Bay Area awash in state swimming titles
Bay Area awash in state swimming titles
The Bay Area’s reputation as a swimming hotbed was only furthered with a stellar performance Saturday in the CIF state championships at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex at Clovis West High.
The region swam away with 11 championships, including two by Palo Alto junior Alex Liang in the 200-yard (1:36.65) and 500 freestyle (4:23.41) events.
Palo Alto’s girls also picked up championships in the 200 medley relay (1:42.41) and 200 free relay (1:33.64), and from senior diver Mimi Lin.
Sophomores Zoe Lusk and Claire Lin, junior Grace Zhao and senior Katie Francis swam the medley team for Palo Alto and sophomore Peyton Wang replaced Francis in the free relay.
Other local winners were Presentation senior Chloe Isleta (200 individual medley, 1:59.27), Los Altos senior Albert Gwo (50 free, 20.07), Granada-Livermore freshman Miranda Heckman (500 free, 4:46.45), Santa Clara junior Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou (100 backstroke, 53.50), Terra Linda-San Rafael junior Halle Morris (100 breaststroke, 1:01.30) and San Ramon Valley-Danville senior Hank Poppe (100 breast, 54.97).
Baseball:
Before a big crowd at San Jose Municipal Stadium on Saturday night, St. Francis rode the pitching and hitting of Jeremy Ydens to beat Serra 4-0 in the Central Coast Section Open Division quarterfinals.
Ydens, pitched 61/3 innings and had a two-run single for the Lancers, who lost in the WCAL final to Serra the week before.
St. Francis, the fifth seed, will play ninth-seed Carlmont-Belmont (21-8), in a 4 p.m. Wednesday semifinal at S.J. Muni.
The other semifinal pits 11th seed Bellarmine (20-9) against seventh-seed San Benito-Hollister (18-7) at 7 p.m.
Track and field:
The most impressive effort Saturday came from California-San Ramon sophomore Alyssa Brewer who — after winning her 400 heat (55.05) in the NCS Tri-Valley Meet at Foothill-Pleasanton — took the 800 in a meet record (and state-leading) 2:07.71.
At the same meet, Amador Valley-Pleasanton senior Nathan Esperaza won the shot put in a meet record of 69 feet, 2 inches, the second-best mark in the state and fourth best in the country.
Granada-Livermore senior Megan McCandless recorded an impressive double, taking the 1,600 (4:52.07) and the 3,200 (10:36.52).
In the Bay Shore meet at windy Castro Valley, Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland’s Tierra Robinson-Jones won the 400 in 54.74 and led the Dragons to relay wins in the 400 (47.67) and 1,600 (4:021.5).
Antioch running back Najee Harris, the top-ranked junior recruit in the country by virtually every recruiting service, was invited to the Opening on Sunday.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder was among nine invited to the national showcase during a regional camp at Oakland Tech.
Monte Vista-Danville quarterback Jake Haener was invited to the Elite 11 camp, which coincides with the Opening at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., the first week of July.
No fluke:
St. Ignatius boys tennis team proved that its initial CCS title the previous week over Menlo School-Atherton was no aberration with a 5-2 win over the same squad for the CIF Northern California title Saturday.
Monte Vista-Danville (22-1) won the NCS Division I boys lacrosse title with a 14-6 victory over De La Salle. …
De La Salle (32-2) won its eighth NCS boys volleyball crown with a three-game Division I decision over Dougherty Valley-San Ramon.
Alhambra-Martinez (27-5) won its first NCS crown with a four-game Division II victory over Las Lomas-Walnut Creek.
Mitch Stephens is a senior writer at MaxPreps.
Chronicle top 10 baseball
Rank
Record
De La Salle
Heritage
Casa Grande
NR
Marin Catholic
NR
Palo Alto
Chronicle top 10 softball
Rank
Record
Foothill
Freedom
Heritage
Newark Memorial