Sports are winding down, but they are not quite over!
Freshman Vivian Wang placed eighth in the 200-yard individual medley at the State Swimming Championship in Fresno Saturday with a time of 2:03.31. She also placed 16th in the 100yd freestyle. Please congratulate Vivian on her outstanding performance and record-setting season!
Sophomore Niki Iyer is the No. 2 seed in the 3200m run going into the CCS track finals this Friday night at San Jose City College. Iyer won her preliminary heat with a time of 10:52.83. Go watch her run this Friday!! Admission is $8 for adults, $4 students. Good luck Niki!!
Sam Boucher, grade 5, and his hockey team, the Santa Clara Blackhawks, wrapped up a six-week “Summerhawks” program, which culminated in a Memorial Day Shootout in Anaheim hosted by the Junior Ducks. Boucher missed the first two games due to illness, but came back to help his PeeWee (12U) team secure second place with a 3-1 record, only losing to the undefeated California Golden Bears of Burbank. The Blackhawks faced the Bears again in the championship game, this time beating them 3-1 to take the title. A banner for the team will be hoisted at their home ice in Fremont. Boucher was also catcher for the Harker JVB baseball team this spring. Go Sam!
Nitya Mani, grade 12, earned first place in the Karl Menger Memorial Awards for the second year in a row! The award was presented by the American Math Society at the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in mid-May. Mani received the first-place award of $2,000 for her project, titled “Characterizing the Constructible N-Division Points of the Rational C-Hypocycloids through Straightedge and Compass Constructions.”
“In her project Nitya investigated the important question of constructibility of division points on plane curves and showed that, for any integer N, the N division points of any rational c-hypocycloid are constructible with an unmarked straightedge and compass, given a pre-drawn hypocycloid. She also characterized the constructibility of N division points of a tricuspoid in the absence of a pre-drawn hypocycloid. Nitya’s original and very impressive work uses many advanced results and techniques from several areas of mathematics, including Galois theory, abstract algebra and algebraic number theory,” said Menger awards chair Mihai Stoiciu. See more at: http://www.ams.org/news?news_id=2685 (Photo is also from that site.)
Heartiest congratulations to 12 students who have committed to playing their sports when they go on to college! At a lunchtime ceremony for the athletes, parents, coaches and others today, athletic director Dan Molin said, “These students have received admission to their college of choice because of their work ethic, athleticism and their ability to balance their training with the academics of Harker.”
“These are all outstanding student athletes. At high schools across the country, signing ceremonies such as this are performed to recognize these special young people. This group of seniors have represented Harker exceptionally well over the years and we want to thank them and wish them well as the represent their new schools,” Molin concluded.
Here are our 2015 committed athletes:
Jeremiah Anderson (Westmont College, soccer)
Aadyot Bhatnagar (California Institute of Technology, water polo)
Billy Bloomquist (California Institute of Technology, water polo)
Shreya Dixit (Yale University, volleyball)
Shrish Dwivedi (Duke University, golf)
Keanu Forbes (San Jose City College, football)
Aaron Huang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, swimming)
Seventh grade cellist Rachel Broweleit has accomplished so much in such a short time.
Broweleit’s interest in orchestral music began to surface at The Harker School at the tender age of six, when Louis Hoffman, after-school instrumental program director, who studied alongside legendary television and film composer Henry Mancini, encouraged her to try her hand at various instruments. After taking Hoffman’s advice, Broweleit settled on the cello, participating in both the lower school orchestra and after-school music lessons. In time, her accomplishments on her instrument of choice became perfectly suited for solos, chamber music ensembles, and string and symphony orchestras.
Broweleit went on to join the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO), an award-winning youth orchestra for regional string musicians of high school age and younger. She is now in her second year as co-principal cellist in PACO’s Sinfonia ensemble, which rehearses once a week at Cubberley Community Center. Most recently, she became a part of California Music Preparatory Academy’s chamber music program for musicians.
At just 13 years of age, Broweleit already has won several major international competitions, including first place at both the American Fine Arts Festival – where she gave a solo performance at Carnegie Hall on Valentine’s Day 2015 – and the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. She then returned to Carnegie Hall for an encore performance on Easter Sunday 2015. She also was named the grand prize winner at this year’s United States Open Music Competition.
Now a proud participant in the middle school orchestra, conducted by David Hart, Broweleit says her early success is due in large part to her educational experience – and the dedicated, caring faculty – at Harker: “Dr. Hart has been a great encouragement, providing a really exciting atmosphere and creating opportunities for me and my classmates to explore our interests in music.”
What’s next for the bright young star? Later this year, Broweleit will perform “Kol Nidrei,” a composition for cello and orchestra written by German composer and conductor Max Bruch, at PACO’s Annual Concerto Competition, where she will be accompanied by her fellow Sinfonia members.
It was easy to understand the “Sky’s the Limit” theme of this year’s Night on the Town gala, held May 9 on the top of a hill with spectacular views of the mid-Peninsula, at the home of Susan and Scott McNealy (Scout, grade 8; Colt, grade 10; Dakota, grade 11; Maverick ’13).
The 300 attendees moved throughout the home visiting areas including the champagne patio, “view of the valley” swing spot, theater, casino and silent auction table. Guests enjoyed dinner under a beautiful sunset, and performances by several of Harker’s dance, show choir and instrumental ensembles.
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, capped the dinner portion of the evening with the announcement that an additional $7 million had been pledged to the new gym and theater buildings from an anonymous donor who had already pledged $3 million during the initial Rothschild Challenge phase of the campaign. (Look for full coverage on the new gym and theater buildings in the advancement section of the summer issue of the Harker Quarterly.)
Golf Breaking news: Senior golfer and Duke-bound Shrish Dwivedi, who qualified for the NorCal Championships after shooting a 69 to finish one shot off the lead at third, yesterday tied for sixth place at the Northern California Championship at Corral De Tierra Country Club in Salinas. Dwivedi came in one stroke off the lead, shooting a one-under par 71. Dwivedi not only is the first Harker male golfer to compete at NorCals, he’s also the first Harker golfer ever to qualify for the state tournament, to be held June 3 at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach. He is truly playing at an elite level. Please congratulate him and wish him well on June 3.
The Eagles finished seventh overall in all of CCS and remain among the section’s elite. Congratulations to Harker on a successful league championship season!
Swimming Freshman Vivian Wang placed first in the 200 IM, breaking a Harker school record to earn Harker’s fourth-ever CCS Individual Championship! Wang also broke an Eagles record in the 100m freestyle, where she placed third, and will be moving onto state competition for both events this weekend. The girls varsity 200m freestyle relay team, which includes Wang, freshman Taylor Kohlmann, junior Grace Guan, and junior Angela Huang, finished 14th overall. Huang also placed eighth in the 50m freestyle. Overall, the swim team took 14 swimmers and one diver to CCS this past weekend, including Kohlmann, Guan, Wang, Huang, seniors Delaney Martin, Jackelyn Shen, Aaron Huang, Craig Neubieser and Stacey Chao, juniors Karen Tu and Sandhana Kannan, and sophomores Michael Auld, Jack Farnham and Justin Culpepper.
Track and Field Sophomore Niki Iyer will compete in the CCS track trials this Saturday after placing second in the 1600m and setting a new meet record to win the 3200m. Iyer now ranks fourth in the entire section in the 3200m, and will concentrate exclusively on that race as she prepares for CCS trials at San Jose City College.
The junior varsity girls 400m relay team set a Harker record. With freshmen Grace Koonmen, Gloria Guo and Aria Coalson leading the way, the future looks bright for the Eagles. Koonmen, Guo and Coalson also finished first, second and fourth, respectively, in the junior varsity 200m. Individually, Guo also won the 800m, while Koonmen won the 400m and Coalson placed fourth in the 100m. Overall, the junior varsity girls team placed fourth out of 11 league teams.
For the boys, senior Allen Huang, freshman Anthony Contreras, sophomore Lucas Wang and junior Calvin Kocienda led the varsity 400m relay team to a season-best mark and a third-place finish. Junior Arthur Ye, meanwhile, placed fifth in the shot put while improving over his previous best by more than one foot. Sophomore Davis Dunaway, who has dominated the junior varsity division for two years, completed his reign by winning the pole vault and the 65m hurdles, one week after winning the league triple jump and placing second in the junior varsity long jump.
Varsity-A Boys volleyball beat Jordan this afternoon in the ADAL Championship at Blackford Gym, finishing in first place, the most recent triumph for middle and lower school athletes!
Varsity-A tennis defeated Hillview 7-2 in the WBAL championship match this week. The team went undefeated for the fourth year in a row in the WBAL with a 5-0 record, and then won both their semifinal match vs. Sacred Heart 7-2 and their championship match vs. Hillview 7-2 to take the league title.
Varsity-B (grades 7 and 8) girls volleyball, coached by Sarah Prudencio, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL South.
Junior Varsity-A (grade 6) girls volleyball, coached by Vonda Reid, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL Gold Division.
Junior Varsity-B1 (grade 5) girls volleyball, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished 5-1, tying with Sacred Heart for first place in the WBAL.
Varsity-A (grade 7 and 8) boys volleyball, coached by Pete Anderson, went 10-0 in league and 11-0 overall, taking first place and the tournament championship in the ADAL.
Co-ed water polo (grades 6-8), coached by Ted Ujifusa and Peter Blume, went 4-0 at the WBAL championships.
Lower school track (grades 4 and 5), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 4 boys relay (Rohan Gorti, Andrew Fu, Lorenzo Martinelli and Rigo Gonzales) and first in the the 100, 200 and 400 (Rigo Gonzales).
Middle school track (grades 6-8), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 8 girls relay (Alex Janssen, Sara Min, Alycia Cary and Julia Amick) and the 400 and 800 (Julia Amick) and the long jump (Alex Janssen).
Great news! “Into the Woods” competed in the California High School Musical Honors program and the results are in! The Harker School is a finalist in the following categories: *Best Show *Outstanding Lead Actor: Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 12 (Baker) *Outstanding Lead Actress: Madi Lang-Ree, grade 12 (Baker’s Wife) *Outstanding Supporting Actor: Emre Ezer, grade 10 (Wolf) *Outstanding Supporting Actress: Helen Woodruff, grade 11 (Rapunzel) http://www.cmtsj.org/content/california-honors
The show will compete in the final round June 1 at 7 p.m. at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets will be available soon.
This show is going to Scotland in August to perform in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, so the cast is especially excited about this additional honor!
This report provided by DECA press officer Vanessa Tyagi, grade 9
From April 24-29, 28 students from The Harker School DECA chapter traveled to the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla. During the four event-filled days, the 18 students who qualified at California’s State Career Development Conference competed, while the remaining students attended the Emerging Leader Series.
Of our 10 teams that competed, four placed in the top 20 and qualified for the final round of competition. The finalists are as follows:
Alexis Gauba, grade 10, Business Service Management Individual Series
Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari and Glenn Reddy, both grade 12, Marketing Communications Team Decision Making
Ankur Karwal, Sanil Rajput and Ameek Singh, all grade 11, Stock Market Game.
Vanessa Tyagi and Rahul Mehta, both grade 9, Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 11, Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making (finalists for the written exam)
The first major event of the conference was the Finish Line/DECA Dash 5K Run/Walk on Saturday morning, in which our entire chapter participated. Students spent Saturday at Universal Studios and most of Tuesday at Disney World, after the final round of competition.
Testing took place on Sunday morning, and Monday was competition day. Following full days of testing, competition and leadership academies, students attended DECA parties at Disney World and Universal Studios on Sunday and Monday evenings. The final round of competition took place on Tuesday. The four qualifying teams found out they had advanced to the final round on Tuesday morning, at the mini awards session.
Students who applied and were accepted for leadership academies attended the Emerging Leader Series all day on Sunday and Monday. Harker had students in Thrive, Elevate and Ignite, three of the five offered academies. By attending these programs students were inspired and empowered to take leadership in DECA and also had the chance to network with DECA members from all around the world.
At the Grand Award Ceremony, Karwal, Singh and Rajput were called up on stage and recognized for placing in the top 10 in the Stock Market Game. Additionally, Reddy and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, were recognized as the National Finish Line Challenge winners.
“It was an amazing feeling, seeing all of the hard work of the past few months coming to fruition. I was thinking about how everything came together and then started focusing on mentally preparing myself for the finals as I had my final presentation 15 minutes after I found out, said Gauba who was in the Top 20 in Business Service Management Individual Series.