The Pleasanton Seahawks, represented by 23 swimmers, ranked second place overall in team standing at the recent Pacific Swimming Winter Junior Olympic Championship in Pacifica. It was the best result for the Seahawks for many years.
“The Seahawks achieved this feat by winning a tight battle over the third and fourth place teams–Mission San Jose Aquatics and De Anza Cupertino Aquatics–two swimming powers in Pacific Swimming,” said Yi Zhang.
“Superstars” of the meet, Yi Zhang added, were Rachel Knowles, 10 and under Girls High Point champion; Andrew Seitz, 13-14 Boys High Point champion and Nick Silverthorn, 11-12 Boys Pacific Swimming record breaker in the 200 Free.
Breakthrough performances were attained by the following swimmers: Maxime Rooney, Katie Woods, Elise Cox, Bernadine Martin, Eva Chung, Brandon Chandler, Jonathon Ong (First Far Western Time), Lillian Sun (First Far Western Time), Alex Wang (First Far Western Time) and Tim McLaughlin (First Far Western Time).
Additional Far Westerns times were also attained by Kyle Lindsay, Roshni Nair, Maggie Woods, Natalie Wong and Chris Dourov.
“Danielle Stickler and Tory Houston also swam wonderfully,” Zhang said. “Danielle got a New Far Westerns time and Tory Houston almost made a nationally ranked time in the 200 Breaststroke.”
In addition, Iris Chang, Anthony Shen, Bernadine Martin, Elise Cox, Mary Woods, and Eva Chung all achieved excellent results.
CCOP 8th graders suffer first loss
The Catholic Community of Pleasanton (CCOP) 8th grade girls team 8001 was defeated by SM/SC (team 8005) for their first league loss.
CCOP had a two-point lead at the half but was outscored 14-6 in the third quarter and could not generate enough offense to overcome a six point deficit.
Both teams scored 13 points in the fourth with a final score of 29-35.
The game was aggressively played by Jessica Woodruff, who commanded the boards with 16 rebounds and Ellen Freitas with eight. Nicole Torquato contributed defensively with the press. Kelly Parsons, Lauren MacDonnell and Jessica Morosoli all scored six points. Morosoli went four for four at the line. Adding to the score were Woodruff (four points), Sydney Okumura (three points), Nicole Ponzini and Lyndsay Godwin (two points).
Harvest Park basketball teams wins league championship
The Harvest Park Middle School seventh grade basketball team won the Tri-Valley League Championship cumulating a 13-3 season with three impressive playoff victories over Mendenhall and East Avenue middle schools of Livermore and Wells Middle School of Dublin.
All 15 players remained academically eligible throughout the season, working extra hours on homework, as well as on the court.
Tigers baseball has player openings
Livermore’s Tigers baseball program is looking for a few players to participate in their 2008 spring/summer program. This year the Tigers program has six openings for players 13 or 14 years of age as of May 1, 2008.
All practices and games will be local. Players interested in participating in this year’s program can get detailed information on the program’s Web site: www.rteamsite.com/baseball/tigersbaseball.
Amador JVs take top places in wrestling tourney
Amador Valley High School’s Junior Varsity wrestling scored in the top four places at the recent Hayward High School Haystack tournament this past Saturday.
The results were Chris Klein, fourth place, record: 2-2; Josh Rosenblatt, fourth place, record 2-2; Keith Sullins, competed; Max Beck, record 1-2, and Luis Peraza, fourth place, record: 2-2.
Others included Joey Silva, third place, record: 3-1; Greg Carson, competed; Chris Connolly, fourth place, record: 2-2; Daniel Deville, competed,
record 1-2; Spencer Smith, third place, record 3-1, and Robert Reger, first place, record: 3-0.
Under 14s take 2nd place in District Cup play
The U14 Rage B team came away with a second place finish in last weekend’s District Cup soccer tournament. The Championship game was an all-Pleasanton affair as they met up with their fellow Rage team and fell just one goal shy of victory.
The Rage team that played this weekend was a strong, motivated, and determined team that made their opponents play defensively from the opening whistle. Coming into the tournament seeded 7th, they made handy work of their opponents in pool play. In game one, Erin O’Loughlin notched up two goals with Arielle Siegel adding another to cap a 3-1 victory over a Mustang team. Game two was much more even against another Mustang club and the Rage came out with a 0-0 tie.
Sunday morning’s match up was against the Livermore Earthquakes and knowing they needed a convincing win to move onto the Championship match, the girls played aggressively. Arielle Siegel was first to score off a tremendous penalty kick shot just outside the 18. Nat Tioncgo was up next firing on all cylinders and making it 2-0 Rage. Finally Karoline van der Zee netted the Rage’s third score off a nice cross from Nicole Ponzini. The victory here was enough to send the girls onto the Championship game against their fellow Rage team.
The championship game was what it should be with both teams playing aggressively. Nicole Ponzini scored her second goal of the tournament and when the final whistle blew it was 2-1.
Top offensive players: Arielle Siegel, Karoline van der Zee, Nicole Ponzini, Kelly Parsons, Devon Gold and Brittany Jones.
Top defensive players: Lauren MacDonnel, Nat Tioncgo, Shannon Easley, Pascale Masri, Taylor Dorsi, Dani Ramierez, Sarah Machado, Erin O’Loughlin, and Kara Matsune.
Local 8th graders defeat St. Raymond team
The Catholic Community of Pleasanton (CCOP) 8th grade girls (team 8001) defeated St. Raymond (team 8004) 28-10 to improve their record to 3-0. The third and fourth period defense was CCOP’s key to the win.
The press held St. Raymond to just three points in the second half. A combined total of eight steals by Jessica Morosoli and Kim Beaudin kept CCOP on the offensive track. Offensively, CCOP started slow but charged back with top scorer Morosoli 11 points, Sydney Okumura eight points seven rebounds, Jessica Woodruff six points and grabbing down 20 rebounds.
Contributing to the total score were Lyndsay Godwin (two points) and Ellen Freitas (one point, five rebounds). Brittany Bicomong (four rebounds), Beaudin (six rebounds) and Nicole Torquato also played well defensively. Pleasanton Rage U-13s capture District III Cup
The Pleasanton Rage U-13, Division 3 soccer team defeated the Livermore Arsenal on Sunday to capture the District-III Cup title in Newark.
To get to the championship game, the Rage defeated the Dublin Hurricane, RageBlue and the Mustang Rush before posting the 1-0 win over Livermore.
In the first game on Saturday, the Rage’s offense was relentless, as Rachael Kapp scored twice and Shannon Malindzak and Madison Nethery each added one goal in a 4-1 victory over the Hurricane. The next two games were more defensive. Strong middle field play by Lindsey Allen, Lauryn Hayashi and Nicole Henninger generated the Rage attacks as Kapp again found the back of the net with a goal against the Blue, and Olivia Climent scored on a penalty kick verses the Rush to give the Rage 1-0 victories.
Sunday’s championship game was again a defensive struggle as both teams fought for control of the ball. Using their kicking strength, the Arsenal continued to send long kicks to their forwards, but the Rage’s defense was flawless. The defensive rotation of Alyssa Keiner, Maddie Martin, Cassidy Lynch, Jamie Bodmer and Malindzak kept the Arsenal attack at bay. After a scoreless first half, the Rage finally broke the deadlock. A Rage shot toward goal, and the subsequent Arsenal’s defensive clear found Rage’s Nethery just outside the penalty area. Nethery wasted no time pounding an arcing shot just over the Arsenal goalie and into the back of the net. As the time counted down, Livermore generated one final attack and a controversial ending. After a long kick toward goal from the Arsenal mid-field, the ensuing stop by the Rage’s goalie rebounded to an Arsenal forward who quickly shot what appeared the tying goal. Unfortunately for the Arsenal, the goal was reversed after illegal goalie contact.
Top offensive players: Isabela Castaneda, Alex Dickinson and Ellie Jurich.
Top defensive players: Nicole Thomas, Morgan Bowen and Cheyenne Lofthouse-Wolf.
–Richard Hayashi
