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Winning a boys’ individual league title in swimming as a freshman would be an amazing accomplishment as the East Bay Athletic League is a highly regarded swimming league.
To go on and capture a North Coast Section title is almost hard to believe it could happen.
But how about a CIF State title in the swimming-rich environment that is California. A freshman winning a boys’ state individual event?
Impossible.
Yet Saturday at the Clovis Olympic Swimming Center, there was Foothill High freshman Luka Mijatovic standing on top of the victory stand.
Read this again – a freshman.
Mijatovic obliterated the field, winning by almost seven seconds, touching first in a time of 4:16.57. His time approached the state meet record of 4:15.09.
And that wasn’t his lone accomplishment as he was second in the 200 free with a time of 1:35.79. And it was close as the winner was Quin Seider of Nordhoff, who touched in 1:34.97.
The win by Mijatovic was the big individual moment for the EBAL, but it wasn’t the only title.
The San Ramon Valley 200 free relay team of Drew Arney, Chase King, Nick Tovani, and Sawyer Jones grabbed the gold with a time of 1:22.98. De La Salle was fourth in the finals with 1:23.46.
The rest of the league turned in some amazing results.
On the boys’ side Dougherty Valley sophomore Songrui Wu was third in the 100 fly (47.51) and fourth in the 200 IM 1:47.04. Devyn Caples of Amador was fifth in the 200 IM at 1:48.68.
Jones, who got the gold with the SRV relay team, was ninth in the finals of the 50 free at 20.76.
On the girls’ side, the San Ramon Valley 200 free relay team came about as close as possible to winning and complete the sweep of the event.
The quartet of Alexis Parkinson, Avery Knapp, Sasha Babushkina, and Miranda Stevenson were second at 1:33.47. The winner – St. Margarita – had a 1:33.35. It was that close!
Parkinson, Babushkina, Stevenson, and Ana Senn finished eighth in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:44.12.
In the 400 free relay to close out the day, the Monte Vista group of Genesee Quon, Zoe Venetta, Addy VonderAhe, and Ella Busquets was fourth with a time of 3:25.43.
Individually there were some great performances as well.
Elisabeth Butler of Carondelet was ninth in the 200 free (1:59.74) and eighth in the 100 fly (54.74).
Brooke Bennett, a sophomore from Granada, was seventh in the 200 IM with a 2:02.85.
Madison O’Connell of Carondelet was fifth in the 100 free with a 50.22. In the 500 free Rylee Hutchinson of Amador Valley was seventh at 4:55.48
NCS Volleyball
The Foothill boys continued their post-season run by taking the NCS D-I championship with a 25-23, 13-25, 25-15, 25-22 win over Castro Valley.
In front of a packed gym, the Falcons found themselves down 20-12 at one point in the first set before rallying behind the big serves of Yun Bae, taking their first lead since early in the game at 24-23.
Game two saw the Trojans, cheered on by their raucous but respectful crowd, thump the Falcons in the second set 25-13 to draw even.
In the third set, it was Foothill’s time to hand out a decisive win, posting the 25-15 win to take the 2-1 lead.
In the final set, Foothill had a 21-17 lead before Castro Valley fought back to trail 23-21 before the Falcons finally put it away.
NCS Team Tennis
California High was awarded the top seed and the Grizzlies showed why, running the table to claim the title.
After beating Maria Carillo 7-0 in the first round, Cal beat Miramonte 6-1 to advance to the final four.
In the semifinals, played at James Logan High, the Grizzlies beat Redwood 6-1 to advance to the finals against No. 2 Mission San Jose.
In a tough, tight match, Cal prevailed 4-3 to take the crown.
NCS Tri-Valley Track and Field
The one-day meet held at Pittsburg is a qualifier for the NCS Meet of Champions, that will be held this Friday and Saturday at Dublin.
This past Saturday, the EBAL had a lot of athletes qualify for the MOC. Following are those that had the best times/marks in their respective events.
Boys
400-Jayden Nicholas (DLS) 49.05.
800-Aarin Sagiraju (DV) 1:56.18.
1,600-Sagiraju (DV) 5:15.07.
3,200-Trey Caldwell (DLS) 9:24.17.
300H-E J Boeschenstein (Foot) 39.64.
4×100-DLS (Jaden Jefferson), Nicholas, Emery Speight, Toe Faave) 41.37.
4×800-Foothill (Elias Benard, Brennan DeCoite, Agastya Kuluvalli, Nolan Chavez) 8:06.08.
TJ-Anthony Dean (DLS) 45-09.25.
SP-Dawson Kerezsi (Gra) 49-00.
Girls
100H-Malia Velasco (Car) 15.27.
4×800-Monte Vista (Sofia Fernandez, Emilyn Tang, Peyton Dolan, Dawn Madeji) 9:53.45
TJ-Emma San (Dub) 36-01.
NCS Baseball
To the surprise of no one, Granada was awarded the top-seed in the D-I tournament. The 25-1 Mats will open the tournament Tuesday, hosting No. 16 seed Dublin.
Other EBAL teams in the tournament: Monte Vista (9) is at No. 8 James Logan at 7 p.m.; No. 12 Foothill is at No. 5 Casa Grande in a 5 p.m. game; De La Salle (2) hosts Liberty (15); and No. 6 San Ramon Valley plays host to Castro Valley (11).
All the games are on Tuesday and all, except for the -Monte Vista at Logan game – are at 5 p.m.
In the D-II tournament, Livermore was seeded No. 6 and will host American Canyon (11) on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
NCS Softball
In the D-I tournament defending champion California was awarded the top seed and will host Berkeley (16) on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
The other EBAL teams in the tournament are San Ramon Valley (8) who hosts Freedom (9) at 5 p.m. Wednesday; Amador (4) with the Dons hosting Heritage (13) on Wednesday; Granada (6) hosting Foothill (11), also on Wednesday.
Dublin (10) is at Liberty (7) on Tuesday to get the ball rolling for the EBAL contingent.
In the D-II tournament, Livermore was seeded second behind top seeded Casa Grande. The Cowboys open play Tuesday, hosting Ukiah (15) in a 5 p.m. game at Ukiah.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. To sign up for free, visit https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/express/sports/.
