Cross Country Shattering Records; MS Golfers Rule the Links; Swimmers Take Four
Cross Country
The cross country team continues to stomp on old Harker history; just about every week, an existing school record falls, replaced by a faster time from this year. At the league’s second meet at Sacred Heart, Sophomore Cheryl Liu broke a Harker record by running an 18.74 in the 100-meter hurdles, two seconds better than her best of the year so far and one second better than the previous record. Just three minutes later, however, Freshman Nadia Palte ran an 18.48 in that very same contest, breaking the record Liu had just set! Michael Cheng, grade 12, then stepped up for the discus competition and broke the old mark by one foot after having hurled his discus 130’5″. Cheng’s mark now leads the entire league.
At that same meet at Sacred Heart, Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, ran 52.93 in the 300m hurdles. Sumit Minocha ran 50.94 in the 400-meter. Matt Giammona set a personal record with a 111’5″. Arjun Kumar moved to the top 10 board with a personal record in the discus throw of 89’10”. Julia Wang improved on her second place standing in discus with a toss of 71’1″. Finally, the boys 400-meter relay team improved to their season-best mark at 45.32. That time, naturally, now leads the entire league.
Some days later, the team met again for a WBAL track meet. It will perhaps not be suprising that Sumit Minocha, grade 12, improved on his CCS-leading mark in the 100-meter with a 10.80, setting, what else, a new Harker record. Isabelle Connell, grade 12, who already had the Harker record for her 100m, advanced her time with a 12.22, moving from #7 to #3 overall in the CCS. Freshman Nadia Palte also topped her existing school record — this time in hurdles. Palte had an 18.20 in the 100-meter hurdles.
Congratulations to all of Harker’s track and field athletes as they continue to break records at breakneck speeds!
Golf
Harker’s cross country team does not have the media all to themselves, however. Two of Harker’s golfers, Ryan Vaughan, grade 8, and Katherine Zhu, grade 7, are making some waves on the junior circuit. Competing in the Spring Series IV at Deer Ridge / Shadow Lakes Golf Course in Brentwood, Zhu narrowly missed out on the championship, finishing as the runner-up for the second time this year while shooting rounds of 73 and 75. Vaughan came in third place amongst the boys with rounds of 74 and 78. He had earlier this year been a first flight winner. Both Zhu and Vaughan were competing in the Junior Tour of Northern California. Zhu’s current ranking is in the top three of the Junior Tour. Already this year, she has won the Junior World Golf Champion Tournament Qualifier and finished as a runner-up in the Girl Champion Flight at the Nor Cal Golf Junior Tournament.
On Monday, May 20th, Zhu will play in the US Women’s Open Golf Qualifier Tournament at Lake Merced Golf Course and two days later will play in the US Women’s Amateur Golf Qualifier Tournament at the Reserve in Spanos Park Golf Course. This July, she will play in the Junior Golf Champion Tournament in San Diego. Wish her luck!
Swimming
Both Harker’s Varsity and JV swim teams beat our four opponents this last Wednesday. Harker came in first in every relay, including an exciting race with Priory in the Varsity girls 200 Free Relay which ended in a tie for first at 1:48.44. Our Varsity girls swept the 500 Free with Manon Audebert, grade 11, taking first, Amie Chien, grade 12, second, and Anika Mohindra, grade 9, third. The Varsity boys, meanwhile, took the 100 Fly with Aaron Huang, grade 10, first, Craig Neubieser, grade 10, second, and Kenneth Zhang, grade 11, third. Other CCS qualifying times include: Audebert 50 Free (25.93), Grace Guan, grade 9, 100 Back (1:04.04), Kimmy Ma, grade 11, 200 IM (2:20.58), Huang 100 Fly (56.07) and 500 Free (5:02.54).
Sophomore Stacey Chao, Harker’s lone diver, entered the first high school meet of her career and won, coming in first place in the JV meet. Chao defeated 7 other divers — 5 from Presentation and 2 from St. Ignatius. Congratulations, Stacey!
Softball
Harker blew out Alma Heights yesterday to the tune of 11-1. Alison Rugar, grade 12, threw a great game, striking out 11 opponents. Ashley Del Alto, grade 12, led the offense, going 3 for 3 with 3 RBI’s, a double, and a triple. Alisa Wakita, grade 9, added three more hits, and Laura Thacker, grade 10; Brianna Liang, grade 10; Tong Wu, grade 9; and Alana Shamlou, grade 11, also had a hit apiece. After the win, the girls’ record stands at 9-6 overall. They are undefeated in league play, 6-0. The girls travel to King’s Academy on Friday.
Lacrosse
Girls lacrosse has a firm grip on first place in the league after defeating Notre Dame on Monday 13-9 and Woodside yesterday 14-1. After the high-scoring games, the girls are now 10-1 overall and 4-0 in league play. Michelle Douglas, grade 12, and Hannah Bollar, grade 10, scored six of yesterday’s goals each. Wendy Shwe, grade 12, scored the other two. The girls travel to PAL Stadium on Friday to face off against Notre Dame again.
Baseball
Baseball defeated Trinity Christian by a large margin on Monday,16-6, to improve to 6-8-1 overall. Keanu Forbes, grade 10, had two hits and an RBI. Jacob Hoffman, grade 12, had two RBI’s and Kevin Cali, grade 12, pitched for the win. The boys play away games on Thursday and Friday.
Golf
Boys Golf defeated Kings Monday to improve to 6-3 overall. Maverick McNealy, grade 12, shot a 38 and Shrish Dwivedi, grade 10, shot a 39.
Tennis
Boys Tennis lost to a strong Crystal Springs team yesterday 6-1 with the lone win coming from senior doubles pair of Justing Yang, grade 12, and Rahul Desirazu, grade 12.
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