Eagles post season play is coming down to the final games!
Volleyball
Down two games to none in the CCS quarterfinal match at Soquel High Saturday, the girls volleyball team made a dramatic comeback winning the next three games to upset the fourth-seeded Knights 23-25, 21-25, 26-24, 28-26, 15-13. This was certainly one of the most exciting volleyball games in the program’s history in what felt like a home game for the girls, as our crowd was larger and louder than Soquel’s crowd. For the first time since 2007 the girls have reached the semifinals which matches us against #1 seed Harbor High at Menlo School at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The crowd really makes a difference: come cheer on your Harker Eagles! There is a fee: $8 adults, $3 students with ID.
Cross Country
Sophomore Corey Gonzales placed fourth overall at the CCS meet in Salinas Saturday, qualifying him for the state meet which will be held Nov. 24 in Fresno. Senior Tyler Yeats placed 46th out of 108 runners. On the girls side, Claudia Tischler, grade 11, placed 23rd overall and Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, placed 33rd out of 97 runners.
Tennis
The girls tennis season came to a close Friday as they lost to St. Francis 11-7 in the CCS quarterfinals. The girls closed with a 14-3 overall record and a second place finish in the WBAL. Congratulations on a great season!
The fall sports seasons for cross country, swimming, flag football and softball have come to a close for the lower and middle schools. Here are the final results of what was a very exciting start to the school year!
MS CROSS COUNTRY
The team finished up their season with the WBAL cross country meet at Bayfront Park. In the grade 7-8 boys race Arnav Tandon, grade 8, placed third. In the grade 7-8 girls race, second place went to Niki Iyer, grade 8 and first place to Sarah Savage, grade 7. Both boys and girls grade 7-8 teams took third place in their races.
LS/MS SWIMMING
The team finished up their season with the WBAL swim meet at Sacred Heart Prep High School. In the grade 5-6 boys MR, taking second place were Edwin Su, Arjun Kilaru, Stephan Sokolov and Krish Kapadia, all grade 6; and in third place, Noah Salisbury, Rohan Arora, Kai-Ming Ang and Cole Smitherman, all grade 5.
Grade 5-6 girls MR third place: Angela Li, Sara Min, Anusha Kuppahally, Alexandra Janssen, all grade 6.
Grade 5-6 girls IM first place: Angela Li; Grade 5-6 girls 25 back, first place: Angela Li.
Grade 5-6 boys 100-free third place: Arnav Jain, grade 5.
Grade 5-6 girls 25 breast third place: Sara Min.
Grade 7 boys MR, second place: Victor Shin, Jeffrey Ma, Alexander Wang, Derek Kuo.
Grade 7 boys IM first place and Grade 7 boys 50-free second place: Jeffrey Ma.
Grade 7 boys 50-fly: third place: Adriano Hernandez.
Grade 7 boys 50-breast third place: Aadith Srinivisan.
UPPER SCHOOL Football Quarterback Spenser Quash, grade 12, threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more in his final game as an Eagle, but Harker dropped their last game of the year, Homecoming, to Lynbrook, 49-35, finishing their season at 3-7 overall and 1-5 in league play. Robert Deng, grade 12, Devonte Smith, grade 10, and Keanu Forbes, grade 10, all caught touchdown passes.
Water Polo
Boys water polo ended their season a high note with two victories last Friday at the league tournament, following a 12-3 victory over Cupertino with an intense 9-8 win over Santa Clara. Karan Das-Grade, grade 12, scored four goals, with Eric Holt, grade 10, adding three, and Ryan Hume, grade 12, netting two against Santa Clara. The boys end the year 12-16 overall and 4-8 in league play.
Girls water polo’s historic season came to a close Tuesday in their first ever CCS appearance. The girls lost to Soquel High 13-3 in the first round game. Keri Clifford, grade 12, scored two goals and Rachel Yanovsky, grade 12, scored one. The girls end the season with a 20-7 record and a league championship! Congratulations on a great season.
Golf
Kristine Lin, grade 11, is the league’s individual golf champion after shooting a 73 at Poplar Creek. She then shot an 85 at CCS, placing 38th out of 90. Patricia Huang, grade 12, shot an 82 at CCS, the best score any Harker golfer has ever achieved at the tournament. The girls end their season in second place in the league with a 7-3 record.
Tennis
Girls tennis doubles team Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, and Katia Miranova, grade 11, won the league championship, and the team is in CCS post season play now. Hosting their second round CCS match, Harker defeated fellow WBAL opponent, Crystal Springs, by a 10-4 margin. Junior Dora Tzeng led Harker, winning her round robin matches by identical 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 scores. Senior Jenny Chen also won by an impressive margin, 6-0, 6-1, and was leading 5-0 before the match was called after Tzeng’s third match which sealed the victory. The team travels to Cuesta Park today for their quarterfinal (final 8) match against #3 St. Francis at 1:30. Bracket: http://www.cifccs.org/playoffs/results/12-13/Tennis_G_Team-12.pdf
Volleyball
Girls volleyball rolled through their first round opponent, Carmel, last night in three straight games 25-14, 25-16, 25-18. Divya Kalidindi, grade 11, Shannon Richardson, grade 9, and Shreya Dixit, grade 10, had 11 kills each as the girls advance to the quarterfinal round v. Soquel High School at Soquel Saturday night, 7 p.m. This should be a very exciting game and the girls can really use your support! There is an entry fee, $8 adults, $3 students with ID. Directions: http://www.harker.org/page.cfm?p=245&locID=428 Bracket: http://www.cifccs.org/playoffs/results/12-13/volleyballgirls%20D4%202012.pdf
Cross Country
This Saturday, four Harker runners – Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, Claudia Tischler, grade 11, Corey Gonzalez, grade 10, and Tyler Yeats, grade 12 – compete in the CCS championship in Toro Park, at 11 a.m. in Salinas. Directions: http://www.harker.org/page.cfm?p=245&locID=344
In late October, the kindergarten students helped care for their lower school campus by picking fallen pomegranates from the school grounds to prevent the fruit from becoming an eyesore and hazard. This campus beautification project began in 2009 and is part of the youngsters’ overall service projects; they also participate in tree-planting each year.
A clear but slightly chilly evening at the upper school campus was the setting for the 2013 Harker Homecoming, highlighted by a tense face-off between the varsity football teams of Harker and Lynbrook High School at Davis Field.
Attendees had plenty of fun both before and during the game, with tailgate areas serving many varieties of snacks and drinks to the patrons. Meanwhile Mrs. Carley’s Café served savory barbecue and upper school students sold hot pizza by the slice. Harker journalism students sold programs they had made to raise money to pay for equipment and publishing costs. A favorite attraction during the evening was a taped-off area where attendees could take turns bashing a car, spray-painted with the graduation years of the upper school classes, with a sledgehammer or baseball bat.
Prior to the start of the game, Harker performing arts groups kept the attendees entertained. After a rousing performance by the upper school’s varsity dance squad, the lower school’s junior cheer squad received an enthusiastic ovation for their spirited and well-executed routine, and the crowd was equally receptive for the Eaglets flyby, the longstanding homecoming tradition, directed by Gail Palmer. Dressed in their eagle costumes and dancing to the appropriately familiar strains of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” the grade 2 performers were, as always, a highlight of the pre-game festivities.
Out on Rosenthal Field, younger children had a blast playing in no fewer than three inflatable structures: a bounce house, a large slide and an elaborate play house. Others made their own fun by tossing a football or playing other schoolyard games.
Akshaya Premkumar, grade 9, enjoyed homecoming for the opportunity to bond with friends. She was also cheering hard for an Eagle win. “I like cheering. I’m a very spirited person!” she said. Her friend Caitlin Benge, also grade 9, was enjoying her 10th homecoming since kindergarten. “My favorite part is the tug of war,” she said.
Harker alumni, including several Palo Alto Military Academy graduates, were out in force to support their alma mater and reminisce with old friends and teachers. The special alumni area was busy for the entire event with returning graduates, faculty and current students enjoying food and good company.
“There’s always good food and good conversation,” Steven Brimm ’02 said of Harker community events such as homecoming. Although it had been years since he had visited Harker, he said, he enjoyed seeing his former classmates and teachers.
Ed Williams ’02 said “the friends” were what brought him to this year’s homecoming. “Here’s one right here!” he exclaimed, as he reunited with his former advisor John Hawley, the upper school Latin teacher.
During halftime, Head of School Chris Nikoloff took time to recognize the three alumni who received awards at Harker’s Alumni Day event in June. Ken Hunt ’79 received the Distinguish Alumni Award “for his love of learning and his ability to lead, whether in a Fortune 200 or smaller company,” Nikoloff said. Community Service Award winner Tevis Howard ’88 was recognized for his efforts to help the people of Kenya. Finally, Mark Muller ’75, recipient of the Phyllis Carley Award, was honored for his dedication to and positive impact on the Harker community.
Just before kickoff, vocal groups from all three campuses gathered to sing stirring renditions of “The Harker School Song” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by Susan Nace.
Halftime entertainment began with a performance by Harker’s cheer squad, who impressed the crowd with a complex routine. The traditions continued with the conclusion of this year’s tug of war competition, as the classes of 2013 and 2014 took to the center of Davis Field. The seniors took home this year’s tug of war trophy after a well-earned victory.
As the third quarter approached, this year’s homecoming court was brought onto the field, riding golf carts driven by their advisors. Performing arts teacher Jeffrey Draper then revealed Maverick McNealy and Akarsha Gulukota, both grade 12, as this year’s homecoming king and queen.
The football team then took the field in spectacular fashion by bursting through a massive paper sign to begin the second half. Although the Eagles lost the hard-fought contest 39-45, it was nevertheless a memorable event for all in attendance that surely already has the Harker community eager for next year.
On Nov. 3 an intrepid quartet of Harker teachers placed third in the fifth annual Silicon Valley Trivia Challenge, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The contest is a fundraiser held by the Junior League of San Jose, and Chris and Marcia Riedel of Hunter Labs (and former Harker parents) have kindly sponsored the Harker table since the contest’s inception in 2008. Finalists each year, Harker placed third in 2009 and second in 2010; all three times Harker has donated its winnings ($1,000 for second, $500 for third) back to the Junior League.
The Harker Eggheads – Linda Felice (middle school English), Brian Larsen (K-12 production manager), Tony Silk (upper school math) and Paul Vallerga (middle school technical director) – were one of 47 teams. After the preliminary elimination round of 20 questions on subjects like pop culture, chemistry, astronomy, geography and literature, Harker was one of only two teams with a perfect score. In the semifinals, no team was perfect, but Harker had 13 of 15 questions correct and easily made the finals. (It seems that “tittle,” the word for the little dot on a lowercase English i or j, stumped the room.) The final 10 teams held on, with a five-round sudden death finally determining this year’s first and second place winners: a group of friends from Santa Cruz who also won last year, and the team from NBC Bay Area, who called themselves La Triviata. The winner was finally determined by the team who could name the greatest number of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands.
Each year this fun event includes a costume contest, raffle drawings and cocktails and dinner, and is overseen by master of ceremonies Mike Inouye of NBC Bay Area and trivia question judge Lawrence Stone, the tax assessor for Santa Clara County, who handles the good-natured “boos” accompanying his introduction and judgments with aplomb.
Many thanks to the Harker Eggheads for representing the school so well!
On Nov. 3 an intrepid quartet of Harker teachers placed third in the fifth annual Silicon Valley Trivia Challenge, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The contest is a fundraiser held by the Junior League of San Jose, and Chris and Marcia Riedel of Hunter Labs (and former Harker parents) have kindly sponsored the Harker table since the contest’s inception in 2008. Finalists each year, Harker placed third in 2009 and second in 2010; all three times Harker has donated its winnings ($1,000 for second, $500 for third) back to the Junior League.
The Harker Eggheads – Linda Felice (middle school English), Brian Larsen (K-12 production manager), Tony Silk (upper school math) and Paul Vallerga (middle school technical director) – were one of 47 teams. After the preliminary elimination round of 20 questions on subjects like pop culture, chemistry, astronomy, geography and literature, Harker was one of only two teams with a perfect score. In the semifinals, no team was perfect, but Harker had 13 of 15 questions correct and easily made the finals. (It seems that “tittle,” the word for the little dot on a lowercase English i or j, stumped the room.) The final 10 teams held on, with a five-round sudden death finally determining this year’s first and second place winners: a group of friends from Santa Cruz who also won last year, and the team from NBC Bay Area, who called themselves La Triviata. The winner was finally determined by the team who could name the greatest number of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands.
Each year this fun event includes a costume contest, raffle drawings and cocktails and dinner, and is overseen by master of ceremonies Mike Inouye of NBC Bay Area and trivia question judge Lawrence Stone, the tax assessor for Santa Clara County, who handles the good-natured “boos” accompanying his introduction and judgments with aplomb.
Many thanks to the Harker Eggheads for representing the school so well!
On Nov. 3 an intrepid quartet of Harker teachers placed third in the fifth annual Silicon Valley Trivia Challenge, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The contest is a fundraiser held by the Junior League of San Jose, and Chris and Marcia Riedel of Hunter Labs (and former Harker parents) have kindly sponsored the Harker table since the contest’s inception in 2008. Finalists each year, Harker placed third in 2009 and second in 2010; all three times Harker has donated its winnings ($1,000 for second, $500 for third) back to the Junior League.
The Harker Eggheads – Linda Felice (middle school English), Brian Larsen (K-12 production manager), Tony Silk (upper school math) and Paul Vallerga (middle school technical director) – were one of 47 teams. After the preliminary elimination round of 20 questions on subjects like pop culture, chemistry, astronomy, geography and literature, Harker was one of only two teams with a perfect score. In the semifinals, no team was perfect, but Harker had 13 of 15 questions correct and easily made the finals. (It seems that “tittle,” the word for the little dot on a lowercase English i or j, stumped the room.) The final 10 teams held on, with a five-round sudden death finally determining this year’s first and second place winners: a group of friends from Santa Cruz who also won last year, and the team from NBC Bay Area, who called themselves La Triviata. The winner was finally determined by the team who could name the greatest number of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands.
Each year this fun event includes a costume contest, raffle drawings and cocktails and dinner, and is overseen by master of ceremonies Mike Inouye of NBC Bay Area and trivia question judge Lawrence Stone, the tax assessor for Santa Clara County, who handles the good-natured “boos” accompanying his introduction and judgments with aplomb.
Many thanks to the Harker Eggheads for representing the school so well!
Capitalizing on the excitement of the recent Harker Family & Alumni Picnic, lower school teacher Shelby Guarino recently treated her grade 5 English classes to a unique interactive balloon activity which served as a fun way to practice grammar skills.
“The picnic is over, yet we are still playing!” said Guarino of the balloon game, held in the morning on Oct.19. “While it is hard to top the fun of throwing darts at balloons, we tried to keep the memories alive through the grammar balloon game.”
With the assistance of some “eager student helpers,” Guarino wrote various examples of different nouns and verbs on approximately 200 balloons which were leftover from the picnic game Dalmatian Darts. The students were then charged with the task of finding the correct parts of speech on the balloons and using them to formulate sentences on an accompanying paper test.
In order for Guarino’s students to complete the activity, they were required to meander through a pile of tiny balloons scattered across the classroom floor. They were steadfast in their mission to find and jot down examples of the five types of nouns and three types of verbs in about 25 minutes. When the last class of the day completed the test, they were rewarded with the job of popping all 200 balloons with a pushpin.
“It was a fun way to practice grammar, and a great way to remember our time together at the Harker Family Picnic!” recalled Guarino.
The Parker Quartet was the latest in a line of top-flight classical performers to appear at the Harker Concert Series, as the Minnesota-based group of young, extraordinarily talented instrumentalists put bow to string for a packed house at the Nichols Hall auditorium on Oct. 26.
Following a brief introduction, the quartet opened with famed minimalist Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres,” adapted for string quartet. First violinist Daniel Chong and violist Jessica Bodner began with the piece’s foreboding harmonies, which were greeted by the cellist Kee-Hyun Kim’s percussive pizzicato, providing an effective, if somewhat violent, contrast to the delicate work of his partners. As second violinist Karen Kim was on sabbatical, David McCarroll served as her replacement that evening, providing a soft, constant hum behind the ominous and sometimes mournful lines.
Parker Quartet continued with British composer Benjamin Britten’s “String Quartet No. 2,” written after a visit to the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The quartet effortlessly captured the first movement’s challenging, frequent and sometimes jarring shifts in tone, often characterized by disjointed staccato passages and calm, pleasant phrases broken up by sudden outbursts of disharmony. The animated second movement was given a very energetic treatment, its harsh and disquieting tones played with a fitting aggression that at times bordered on ferocity. “Chacony,” the piece’s final movement and also its longest, traversed peaks and valleys, revealing glimmers of hope. The quartet’s togetherness throughout was more than impressive, and though each member’s individual ability was already apparent, “Chacony” gave each the opportunity to showcase their immense virtuosity.
With the event taking place just five days away from Halloween, the Nichols Hall atrium was decorated with spooky accoutrements, including a punch bowl that boiled and bubbled like a witch’s cauldron.
Juanita Johnson, who was visiting from Modesto, said the performance was “delightful. I grew up in Jamaica, and there was music in my house at all times, and I heard all variations of it.” This upbringing later allowed her to “sit and listen to anything.”
Astara Marcia commented that the performance was “excellent. I’m a classical musician myself,” said the violist with the Palo Alto Peninsula Pops Orchestra. She also enjoyed the presentation of the event, saying “I’m very impressed. It’s a great way to get people to come back.”
After impressing with two unorthodox pieces, the quartet launched into the evening’s big crowd-pleaser, Franz Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 14,” subtitled “Death and the Maiden,” known to many a listener of chamber music. Like their performance of Britten earlier in the evening, the quartet took an almost explosive approach to the material, while at the same time allowing themselves plenty of subtlety in the quieter sections, particularly in the slower, funereal parts of the second movement. Kee-Hyun Kim’s aggressive pizzicato, as it had at several moments during the evening, was dominant without being overpowering. The festive bounce of the final movement was well-matched with Parker Quartet’s stylistic approach. Its fast-moving, intricate lines were also a fine showcase for the musicians’ splendid technique and tight interplay, which were in full effect right up until the rousing finish, which the audience met with loud applause.
Fall sports are still in action as teams go into playoffs or wrap up their seasons. The big news today is the Harker varsity girls volleyball team took the CCS championship last night. Watch for the update as details become available!
Football The Fremont Firebirds and Harker Eagles lit up the scoreboard last Friday night in a football game that featured 21 touchdowns as Fremont defeated Harker 90-56. Harker led 50-49 at halftime and finished the game with 571 yards of total offense, led by senior quarterback Spenser Quash’s aerial assault on the Firebird defense. Quash completed 28 of 47 passes for 422 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Kevin Moss, grade 11, and Robert Deng, grade 12, each caught two touchdowns, and Christian Williams, grade 11, caught the fifth. Quash also ran for three touchdowns. Harker plays its final game of the season at Homecoming tonight night versus Lynbrook.
Water Polo
The boys’ water polo team placed fourth at the Homestead Tournament over the weekend, defeating Half Moon Bay but losing to Carlmont and Burlingame. Against Half Moon Bay, Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, netted four goals, with Ryan Hume, grade 12, scoring three. Eric Holt, grade 10, Gilad Nilo, grade 12, and Jeremy Binkley, grade 10, all added a goal apiece. For his efforts, Das-Grande was named first team all-tournament. The boys play in the league tournament starting this Thursday evening against Lynbrook.
The #1-seeded girls water polo team earned their first ever league championship yesterday by defeating Mountain View 9-5 in the semifinal match of the league tournament and improve to 20-5 overall. The league championship qualifies them for the CCS tournament which begins next week. Congratulations, ladies, on your accomplishments and for making Harker history!
Golf
Patricia Huang, grade 12, and Kristine Lin, grade 11, each played in the CCS golf championships this week in Carmel. Huang ended her Harker golf career on a high note, shooting an 82 to finish 30th place at Rancho Canada. It was a record-breaking week for her, as she became the first Harker golfer to qualify for CCS as an individual all four years of her career. Her score of 82 represents the lowest score ever carded by a Harker girls golfer at CCS. In Carmel, Lin followed up with an 85, placing 38 out of 90 participants, and this week became the first female Harker golfer to win the regular season individual title. To cap it off, she won the league championships with an impressive score of 73 at Poplar Creek.
Tennis
Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, and Katia Mironova, grade 11, defeated Crystal Springs Tuesday in straight sets to win the WBAL doubles championship. With the win, the duo will represent Harker at the CCS Individual Tournament Nov. 19-20 at Courtside Club in Los Gatos. Dora Tzeng, grade 11, also played well, but lost to #1 seed Menlo in the semifinals. Tzeng won the first set, lost the second set in a close tiebreaker, and lost 6-4 in the third set. Tzeng, seeded #3, nearly pulled off the upset despite serving underhand.
Volleyball
Varsity girls volleyball won the league championship, defeating Mercy-Burlingame 25-21, 25-20, 25-15. The team needed the victory to become league tri-champions with a 20-6 overall record and 10-2 in league. By virtue of the league tie-breaking system, Harker receives the first seed from our league into the CCS tournament, which starts next week.
Cross Country The teams did not qualify for the CCS championships, but four individuals did qualify for the Nov. 10 sectional championships at Toro Park in Salinas. Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12 (19:24, third) and Claudia Tischler, grade 11 (19:41, sixth place and cracked the top 10 in the league for the first time) ran their personal bests on the 2.95-mile course. The girls team missed qualifying by .3 seconds. Bhattacharya’s time of 19:24 is a new school record.
On the boys’ side, sophomore Corey Gonzales (second) and senior Tyler Yeats (25th) will run in the CCS meet. Gonzales’ time of 16:12 is a new school record.