Girls lacrosse went 2-1 last week starting with a close 17-15 loss to Bella Vista Tuesday. The girls then traveled to Santa Catalina Thursday to earn a 19-9 win and marked the first time ever defeating the Cougars! The girls opened league play Friday with a 17-11 victory over rival Notre Dame-San Jose.
Big shout out to the boys basketball and football team members who came to support lacrosse. Scorers were: Asia Howard, grade 12 (one); Michelle Douglas, grade 11 (three); Hannah Bollar, grade 9 (four); Tiphaine Delepine, grade 11 (four), Wendy Shwe, grade 11 (five). Christine Lee, grade 10, had 16 saves in goal. The girls host tough league opponent Mercy-Burlingame Friday, so please come out and support them! This is Andrew Irvine’s first year as head coach. He has four years of experience working under former head coach Dawn Clark. Jason Berry is his assistant coach.
Swimming
Our swimmers opened the league portion of their season with some outstanding results. The girls team defeated Menlo 141-57 and Mercy-Burlingame 132-60. The girls earned first place finishes in all events
The girls 200-medley relay of Katie Siegel, grade 12, Lucy Cheng, grade 12, Kimberly Ma, grade 10, and Amie Chien, grade 11, won and qualified for CCS.
The girls 200-free relay of Tiffany Wong, Rachelle Koch, Amie Chien, all grade 12, and Manon Audebert, grade 10, won and qualified for CCS. The girls 400-free relay of Siegel, Cheng, Ma and Audebert won and qualified for CCS.
Audebert won the 200 free; Ma won the 200 individual medley and the 400 free, qualifying for CCS in both. Chien won the 100 free, Wong won the 50 free, Siegel won the 100 fly and the 100 back, and qualified for CCS in both. Cheng won the 100 breast and qualified for CCS in that and the 200 IM. Honorable mentions include Koch and Keri Clifford, grade 11.
The girls swam again March 28 so watch for results including first place finishes from Audebert, Ma, Siegel and Koch, and the relays featuring Chien, Cheng and Tiffany Wong. Coming soon!
Final score, boys: Menlo 108, Harker 92
The 200-medley relay of Kevin Khojasteh, grade 12, Aaron Huang, grade 9, Craig Neubieser, grade 9, and Daryl Neubieser, grade 12, won and qualified for CCS. The 200-free relay of Khojasteh, Huang and both Neubiesers won and qualified for CCS.
Khojasteh won the 200 individual medley and the 100 back and qualified for CCS in both, Daryl Neubieser won the 50 free and the 100 free and qualified for CCS in both, Huang won the 100 breast and qualified for CCS; Honorable mentions include Craig Neubieser and Austin Lai.
Baseball
After losing to Monta Vista earlier in the week, our baseball team bounced back with a 18-0 win against North Valley Baptist to improve to 4-4. Noah Levy, grade 12, was 2 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs.
March 28, in the league opener against King’s Academy, with bases loaded, two outs, a 4-4 tie in extra innings, junior Drew Goldstein drove in the winning run with a line-drive single to win the game 5-4. Kevin Cali, grade 11, pitched eight strong innings with seven strikeouts. Nate Hoffman, grade 12, went 3 for 5 with two RBIs. Jacob Hoffman (no relation), grade 11, went 3 for 6 batting including a double. The boys are 5-4, 1-0 in league and travel to Menlo March 30.
Boys Tennis
Boys Tennis lost to Monta Vista and Menlo last week before coming back and defeating Priory 7-0 on Thursday, making them 3-3 overall, 3-2 in league play. This week things turned around with their second victory over Priroy, 5-2, on Priory’s home courts. Sachin Jain, grade 12, played #1 singles and won a close tiebreaker in the third set. Number one doubles team of Chris Chang, grade 11, and Jason Chu, grade 9,had an easy victory, 6-1, 6-0 and set the tone for the match. Harker is now tied for second place in the WBAL (with SHP) and our overall record is 5-4. They travel to King’s Academy, March 29.
Boys Volleyball
Boys volleyball lost to Lynbrook and Mountain View last week to drop to 5-7 overall, 1-3 in league. Andrew Zhu, grade 10, had 19 kills in the loss to Lynbrook and Zach Ellenberg, grade 12, added 12 kills. They host to Lowell and Monta Vista this week.
Innovation News Daily, March 26, 2012 – The Harker InvenTeam’s innovative energy solution receives coverage on the website.
BusinessWire, March 20, 2012 – A press release from Applied Materials, Inc. mentions Harker as a third place winner in this year’s Clean Tech competition. The Harker team is made up of grade 11 students Maya Sathaye, Shelby Rorabaugh and Lorraine Wong.
The Harker Eagles varsity softball team (4-3 overall, 1-1 in league play) won a WBAL Foothill Division game 6-0 against the Alma Heights Christian Eagles (0-4, 0-1) on March 20. There were several highlights during the game played on Harker’s home diamond, and they were all provided by Harker pitcher Alison Rugar, grade 11.
Rugar’s lead-off home run was all the offense Harker would need to defeat Alma Heights. However, Rugar’s performance on the mound would eclipse what turned out to be the game-winning hit. She dominated the visiting team by pitching an 18-strikeout perfect game. Sixty-five percent of Rugar’s pitches were strikes, and she averaged 3.9 pitches per Alma Heights batter. The perfect game was preserved by Rugar cleanly fielding a bunt to throw out an Alma Height batter and Harker shortstop Ashley Del Alto, grade 11, snagging two line shots. Perfect games don’t happen without great catching, and Laura Thacker , grade 10, was solid behind the plate.
When the 21st Alma Heights batter swung and missed on a 1-2 count, there was no fist-pumping or leaping off the mound. Rugar jogged to the Harker dugout and thanked her teammates for their help in Harker’s winning effort. Harker coach Raul Rios awarded the game ball to Rugar after it was signed by the Harker players.
Rugar is currently leading the WBAL Foothill Division in home runs (two), and she has recorded 89 strikeouts for the 2012 season. Her overall GPA is 4.23 and she is a top flute player in the award-winning Harker Orchestra.
Girls lacrosse had a close game against Bella Vista yesterday, but lost 15-17. Harker scorers were: Michelle Douglas, grade 11 (six); Wendy Shwe, grade 11 (five), Tiphaine Delepine, grade 11 (two); and Hannah Bollar, grade 9 (two).
Boys tennis lost to state power Menlo yesterday and face another strong team today, Monta Vista. Harker is now 2-3 overall, 2-2 in league.
Softball is off to a terrific start! Harker is 3-2 overall, and the two losses were to teams that play in higher-ranked leagues. Harker plays in the Foothill Division of the West Bay Athletic League (WBAL), which is a “C” league. Monte Vista is in an “A” league, and Yuerba Buena, Gunderson, Menlo-Atherton and Lincoln are in “B” leagues, so the Harker softball team has actually been “fighting above our weight” and doing just fine.
Last year the squad made it to the Central Coast Sectional (CCS) tournament. The rules are that the top two finishers in the Foothill division are automatically in, and the first place finisher in the Skyline division of the WBAL plays the third place finisher in Foothill — last year, that was Harker. The team finished in third in Foothill and had to play and win one extra game to make it into the tournament. Hopes are running high for this year.
Many girls have been coming out to play, and their skills are developing quickly. This can only happen with parental support for their regular attendance at practice, good nutrition and adequate sleep. The coaches also appreciate the planning families are doing to help the team go.
The game on March 14 was a perfect end-of-preseason match as almost every player was able to get into the game (skill development), there was great camaraderie in the dugout (having fun), and Harker won! The coaches look forward to seeing continued support from the Harker community throughout the softball season.
The Grade 5 girls basketball team defeated St. Matthews yesterday in the semifinal game by a score of 41-14! They have earned a spot in the WBAL championship game taking place today at Pinewood, on Fabian Way, at 5 p.m.. Congratulations to coaches Michelle and Tim Hopkins and to all the girls for their amazing season and good luck today!
Congratulations to the girls grade 5 basketball team for their 28-6 victory over Woodland last night! Today they play in the semifinal game against either Sacred Heart 2 or St Matthews in Harker’s Bucknall gym at 5 p.m. Please come out and support the girls!
In addition to the accomplishments of the girls basketball, boys soccer and wrestling teams, we participated in the first ever middle school WBAL golf tournament. Please see the results below.
Boys baseball defeated St. Lawrence yesterday 14-4 in five innings to improve to 1-1. Kevin Cali and Jacob Hoffman, both grade 11, and Noah Levy, grade 12, each hit home runs. Cali also pitched eight strikeouts to earn the victory.
Girls softball defeated Yerba Buena 15-5 behind junior Alison Rugar’s eight strikeouts on the mound. She also hit a grand slam! Other hits were made by Angela Singh, grade 12; Ashley Del Alto (double) and Akarsha Gulukota, grade 11; Laura Thacker (triple), Alana Shamlou and Nithya Vemireddy, grade 10; and Sarah Bean and Safia Khouja , grade 9. The girls are now 2-0 on the season.
Today’s games:
3:30 Varsity Tennis v. King’s Academy @ Oakwood
3:30 JV Tennis @ Blackford
3:30 Baseball v. Lynbrook @ Blackford
4:00 JV Boys Volleyball v. Archbishop Mitty @ Blackford
5:15 Varsity Boys Volleyball v. Archbishop Mitty @ Blackford (home opener)
Harker athletes have roared out of the gates in spring sports, showing some fantastic results.
Track & Field opened the season at the Willow Glen Invitational, with Isabelle Connell, grade 11, winning first place in both the 200m and 400m field (with times of 26.12s and 60.62s, respectively). Sumit Minocha, also grade 11, stunned the meet with a second place in the 100m dash and a incredible 22.60s first place finish in the 200m dash, which, broke the long-standing meet record. Matt Giammona placed 11th (out of 42) in the discus (105’2”) and 14th in the shot put. Ragini Bhattacharya placed ninth in the two-mile run (12:14.16). As a team, the girls placed eighth out of 21 teams and boys 10th out of 24.
Harker softball defeated Menlo-Atherton in their season opener 10-4 behind junior Alison Rugar’s twelve strikeouts and senior Angela Singh’s three hits.
Boys volleyball won their season opener at SLV 3-1. Andrew Zhu, grade 10, had thirteen kills in the victory. The freshman/sophomore combined team defeated the Bellarmine freshman team 2-0.
Boys golf defeated Pinewood in their opener 189-191. Maverick McNealy, grade 11, and Shrish Dwivedi, grade 9, both shot 34’s at Los Lagos.
Upcoming Home Games:
Thursday, March 8: Tennis vs. Crystal Springs, Softball vs. Monta Vista, Boys volleyball vs. Willow Glen
Friday, March 9: Softball vs. Pinewood, Baseball vs. Woodside Priory, Boys volleyball vs. Harbor at Bucknall.
The Harker School is proud to have many students participating in the FIRST Lego League (FLL), a program for students aged 9-16 that releases a new FLL Challenge every September. Part of each challenge is the Robot Game, in which students participate by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field. Another integral part of the challenge are the FLL Core Values, which students must be guided by throughout the duration of their projects. These include learning together, honoring the spirit of friendly competition and displaying gracious professionalism and cooperation in everything they do.
Five grade 6 students from Harker formed a team called The Fruitest Five, and took home top prizes for the Robot Game and for their commitment to the core values. Kavita Tankha, parent of team member Aliesa Bahri, said, “The Robot Performance award goes to the team with the most points earned by completing robot missions, and the Core Values award is given for teamwork and gracious professionalism. The judges called out the ‘girls in pink’ for their enthusiasm, inclusiveness and teamwork.” The other members of Fruitest Five, Anooshree Sengupta, Aria Coalson, Maya Kumar and Jessica Susai, along with Sengupta, overcame a nervous moment early in the competition when a loose connection in their robot caused it to stop working. Everything was smooth sailing from there on out, and the team came out on top, moving them to the East Bay Championship Round.