Acorn Cottage at Harker Preschool had a pajama day last week, and everyone got comfortable! It was a nice day of service, said Yogeshree Marathe, an Acorn teacher along with Schenelle Henry, Swagata Chatterjee and Sara Bayati. “As part of our lesson about being thankful and giving, we had a pajama drive,” Marathe noted. “The children brought in new child-size pajamas with a new book or new toy to donate.” The donations will be combined with the lower school’s annual pajama drive. They all look very cozy!
The CCS cross country finals were held this weekend, and Harker was represented by the girls cross country team and Rigo Gonzales, grade 9. Gonzales finished 61 out of 119 Division 4 boys runners, and the girls team ended the season with a sixth place finish in D4. But the story of the day was Anna Weirich, grade 11, who took first place in the D4 girls race, bringing home the first girls CCS cross country title in school history. Weirich finished 47 seconds ahead of the second place runner and will travel to Fresno on Nov. 30 for the state championships.
Girls Tennis
Last week, the girls tennis team finished its season with an amazing CCS run. The Eagles defeated Salinas 6-1, No. 3 seed Cupertino 4-3 and No. 6 seed Menlo Atherton 4-3 to make it further in CCS than any other Harker tennis team (boys or girls) in school history. The girls eventually fell to St. Francis 2-5 in the semis, but had an amazing year finishing with a 15-3 record.
Girls Volleyball
The historic girls volleyball season came to an end last week as the team was defeated in the first round of NorCals 0-3 by Central Catholic. Congrats on a great season Eagles!
Girls Golf
Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, will travel to Poppy Hills on Tuesday to compete at the state championships. Good luck ladies!
On Friday night, the Harker Speaker Series hosted a special evening with legendary composer David Amram. During his nearly 70-year career, Amram has collaborated with many of the 20th century’s most influential cultural figures, including Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson and Leonard Bernstein.
The event began with a scintillating performance by the upper school jazz band, which was joined by Amram on flute and percussion, demonstrating that his skills as a soloist remain sharp. He then sat down with Harker English teacher Charles Shuttleworth for a live interview, during which Amram shared his incredible life story, beginning with his interest in classical music, which he discovered at age 11. He later became enamored with jazz, gospel and folk music from around the world. Amram described much of his life as “serendipity,” having been repeatedly blessed to be put in contact with (and subsequently work with) top musicians. After serving in the military, he was introduced to jazz bassist Charles Mingus, with whom he began playing while studying at the Manhattan School of Music. He later met Thelonious Monk, who complimented Amram on his French horn playing. “I almost fainted,” Amram recalled.
After concluding the interview, Amram joined the Harker upper school orchestra to perform Franz Schubert’s haunting “Unfinished Symphony,” as well as an original work he wrote as a tribute to Afro-Cuban percussionist and composer Chano Pozo during a 1977 cultural exchange trip to Cuba. Titled “En Memoria de Chano Pozo,” the piece incorporates audience participation, and the audience happily clapped along toward the finale. Following the event, Amram participated in an audience Q&A session before signing copies of his books in the lobby for the appreciative attendees.
Last week, the girls volleyball team dominated in its run through CCS as it defeated Pacific Grove, Harbor and Sacred Heart Prep all 3-0 on its way to the D4 CCS championship. This is just the second CCS team title in Harker history! The Eagles were bumped up to D2 for the NorCal tournament and will travel to Modesto to face off with Central Catholic on Tuesday night.
Girls Golf
Last week, the girls golf team had its best finish in Harker history as it ended the season with a fifth place finish at the NorCal Regionals. Although the team season came to an end, Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, each shot a 3-over-par 75 and qualified for the state championships that will be held at Pebble Beach on Nov. 19.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team defeated ND Belmont 7-0 in a WBAL playoff match last week. The win helped push the Eagles into CCS where they open at Salinas High on Monday.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the WBAL finals last week and, for the first time since 2015, the girls team qualified for CCS with Anna Weirich, grade 11, leading the way with a third place finish in the girls varsity race. Rigo Gonzales, grade 9, placed 14th in the varsity boys race and qualified as an individual for CCS. The CCS finals will be held on Saturday at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.
Scholastic Teams
Each season, CCS honors the teams that produce the highest GPA in their specific sport. For the fall season, Harker boys cross country (3.953) and football (3.554) each finished with the highest GPA in their sports, and boys water polo (3.670) finished third. Congratulations to our amazing student athletes!
Krish Mysoor, grade 8, had a record-setting weekend in debate, placing first at the Damus Hollywood Invitational, hosted by the Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame schools in Los Angeles, Nov. 2-4.
Mysoor is the only eighth grader in memory to take first place at a varsity national qualifier to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). TOC-designated tournaments are considered to be the most challenging debate tournaments because they attract the most competitive schools from multiple states. The topic for the event was whether or not the United States ought to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
Students who reach a certain level of elimination-round success at two of those events are invited to compete at the most elite varsity championship at the end of the year. It is extremely rare for a middle school student to even reach early elimination rounds at TOC tournaments, let alone to have a perfect preliminary record and then go on to win five elimination rounds in a row. The team is very proud of his outstanding accomplishment.
Lincoln Garrett, the head debate coach of the University of Kentucky, which hosts the Tournament of Champions, noted of Mysoor’s accomplishment, “That is incredible. To go from learning the activity a short while ago to winning a competitive tournament is remarkable.”
Mysoor is known for his hard work and being a great teammate. His remarkable success has attracted quite a bit of attention from the national debate community. Go Harker speech and debate!
The lower and middle school fall sports seasons recently came to a close. Check out how each team finished, along with all the team awards.
Middle School WBAL Swim Finals:
The middle school boys took third overall and the girls finished fifth overall.
Grade 6 boys 100-yard medley relay team, second place
Ethan Leelanivas, grade 6, boys 25-yard butterfly, third place
Rajas Apte, grade 7, boys 50 yard freestyle, second place
Adam Pawliger, grade 7, boys 50-yard freestyle, third place
Mirabelle Feng, grade 7, girls 50-yard backstroke, second place
Andrew Au, grade 8, boys 50-yard backstroke, third place
Middle School Swimming: Team awards went to Rahul Sundaresan, grade 6 (MVP), Simon Kirjner, grade 6 (Eagle) and Claire Zhao, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Lower School Swimming: Team awards went to Ian Cheline, grade 5 (MVP), Amanda Lee-Shen, grade 4 (Eagle) and Manalee Chowdhury, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Middle School WBAL Cross Country Finals:
Grade 6 boys team, second place
Grade 7-8 boys team, third place
Grade 7-8 girls team, ninth place
Stanley Chen, grade 6, boys, first place
Brian Choi, grade 6, boys, eighth place
Alejandro Cheline, grade 6, boys, ninth place
Shreya Vemulapalli, grade 6, girls, 24th place
Andrew Smith, grade 8, boys, second place
Veyd Patil, grade 8, boys, seventh place
Layla McClure, grade 7, girls, 41st place
Middle School Cross Country: Team awards went to Stanley Chen, grade 6 (MVP), Brian Choi, grade 6, and Andrew Smith, grade 8 (Eagle), and Eric Zhang, grade 7, and Kaleb Goldin, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Samantha Salfen, Sara Pawloski and Ron Paranada.
Middle School Golf: The middle school golf team took second place in the WBAL fall tournament. The top Harker golfer was Ryan Zhang, grade 8 (35), followed by Yu Bai, grade 8 (37), Allison Yang, grade 7 (38) and Ashley Mo, grade 6 (39).
VA (grade 8) Flag Football: The Varsity A team, coached by Randy LeGris and Mike Delfino, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-5 and went 0-7 overall. Team awards went to Ryan Barth (MVP), Kevin Bettencourt (Eagle) and Om Tandon (Coaches).
VB (grade 7) Flag Football: The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins and Dini Wong, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-2-1 record and went 3-3-1 overall. Team awards went to Vyom Vidyarthi (MVP), Bowen Xia (Eagle) and Drew Diffenderfer (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-3 league record. Team awards went to Brennan Williams and Rishaan Thoppay (MVP), Topaz Lee (Eagle) and Ritik Raman (Coaches).
JVB (grade 5) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Karriem Stinson and Tobias Wade, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 3-1 league record and went 4-1 overall. Team awards went to Mason Brooks (MVP), David Kelly and Zackary Delfino (Eagle).
LS Intramural Flag Football (grade 4): Team awards went to Nicky Kerko and Reid Bardin (Eagle) and Ricardo Sanchez (Coaches). The team was coached by Walid Fahmy.
VA (grade 6-8) Softball: The Varsity A team, coached by Adam Albers and Raul Rios, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1 and went 4-2 overall. Team awards went to Keren Eisenberg, grade 7 (MVP), Angelina Burrows, grade 7 (Eagle) and Kira Bardin, grade 6 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 4-5) Softball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Megan Regan and Colleen Campbell, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 3-1. Team awards went to Raeanne Li, grade 5 (MVP), Keira Kelly, grade 5 (Eagle) and Ameera Ramzan, grade 5 (Coaches).
VA (grade 6-8) Girls Lacrosse: The Varsity A team, coached by Morgan Smith and Hannah Grannis, competed in a number of friendly tournaments and a few solo matches with other schools this season. The team went from six participants last year to more than 20 this year! Team awards went to Kate Grannis, grade 8 (MVP), Abby Lim, grade 7 (Eagle) and Shaina Cohen, grade 6 (Coaches).
As part of the business and entrepreneurship department’s CareerConnect program, and thanks to the generous support of the Constellation Research organization, four upper school Harker students attended the annual Constellation Research Conference on Tuesday at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
The event is a three-day innovation summit and executive retreat with one-on-one interviews with marketing visionaries, “executive exchanges, fireside chats and disruptive technology demos,” according to its website. Attendees included leaders from Arby’s Restaurant Group, CBRE Group, Estée Lauder, Spotify, Symmons Industries, The University of Texas System and the U.S. government.
Students had the opportunity to hear from amazing panelists and speakers including the “Father of the Internet,” Vint Cerf, among others, on the topic “Inside Exponential Business Models – From Post Digital Divide to Winner Takes All Networks.” Cerf spoke at Harker in 2013; read about it in Harker News.
There also was a great social luncheon where students were able to network with thought leaders around the world (see pictures attached), noted Juston Glass, teacher in the BE program, “and it was overall an amazing experience for the students to take part in this exclusive, leading-edge, professional experience/conference.”
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.
During the middle school’s trip week, sixth graders headed to Redwood Glen for four days of fun and bonding. The first day was busy, as students played human foosball, traversed balance beams and participated in various activities meant to build trust with one another. Cooperative activities comprised a significant part of the trip, as students navigated a ropes course and went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. These and other activities also gave them a chance to appreciate many natural marvels and wildlife, spotting owls, sea lions and otters as well as watching the Orionid meteor shower thanks to the clear evening skies.