Last week was huge for Harker sports, with the boys swimming team, girls swimming team, varsity boys tennis team, junior varsity boys tennis team, varsity boys volleyball team and boys golf team all undefeated, and the boys golf team and freshman runner Niki Iyer both setting new school records! Let’s dive in!
Swimming:
The boys and girls swim teams have had three meets apiece this year – to the tune of a combined six wins and no losses. That’s right. Zero. Nada. Zilch. After each beating Pinewood, Priory and Crystal Springs in the friendly confines of the Singh Aquatic Center, the teams can celebrate a dominant start to the year. On Wednesday, the girls will test their undefeated record, facing Notre Dame, Castilleja and Mercy.
Tennis:
Also undefeated last week were the varsity and junior varsity boys tennis teams. Varsity beat Priory, Kings and Pinewood, while the junior varsity team trumped Kings, St. Lawrence and Kehillah. Both teams face Crystal Springs today!
Volleyball:
But wait! There’s more! The varsity boys volleyball team is undefeated, too! Their streak is just at one, however, as they crushed Westmont in their season opener last week in three straight games. Senior Andrew Zhu lead the team with 14 kills and junior Shiki Dixit added 10.
Golf:
Are you sensing a theme here? The boys golf team started its season off hot as well, beating Crystal Springs twice and adding a victory against Kings Academy. But Harker’s golfers are not just winning, they are also winning in style: the Eagles shot a par 180 as a team, beating a school record set in 2012 by six strokes! In all three matches, junior Shrish Dwivedi earned medalist honors. Sophomore Dakota McNealy and freshman Avi Khemani carded one under par 35’s against Crystal as well. The Eagles are in first place in the WBAL with a 3-0 record in league.
Track and Field:
The track and field season has only just begun, but freshman Niki Iyer has already set her second school record of 2014, placing second in the 800m run with a time of 2:21:21. Freshman Winnie Li set three personal bests, breaking her previous marks in the 100m, 100m hurdles and long jump. Also setting personal bests were sophomore Calvin Kocienda and freshman Davis Dunaway, who ran great times in the 65m high hurdles. Senior Claudia Tischler took 10 seconds off her season best in the mile run. This Saturday, the team heads to Soquel High School to compete in the Garlic Classic!
Lacrosse:
The varsity girls defeated Santa Catalina last Wednesday, earning their first victory of the season. Junior Hannah Bollar scored six goals, senior Mary Liu recorded a personal high of five goals and junior Allison Kiang made three goals. Senior Mabel Luo contributed with two goals and senior defender Alicia Clark scored her first goal of the season. Already this season, the team has made dramatic strides. They play Burlingame at home tonight!
Softball:
Softball lost to Pinewood on Friday despite great defensive plays from sophomore Kavya Ramakrishnan, sophomore Tong Wu, junior Serena Wang and freshman Melinda Wisdom. Sophomore Alisa Wakita, junior Briana Liang, junior Sonali Netke, junior Vivian Isenberg, Ramakrishnan and Wu all had hits as well. The girls host Del Mar Wednesday at Blackford.
Baseball:
The team lost to Crystal Springs last week. Junior David Lin, and freshmen Nicolas Bean and Kedar Gupta all had hits. The boys host Pinewood at home on Thursday.
On March 2, Harker held the 13th annual Diana Nichols Math Invitational for grades 6-8. More than 300 students from 16 schools attended, including 52 competing teams and four non-competing teams.
In the individual grade 6 event, Harker students Cynthia Chen and Jeffrey Kwan took first and fourth place, respectively. Meanwhile, Rose Guan and Katherine Zhang took first and third place, respectively, in the individual grade 7 event.
In the team contests, Harker’s grade 6 team of Gabriel Chai, Cynthia Chen, Grace Huang, Matthew Jin, Jeffrey Kwan, Eileen Li and Vani Mohindra took second place. The grade 7 team of Rose Guan, Jason Huang, Leon Lu, Kaushik Shivakumar, Cindy Wang, Alexander Young and Katherine Zhang took first in their contest. Finally Harker’s grade 8 team of Michael Kwan, Edgar Lin, Sahana Srinivasan, David Wen and Randy Zhao finished second in the grade 8 team event.
Mar. 19, 2014 In mid-February, Shafieen Ibrahim, grade 7, participated in the 2014 US Amateur Team West chess tournament, winning two games to help his team advance to the playoffs. Ibrahim needed only one win for his team to advance, but he won two games in a row against higher-rated players. His NorCal House Team now moves on to Nationals. Last year at Nationals, the team beat Princeton to become the National Champions. “We were at a loss for words when Coach Ted Castro of NorCal House of Chess informed us that Shafieen was selected for this very high-profile team as their board four player,” said him mom, Zeba. Playoffs are on March 29. Good luck Shafieen!
The following was submitted by Harker parent Sanjay Sengupta (Anooshree, grade 8): Last weekend, Harker middle school teams Raining Sunshine and EagleBots won the California State VEX Robotics Tournament championship hosted at the Great America Park in Santa Clara, Calif. Raining Sunshine team members (all grade 8) are: Maya Kumar, Mona Lee, Anooshree Sengupta, Jessica Susai and Aria Coalson. EagleBots team members (all grade 7) are: Rithvik Panchapakesan, Christopher Gong, Andrew Chang and Kaushik Shivakumar.
At the State Championship, Raining Sunshine won every qualifying match and ranked at the top of the field of 27 teams from across California. They received four awards including the State Tournament Championship, the Think Award for the best autonomous program, the Amaze Award for overall robot quality, and the Robot Skills Award for robot driving skills. Going into the elimination rounds, they selected as their alliance partners the EagleBots from Harker Middle School and the GrizzlyBots from Grange Middle School in Fairfield. The alliance proved to be invincible as they cruised through the elimination rounds without giving up a single match, and won the Tournament Champions Award.
Prior to this, Raining Sunshine won the Champions Award at the VEX Middle School Tournament held in Fairfield, CA on February 22. The team also took home the Programming Skills and Robot Skills awards at that event. The win in Fairfield qualified the team to compete in the California State Championship.
Now, with the State Championship in the bag, the teams move on to the VEX World Championship Tournament in Anaheim California April 24-26. The World event hosts over 140 middle school teams from many states across the US as well as teams from the Americas, China, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.
VEX Robotics is the leading and fastest growing robotics program for middle school and high school level students. VEX Robotics competitions are held in cities, states and countries all over the world. In addition to providing a platform to learn engineering and programming, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving.
The beginning of March officially heralded Jump Rope for Heart season at the lower school. On March 7, K-5 students took to the blacktop in an annual effort to raise money for the American Heart Association.
Donations were still rolling in after the jumping activities ended. As of March 14, students had raised $4,012. Grade 3 student Rohan Gorti personally raised $1,610 through online donations. Lower school students, who had been collecting donation pledges for some time, spent the day on a variety of stations set up to celebrate their efforts.
They had a field day jumping rope, high jumping onto soft mats, doing the limbo, leaping over makeshift hurdles, crawling through obstacle courses, shooting baskets and participating in other fun activities. Some teachers got in on the action too, by helping to turn a rope, supervise the jumpers for a class period and jumping alongside them.
“Thanks to all of our P.E. staff for the work done on the jump day and to all of our students who collected donations and turned them in!” said Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s athletic department and helped organize the event.
Five teams of Harker upper school students – 40 students in all – competed in a regional Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition in late February. The TEAMS competition challenges students to collaborate to solve real-world engineering problems that test their knowledge of math and science.
At the event, held at San Jose State University, Harker won the top spots in both the grades 9-10 and grades 11-12 levels.
The “Harker D” team – made up of Rishabh Chandra, Jonathan Dai, Lawrence Li, Jonathan Ma, Anika Mohindra, Emily Pan, Michael Zhao and Jessica Zhu, all grade 10 – took first place in the grades 9-10 category. Taking second place in this category was the “Harker E” team of freshmen Kai-Siang Ang, Neymika Jain, Evani Radiya-Dixit, Venkat Sankar, Manan Shah, Peter Wu and David Zhu and sophomore Stanley Zhao.
First place in the grades 11-12 category went to the “Harker B” team of Andrew Jin, David Lin, Cindy Liu, Steven Wang, Rachel Wu, Stanley Xie, Leo Yu and Andrew Zhang, all grade 11. In second place was the “Harker A” team, comprising juniors Billy Bloomquist, Patrick Lin, Matthew Huang, Nitya Mani, Sachin Peddada, Vivek Sriram, Helen Wu and Samyukta Yagati.
Once the scores from this and other TEAMS competitions are tallied, the highest-scoring teams from California will move on to the national competition, held in July in Washington, D.C.
Last year, as a participant in Harker’s Summer Camp+ program, grade 6 student Jeremy Ding wrote a letter to President Obama about the dangers of smoking. It was part of a summer language art class assignment and Ding was both surprised and thrilled when, in early February, he received a letter from the president in response.
The letter thanked Ding for writing and explained that finding new ways to help both children and adults lead healthy lives has been a priority for the Obama administration. In addition to discussing the Affordable Care Act, the letter highlighted the first lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, which teams up with schools and communities nationwide to help ensure kids are getting enough healthy food and exercise.
“It was plain amazing. After that, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Maybe many people receive these letters, but it would still be (I think) a minority,” said Ding, about his experience receiving the response from the president.
On March 14, the Harker community united for the eighth-annual Harker Cancer Walk. The symbolic effort, held on the middle school field, netted more than $12,000 for Camp Okizu, a record-breaking total.
“It was an unprecedented amount. We have never cleared the five-digit figure before, but this year we … shot past it like a rocket. That’s enough to send as many as 15 children to Camp Okizu, which makes me so delighted, I can’t keep from smiling!” enthusedMichael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher. He had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his mother due to cancer.
Students, parents, faculty, staff and family members from all of Harker’s campuses walked in support of Camp Okizu, which for more than 30 years has provided peer support, respite, mentoring and recreational programs for those affected by childhood cancer.
“This very special summer camp provides the facilities of a hospital, while also providing wide open countryside and camp activities to the children and their families. It’s a place where campers can run, swim, kayak and just be a kid. It costs roughly $700 to $1,000 to send one child to this camp,” reported Schmidt.
Participants wore ribbons and music played throughout the event. To supplement direct donations, volunteers sold T-shirts, water bottles, Jamba Juice, baked goodies, temporary tattoos and wristbands.
In a special activity following the walk, all of the advisories made gifts for camp members. Harker students diligently prepared some 150 wooden photo frame decoration kits for use by campers and their families.
“Eight years ago, we started an event at the middle school called the Harker Cancer Walk. It brought the entire campus together in the name of cancer awareness. Cancer is a disease that is vast and, in one form or another, touches nearly everyone. It can be a heart-wrenching experience when neighbors, co-workers, friends and loved ones are struck with this potentially devastating diagnosis,” said Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
Ellis explained that prior to the event, advisories had been busy decorating the “biggest Cancer Walk poster ever created.” The result of the collaborative effort – a poster that was 8 feet tall by more than 30 feet wide – hung on the gym wall from March 10-14.
“Harker was good enough to let me start this event after my mom passed away in 2006 and it has been used as a healing process for me and many others over the years. I’m honored to keep up the tradition,” said Schmidt.
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra Foothills and mirroring a residential camp experience, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for young cancer patients to enjoy regular camp activities and social events. The name Okizu (oak-eye-zoo) comes from the Sioux language and means unity. For more information about the camp, go to: http://www.okizu.org/about.
On March 14, the Harker community united for the eighth-annual Harker Cancer Walk. The symbolic effort, held on the middle school field, netted more than $12,000 for Camp Okizu, a record-breaking total.
“It was an unprecedented amount. We have never cleared the five-digit figure before, but this year we … shot past it like a rocket. That’s enough to send as many as 15 children to Camp Okizu, which makes me so delighted, I can’t keep from smiling!” enthusedMichael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher. He had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his mother due to cancer.
Students, parents, faculty, staff and family members from all of Harker’s campuses walked in support of Camp Okizu, which for more than 30 years has provided peer support, respite, mentoring and recreational programs for those affected by childhood cancer.
“This very special summer camp provides the facilities of a hospital, while also providing wide open countryside and camp activities to the children and their families. It’s a place where campers can run, swim, kayak and just be a kid. It costs roughly $700 to $1,000 to send one child to this camp,” reported Schmidt.
Participants wore ribbons and music played throughout the event. To supplement direct donations, volunteers sold T-shirts, water bottles, Jamba Juice, baked goodies, temporary tattoos and wristbands.
In a special activity following the walk, all of the advisories made gifts for camp members. Harker students diligently prepared some 150 wooden photo frame decoration kits for use by campers and their families.
“Eight years ago, we started an event at the middle school called the Harker Cancer Walk. It brought the entire campus together in the name of cancer awareness. Cancer is a disease that is vast and, in one form or another, touches nearly everyone. It can be a heart-wrenching experience when neighbors, co-workers, friends and loved ones are struck with this potentially devastating diagnosis,” said Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
Ellis explained that prior to the event, advisories had been busy decorating the “biggest Cancer Walk poster ever created.” The result of the collaborative effort – a poster that was 8 feet tall by more than 30 feet wide – hung on the gym wall from March 10-14.
“Harker was good enough to let me start this event after my mom passed away in 2006 and it has been used as a healing process for me and many others over the years. I’m honored to keep up the tradition,” said Schmidt.
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra Foothills and mirroring a residential camp experience, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for young cancer patients to enjoy regular camp activities and social events. The name Okizu (oak-eye-zoo) comes from the Sioux language and means unity. For more information about the camp, go to: http://www.okizu.org/about.
On March 14, the Harker community united for the eighth-annual Harker Cancer Walk. The symbolic effort, held on the middle school field, netted more than $12,000 for Camp Okizu, a record-breaking total.
“It was an unprecedented amount. We have never cleared the five-digit figure before, but this year we … shot past it like a rocket. That’s enough to send as many as 15 children to Camp Okizu, which makes me so delighted, I can’t keep from smiling!” enthusedMichael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher. He had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his mother due to cancer.
Students, parents, faculty, staff and family members from all of Harker’s campuses walked in support of Camp Okizu, which for more than 30 years has provided peer support, respite, mentoring and recreational programs for those affected by childhood cancer.
“This very special summer camp provides the facilities of a hospital, while also providing wide open countryside and camp activities to the children and their families. It’s a place where campers can run, swim, kayak and just be a kid. It costs roughly $700 to $1,000 to send one child to this camp,” reported Schmidt.
Participants wore ribbons and music played throughout the event. To supplement direct donations, volunteers sold T-shirts, water bottles, Jamba Juice, baked goodies, temporary tattoos and wristbands.
In a special activity following the walk, all of the advisories made gifts for camp members. Harker students diligently prepared some 150 wooden photo frame decoration kits for use by campers and their families.
“Eight years ago, we started an event at the middle school called the Harker Cancer Walk. It brought the entire campus together in the name of cancer awareness. Cancer is a disease that is vast and, in one form or another, touches nearly everyone. It can be a heart-wrenching experience when neighbors, co-workers, friends and loved ones are struck with this potentially devastating diagnosis,” said Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
Ellis explained that prior to the event, advisories had been busy decorating the “biggest Cancer Walk poster ever created.” The result of the collaborative effort – a poster that was 8 feet tall by more than 30 feet wide – hung on the gym wall from March 10-14.
“Harker was good enough to let me start this event after my mom passed away in 2006 and it has been used as a healing process for me and many others over the years. I’m honored to keep up the tradition,” said Schmidt.
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra Foothills and mirroring a residential camp experience, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for young cancer patients to enjoy regular camp activities and social events. The name Okizu (oak-eye-zoo) comes from the Sioux language and means unity. For more information about the camp, go to: http://www.okizu.org/about.
Each year grade 8 Latin students participate in contests sponsored by Ancient Coins for Education (ACE). Harker students Edgar Lin and Praveen Batra were named school winners in ACE’s recent essay contest.
Batra’s essay on Roman emperor Tiberius went on to win first place in the junior category, according to middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni. Both students received ancient Roman coins as prizes.
ACE’s goal is to encourage learning about the classical world through the use of primary sources. This is achieved by providing ancient coins for the students to identify and holding essay contests throughout the year.
Meanwhile, at the upper school, Harker recently received results from the National Classical Etymology Exam, which students in grade 9 and 10 took late last year. Fourteen Harker students participated in exam, sponsored by the National Junior Classical League, reported upper school Latin teacher John Hawley.
“The exam is designed to test a student’s ability to handle both Latin and Greek derivatives and their usage in the English language,” he said.
Of the 14 participants, 13 received either gold or silver medals for their prowess. Advanced level students who earned gold medals are Kevin Duraiswamy and Helena Huang, both grade 12, and Sophia Shatas, grade 11. Silver medals went to Tiffany Chu and Sreyas Misra, both grade 12, and Maya Nandakumar, grade 11.
Intermediate level students who earned gold medals are Rishabh Chandra, Elisabeth Siegel and Allison Wang, all grade 10, and Venkat Sankar and Arjun Subramaniam, grade 9. Silver medals went to grade 9 students Aditya Dhar and Nikhil Manglik.