Harker recently placed among the top 25 schools nationwide in two math contests, according to National Assessment & Testing. Coached by math teacher Anuradha Aiyer, Harker took third place in the 2015 Ciphering Time Trials and 19th overall in the 2016 Four-by-Four Competition. In the Ciphering Time Trials, individual students solve three problems in a series of rounds. In the Four-by-Four Competition, teams of four go through rounds of four problems each, with more difficult problems each successive round.
Stand-out individual performances in the Ciphering Time Trials included Richard Yi’s first place performance in the grade 12 division, in which Allison Wang and Lawrence Li placed fifth and seventh, respectively. Swapnil Garg placed first in the grade 10 division, in which Joanna Lin placed ninth and Jimmy Lin placed 15th. In the grade 11 division, Kai-Siang Ang took 16th.
Garg and Yi competed as a two-person team in the Four-by-Four event, in which they took second place in the middle division. The team of Ang, Wang, Peter Wu, grade 11, and Joanna Lin, grade 10, placed fourth.
On Monday, the boys golf team competed in the Marin Catholic Wildcat Invitational, which featured 23 of the Bay Area’s best high school golf teams.
Harker proved it had become one of the elite teams in Northern California by finishing third, trailing only powerhouses De La Salle and Campolindo. Dakota McNealy, grade 12, and brother Colt, grade 11, led the way for the Eagles, shooting a team-best 74 and 75, respectively, on the par 71 course.
“We fought through a very cold, rainy and windy day. We were all exhausted by end of a 12-hour plus day,” said coach Ie-Chen Cheng. “We’re trying to put them through every test possible to get them ready for the postseason. I’m proud of these kids.” No rest for the team though, as it travels to Poplar Creek Golf Course in San Mateo to take on Crystal Springs Uplands today.
Staying undefeated, the boys golf team picked up victories over Menlo and Sacred Heart Prep last week. Avi Khemani, grade 11, led the way for the Eagles, shooting a 36 in the Eagles two stroke win over Menlo. Sandip Nirmel, grade 11, shot a 35 in the 188-212 win over SHP. The Eagles travel north to compete in the Marin Catholic Wildcat Invitational today.
Track and Field
The track and field team traveled to Sacred Heart Prep last week and did very well as it competed in its first WBAL meet of the year. The team of Aria Coalson, Gloria Guo and Grace Koonmen, all grade 10, and Sara Min, grade 9, set a new school record in the girls 400m relay. Niki Iyer, grade 11, continued her amazing year as she won the 1600m. Winnie Li, grade 11, took first in the high jump, as well as second in the 100m hurdles and third in the 300m hurdles. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, took second in the 200m, and tied with Lucas Wang, grade 11, for third in the long jump. Bill Liang, grade 11, won the 300m hurdles, his first ever first place finish. The Eagles will compete at the Firebird Invitational this weekend at Fremont High.
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team fell to Saratoga 11-2 last week. This week, the team hosts Mercy Burlingame at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and travels to Sacred Heart Prep on Thursday.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team defeated Priory 7-0 last week, before losing a tough match to Sacred Heart Prep 4-3 later in the week. This week, the Eagles face off with Menlo on Tuesday and Crystal Springs Uplands on Thursday, both at 4 p.m. at the Santa Clara Tennis Center.
Baseball
The boys varsity baseball team started last week with a tough 4-3 loss to Westmoor High, but finished the week with two big wins over Pinewood and O’Connell of San Francisco. In the 12-2 win over Pinewood, Dominic Cea, grade 10, led the way offensively as he drove in three runs. Cea was back at it again over the weekend against O’Connell, but this time on the mound, as he tossed a no-hitter, striking out 12 and walking two as Harker picked up the 3-0 victory. Trenton Thomas, grade 12, had the big hit for the Eagles, as he drove in two runs on a first-inning single. The Eagles will face Crystal Springs Uplands twice this week.
JV Baseball
Last week, the JV baseball team defeated James Lick 9-2 behind a strong 4 inning performance from Akhil Arun, grade 10, who earned the win. Tanay Kamat, grade 10, had two hits, scored two runs and pitched two shutout innings to close out the victory. The JV squad takes on Hillsdale today at 4pm at Blackford.
Swim
The swim team traveled to Sacred Heart Prep over the weekend to race in the Small School Invitational. Highlights included Alex Yu, grade 9, placing first in the 500 freestyle and Vivian Wang, grade 10, winning the 100 butterfly and taking second in the 100 breaststroke, qualifying for CCS with both times. In addition, the 200 medley relay team of Taylor Kohlmann, grade 10, Vivian Wang, grade 10, Grace Guan, grade 12, and Karen Tu, grade 12, finishing second with a CCS qualifying time. The next swim meet is April 7 at Menlo.
Softball
The varsity softball team suffered its first loss of the season last week as it fell to The King’s Academy 13-3. Alisa Wakita, grade 12, had two hits and an RBI in the loss. The Eagles travel to Gunderson High today and Fremont on Wednesday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team fell to Mountain View High in three games last week before going 1-3 at the Campbell Classic hosted by Leigh High over the weekend, picking up a win over Seaside. The Eagles host Harbor High on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m., then are at Fremont on Wednesday, before coming back home on Friday to face off with Eastside College Prep.
MS Wrestling
Last week the middle school wrestling team competed in the Mission Hills Classic held at Santa Cruz High. Eric Bollar, grade 6, took first place in his weight class, with Dezi Johnson, grade 6, and Rohan Arora, grade 8, placing second in their weight classes.
Students from grades 5 and 12 met up on March 11 for their final Eagle Buddies event, as the seniors prepare to graduate this spring. The buddies met at the upper school gym before being sent off to eat St. Patrick’s Day themed cupcakes and play with noisemakers and beach balls.
“The first time I met [my grade 5 buddy, Max Blennemann], he was really shy and quiet, but at the end of that first meeting, we just connected,” said senior Raghav Jain, “and since then we send emails to each other to keep in touch.”
“It’s fun to see what older kids do … in high school and stuff,” said Blennemann.
“It’s really fun. I really enjoy connecting with the lower school. It’s like having a little sibling,” added Sophia Luo, grade 12.
Christopher Nikoloff, head of school, dropped by toward the end of the meeting to share his appreciation for the Eagle Buddies program, saying, “It’s very, very important to the community. It’s very, very important to the growth of our young students and I hope the growth of our older students as they look back and remember when they were kids.”
The Eagle Buddies program began during the 2010-11 school year and pairs students in grade 3 with a buddy in grade 10. The two students correspond and engage in activities together each year until the sophomores graduate and the grade 3 students enter the middle school.
Although the upper school soccer teams lost this year’s Kicks Against Cancer games to Menlo High School, the real winner was Camp Okizu. The nonprofit organization allows children with cancer to “just be a kid for a week” through camp experiences they otherwise would not be able to have.
The seventh-annual soccer match took place on Feb. 5, with the junior varsity boys, varsity girls, and varsity boys playing against their respective Menlo High School teams. The junior varsity boys lost 0-2, the varsity girls lost 0-3 and the varsity boys lost 1-4.
Sparsh Chauhan, grade 10, scored the only goal for Harker during the last game of the night. After the junior varsity boys finished their game, the varsity girls team presented a check for $1,500 to four visiting Camp Okizu families.
Grade 11 student Maile Chung, who helped organize the event, said, “Every year we host these games in order to raise money and awareness for cancer. All the proceeds that we gain are donated to families in order for them to send their child to Camp Okizu.”
Camp Okizu offers a free weeklong summer camp that gives cancer patients and their families a sense of normalcy and stability. To help raise money for the camp, Kicks Against Cancer onlookers had the opportunity to buy T-shirts and wristbands, make monetary donations and purchase yummy treats at a bake sale.
During halftime of the last game, spectators were given a chance to play “Butts Up” with some faculty members lined up on the goal line. Cheerleaders, meanwhile, performed a special routine.
Upper school women’s vocal group Cantilena, directed by music teacher Susan Nace, garnered another unanimous superior rating at the California Music Educators Association’s Spring Festival on March 12. The group earned superior ratings for their sight-reading ability as well as their performance. Comments heard after the performance were extremely positive, Nace reported, adding that one person in attendance commented, “Wow! Mature, wonderful tone quality. Incredible group!” while another noted, “I didn’t want to comment, I just wanted to listen.”
The current members of Cantilena are Izzy Gross, Madhu Karra, Naomi Molin, Sahana Narayanan, Akshaya Premkumar, Rachel Renteria and Helen Woodruff, grade 12; Priyanka Chilukuri, Mia Giammona, Era Iyer, Chetana Kalidindi, Pooja Kini, Sara Pachauri, Medha Shah, Amrita Singh and Tiffany Zhu, grade 11; and Krishna Bheda and Millie Lin, grade 10.
The girls varsity softball team picked up a 12-2 win over visiting St. Francis of Watsonville last week. Grace Park, grade 11, had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Eagles. Harker travels to The King’s Academy on Tuesday.
Baseball
The boys varsity baseball team fell 12-3 to visiting San Mateo High last week. Dominic Cea, grade 10, had two hits and two RBIs in the loss. The Eagles were rained out in their other two contests of the week. This week, the team hosts Westmoor on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Blackford; it travels to Pinewood on Thursday; and on Saturday, it hosts O’Connell High of San Francisco at Blackford at 11 a.m..
Track and Field
The Harker track team competed in the King’s Track Classic over the weekend, and Coach Scott Chisam said it was “probably our best team meet in many years.” Elijah Edgehill, grade 12, ran the fourth fastest time in the 100m and 200m. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, finished first in the 100m and 200m frosh/soph finals. Gloria Guo, grade 10, placed first in the frosh/soph 100m finals. Also this weekend, Niki Iyer, grade 11, competed at the K-Bell Classic and finished first in the 3200m with a time of 10:40.23. The Eagles will face the rest of the WBAL on Tuesday at Sacred Heart Prep.
Swim
The Harker swim team will compete at the Small School Invitational this Saturday at Sacred Heart Prep.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team had a very impressive showing over the past week. First, it placed second at Corral de Tierra Country Club as it matched up with Palma, Salinas and Carmel. Jin Kim, grade 10, led the Eagles with a one-over-par 37. Later in the week, Ryan Vaughan, grade 11, shot the low score of 33 as the Eagles defeated The King’s Academy 176-216. Harker ended the week with a 169-185 win over Evergreen Valley High. Next for the Eagles is a Monday afternoon showdown with Menlo at Cinnabar.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team picked up two more wins last week as it defeated Pinewood 7-0 and Aragon 5-2. David Wen, grade 10, the team of Anjay Saklecha, grade 9, and Randy Zhao, grade 10, and the team of Swapnil Garg, grade 10, and Kai Franz, grade 9, all had come-from-behind victories. The Eagles face off with Sacred Heart Prep this Thursday at the Santa Clara Tennis Center.
Girls Lacrosse
Last week, the girls varsity lacrosse team fell to Castilleja 13-1, but later in the week picked up its first win of the year with a 13-4 victory over Newark. The Eagles will host Saratoga this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. on Davis Field.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team suffered two tough losses last week as it lost in five games against both Lynbrook and Amador Valley. In the loss to Lynbrook, Andrew Gu, grade 11, had 11 kills, and in the loss to Amador, Ray Song, grade 11, had 12 kills. The Eagles face off with Mountain View this Tuesday at Blackford at 6:45 p.m.
In early March, 89 Harker students traveled to sunny San Diego to compete with over 2,000 other California DECA members at the State Career Development Conference.
The results are as follows:
First Place
Alexander Mo, grade 11, Business Growth Plan
Natasha Maniar and Kelsey Wu, both grade 9, Innovation Plan
Enya Lu, grade 9, Financial Consulting Event
Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 10, Personal Financial Literacy
Enya Lu, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 12, Travel and Tourism Marketing Team Decision Making Event
Second Place
Mona Lee, grade 10, Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series
Alexis Gauba, grade 11, Business Services Marketing Series
Third Place
Brandon Mo, grade 10, Independent Business Plan
Sanil Rajput, grade 12, Financial Literacy Promotion Plan
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, Shaan Gagneja and Neelesh Ramachandran, all grade 10, Finance Operations Research Event
Vignesh Panchanatham, grade 10, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling
Fourth Place
Erin Liu, grade 9, Business Growth Plan
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 12, and Lucas Wang, grade 11, International Business Plan
Alexander Wang, grade 10, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
Fifth Place
Lucas Wang, grade 11, Business Finance Series
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 10, Marketing Management Series
Rahul Mehta and Vanessa Tyagi both grade 10, Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making Event
Seventh Place
Shivani Awasthi and Ankita Uppugunduri, grade 11, Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making Event
Emaad Raghib, grade 11, Principles of Finance
Eighth Place
Shea Tuli, grade 10, Personal Financial Literacy
10th Place
Helen Yang, grade 9, Advertising Campaign Event
Amitej Mehta and Vignesh Panchanatham, both grade 10, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making Event
Ananya Krishnan, grade 10, Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event
Ezra Bekele, grade 11, Personal Financial Literacy
Michael Sikand and Dolan Dworak, both grade 10, Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making Event
Additionally, 15 Harker teams qualified for the International Career Development Conference, which will be held in Nashville, Tenn., in late April.
The Florio String Quartet was formed by a group of upper school students (seniors Jason Lee, Luke Wu and Kevin Kim, and junior Cuebeom Choi) in hopes of reaching out with music and serving the less-privileged “with the joys of pop and classical music.”
In August the quartet hosted a fundraising concert benefiting Lucile Packard, featuring classical pieces by Haydn as well as contemporary favorites by artists such as Coldplay and The Rolling Stones.
“The members of the Florio Quartet care as much about sharing their music with the community as they do about the music itself. As a teacher this makes me very proud,” said upper school music teacher and the group’s namesake, Chris Florio, in the Lucile Packard blog post.
In lieu of an entry fee, The Florio String Quartet collected donations, raising more than $2,000 for patients and their families.
Harker Aquila, the journalism department’s student news site, recently published a story about Harker’s new peer-reviewed student science journal, Horizon, currently a work in progress. Read the full story at Harker Aquila!