Palo Alto completed its season sweep of rival Gunn and captured the SCVAL De Anza Division boys’ golf title with a 183-193 victory on a windy Tuesday afternoon at Santa Teresa Golf Course in San Jose.
John Knowles fired a 1-under 35 to pace the Vikings (12-0), who got even-par rounds from Matt Lewis and Henry Hughes. Sam Niethammer finished with a 37 and Alex Hwang wrapped up the scoring with a 39 as Paly finished undefeated in league for the second straight season while improving to 34-2 over three years.
Adam Fleischman led Gunn and earned co-medalist honors with a season-best 35. Jack Jaffe followed with a 37 and Anson Cheng a 38. Shai Mohan finished with a 40 and Yilei Yu wrapped up the Titans’ scoring with a 43. Gunn finished the regular season 10-2.
The match also was a preview of next week’s league championship tournament, also set for Santa Teresa on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
In Palo Alto, Sacred Heart Prep put itself in position to earn a co-title in the West Bay Athletic League following a 202-241 victory over Crystal Springs at Palo Alto Hills Golf & Country Club.
The Gators improved to 8-1 in league (9-1 overall) and remained tied with Harker atop the standings. SHP needs to beat rival Menlo School on Wednesday to secure the co-title.
Against Crystal Springs, senior Bradley Knox battled the wind and cold to fashion a one-birdie, one-bogey round of even-par 36 to pace the Gators. Derek Ackerman chipped in with a 38.
In San Jose, Menlo School saw its hopes of a possible co-championship in the WBAL disappear in a 208-209 loss to Harker at Boulder Ridge Country Club.
Senior Jordan Stone earned medalist honors while leading the Knights (6-3) with a 38. Wind and cold played havoc with the scores as Stone started off his round bogey-bogey. He had six straight pars before a par putt on the uphill par-4 ninth hole lipped out. Remarkably, Stone needed only 11 putts on the front nine.
Freshman Rohin Chandra shot 40, making a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 eighth hole. Junior Ethan Wong and sophomore William Hsieh each shot 43 and senior Riley Burgess finished with a 45.
Boys lacrosse
With seniors Brian White and Sean Mayle each scoring five goals, Sacred Heart Prep held on to first place in the SCVAL De Anza Division race with a 17-8 romp over visiting Los Gatos on Tuesday.
The Gators (8-0, 10-3) grabbed a 13-3 halftime lead and cruised from there. Senior Frankie Hattler added four goals plus six assists to finish with a game-high 10 points. Noah Kawasaki, Frank Bell and Will Kremer all added one goal each while goalie Jack Wise came up with 16 saves.
Sacred Heart Prep has four matches remaining, but holds a two-game lead over second-place Menlo (5-2). The Gators can win the division title outright by beating Mountain View and Menlo next week.
In Burlingame, Menlo-Atherton got six goals from Duncan McGinnis during an 11-2 win over the host Panthers (0-7, 3-10). Holden Kardos added two goals for the Bears (4-3, 7-8) with Cole Shaffer, Robert Lane and Griffin Waymire all adding one goal.
In Mountain View, Palo Alto (5-3, 8-5) fell back in the race following a 16-7 loss to the host Spartans.
In the SCVAL El Camino Division, Gunn dropped an 18-7 decision to visiting Woodside. Jared Bibo, Elyas Daadi and Aaron Miner all scored twice for Gunn.
Girls lacrosse
Sacred Heart Prep remained atop the WBAL standings with a 20-12 romp over host Mitty on Tuesday. The Gators moved to 5-0 in league and 11-4 overall as sophomores Ally Mayle and Libby Muir scored seven and five goals, respectively. SHP senior Caroline Cummings added four goals while junior Brigid White added two. The Gators got one goal each from senior Megan Lamb and sophomore Juliana Clark.
Sacred Heart Prep will face its toughest test of the season when it travels to face Amador Valley, the No. 1 team in the state, on Wednesday night (7 p.m.).
The Gators open the second half of the WBAL season this Friday, looking ahead to a rematch with second-place Menlo School on May 2.
The Knights remained just a game back of the Gators following a 19-6 romp over visiting Castilleja. Menlo improved to 4-1 in league (11-4 overall) as Sophia Donovan, Nikky Price and Indie Varmar all had four goals. Donovan also contributed six assists, grabbed three draws and caused four turnovers. Menlo’s defense limited Castilleja to just 11 shots.
Paige Vermeer and Ellie Zales scored twice for the Gators (5-3, 5-3) with goalie Becca Merenbach getting 11 saves.
Also in Atherton, host Menlo-Atherton snapped a four-match losing streak with a 15-7 victory over visiting Burlingame. The Bears (2-3, 5-8-1) jumped out to a 3-1 lead with a goal from Grace Tully, who had two on the day. After a time out, Burlingame scored three straight with Alexa Vasquez scoring the first of her two goals to take the lead 4-3.
M-A came back with two goals, including one from junior Cathrine Petersen, who had two goals and an assist in the game, to retake the lead at halftime, 5-4.
The second half was a different story as M-A shook off its post-Spring Break rust and began to dominate. Junior Amanda Wiseman scored four of her six goals and freshman Izzy Regonini scored three goals and added two assists. The Bears dominated the draw with key ground ball wins by Paige Muschott and strong midfield transition from Kelly Woods.
In the SCVAL, 10 different players scored goals for Palo Alto in a 17-6 victory over visiting Pioneer. The Vikings (6-1 (8-5) easily outplayed Pioneer on both offense and defense, scoring less than a minute into the game and leading 10-4 at the half.
Leading Paly in goals was junior Paige Bara with four while sophomore Maya Benetar led in ground ball controls, with five. Allie Peery contributed three goals, Ami Drez and Benetar each added two goals.
Softball
Julia Saul pitched a complete game and Casey Glassford slammed a home run as visiting Palo Alto (2-4, 10-9) upset Milpitas, 7-6, in SCVAL El Camino Division action Tuesday. The Vikings’ victory knocked Milpitas out of a share of second place.
In the WBAL Foothill Division, Megan Johnson had three hits and drove in two runs to pace Castilleja to an 11-7 victory over host Harker in eight innings. The Gators (3-1, 4-10) also got two hits from fellow sophomore Abigail Lowell as sophomore Tara Thakurta picked up her second pitching win with a complete-game eight-hitter.
Harker tied the game at 7 with two runs in the bottom of the seventh after Castilleja had taken the lead with five runs in the top of the frame. The Gators put up four more runs in the eighth to win it.
In nonleague action, Menlo-Atherton (11-6) got five RBI from Monika Gutierrez in a 15-0 three-inning romp over visiting Shasta Charter School. Gutierrez had a bases-loaded triple to highlight a six-run second inning. Emily Katz, Sarah Tiemann and Maddie Zamora all drove in a pair of runs.
Swimming
The Palo Alto boys improved to 5-0 in SCVAL De Anza Division dual meets with a 106-79 win over visiting Los Gatos on Tuesday. The Paly girls, meanwhile, fell to 3-2 following a tough 94-92 loss.
The Paly boys trailed by two points through three events before senior Andrew Liang led a 1-2-4 finish in the 50 free with a winning time of 21.29. That gave the Vikings a 12-4 edge in the event and a 34-28 overall lead.
When Liang came back to win the 100 fly in 51.25, the Vikings held a 56-37 advantage.
In the girls’ meet, Paly and Los Gatos were tied at 86 heading into the final 400 free relay and needed a victory (eight points) to win the meet. The Vikings, however, finished second and third for six points.
Boys tennis
Menlo School wrapped up its 20th straight league dual-match title with a 7-0 romp over host Priory on Tuesday to close the WBAL regular season. The Knights (12-0, 17-3) improved their ongoing state record win streak to 216-0 in league dual matches while Menlo coach Bill Shine improved to 424-45 in his 18th season with Menlo. Despite not playing his starters in singles, Shine’s lineup lost only two games in singles and just six overall.
In San Mateo, Menlo-Atherton won every match in straight sets as the Bears wrapped up their sixth straight PAL Bay Division title with a 7-0 romp over San Mateo.
The Bears improved to 12-0 in league (14-4 overall) with regular-season matches remaining against Carlmont (Wednesday) and Woodside (Thursday), both at 4 p.m. Brothers Nick and Reed Fratt set the tone of the match with solid efforts at No. 1 and 2 singles for M-A.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports