundcloud.
An impressive 46 teams showed up to participate in this year’s Harker Programming Invitational, which took place March 19 at the upper school campus. Open to all Bay Area high schools, the event featured both advanced and novice divisions and had teams solve coding problems designed by officers in the Harker Programming Club, who organized the event.
“This year, our contest ran very smoothly as we planned the problem set development and contest details well in advance of the competition itself,” said club co-president Manan Shah, grade 12. “Each member of our team contributed significantly to the success of the competition, whether it be in writing the problems, setting up our contest server, talking to our sponsors or managing the completion of designated tasks.”
Club members also had the task of attracting event sponsors, which included IBM, the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Star League, Make School and ACEprep.
In addition to the competition, the event also featured talks by Stanford University professor Chris Manning, and Angie Krackeler of IBM’s Watson team, both experts in artificial intelligence.
Members of Harker’s Technology Student Association visited California State University Bakersfield March 24-26 to participate in the TSA California State Conference, where students placed highly in several categories.
The team of Gary Tsai, Markus Wong, David Wen, Aadith Srinivasan, Kevin Tzeng and Neil Bai, all grade 11, took first place in architectural design. Junior Adrian Chu won first place in extemporaneous speech. In promotional design, Andrew Chang, grade 10, placed first and junior Derek Kuo took second. First place in scientific visualization went to Catherine Zhao, Eileen Li and Jackie Yang, all grade 9. The team of juniors Derek Yen and Sumer Kohli and sophomore Alexander Young earned first place in Technology Bowl, where the team of Gary Tsai, David Wen and Adrian Chu took second. Finally, the team of juniors Sharon Yan, Julia Huang and Ashley Jiang and sophomore Anna Wang took second place in fashion design.
Founded in 1978, the Technology Student Association provides development opportunities for K-12 students in technological disciplines. It has 250,000 student members nationwide, according to its website.
Upper school Shakespeare enthusiasts made their way to the gym in late January for a competition in which participants performed monologues from Shakespeare plays. One of these students, senior Zahra Budhwani, was chosen as the best of the 16 performers by a panel of judges that included Harker English teachers Pauline Paskali, Christopher Hurshman and Charles Shuttleworth, as well as drama teacher Jeff Draper. After guidance and support from Draper, Budhwani went on to compete at the regional round of the National Shakespeare Competition, organized by the English-Speaking Union of the United States, where she performed a monologue and a sonnet. Though she did not win the regional event, Budhwani “performed admirably in representing our school,” Shuttleworth said.
Congratulations to Coach Raul Rios on being named the 2016-17 CCS Softball Honor Coach. Coach Rios was nominated and then selected by his peers to receive this well-deserved honor. He will be presented with the award at the CCS Softball Championships on May 27 at the PAL Sports Center.
The Central Coast Section’s Honor Coach Award program honors one coach each year, in each sport, for his/her contribution to that sport at the interscholastic level. Rios earned the award, among other reasons, for to his professional standards of conduct, outstanding coaching accomplishments and for being a great role model and inspiration to the team.
It was a good week for the boys golf team! The Eagles started the week with a second place finish at the Marin Catholic Wildcat Invitational. It was Harker’s best-ever finish at the event, just three strokes behind the overall winner. The best individual Harker finisher was Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11, in fourth place. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Menlo 191-210, with a trio of Eagles finishing with the three best scores of the day. Tuleubayev led all golfers shooting a 35, with Jin Kim, grade 11, just one stroke behind and Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, shooting a 38. To finish off the week, Harker defeated Sacred Heart Prep 193-215. The Eagles once again finished 1-2-3 in scoring, with Victor Shin, grade 11, shooting a 36, Vaughan shooting a 37 and Tuleubayev tying for third with a 39. The Eagles take this winning momentum to Southern California as they compete in the Champions Invitational this weekend.
Boys Volleyball
Last week, the boys volleyball team dropped matches against Homestead and Saratoga before going 2-2 at the Campbell Classic, defeating Prospect and Willow Glen. The 9-6 Eagles host Los Altos on Wednesday and Mountain View on Friday before competing in the Aptos Tournament this weekend.
Track and Field
The Eagles traveled to Fremont High School to compete at the Firebird Relays last weekend. Highlights included Gloria Guo, grade 11, and Kismet Singh, grade 9, each winning their races in the 400m and 100m hurdles. Guo joins Grace Koonmen, grade 11, among the top four all-time finishers in the Harker 400m. Koonmen’s 200m time put her second on the Harker all-time list. Angel Cervantes, grade 11, ran personal bests in his 100m and 200m races, and Rishi Chopra, grade 11, ran a season best in the 800m, moving in to the Harker top 10 all time. The Eagles have a few weeks off before their next meet on April 12.
Softball
The Eagles fell to The King’s Academy 13-2 last week. Marti Sutton, grade 12, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, each had a hit and drove in a run in the effort. This week, the girls host Notre Dame San Jose on Monday, travel to Notre Dame Belmont on Tuesday and host Mercy Burlingame on Thursday.
Boys Tennis
Last week, the boys tennis team dropped a match to Menlo 7-0 before upending Sacred heart Prep 6-1. This week, the Eagles take on The King’s Academy on Monday, Nueva on Tuesday and Crystal Spirngs Uplands on Thursday.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team defeated Woodside 8-7 before falling to Burlingame 18-4 last week. The 4-4 Eagles host Aragon on Tuesday and Sequoia on Thursday.
Swimming
Last week, the Eagles hosted their first jamboree of the year with many notable performances. Ethan Hu, grade 9, won the 50 freestyle with a CCS qualifying time, then broke the school record in the 100 backstroke. Vivian Wang, grade 11, won the 100 backstroke and the 50 freestyle, qualifying for her fourth CCS event. The 400 and 200 freestyle relay team of Jack Farnham, grade 12, Justin Culpepper, grade 12, Michael Auld, grade 12 and Hu qualified for CCS in both events, as they won the 400 and took second in the 200. The Eagles will be in action again on April 7 at The Ron Freeman Invitational at Monta Vista High School.
Baseball
The varsity baseball team had a rough week as it dropped three games, losing to El Camino 11-1, Jefferson 6-3 and Harbor 10-4. The 5-4 Eagles look to bounce back this week as they host Westmoor on Tuesday before traveling to Westmoor on Thursday.
Big news in the speech and debate world: Harker debaters compete in a very tough district and, although only three students qualify per event to attend the national tournament each June, this year two of those students are from Harker! In original oratory, a 10-minute original persuasive speech, Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 10, took first and Avi Gulati, grade 9, took second. Dharmaraj also took first at the state qualifying tournament and will be representing Harker at the state tournament in April. Meanwhile, freshman Nikki Solanki also did very well, advancing to semifinals in dramatic interpretation and fifth in program oral interpretation, making her the second alternate for the national competition in that event. Congrats to these students for this major accomplishment – especially as underclassmen!
BECon, the business & entrepreneurship department’s annual conference, drew nearly 100 attendees this year. Highlights of the conference, organized by students for students, included a mentorship luncheon. “We had 20 mentors from the Harker community join us for lunch at the upper school to provide the students with insight on their careers,” noted Lucas Wang, grade 12, one of 13 students who organized the conference. “Each mentor facilitated a discussion at a table in two networking rounds of 30 minutes. Students were encouraged to meet with different mentors in each round.”
Highlights included the keynote speaker, Colleen Haight, San Jose State University economics department chair, who spoke on international trade and the morality of capitalism.
Another highlight was this year’s “sHarker Tank,” wherein six teams of Harker student entrepreneurs – five from the upper school and one from the middle school – presented their business ideas.
The conference included workshops on user interface design and how to start a business. Cooper, a design and business strategy agency, held a workshop on user interfaces and the user experience, and Satish Dharmaraj, entrepreneur, speaker, angel investor and venture capitalist, and general partner with Redpoint Ventures hosted a Startup 101 workshop.
Corporate exhibits also exposed students to innovative technologies. For example, Google VR exhibited its new Daydream product and its programs on HTC Vive viewers.