Harker Records Set in Cross Country and Water Polo; Football Takes First League Win, Golf Locked into Second Place

In cross country action, both the boys and girls teams ran in the Crystal Springs Center Meet last Thursday. Corey Gonzales, grade 10, continued a fine year, setting a new Harker record with a 16:13 run and finishing in fifth place. Gonzales’ run was 40 seconds faster than his previous personal best, set in the CCS Championships last year, and 1:30 faster than his time at the same meet the year before. Tyler Yeats, grade 12, placed 26th, helping the team to a 12th place finish. Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, ran her best race of the year, placing 10th on a cold and rainy afternoon while running a season-best 20:11. Claudia Tischler, grade 11, was right behind Bhattacharya in 12th, running her personal best on the Crystal course, 20:19. Outstanding freshman Mary Najibi placed 41st with a time of 22:09, a top-five all-time freshman mark for Harker.

Girls water polo went 4-1 this past weekend at the Western State Tournament in Modesto, with their only loss coming in sudden-death overtime to Liberty High. The girls earned fifth place overall with victories over Gregori, West, Notre-Dame-Belmont and Pitman. Keri Clifford, grade 12, had 24 goals over the weekend and goalie Helena Dworak, grade 9, had 28 saves. The tournament success comes on the heels of the girls’ dramatic 6-5 victory over league foe Santa Clara last Thursday. Harker is now an impressive 16-5 overall, the most wins in the program’s history, and tied for first place in the league at 7-2.

Boys water polo suffered two nail-biter losses last week, dropping games to Fremont 6-5 and Santa Clara 12-11. Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, had six goals against Santa Clara and Eric Holt, grade 10, chipped in five. Both the boys and girls play their senior day at home this Thursday.

The girls golf team dominated Mercy Burlingame with a 249-299 win at Crystal Springs on Friday. Patricia Huang, grade 12, led the Eagles with a five over par 41 performance on a difficult course. Daphne Liang, grade 9, shot her career-best 46. Contributing scores were junior Kristine Lin’s 46, senior Jessica Son’s 48 and junior Connie Li’s 68. Newcomer Madelyn Wang, grade 10, made her debut league performance, having only picked up golf at the beginning of the season. The Eagles remain in sole possession of second place in the WBAL with a 4-1 record, taking on first-place undefeated Castilleja today and Friday of this week.

Volleyball
Girls volleyball had an excellent showing at the Presentation Tournament on Saturday, considered to be among the toughest tournaments in California. The girls started the day by losing to the 13th ranked team in the nation, Archbishop Mitty, in a very respectable match, then went 1-3 the rest of the day.

Girls tennis took nearly three hours to complete their match on Thursday as rain poured down, but as the storm receded, Harker defeated host Crystal Springs 4-2. Harker had leapt out to a swift 3-0 lead before the rain interrupted and caused a long delay. Two other teams lost after the delay, and it was not until Athlete of the Month Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, who played #2, stepped up to defeat her opponent in near darkness that Harker finally sealed the victory. Harker now stands at 8-1 and 5-1 in league. Girls tennis senior day is this Friday v. Notre Dame-San Jose.