Table Tennis Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 10, and Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 9, took first place in Division I of the 2015 Bay Area Interschools Table Tennis League, organized by the Fremont Table Tennis Academy! Calling themselves Team Harker, the pair ended the regular season of round-robin competition by remaining undefeated and placing first in their division. In the playoffs, Team Harker defeated Warm Springs A with a match score of 5-0 and prevailed in the finals over Stratford Sunnyvale with a match score of 3-2. Team Harker was happy to earn the top spot for a second year in a row. Chandrashekaran won all his singles matches and was named the League MVP. Go Team Harker!
Fencing Harker had two swordspeople competing in the U.S. Fencing Summer National Championships, held in July in San Jose. Both fencers are sophomores, both fence foil and both fence for Silicon Valley Fencing Center. Darren Gu, grade 10, finished 166 out of 247 in Y-14 men’s foil and 23 of 32 teams in men’s team foil. Gu fenced in 11 local and regional events last season, with a first place win out of 48 fencers in a Y-14 event in February. He holds a C-2015 rating.
Jerrica Liao competed in a demanding five women’s events over 10 days, earning top 32 points and finishing 17 out of 115 in Cadet (up to age 17) and finishing 29 out of 179 in Y-14. In senior women’s foil team, she finished 12 out of 22 teams; in the tough Division 1-A event, she finished 52 out of 69; and in juniors (up to age 19), she finished 107 out of 145. All events were A3 or A4 rated. Liao fenced in more than a dozen local, regional and national events last season, including a first place finish out of 71 fencers in Dallas. She holds a B-2014 rating and is ranked 23 nationwide in Cadet, having aged out of the Y-14 bracket.
Editor’s note: Although Harker Athletics does not have table tennis or fencing teams, we are proud to note the successes of our students at these highly competitive endeavors!
Katherine Zhu, grade 10, took top honors at the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy/Shanshan Feng Junior Championship in August! This is her first American Junior Golf Association win. The AJGA website noted: “With a final-round 2-under-par 70, Katherine Zhu of San Jose, California, earned her first AJGA win at 5-under-par 211. The victory was Zhu’s first AJGA win after having two previous top-three finishes in 2014.” Congrats to Katherine on this accomplishment, a great way to end the summer.
Members of the JV and varsity dance team had a very successful run at United Spirit Association’s summer training camp at UC Santa Cruz last week. The group earned the highest award, Superior, for its choreography and performance skills, and was awarded the Hardest Working Team plaque by camp instructors. Hazal Gurcan, a rising junior, and Liana Wang, a rising sophomore, were named All-Americans, and were invited to perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade, and Ankita Sharma, a rising senior, earned an invitation to perform at Disney World’s Spirit Spectacular for her leadership and teamwork skills. Directors Rachelle Haun and Karl Kuehn noted they are incredibly proud of all the dancers for the hard work and energy they displayed during the four-day event!
Maverick McNealy ’13 was noted in the San Jose Mercury News on July 16 for holding down third place at the inaugural Barbasol Championship PGA golf tournament in Opelika, Ala. See story at http://bayareane.ws/1Okicw1. McNealy, who won the Haskins Award as the top college linksman, is also the 2015 Division I recipient of the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award, presented by Barbasol on June 5.
An article posted at www.Nicklaus.com notes McNealy’s accomplishments this year:
“A sophomore from Portola Valley, Calif., McNealy led NCAA Division I with six collegiate victories this year. He posted a dominant 10-stroke win at the Pac-12 Conference Championships, where his 18-under aggregate score of 262 established a new league tournament scoring record. The Pac-12 Conference Player owns a 69.05 season scoring average, the second best in recorded NCAA history. McNealy claimed medalist honors at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional, Southwestern Intercollegiate, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, The Prestige at PGA West and The Goodwin. McNealy was selected to compete this summer on the United States Palmer Cup team.”
On June 30 Harker golfer Katherine Zhu, a rising sophomore, qualified for the U.S. Golf Association’s Girls’ Junior Championship with a 72! The USGA tournament will be held at the Tulsa Country Club in Oklahoma July 20-25. This week, Zhu is competing in the American Junior Golf Association Bishops Gate Golf Academy Junior Open at Butte Creek Country Club in Chico, where she stands at 15th, though live results have her up to 12th as of noon today. https://www.ajga.org/ajgalive/fjls/index.asp?tn=2015065&sex=F
Three Harker softball players were selected for All-League softball teams as chosen by each league independently! In the Peninsula/Lake Division, Alisa Wakita (SS/2B/P), rising grade 12, was named to the second team, and Vivian Isenberg ’15 (1B/P/OF) and Kristin LeBlanc (2B/P/SS), rising grade 10, both received honorable mentions. Go Eagles!
Six Harker baseball players were selected for All-League baseball teams as chosen by each league independently! In the Peninsula/Lake Division, Miles DeWitt (infield), rising grade 12, and Nate Kelly (infield), rising grade 10, were both selected for first team; Dominic Cea (catcher), rising grade 10, was selected for the second team; and Keanu Forbes ’15 (OF/INF/P); Matt Kennedy (OF/P), rising grade 10; and Varun Haltore (3B/1B/P), rising grade 10, received honorable mentions. Go Diamond Eagles!
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Junior Varsity B1 (grade 5) girls volleyball, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished 5-1, tying with Sacred Heart for first place in the WBAL. The team awards went to Tara Ozdemir (MVP), Alivia Li (Eagle) and Thresiamma Vazhaeparambil (Coaches).
Junior Varsity B2 (grade 5) girls volleyball, coached by Therese Wunnenberg, finished 3-3, taking fourth place in the WBAL. The team awards went to Melody Yazdi (MVP), Imogene Leneham (Eagle) and Emily Tan (Coaches).
Intramural (grade 4) girls volleyball, coached by Vanessa Rios and Christina Mendoza, enjoyed a great season of learning fundamental skills and intramural games. Team awards went to Rachel Ning (MVP), Allison Zhu (Eagle) and Katelyn Abellera (Coaches).
Junior Varsity B (grades 4 and 5) baseball, coached by Richard Amarillas and Jon Cvitanich, finished 1-3 in league and 2-3 overall, taking fourth place in the WBAL. Team awards went to Richie Amarillas (MVP), Jack Hayashi (Eagle) and Arvin Nidadavolu (Coaches), all grade 5.
Intramural (grade 4 and 5) baseball, coached by Jim McGovern, Tobias Wade and Kristian Tiopo, finished a great season of learning fundamental skills and intramural games. Team awards went to Matthew Chen (Eagle), and Andrew Reed and Ethan Huang (Coaches).
Lower school track (grades 4 and 5), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 4 boys relay (Rohan Gorti, Andrew Fu, Lorenzo Martinelli and Rigo Gonzales) and the 100, 200 and 400 (Gonzales). Team awards went to Gonzales (MVP), Daniel Fields, grade 5 and Sasvath Ramachandran, grade 5 (Eagle), and Pranav Mullappalli, grade 4 and Nageena Singh, grade 5 (Coaches).
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Varsity A (grades 7 and 8) girls volleyball, coached by Stephanie Coleman and Diana Melendez, finished the season 5-1, taking second place in the West Bay Athletic League (WBAL) Gold Division. The team awards went to Allison Cartee, grade 8 (MVP), Srija Gadiraju, grade 8 (Eagle) and Lauren Beede, grade 7 (Coaches).
Varsity B (grades 7 and 8) girls volleyball, coached by Sarah Prudencio, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL South. The team awards went to Allison Jia, grade 7 (MVP), Lilly Anderson, grade 8 (Eagle) and Laura Wu, grade 8 (Coaches).
Varsity B2 (grades 7 and 8) girls volleyball, coached by Mandy Schroeder, finished 6-1, taking second place in the WBAL South. The team awards went to Cindy Wang, grade 8 (MVP), Rashmi Iyer, grade 7 (Eagle) and Mina Stojanovic, grade 7 (Coaches).
Junior Varsity A (grade 6) girls volleyball, coached by Vonda Reid, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL Gold Division. The team awards went to Julia Yusupov (MVP), Michelle Ning (Eagle) and Vidya Jeyendran (Coaches).
Junior Varsity B6 (grade 6) girls volleyball, coached by Tina Mai, finished 3-3, taking third place in the WBAL. The team awards went to Katerina Fenner (MVP), Annamma Vazhaeparambil (Eagle) and Aria Wong (Coaches).
Varsity A (grade 7 and 8) baseball, coached by Dan Pringle, Matt Arensberg and Tim Hopkins, finished 2-4, taking fifth place in the WBAL. Team awards went to Logan Frank, grade 8 (MVP), Andrew Skrobak, grade 8 (Eagle), and Jared Anderson and Jack Dawson (Coaches), both grade 8.
Junior Varsity A (grades 6 and 7) baseball, coached by Jeff Paull, Matt Haberli and Joe Newman, finished 4-1 in league and 6-2 overall, taking second place in the WBAL. Team awards went to AJ Escobar (MVP), Luke Wancewicz (Eagle) and Ricky Wardenburg (Coaches), all grade 6.
Varsity A (grades 7 and 8) boys volleyball, coached by Pete Anderson, went 10-0 in league and 11-0 overall, taking first place and the tournament championship in the ADAL. Team awards went to Chris Gong (MVP), Charlie Molin (Eagle) and Zachary Wong (Coaches), all grade 8.
Junior Varsity A (grades 6 and 7) boys volleyball, coached by Diana Melendez and Kurt Schwartz, went 4-4, taking fourth place in the Art David Athletic League (ADAL). Team awards went to Utkarsh Priyam (MVP), Andrew Lee (Eagle) and Anish Kilaru (Coaches), all grade 6.
Coed water polo (grades 6-8), coached by Ted Ujifusa and Peter Blume, went 4-0 at the WBAL championships. Team awards went to Bobby Bloomquist, grade 8 (MVP), Matthew Hajjar, grade 8 (Eagle), and Leah Anderson, grade 6 and Rohan Sonecha, grade 7 (Coaches).
Middle school track (grades 6-8), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 8 girls relay (Alex Janssen, Sara Min, Alycia Cary and Julia Amick) the 400 and 800 (Amick) and the long jump (Janssen). Team awards went to Amick (MVP), Anton Novikov and Arya Mahesh- wari (Eagle), both grade 6, and Rosh Roy and Elizabeth Fields (Coaches), both grade 6.
Varsity A tennis (grades 6-8), coached by JP Fruttero and John Fruttero, went undefeated at 7-0 in the WBAL and took first place in the WBAL and in the WBAL tournament. They finished 4-4 in the Mid-Peninsula Tennis Patrons Junior Tennis League (MTP) and will be competing in the MTP tournament next week. Team awards went to Joshua Valluru, grade 7 and Neil Ramaswamy, grade 8 (MVP), Gina Partridge, grade 7 and Anjay Saklecha, grade 8 (Eagle), and Jack Hansen and Simar Bajaj, both grade 7 (Coaches).
Middle school golf (grades 6-8), coached by Ie-Chen Cheng, finished in second place at the spring WBAL golf tournament at Crystal Springs Golf Course. Par was a 36. Competitors were: Alexander King, grade 7 (41), Aditya Tadimeti, grade 6 (42), Jaimin Bhagat, grade 7 (45), Ronit Gagneja, grade 7 (45), Abhinav Joshi, grade 8 (46), Katelyn Vo, grade 7 (52), Natalie Vo, grade 6 (54) and Elvin Chen, grade 6 (56).
Huge congrats! Four Harker female lacrosse players were named 2015 Academic All-Americans for the Northern California chapter by US Lacrosse. The students, all rising seniors, are Elizabeth Edwards, Natasha Mayor, Aishu Murari and Sai (Shreya) Sunkara. Go Eagles!
Academic All-American honorees exhibit exemplary lacrosse skills, good sportsmanship on the field and represent high standards of academic achievement.