SHP boys easily win WBAL golf title as tuneup for CCS regional

The Sacred Heart Prep boys rolled to an easy victory at the West Bay Athletic League golf championships on Wednesday on a hot and windy day at Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Gilroy.

The Gators shot 381 as a team to defeat runner-up Harker by 25 strokes. Those teams had shared the regular-season title and had secured berths into the Central Coast Section regional tournaments next week. SHP will play Wednesday in CCS Regional II action at Rancho Canada (West) in Carmel Valley.

Sacred Heart Prep was led by the trio of Bradley Keller, Derek Ackerman and Taylor Oliver. All three carded 3-over 75s to share first place. Senior Bradley Knox was battling the flu and settled for a 6-over 78 while teammate Shane Snow also shot 78 to round out the Gators’ scoring.

Menlo shot 415 as a team, finishing third, and will have to hope for an at-large berth into CCS. The Knights were led by freshman Rohin Chandra, who earned one of three individual berths into CCS regional play.

Baseball

Palo Alto snapped a four-game losing streak on Senior Day with a 6-2 victory over visiting Mountain View in SCVAL De Anza Division action.

The Vikings moved to 8-5 in league (12-12 overall) with only Friday’s game (4 p.m.) at Mountain View left on the regular-season schedule. Division playoffs begin next week.

Senior Jack Cleasby led Paly with a two-run homer in the first inning as the Vikings grabbed a 3-0 lead.

Also in the SCVAL De Anza Division, Gunn dropped a 17-3 decision to visiting Saratoga on Senior Day and fell to 0-13 in league (2-23 overall).

In the PAL Bay Division, Menlo-Atherton picked one of the warmest day of the season to have its offense go ice-cold as the Bears fell to visiting Burlingame, 6-1. The defeat dropped M-A to 5-4 and 13-9-1 overall while Burlingame improved to 2-6 and 5-14.

M-A managed just three hits against Burlingame starting pitcher Chris Brownlow, who struck out three and walked three in a complete-game effort. Only one of the Bears’ three hits — Jordan Long’s fifth-inning double — left the infield. Charlie Cain and Lawson Joos had infield singles for M-A.

Burlingame, meanwhile, tallied four runs on eight hits and four walks against M-A starting pitcher Erik Amundson. Despite striking out seven Panther batters, Amundson suffered the loss, which moved his season record to 6-4. AJ Lemons and Leo McCabe provided bullpen support in the sixth and seventh innings.

Trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth, M-A scored its only run when Joos reached on a one-out infield single, advanced to third on Long’s double to left, and scored on Nikolai Tarran’s ground ball, which Burlingame misplayed for an error.

In Belmont, Sacred Heart Prep dropped a 3-0 decision to host Carlmont and fell to 4-5 in the Bay Division (11-10 overall). The Gators managed just four hits.

Swimming

Senior Ally Howe won two individual events and swam on two winning relays, one setting a school record, to pace the Sacred Heart Prep girls to a 119.5-50.5 victory over visiting King’s Academy in the final dual swim meet of the WBAL season.

Howe teamed with freshman Kathryn Bower, senior Selby Sturzenegger and sophomore Kayla Holman while anchoring the 200 free relay team to a 1:37.15 clocking. That broke the previous school record of 1:37.56 set in 2009 at the Central Coast Section Championships.

Howe is now part of all three SHP girls relay records and holds seven of eight individual event school marks, only missing the 100 breaststroke record.

The Gators (12-0) wrapped up an undefeated dual-meet season in the WBAL and next will seek to defend its league meet championship on May 8 at SHP.

The SHP boys (6-0) also finished perfect in the WBAL dual-meet season following a 106-54 win over King’s Academy. Chris Hinrichs won two individual events and swam on two winning relays. He clocked a fast 22.13 to win the 50 free and added a 1:02.62 in the 100 back.

By Palo Alto Online Sports

By Palo Alto Online Sports

By Palo Alto Online Sports