Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center has been selected as one of four sites for USA Swimming Futures Championships, set for August 4-7. The meet will be jointly hosted by Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA-Cardinal) and USA Swimming.
Futures Championships will bring club swimming teams from eight western states to Palo Alto to participate in four days of competition. The meet will be one of the largest hosted in recent Avery Aquatic Center history.
Stanford also hosted the 2004 and 2008 USA Olympic Swimming Team prior to the Olympics, 2004 and 2011 Summer Junior / Senior Swimming Nationals and the 2006 FINA Masters World Championships. With two 50-meter pools (Belardi and Baker), the Avery Competition pool, and the Maas Diving Center, the Avery Aquatic Center is considered one of the best facilities in the world and and an ideal venue for a meet of this size.
Swim teams are assigned a Futures location based on geography. Club teams from Montana, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and California will compete at Stanford.
Parents, swimmers, and coaches from PASA-Cardinal will be partnering with Pacific Swimming, Stanford, and a local team of volunteers to staff all of the volunteers needed to host the event.
PASA is nationally and internationally recognized for competitive swimming excellence. Over the past 10 years, PASA has ranked consistently as one of the top teams in the United States and the top team in Northern California. PASA-Cardinal has hosted a number of local meets and Futures Championships will be one of the club’s largest events to date.
“Our team, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, will have a strong presence at Futures Championships this August and the meet will host hundreds of high level athletes from the Western region of the United States. We are looking forward to a fast and exciting meet”, said PASA coach Joey Sementelli.
In order to qualify to compete at Futures Championships, swimmers must meet the Futures Championship qualifying standards. These standards are intended to bridge the space between Sectionals and Junior Nationals.
In addition to Stanford, the other host locations will be the University of Maryland Natatorium in College Park, MD (Northeast), McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga. (Southern) and the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texes (Midwest).
The George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara, meanwhile, will host the Arena Pro Swim Series on June 3-5, leading up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June 26-July 3 in Omaha, Neb.
Badminton
Gunn High students Ken Zhu and Adrian Lee captured top honors at the Newark Memorial Varsity Tournament last weekend. Lee won the Boys Singles and teamed with Zhu to take the Boys Doubles.
The previous weekend at the Irvington Tournament, Zhu and Lee captured the Boys Doubles and Zhu teamed with Joanne Chan to take the title in Mixed Doubles.
Both tournaments were sanctioned by the CIF.
Scholastic honors
The Castilleja basketball and soccer teams topped their respective brackets on the Central Coast Section Winter Scholastic Championship Team, Awards list for the 2015-16 season.
The awards recognize the top five varsity teams from each CCS sport with the highest collective grade-point average of all teams competing in that sport during the season of competition.
Castilleja had a combined 3.8966 GPA in basketball and led the way in girls’ soccer with a 3.8519 GPA.
The Menlo School boys ranked No. 2 in soccer at 3.6712 with the Sacred Heart Prep boys fourth with a 3.682 GPA. In boys’ basketball, Sacred Heart Prep ranked fourth with a 3.5570 GPA. In girls’ soccer, Palo Alto was No. 4 with a combined 3.7603 mark while the Palo Alto girls wrestling team ranked No. 3 with a 3.4672 mark.
Tennis
The USTA has announced that Michaela Gordon of Los Altos Hills has been named to the first-ever USTA Junior Leadership Team, which recognizes America’s finest junior tennis players who exhibit leadership, sportsmanship and character on and off the court.
Gordon is among nearly 30 players nationwide named to the USTA Junior Leadership Team. Each player was nominated by his or her USTA Section for their excellence in tennis and in the community.
“These are players whose achievements speak volumes about their character, both as tennis players and as members of the community,” said Bill Mountford, the USTA’s Director of Junior Tournaments. “With the USTA Leadership Team, we’re glad to have a way to recognize the tremendous examples they’ve set on and off the court.”
Gordon is considered one of the brightest young girls’ prospects in America. She’s been ranked as high as No. 21 in the International Tennis Federation’s world junior rankings for all players ages 18 and under and is a career-high No. 604 in the pro rankings. She reached the junior singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon this past summer and recently advanced to the doubles quarterfinals at the USTA Pro Circuit women’s $50,000 tournament in Maui in January.
Elsewhere, Menlo School grad Laura Gradiska helped the Gettysburg College women’s tennis team open its Centennial Conference schedule with an 8-1 victory over Bryn Mawr College on Saturday.
Gettysburg (3-6, 1-0 CC) swept doubles with the top team of Gradiska, a junior, and freshman Maria Martinovic earning an 8-5 win. In singles, Gradiska posted a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2 while improving to 6-1 in singles action this spring.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports