The San Jose Mercury News announced their boys tennis and volleyball all-stars today and Harker is well represented. Karthik Dhore, just graduated, was named to the First Team All Mercury News Boys Tennis.
Five students in the Harker Latin program were singled out for recognition by the National Latin Exam Board on May 18 at the Junior Classical League (JCL) Awards Ceremony. Four of these students, Jenny Chen, Pranav Sharma, Shannon Su, and Ashvin Swaminathan, all grade 10, have received gold medals to acknowledge their excellence in Latin four years in a row; these students will receive copies of the Oxford Classical Dictionary in recognition of this achievement. Alexander Hsu, grade 11, will receive a special book for five straight gold medal years. Please congratulate the students for their continued commitment to excellence in Latin!
Girls swimming and boys tennis teams were named 2011 Spring Scholastic Champions by the Central Coast Section. The girls swimming team came in with an average GPA of 3.8330 and boys tennis members averaged out 3.8450 to take the titles. Harker had five teams in second place: golf, lacrosse, boys swimming, boys volleyball and boys track and field, all behind the leaders by less than 1/10 of a point. There were three more teams, baseball,softball and girls track and field, in the top five lists of additional contenders, giving Harker placement in 10 of the 13 sports. GO EAGLES!
Wrestlers Santosh Swaminathan, Jason Mendel and Chris McCallaCreary, all grade 12, advanced to the second day of competition at the CCS tournament over the weekend, a Harker first. McCallaCreary placed fourth overall, making him the highest-placing CCS wrestler in Harker history.
Meanwhile, boys basketball, boys soccer and wrestling all received CCS Scholastic Championships. Congrats all around!
Winter sports are wrapping up! January Athletes of the Month are sophomore Priscilla Auyeung, basketball, and classmate Michael Amick, soccer.
Wrestling
Wrestler Santosh Swaminathan, grade 12, became Harker’s first-ever league champion this past weekend! Classmate Chris McCallaCreary placed second, losing 4-2 in the finals. Senior Jason Mendel also placed second in his weight, making this the first time Harker has ever had three league finalists. All three have qualified for CCS in two weeks. At the end of January, McCallaCreary won the 160-lb. weight class at Overfelt High School. McCallaCreary defeated both the first- and second-ranked wrestlers in CCS on his way to taking the tournament championship.
The girls basketball team lost their first-ever WBAL league playoff game to Sacred Heart Prep 56-41 in mid-February and now await their CCS seeding. They defeated Crystal Springs and King’s Academy in early February to finish up the regular season with a record-setting 19-3 overall record and second place league finish. In their Jan. 25 Mercy-Burlingame match, a close game was anticipated, but no one expected three overtimes. Mercy-Burlingame made last-second shots to tie at the end of regulation and again to force the second and third overtimes, but our Eagles eventually held off the Crusaders for a 56-53 victory. Rodriguez scored 27 points for the Eagles, and Tanya Rai, grade 12, had 12 rebounds in that game.
Boys basketball had their final home game in mid-February versus a tough Pinewood team, nailing them 61-52. Senior Partha Mahajani scored 15 points, junior Stephen Hughes had 12 and Nikhil Panu, grade 10, scored 10 points. In previous play, the boys defeated Crystal Springs but lost to King’s Academy in early February. Prior to that, the team put up a tough fight against first place Sacred Heart, losing 56-38 (Vik Jain, grade 11, had 10 points) but in late January handled ECP, 44-29.
Cheerleading
In late January, our two senior cheerleaders, Amanda King and Alice Loofbourrow, were recognized for their four years of contributing to Harker athletics. Thanks to both girls!
Soccer
Varsity boys soccer had a fine week in early February defeating Crystal Springs and Pinewood to improve to 5-4-3. Catch their final two home games Wed., Feb. 16 and Fri., Feb. 18 on Davis Field. Ambrish Amaranathan and Isaac Madan were the senior boy soccer players lauded for their years of participation in mid-February prior to their game against KIPP San Jose Collegiate on Davis Field.
Girls soccer lost to ECP and Crystal Springs in early February and face Notre Dame Feb. 15. The team lost to Notre Dame in late January, but three cheers to Alicia Clark, grade 9, who was awarded the game ball by coach Troy Thiele for her improved game. Girls soccer seniors Monisha Appalaraju, Lydia Demissachew, Michelle Holt, Arthi Kumar and Priya Sahdev were thanked for their contributions in mid-February on Davis Field. GO EAGLES!
Harker wrestlers competed in Cupertino’s Gary Bianchi Memorial Tournament Jan. 8 and came away with two championships. Santosh Swaminathan, grade 12, placed first in the 103 pound class; classmate Chris McCallaCreary defeated a state ranked wrestler from St. Francis to win his championship. Coach Karriem Stinson called McCallaCreary’s victory “the biggest win in the program’s history.” Read more about Harker winter sports!
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) recently released its list of Academic Team Champions for the 2009-10 school year, and Harker’s upper school football, wrestling and boys swimming squads were all named state champions for their exceptional GPAs. Harker tied with San Diego County’s La Costa Canyon High School for the highest number of teams to win the honor.
As spring sports came to a close, we had several upper school teams and many athletes turn in impressive end-of-season showings.
Golf
Maverick McNealy, Gr. 9, shot a 73 for a top 10 finish at the CCS Golf Tournament! He was one shot short of qualifying for the NorCal Tournament but is first alternate in case one of the four qualifiers can’t participate. He did a great job and his is the best-ever finish for a Harker player.
For more details, see www.cifccs.org/playoffs/results/09-10/bgolfccs10.html
Swimming
At the league championships held on campus at the Singh Aquatic Center, several records were set, including a school and WBAL record time of 1:50.15 in the girls 200 medley relay. The winning team was made up of Katie Siegel, Gr. 10, Tina Ma, Gr. 12, Vivian Wong, Gr. 12, and Jessica Khojasteh, Gr. 11. WBAL records were also broken in the girls 200 IM by J. Khojasteh, in 2:06.04; the girls 100 back by Siegel in 58.34; the girls 100 breast by V. Wong, in 1:06.41; the boys 200 medley relay by Kevin Khojasteh, Gr. 10, Michael Clifford, Gr. 12, Daryl Neubieser, Gr. 10, and Cole Davis, Gr. 12, with a time of 1:40.13; and the boys breast by K. Khojasteh in :59.99. Additional school records were set by Neubieser in the boys 200 (1:46.90) and 500 free (4:50.35), and in the boys 200 IM by K. Khojasteh (1:56.70).
Event winners at the championships included J. Khojasteh (200 IM, 100 free); Siegel (100 back); V. Wong (100 breast); girls 200 medley relay (Siegel, Ma, V. Wong, J. Khojasteh); K. Khojasteh (100 breast); Davis (50 free); and the boys 200 medley relay (K. Khojasteh, Clifford, Neubieser, Davis).
Individual CCS qualifiers were V. Wong, Ma, J. Khojasteh, Siegel, Lucy Cheng, Gr. 10, Tiffany Wong, Gr. 10, Davis, Clifford, K. Khojasteh and Neubieser. In the relays, all of the above students qualified, as well as Jeanette Chin, Gr. 12, Rachelle Koch, Gr. 10, Amie Chien, Gr. 9, Stefan Schwartz, Gr. 12, Darren Syu, Gr. 12, Chris Ng, Gr. 11, and Hassaan Ebrahim, Gr. 11.
At the CCS finals, the boys swim team not only was named CCS Scholastic Team Champions, they alsoplaced fourth overall (behind Bellarmine, Valley Christian and Sacred Heart Prep). The girls swim team placed eighth. Both results were the best placing ever for Harker. Before four years ago Harker had never scored a single point at CCS!
The highlight among highlights in the meet for Harker was J. Khojasteh (also Harker’s female athlete of the year) winning the first ever CCS title in any sport of any kind for Harker. In the most exciting race of the day, the 200 individual medley, Khojasteh touch tied for second after the butterfly leg, .44 behind the leader. After the backstroke, her “weakest” stroke, the race was still very close with Khojasteh in third, just .79 behind. She had a phenomenal breaststroke leg moving back up to second, but was still .21 behind. With a three-way battle in the freestyle, Khojasteh managed to get to the finish first, winning in 2:03.11. The top three girls were within one second of each other the entire race.
Other Harker top eight finishes of the meet included the girls 200 medley relay of Siegel, Ma, V. Wong and J. Khojasteh, which finished sixth; the boys 200 medley relay of K. Khojasteh, Clifford, Neubieser and Davis finishing second; along with several individual winners. K. Khojasteh took second in the 100 breaststroke and fourth in the 200 IM; Davis placed second in both the 50 and 100 freestyle; Neubieser came in eighth in the 50 freestyle; the boys 400 free relay of Neubiser, Davis, Khojasteh and Schwartz finished eighth; and V. Wong placed sixth in the 100 breaststroke.
All-American times were achieved this year by the girls 200 medley relay team of Siegel, Ma, V. Wong and J. Khojasteh; J. Khojasteh in the 200 IM and 100 freestyle; Siegel in the 100 backstroke; Davis in the 50 and 100 freestyle; and K. Khojasteh in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke.
Congratulations to Isabelle Connell, Gr. 9, Michael Chen, Gr. 9, Thomas Enzminger, Gr. 12, and Scott Underwood, Gr. 12, for representing Harker at the CCS Track & Field Prelims at Gilroy High. Connell placed 13th overall in the 800m run, and Chen was the only freshman in CCS to participate in the shot put.
Results: http://www.cifccs.org/playoffs/results/09-10/track%20semifinal%20track%20results.pdf Athletics Awards At the end of year sports banquet, awards were presented for the 2009-2010 sports year. The female athlete of the year was Jessica Khojasteh and the male athlete of the year was Cole Davis. The award for female scholar athlete of the year went to Christina Ma and the male scholar athlete of the year to Stefan Eckhardt. Senior coaches awards were presented to Kelly Chen, Shanthi Rajagopalan, Kelsey Hilbrich, Tiffany Kyi, Manasa Reddy, Vivian Wong, Michael Clifford, Lung Ying-Yu, Mark Roh, Eugene Huang, Aadithya Prakash, Greg Plauck, Ryan Cali and Patrick Smith. This talented group of athletes will be missed next year!
Sabreur Eric Pei, Gr. 5, took the silver medal in April in Virginia Beach, Va., at the North American Circuit event in the Youth-10 boys sabre category, placing him second in points in the U.S.. Pei will next fence in Summer Nationals in Atlanta in July. At the Virgina Beach tournament, Pei won five out of six pool bouts and seeded fourth into the elimination table, then fought his way through three elimination bouts to reach the gold medal match. Pei trains at The Fencing Center of San Jose and Halberstadt Fencers Club, San Francisco; his main coach is Rob Handelman at Halberstadt.
Harker’s wrestling and boys varsity soccer teams earned Central Coast Section Interscholastic Federation scholastic championships this spring. Wrestling had a cumulative GPA of 3.61, while the soccer team earned a 3.65. Girls soccer was a strong runner up at 3.79, only 3/100ths of a point from the top. The awards began in 1985 and, since the inception of the high school in 1998, Harker has won numerous times.