Last month, seniors Finn Frankis and Sahil Gosain, juniors Arya Maheshwari and Saloni Shah, sophomore Sasvath Ramachandran and freshman Tiffany Chang competed at the 2020 US Invitational Young Physicists Tournament, held at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Each team took part in a “physics fight,” in which students present their solutions and are questioned by a member of another team. Teams are judged on the quality of their presentations as well as their ability to ask and answer questions. Although Harker was not one of this year’s top placing schools, the team was awarded the Clifford Swartz Trophy for having the best poster presentation. Harker won the tournament in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
Staying true to its adventurous spirit, the renowned Kronos Quartet filled the packed Patil Theater with sounds from the recesses of the imagination during Friday night’s Harker Concert Series 2020 season closer. The evening’s repertoire consisted of pieces that either had been written or arranged for the group by composers hailing from such countries as Egypt, Mali, Mexico and Turkey. No strangers to experimentation, the musicians came prepared with plenty of twists and turns, pleasantly surprising concertgoers with pivots such as replacing their bows with noisemakers during Nicole Lizée’s “Another Living Soul” and utilizing the distinct “whoosh” produced by whipping their bows through the air on Garth Knox’s “Satellites: III. Dimensions.”
Other highlights included a haunting rendition of John Coltrane’s “Alabama,” written in response to the horrific 16th Street Baptist Church bombing carried out in 1963 by the Ku Klux Clan, and a joyous performance of “Tegere Tulon: I. Funtukuru” by Malian composer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, with the rhythm provided by audience clapping.
The boys soccer team made Harker history as it earned the first CCS title in program history over the weekend. The boys started the week with a semifinals win over Sequoia High on penalty kicks. The Eagles then faced St. Francis in the D3 championship game, which was scoreless after regulation. The Lancers scored in the first overtime period, but Harker’s Justin Fung, grade 10, scored late in the second overtime period to send the game to penalty kicks. Laszlo Bollyky, grade 10, came up huge in the net for the Eagles as Harker won the game 3-1 on penalty kicks. The boys now host Galt High at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the first round of the NorCal playoffs; a win would send the Eagles to Ygnacio Valley High on Thursday. In addition to the CCS title, the boys soccer team was honored as the No. 2 Winter Scholastic Championship Soccer Team with a 3.787 team GPA.
Baseball
Last week, the baseball team opened the season with a 19-2 win over Overfelt and a 5-0 win over Rancho San Juan. In the win over Overfelt, Max Lee, grade 12, led the offense with two hits and four RBIs; Bobby Wang, grade 10, added two hits and three RBIs. Mark Hu, grade 10, was the story of the day in the win over Rancho San Juan as he tossed a complete game, two-hit shutout, adding seven strikeouts. What made the game particularly special was this was the first game ever played at Rancho San Juan’s new high school. This week, the Eagles travel to Fremont High on Tuesday and Woodside on Thursday.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team won its season opener against Valley Christian by one stroke, 209-210. Gabriel Yang, grade 11, was the match medalist as he shot a 36 to lead all golfers. This week, the Eagles face off with The King’s Academy on Monday before competing in the Cowboy Classic in Livermore on Wednesday.
Lacrosse
Last week, the lacrosse team fell to Willow Glen 4-16 in the season opener. This week, the Eagles host Mountain View on Tuesday and travel to Burlingame on Thursday.
Swim
Harker Swimmers competed at the Spring Kick Off at Palo Alto High over the weekend. Sydney Adler, grade 9, swam a best time and won her heat; Vincent Zhang, grade 9, was close to a best time in the 50 free, while Matthew Chung, grade 11, was second in the 100 fly and first in the 100 back. This week, the swim team travels to Sacred Heart Prep to compete in the Small School Invitational.
Boys Tennis
Boys tennis opened its 2020 season with a 6-1 win over The King’s Academy and a 7-0 win over Nueva. This week, the Eagles host Homestead on Monday and Sacred Heart on Tuesday before traveling to Clovis for the California Tennis Classic over the weekend.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team began its season 1-2 as it lost in five games to both Wilcox and Homestead before defeating College Park 2-0 at the Washington Fremont Tournament. This week, the boys travel to Mountain View on Wednesday before hosting Saratoga on Friday.
Track and Field
This weekend, the team will compete at the Willow Glen Track & Field Invitational.
Softball
Softball begins the season this week with road games at Gunn High on Tuesday and Monta Vista on Thursday.
Middle school students became regional champions at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Middle School Science Bowl, held Feb. 22 at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Coached by middle school math chair Vandana Kadam, the team of eighth graders Gautam Bhooma, Justin Chen, Ethan Liu and Arnav Swaroop and seventh grader Jonathan Xue went undefeated in the opening round robin portion of the event. In the elimination round, Harker fell to Miller Middle School’s Team 1 before meeting them again in the finals, where Harker won with a score of 92-64. The team will now move on to the finals of the national competition, which takes place April 30-May 4 in Washington, D.C. With the upper school Science Bowl team’s win earlier this month, this marks only the second time in Harker history that both the middle and upper school Science Bowl teams have been regional champions at the same time.
In addition to Kadam’s guidance, the team was coached by upper school students Kyle Li and Emily Liu, both grade 12, junior Russell Yang, sophomores David Dai, Harsh Deep and Rishab Parthasarathy, and freshman Rohan Bhowmik, who organized weekly training sessions with practice questions and coaching on how to remain calm and build teamwork.
Nanoseed, a student-run organization that offers low-interest loans and grants to students and entrepreneurs in rural China, will hold its second benefit concert at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center on March 13 at 7 p.m. All proceeds will go toward loans and student scholarships.
The event will feature a wide variety of student performers, including piano performances by sophomore Yejin Song, sophomore Spencer Cha and junior Audrey Liu, as well as violinist Sophia Horng, grade 11, and guitarist Wilson Zhang, grade 11. Student a cappella group Signature also will be making an appearance, and dance acts will include a ballet performance by Arely Sun, grade 10, a duet by seniors Anna Miner and Emiko Armstrong, and a group comprising Miner and Armstrong as well as seniors Chloe Chen, Vance Hirota, Ethan Hu and Kai-Ming Ang. Performers from other Bay Area schools are also set to appear. The performances and speeches will reflect the theme of this year’s concert, “Give to Grow.”
Tickets are available for $15 for students and $25 for adults. A $5 discount is being offered with the promo code “EarlyBird” until March 1.
Harker middle school students performed admirably at a recent chapter-level MathCounts competition, held Feb. 15 at the upper school. A team comprising grade 8 students Ethan Liu, Aniketh Tummala, Olivia Xu and William Zhang, coached by middle school math chair Vandana Kadam, took first place, making Harker the winning team in the Santa Clara chapter for the third consecutive year. The team will move on to the state competition, to be held March 21 at Stanford University.
Harker also had several stand-out individual performers, including Tummala, who took second place with 45 out of 46 points scored. Angela Liu, grade 7, placed fifth with a score of 44 and qualified for the state competition. Xu also scored 44 to finish in seventh place. Ethan Liu and William Zhang each scored 42 points and placed 10th and 12th, respectively. Eighth graders Emma Gao and Michelle Wei took 13th and 14th, respectively, with both students scoring 42 points. Eighth grader Joe Li placed 17th with a score of 41, Jonathan Xue, grade 7, finished in 19th with a score of 39 and Angelina Hu, grade 8, scored 37 to place 24th. Although several students scored the same number of points, tiebreakers were awarded to students who solved more difficult problems.
In addition to the main competitions, students also participated in the countdown round, in which students were given problems and a time limit of 45 seconds to solve each one. Xu emerged the winner, while Tummala took third and Zhang took fourth.
A total of 91 students from 11 schools competed at the event, which is considered to be one of the toughest chapter-level MathCounts competitions in the country.
Downbeat, the upper school’s show choir, traveled to Portland, Ore., the weekend of Feb. 22-23, where it took third place at the West quarterfinal of the 2020 International Championship of High School A Cappella, hosted by Varsity Vocals. The group has qualified for the semi-final round of the competition. Their performance of Billie Eilish and Khalid’s “Lovely” was arranged by senior Max Lee, who received an award for outstanding arrangement, and choreographed by senior Kenya Aridomi.
Every year, Varsity Vocals holds a cappella competitions for high school and college students that attract thousands of singers worldwide. The collegiate-level competition was featured in the popular “Pitch Perfect” series of films.
This story was submitted by Harker speech and debate department chair Jenny Achten.
Harker placed first out of 191 schools for overall team performance at a tournament held by the University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 15-17. The tournament hosted 2,458 students from 22 states, as well as teams from Taiwan. It is an honor to do so well at such a large and prestigious event.
Contributing to the award were the elimination round performances by many students across the events. In varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, awards were won by seniors Sachin Shah and Maddie Huynh, juniors Andy Lee and Akshay Manglik, sophomores Rohan Thakur and Deven Shah, and grade 8 students Krish Mysoor and Ansh Sheth. Senior Avi Gulati and freshman Michelle Jin were in elimination rounds in impromptu speaking. In congressional debate, seniors Annie Ma, David Feng, Nakul Bajaj and Tiffany Zhao, as well as juniors Jason Lin, Nathan Ohana, Helen Li and Andrew Sun, won trophies. In junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas, freshman Annmaria Antony and grade 7 debaters Stefan Maxim and Aarush Vailaya were award winners. In original oratory, Gulati and freshmen Austina Xu and Dyllan Han took home honors. In program oral interpretation, senior Nikki Solanki won a top award. In public forum debate, seniors Amanda Cheung and Ellen Guo placed in elimination rounds. Finally, Gulati and Jin placed in extemporaneous speaking. The coaches had a great time celebrating with the whole team!
The boys soccer team finished off its regular season with a 3-2 win over The King’s Academy before earning a No. 3 seed in the D3 CCS playoffs. In the first round, the Eagles defeated Evergreen Valley High 1-0 and will travel to Sequoia on Wednesday night for the semifinals. With a win, the boys would play in the finals on Saturday.
Boys Basketball
Last week, the boys basketball team ended the regular season with a 53-62 loss to The King’s Academy with Arjun Virmani, grade 11, leading the way with 18 points. The Eagles earned a No. 9 seed in the D4 CCS playoffs and in the first round defeated Design Tech 71-48 with Eric Zhu, grade 11, leading all scorers with 18 points. Unfortunately, the Eagles’ season came to an end with a tight 42-48 loss to Scotts Valley in the second round; Naveen Mirapuri, grade 12, led the way with 10 points. Congrats on a great season!
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team ended the regular season last week with a 35-48 loss to Castilleja, but still earned a No. 9 seed in the D4 CCS playoffs. However, the Eagles fell to Carmel High 42-49 to end their season with an 11-14 record. Great job ladies!
Girls Soccer
Last week, the girls soccer team ended its season with a 0-3 loss to Mercy Burlingame in a WBAL playoff. The Eagles narrowly missed out on making CCS, even with a league title and an impressive 13-2-3 record. Congrats on a great season!
Boys Golf
Boys golf opens its season this Thursday against Valley Christian.
Baseball
Baseball opens up at home against Overfelt on Tuesday before traveling to Rancho San Juan on Friday.
Boys Tennis
Boys tennis opens its season by hosting The King’s Academy on Tuesday and Nueva on Friday.
Lacrosse
Lacrosse hosts Willow Glen on Tuesday.
Boys Volleyball
Boys volleyball opens its season on Wednesday at Wilcox before the home opener on Friday against Homestead.
Swim
The swim team opens at the Spring Kickoff at Palo Alto High on Friday.
Track and Field
The track and field team travels to Bellarmine on Saturday for the Bellarmine Invitational.
Softball
Softball travels to Gunn High on March 3 to kick off the season.
Over Presidents Day weekend, Harker eighth graders Ashwin Kuppahally, Adrian Liu, Vivek Nayyar, Kabir Ramzan and Om Tandon became the first Bay Area middle school team to qualify for the VEX IQ Robotics World Championships. The students, known collectively as the Dream Team, won the Excellence Award at the Silicon Valley Signature Robotics Tournament, held Feb. 14-16 in Santa Clara. This award is presented to a team that displays overall excellence in creating a high quality VEX robotics program and performs well in multiple categories, including robot driving skills, autonomous robot programming, teamwork challenges, robot design engineering process and a separate robotics-oriented STEM research project. Winning the Excellence Award guaranteed the Dream Team a spot at the world championships without having to qualify at the state level. The Silicon Valley Signature tournament included top Bay Area teams as well as teams from southern California, Arizona and Washington state, most of which had already qualified for their respective state championships.
The VEX IQ Robotics World Championships, which will take place in Louisville, Ky., from April 26-28, attracts more than 600 teams from around the world, including the top teams from each state. The Dream Team has had a string of successes, winning the Excellence Award, Robot Design Award, STEM Award, Robot Performance Award and Teamwork Champion Award at previous tournaments during the regular season.