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1991
Yearbook. Once thought of as a primarily an academic campus, SC has shown its true colors on the sporting field, capturing ten league championships in the past two years.

Sentinel article in the fall after volleyball season. If one is looking for the leading candidate right now for the Sentinel Female Athlete of the Year, it has to be Santa Cruz High’s Diane Gergen. She recently was named the SCCAL Player of the Year in volleyball and last Spring was selected the SCCAL Player of the Year in softball as well. Also this year she’s going to play basketball for the first time since junior high. When asked if anyone has mentioned the possibility of it to her, she said no. When asked what she thought about the possibility of getting it, she said with a laugh, “I can handle it.”

June 12. Sentinel 1991 All Santa Cruz County Girl Athlete of the Year was Diane Gergen. Coaches Speak Highly About Cards Standout. A COACH’S DREAM. Always gives 100 percent. Leads by example. Yeah, we’ve heard all that before. It’s a cliché, right? Well apparently not. Diane Gergen would seem to be all of these things. “Gergen is not only a great athlete, but she never had to do extra pushups or run extra laps for using profanity or anything like that,” says softball coach Vic Miguel.
What is Gergen all about? Sports, sports and more sports, Gergen says is what she loves the most. Gergen stared on the volleyball, basketball and softball teams. Whatever she did she did well. Kathy Pappas, her coach in basketball said, “I think she is the most athletic person in Santa Cruz, for sure among the seniors. What I respect is what she stands for a as a person. She is true to her friends, true to her coaches and is honest. She works so hard and never complains. She worked herself into a starting position in basketball and she hadn’t played basketball since eighth grade.”
“If coaches had their choice, they would have athletes like Diane on their teams. She’s just a blue collar worker. She shows up for practice, she’s religious about her time commitment and her dedication to the team. She has kind of attitude coaches like to deal with,” said Coach Miguel.
Enough already. Just what has Gergen done that would prompt such praise. She was the County’s Player of the Year in volleyball in the fall, She was an all league selection in basketball and softball. Whatever the sport it is, the name Gergen could generally be found somewhere among the post season honors.
Gergen doesn’t really know what motives her. She doesn’t play just to keep busy. She just loves to play and get better. And that’s precisely why her coaches adore her. She’s an athlete who doesn’t have to be motivated to continue improving. She wants to do it on her own. “I’m hardest on myself,” she says. Gergen’s teams were usually winners. “She has the athletic ability of Michael Jordan in a SC sense. She makes players around her better,” said volleyball coach Blair Barnett. In volleyball, Gergen helped the team make the CCS playoffs, losing in the first round to eventual champion King City.
In basketball the Cards made the CCS playoff and lost to Lynbrook In softball SC didn’t reach the playoffs and went 12-12 for overall season. Last year, though, Gergen was named the County’s Softball Player of the Year,
so she’s covered all the bases, so to speak, in her four years at SC. She say, she will either attend Oregon State or Chico State and hopes to play volleyball.

A list of all the SC girls selected for the annual Sentinel Girls Athletes of the Year award started in 1977. 1991, Diane Gergen; 1988, Tami King; 1977, Evonne Sandas.

The Sentinel Girls Academic Athlete of the year award started in 1986. Lynette Mungai in 1987 is the only SC award winner so far. This years candidates from SC were Koren Clark, who set four school records in track, tallied a 3.4 GPA and played soccer and ran cross country. Ann Shumate was a member of the schools record setting 200 relay swim team, a 3.7GPA student and three sport star.

A list of all the SC boys selected for the annual Sentinel Boys Athletes of the Year award started in 1977. So far there is only one, Johnny Johnson in 1987.

The Sentinel Boys Academic Athlete of the year award started in 1986 has had no award winners. This years candidate from SC was Vic Lang, who was CCS champion in the 800 meters and a standout swimmer with a 3.7 GPA.

BEST GIRLS OF THE YEAR. A list of the Santa Cruz County High School girls athletes during the 1990-1991 school year. Out of the 14 selected, three were from SC. The three were Kenna Karst, Meghan Kinney and Heather Singer. Karst: Talented sophomore athlete who’s a triple threat for the Cards. Ran cross country in the fall, made all league and all county in basketball during winter and softball in the spring. Kinney: Three sport athlete all four years. As a swimmer, she ranked in the top five in the breaststroke. On the track, she was in the top seven in the 300 hurdles and made the All county first team in basketball. Singer: Dominating in track and field as a junior winning the SCCAL titles in the shot put and discus. In CCS Region IV placed first in the discus. Also a force under the boards in basketball.

BEST BOYS OF THE YEAR. A list of the Santa Cruz County High School boys athletes during the 1990-1991 school year. Out of the 17 selected, none were from SC.

1991
FOOTBALL Practice games: Stevenson 28-20, Carmel 13-13, King City 0-27, Pacific Grove 7-29. Practice record 1-2-1. League: SLV 21-0, Aptos 0-27, North Monterey 7-17, Soquel 33-14, Watsonville 0-31, Harbor 38-13. League record 3-3 for fourth place. Season record 4-5-1.

Watsonville was league champions with a 6-0 record, SLV second at 4-2, Aptos third at 3-2-1, SC 3-3, fourth.

Yearbook On the 24 man roster, half the players were underclass men. Roster: J. Weaver, R. Criswell, B. Nichols, C, Kasper, J. Benson, P. Greensite, N. Bell, J. McCormick, J. Berry, M. Locatelli, A. Guardino, Ed Hutchings, B. Orten, G. Blanchette, M. Marquez, G. Thomas, D. Martinez, J. Carr, Ben Jay, R. Coonerty, J. Sturgill, A. McGraw, S. Fish, S. Marenghi. Head coach Ron Mehuron and assistants Vic Miguel and Tex Ronning.

Sentinel preseason write up. Santa Cruz High Builds For Competitive Season. Just five players return from last years club, which had a 6-3 record. “We were blessed with a lot of talent last year. But this team could come together and gel and could be as good as last years team. This has been one of the nicest groups to work with,” Coach Ron Mehuron said. Only 27 players suited up for the first week of camp. Heading the list of returning players is senior quarterback Andrew McGraw, who completed 53 percent of his passes last year with 11 touchdowns. “He has improved in his ability to read the secondary and is a good leader. He is quite accurate in his short passing game and can go deep when he has to,” Mehuron said. Mehuron said he expects to pass 20 to 30 times a game. Senior Brad Nichols has been converted from end to offensive lineman and will also play linebacker. Senior back up running back Edwin Hutchings will move up to the starting spot. “When he got his chances last year he was very good.” Sophomore Gabe Blanchette was a receiver last year on the junior varsity, but will be a lineman this year. Jason Barry, the biggest Card at 6-2, 260 pounds and Chris Kaspar will also be playing in the trenches. A solid group of juniors is perhaps the Cards best hope for the future. The group includes linebacker Jaime Carr, defensive end Jim Weaver, back Matt Stevens, back Nate Bell, end Reed Criswell and last years junior varsity most valuable player, Blake Vanderver a receiver and defensive lineman.

Sentinel. Santa Cruz Beats Up RLS 28-20. “Santa Cruz is the surprise team this year. We’re the team to beat,” snarled running back/safety, Jason Sturgill, who had a game clinching interception with 43 seconds left and caught a 23 yard pass from quarterback Andrew McGraw for one of the Cards four touchdowns. SC led 21-6 at halftime. “After the first half, we tightened up the defense and our players got a grasp on how to defend against the option. We forced them to do other things, like fumble. I’m really pleased with the fact that our defense forced three fumbles and gave our offense a chance to capitalize on them,” Mehuron said. Offensively, the Cards were led by running back Ed Hutchins and McGraw. Hutchins carried the ball 17 times for 121 yards, three touchdowns and kicked four extra points. His longest run was an off tackle 51 yard run for a TD. McGraws longest pass came on a 43 yard throw to Reed Criswell to set up the Cards first TD. Hutchins said, “the offensive line gave me some great holes and McGraw plenty of time to pass.”

Sentinel Athlete of the Week. Ed Hutchings (see some of why he won the award above) “Since the beginning of the season he’s starting to run better, run lower and quicker. He‘s getting into the groove,” said coach Mehuron. Hutchings was on the varsity last year, but he didn’t get much time in the backfield, because of a couple of seniors named Esalante and Olivia played ahead of him. Both of whom made all league. Hutchins finished the season with 8 carries for 26 yards. Ed played well on the JV team, but last years team had a lot of good seniors ahead of him. But we utilized his talents in other areas than carrying the ball and Ed contributed quite a bit. This year he’s a mainstay. He’s really versatile, too from learning last year. He knows linebacker, defensive line and running back, that’s quite a bit. We try to save him some for his running abilities.” Mehuron said.

Weird Finish Give Cards Tie with Carmel 13-13. What appeared to be a victory for Carmel turned out to be a sigh of relief for SC. With just 49 seconds left in the game Carmel appeared to score on a 4 yard run. But a penalty was called. The next play a pass, was batted away by safety Jason Sturgill. With six seconds left, Carmel appeared to float a field goal through the uprights for the win. The officials ruled it was not good. From the opening of the second half, Carmel controlled the ball for eight minutes, before scoring to take a 13-7 lead. SC quickly tied the game, when McGraw scored on a keeper. With the chance to go ahead the PAT kick was blocked.

King City Quarterback Squelches Santa Cruz In 27-0 Romp. King City featured a powerful offense and a crunching defense that shut down SC completely in the first half. SC fought back gamely in the second half, but could not reach pay dirt when they had the chance. SC gained only 14 yards in the first half.

Santa Cruz Blanks Mistake Prone SLV 21-0. SC had 23 players in uniform for the league opener. With most of the Cards playing almost every down, exhausted bodies paced the SC sideline in the fourth quarter, but smiling faces looked up at the scoreboard as it flashed SC 21, SLV 0. SC had an upset victory, a 1-0 league mark and 2-1-1 overall record. In the first half both teams offenses were in high gear, but thanks to penalties and turnovers, 294 combined total yards were wasted as the teams went to the locker room tied 0-0. The Cards running game gained 116 yards in the first half, picked up 174 more in the second half and was able to penetrate the end zone three times. “We surprised ourselves how we were able to run on SLV. Our players showed a lot of composure for a young team,” said Mehuron, whose running backs blasted for gains of ten of more yards or more, ten times. To start the second half, SC was faced with a third and 14 at the Cougar 18. The Cards ran a draw play to perfection as Jason Sturgill scored with 3:11 gone in the quarter to give the Cards a 7-0 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Cards offensive line continued to blow open holes for senior Ed Hatchings, who led all ball carriers with 134 yards, including the final two scores. At the 11:55 mark of the fourth quarter, Hutchings culminated a six play, 42 yard drive with a 11 yard run up the middle. Nine minutes later, he ran untouched for nine yards for a commanding 21-0 advantage.

Aptos Blanks Cards 27-0. SC Offense Limited To Just 17 Total Yards. Aptos’ top running back gained 160 yards on 28 carries and three touchdowns. Aptos scored with two minutes remaining in the first quarter to go ahead 8-0, which held up to halftime. “We’ve been giving it our best every week. These guys don’t quit. I hope they don’t feel ashamed. They didn’t lay down out there,” Mehuron. Four players have been injured the past two weeks, They are Reed Criswell, Matt Stevens, Bill Orton and Stefan Fish.

Condors Regain Some Lost Pride. North County Slips Past Santa Cruz 17-7. Only three weeks ago the Condors were unbeaten in 27 consecutive games and was ranked number three of AA Division teams in the state. But since have lost three games. On the Cards first possession, quarterback Andrew McGraw found holes in the Condor defense and connected with back Ed Hutchings on a 34 yard screen pass. That set the stage for a 22 yard touchdown run by Jason Sturgill. In the second quarter, the Condors kicked a 40 yard field goal to make the score 7-3. SC fumbled on the Condor 24 to cost them a chance to score. Passes helped the Condors go ahead 10-7. The Condors marched 63 yards in six plays for their last score.

Criswell Helps Grab Win over Soquel 33-14. Reed Criswell, who has been injured the past two games, caught two touchdown passes and made an interception. With the score tied 7-7, three minutes and 37 seconds remaining in the first half, Andrew McGraw connected with Criswell for 30 yards and the first of their two touchdown connections. Criswell gave credit to the Card linemen for giving McGraw plenty of time to hit his receivers. Coach Mehuron agreed, saying he had good play from his linemen. “Every week we come in as underdogs. We just played hard and had terrific breaks. Overall, it was a great team effort,” Coach Mehuron. Tompkins the Soquel coach, “They were more physical, tackled better and hustled more than we did.” Soquel scored first on their opening possession. SC came right back as Jason Sturgill broke free up the middle on a draw play and went 45 yards for a TD. By halftime Soquel pulled even 14-14, but SC came out of the locker room looking like a totally different team in the third period. McGraw had a big game for the Cards, after being crowned Homecoming King during halftime. He hooked up with Criswell two more times for big plays. In the third quarter, with 5 minutes remaining, McGraw found Criswell for 23 yards and a score putting SC ahead 21-14. Later another McGraw to Criswell pass for 35 yards set up a 9 yard touchdown run by Sturgill. “He’s something else,” McGraw said of Criswell. “I knew he was going to break a big one.”

Cats Maul Cards 31-0. Watsonville, who is in first place, once again did not allow a touchdown in a league game. Behind their Black Death defense, the Wildcats have out scored league opponents 137-3. SC showed signs of life in the fourth quarter. A Matt Stevens interception gave the Cards the ball and some much needed momentum. SC produced a sustained drive that took them to the Watsonville 20, but then turn the ball over on downs. “We came in a little gun shy,” said running back Ed Hutchings, who gained 36 yards. “They were really no ‘Black Death.’ They were just more physical than we were.”

Pacific Grove Blows By Shorthand Santa Cruz 29-7. The Breakers, 6-2-1 used the power of its offensive line, which has thee players over 240 pounds to grind out two touchdowns in the second half, while keeping the worn out Cards scoreless. SC now 3-5-1 stayed with PG in the first quarter, knotting the score 7-7. Jamie Carr caught a 15 yard pass from McGraw in the right corner of the end zone to cap a 57 yard, ten play drive. It was the last time SC would get close to scoring. The Cards failed to get past the PG 43 yard line the rest of the game. PG ran the kickoff for 90 yards and a score following he Cards score to go up 14-7 at halftime.

A Final Spirited Try Falls Short For Bucs in the last game of the season in a 38-13 loss to SC. Harbor ended he season 0-9 and SC 4-5-1 and 3-3 in league. The Pirates knotted the score 6-6, on a 71 yard touchdown run late in the first quarter. But thanks to the running of Jason Sturgill with 143 yards and Ed Hutchings 62 yards, the Cards rolled off the next 26 points and led 32-6 after three quarters.

Yearbook. Football is a sport of superstars. The best receiver, the strongest tackler all get the headlines. Senior Jason Scargill wasn’t the fastest or strongest and he never hit any headlines, but he ran, caught and tackled his way to becoming the Cards best all around player behind star Edwin Hutchings. When Hutchings was injured in the last game against Harbor, Stargill became the focus of the Santa Cruz offense. He carried 18 times for 143 yards, had two receptions for 40 yards and scored two touchdowns. Stargill played five positions on offense and defense. He was sixth best rusher and was selected All County safety

SC staked its ground as the best football team in North county, by beating SLV, Soquel and Harbor. Coach Ronning considered the Harbor win a final step in SC’s quest for city dominance. “We’re city champs to him,: said senior running back Jason Sturgill. “The team accomplished what we set out to do,” said senior Brad Nichols, who felt the most important game was the win against SLV. “No one thought we would win, including me,” Nichols was so sure of losing, he bet his hair to senior running back Edwin Hutchings. Nichols finished the season bald. With only six returning seniors, the team did better than anyone thought.

Sentinel ALL COUNTY team: First team defense: Senior Jason Scargill at 5-9 and 145 pounds, safety. Two Cards were selected first team on the offensive ALL COUNTY team, they are senior tight end Reed Criswell a 6-4, 185 pounds and junior center Jim Weaver at 5-11 and 196 pounds. Honorable mention were Ed Hutchins, Andrew McGraw, Jason Barry, Brad Nichols and Jamie Carr.

JV FOOTBALL Yearbook. Practice game: Pacific Grove Record: SLV loss, Aptos 6-0, North Monterey 6-0, Soquel 6-36, Watsonville loss and Harbor win. League record 3-3. Season record 7-3.

Roster: Aaron Woliczko, Josh Sutton, Chris Croghan, Mack Palmer, Joaquin Bridges Fred Jordan, Josh Porter, Steve Reyes, Pat Kutsch, Jesse Wiecher, C. Negrete, Dan Hecht, Jason Johansen, D. Eselius, Jason Lee, Jason Dalbesio, Bill Lambert, Shannon Hilton, K.C. Kaiser, Erin Gliessman, M. Rivas, Jason Nevin, Alex Vega, Jonah Shanks, Neil Churchill, Adam Rose, Mario Guerrero, Brian Criswell, Mark Angiolani, W. Delgado, Sam Bernauer, Josh Peterson and Lev Stryker. Head coach John Hopping, Randy Quilici, Price and Liberatore.

With three minutes left in the game, the score tied 0-0, fly back sophomore Jason Niven went 40 yards to set up the touchdown run by Neil Churchill to win the Aptos game 6-0. Nevin at 5’8” and 135 pounds is one of the fastest runners on the team and he gained 80 yards in six carries and had one interception. Nevin went to the region meet with the varsity track 400 relay team as a freshman.

“Our defense is the best part of our team,,” said sophomore free safety Aaron Woliczko, “the defensive backs had a record setting year with no touchdown passes allowed.
Top tacklers were Jonah Shanks with 80 tackles, Neil Churchill 30 and Jason Nevin 27.

Sentinel. Another big win ended years of frustrating loses to football power house North Monterey. For the first time since the Condors entered the league in 1979 that SC has won 14-12. K. C. Kaiser threw touchdown passes of 35and 47 yards to tight end Jesse Weicher and Jonah Shanks ran for a two point conversion. Linebacker Shanks, nose guard Josh Sutton and Free safety Aaron Woliczko were the defensive standouts. The Cards are now 5-1.

Trident November 1. JV Football Team Grinds Out Respectable Season. In the glitz and glamour of high school sports, it is often forgotten that the JV’s are the breeding grounds for the varsity. The JV’s have put together a solid season record of 5-2 with three games remaining. In league SC is 2-2 with a big upset of North Monterey and a loss badly to Soquel. Unfortunately, for the Cards, the week after the NMC upset would be a week of injuries, which forced players into new positions, plus there was turmoil within the program. After Soquel rolled over SC 36-6 in the next game, coach Glen Liberatore said, “I was worried about a let down this week after the NMC game. I haven’t been into practice all week due to problems within the program and our play showed it. We didn’t play heads up football, we were missing tackles, fumbling the ball and just using bad fundamentals. Despite losing to Soquel with penalties and turnovers the Cards were able to stay close, only trailing 14-6 at halftime, thanks to a 75 yard touchdown pass from KC Kaiser to Jesse Weicker.

FROSH-SOPH FOOTBALL Yearbook. Record: SLV loss, Aptos win, North Monterey loss, Soquel win, Watsonville tie and Harbor no game. Record 2-2-1.

The frosh team had a lot of speed and used the speed to sweep the ends for long gains, said quarterback Paul Quilici,

Roster: B. Jensen, B, Pearson, A, Corcoran, B. Ayanbaejo, J. Cortez, D. Graff, R. Miller, B. Ratliff, J. Robinson, M. Liberatore, B. Barbera, R. Stevens, A. Smith, B. Brown, M. Bartlett, F. Mendez, D. Cooper, P. Quilici. B. Tuthill, M. Wallick, J. Levy, J. Gomer, M. Adrian, T. Lunsford, Desi Anderson, R. Rodoni, Todd Kidder and Stridder Kemp
Coaches Booth Wainscoat and Aaron Wainscoat.

CROSS COUNTRY BOYS Yearbook. League dual meets: Watsonville loss, North Monterey loss, Harbor win, Aptos loss, Soquel loss and SLV win. League dual meet record 2-4 for fourth place..
Scoring at the SCCAL meet. Watsonville 38, North Monterey 66, Soquel 72, SC 107, Aptos 133 and Harbor 196.
SC took fifth place at CCS.
Nate Johnson finished fifth at the State meet.

Top SC runner senior Nate Johnson placed fifth in the state of California meet, one of the most prestigious meets in the country. Last year he was the highest placing underclassmen at CCS in fifth place. This year he finished, for him, a disappointing third. “With all the runners in front of me last year being seniors, I expected to be the best this year. It wasn’t that simple,” said Johnson. At the State Meet Johnson beat both the runners who passed him at CCS. My whole season has been focused on the State Meet,. The CCS loss was disappointing, but I knew State would be different. The guys that beat me at CCS didn’t have the experience of running at State that I had. It’s an intense race,” said Johnson.

The team finished fifth at the CCS meet. Of the top six runners on the team, five were freshmen, Ben Henry, Mike Libertore, Joe Street, Ben Mansell and Sky Mustain. Senior Nathan Johnson placed third at CCS to lead the team in scoring. “For a team full of freshmen, with a brand new coach, to come in fifth at CCS is really unheard off. CCS is the big meet of the year, ” said Johnson.

November 2. Scoring at the SCCAL meet. Watsonville 38, North Monterey 66, Soquel 72, SC 107, Aptos 133 and Harbor 196. From the Watsonville coach, “SCCAL cross country has taken huge strides in the running world. In the last three or four years, cross country has made some major advancements and improvements. We’ve held our own against San Jose teams. In the past we were just a back roads team. I think people take us seriously now.”
The top three runners, which included Nathan Johnson, bested the Schwann Lagoon record set last year in the SCCAL meet. The winner from SLV went out on a record pace and kept it up. After two miles Johnson and the winner kept within ten yards of each other the rest of the way. On the final stretch, Johnson gave it all he had. The winner crossed the line in 16:01 on the 3.1 mile course to slice away 34 seconds from the old record. The winner finished two second ahead of Johnson and 19 seconds ahead of the third runner. Last years winner came in fourth in 16:43.
In any other year, all three runners would have waltzed away with a victory. But this year has been an extraordinary year in the SCCAL. Johnson said, “His kick is devastating. If you don’t get him before its time to kick, your in trouble. I tried to pass about three times, every time, we could see signs of him weakening, but every time he’d just power away.”

This is the best freshman group in a long time. They had a great opportunity to run varsity. They will be veterans as sophomores,” said Coach Bill Johnson.

While winning the race against Soquel, Johnson broke the schools record with a time of 11:03 over a 2.1 mile course. Senior Victor Lang took second place against Aptos. He was the second member of the team to finish at the CCS meet taking twenty-seventh place overall.

Rest of team: Josh Homan, Brooks Allen and Norman Cook.
Coaches Bill Johnson and Mike Jones.

Sentinel. September 16. Watsonville 20, SC 43. In the team loss, Nathan Johnson took first place honors, as he ran a 11:36 on the 2.12 mile course. Johnson, who took third in last years league meet, participated in a Yosemite summer cross country camp for the second straight year. Early signs say the higher elevation training will pay off for him.

September 16. SCCAL Does Well In Stevenson Meet. Nate Johnson placed second in the meet in 14:52.

Sentinel. October 9. Sentinel Athlete of the Week Nate Johnson, placed seventh out of more than 100 runners in Division II at the prestigious Stanford Invitational, which attracts runners from all over the state. He finished the 5,00 0meter course in 16:25. Two days later he won his dual meet race against Aptos in 11:24.19 on the 2.1 mile course for the course record at UCSC. He’s 4-0 in dual meets. “Mental toughness is his best attribute. He really concentrates and is focused,. He pretty well goes out and pushes the whole way in the race. He’s not afraid to go out and do the work. In most dual meets, he’s led the whole way,“ said coach Johnson.

October 12. Record Win For Johnson. Senior Nate Johnson won the personal battle, but Soquel won the team war. Johnson in his last home meet, broke John Rembao’s 11 year old school record and course record on the UCSC fire trails with a time of 11:.03 on the 2.1 mile course. In the process, Johnson not only broke Rimbao’s record by 3 seconds, but also beat the defending champion from Soquel by 33 seconds. “That was the highlight of his career. He had a race plan and he went out and executed it,” said coach Bill Johnson. Vic Lang took third place in 11:59. SC ‘s record fell to 1-4.

November 25. SC Runner Fifth in State. All year long, Nate Johnson had his eyes set on an ultimate goal. But it seemed far fetched enough that he pushed it into the back of his mind and concentrated on a more realistic goal. Johnson not only went out and achieved his realistic goal, but he attained his ultimate goal of finishing in the top five in the California Cross Country Division III championships.
Johnson ran the 5 kilometer race in 15:53 to take fifth place 38 seconds behind the winner, but only three seconds behind the third place runner.
“This year I went out with the goal of finishing in the top ten in state. But from the beginning my ultimate goal was the top five. Before the race I didn’t think I had a chance. But when I finished that’s as happy as I’ve ever been,” Johnson said.
Johnson was the top boys finisher from the CCS Division III race and the top finisher from the SCCAL in any race. “This year I really went out with a kick-ass attitude,” Johnson said. “To date, that’s the race of his life. That’s quite a feat to set a goal like that and have the guts to set a plan and stick to it, despite what other people say. He went for it in a straight line and got it,” said coach Johnson.
Bill Johnson said that Nate had set two goals for himself after a disappointing finish in the state meet in 1989. One was to finish in the top ten, the other was to run a time in the 15:40s. Although he fell a bit shy of his time, Nate exceeded his placement goal. “He ran a really smart race. He was twelfth at the mile and worked his way up with a very strong last 800 meters,” coach Bill Johnson said.

Trident December 13. Running With Champions. Winning traditions for high school sports teams are usually built with an exceptional coach or team that work together for many years. The SC basketball team is a prime example. With Coach Pete Newell in charge for over 15 years, the program has had consistent winning seasons and won the league championship the last three years. The 1990 boys cross country team has a new coach, three freshmen varsity runners, no tradition and wasn’t expecting a very successful team season. After the SCCAL league meet, where SC finished fourth out of seven teams, their expectations seemed to be well founded. The only bright spot was senior Nathan Johnson’s second place finish.
A week later at the CCS qualifying meet, SC began to come alive placing fifth out of the twenty-five teams in the second heat of a 50 school meet. Their place qualified them for a position in the CCS finals, where fourteen teams competed for a two team trip to the State Meet. After running the race of their lives, the team placed fifth, missing fourth place by ten points. Although the third place finish by Johnson helped it was the exceptional effort of the three freshmen Ben Henry, Mike Libertore and Joe Street that pulled the team to its position. Winning traditions don’t start every year for sports teams at SC. The boys cross country team has just begun a new one.

Sentinel Athlete of the Week was Nate Johnson for his top finish at the state cross country meet in Fresno.

ALL SCCAL boy Nathan Johnson and Victor Lang

CROSS COUNTRY GIRLS Yearbook. League games: Watsonville win, North Monterey loss, Harbor loss, Aptos loss, Soquel 21-incomplete and SLV 28-30 . League record 3-3.

The girls team also finished fifth at CCS. Senior track star Koren Clark finished the season in the number one position, but not before junior Elly La Roque, sophomore Kenna Karst and senior Anna Warensjo all shared the number one position during the season. Freshmen Namiste Chism and Nicole Narver rounded out the six person team.

Native Swede, senior Anna Warensjo’s first sport was cross country skiing made the transition to running a breeze. Rest of squad: Lisa Libertore, Charis Williamson and Kara Vernor.

September 16. SCCAL Does Well In Stevenson Meet. SC’s top finisher was Elly LaRoque, who finished seventeenth in 23:54.

Sentinel. October 12. SC 21, Soquel incomplete. At UCSC, the Cards took the second through fifth places to win their league meet and improve their record to 2-3, even though a SLV runner won the race. SC was led by junior Elly LaRoque and sophomore Kenna Karst, who crossed the finish line together in 16:24 after the 2.1 mile run. Karst, normally the Cards top runner has been out for several weeks with poison oak. Karen Clark took fourth in 16:28 and exchange student Anna Warensjo was fifth in 16:37.

SLV Runner Wins Race, But Santa Cruz Wins Meet 28-30. SC placed one runner in the top four, but swept spots five through nine to edge the Cougars. Swedish exchange student, Anna Warensjo, who was more than 2 minutes behind the winning runner took second place in 20:57.4. Koren Clark, best known for her springtime track times, led a parade of five SC runners crossing the line next. “This is going to have to help her in the Spring. We’re excited about her future and it was nice she could really help the team today,” said coach Johnson. Kara Vernor, Namaste Chisom, Kenna Karst and Charis Williamson took sixth through the ninth spots. SC is now 3-3 in league meets.

GIRLS TENNIS
Practice match: RLS 0-7. League: Watsonville 5-2, 5-2; Harbor 0-7, 3-4; Aptos 2-5, 0-6; SLV 5-2, 6-1; Soquel 4-3, 5-2. League record 6-4 for third place. Overall 6-5.

Yearbook. Coach Scott Buss, became the teams third coach in three years, gave the team new life by motivating the players. The team had a losing record last year. A strong base of seniors Mercedes Bauer, Bree Nystrom, Lara Minium, Brett Plauche, Sandy Bartu and exchange student Adriana Consorte helped lead the team.
Rest of the players were freshman Nichole Gillette, sophomores Olivia Suchman and Cindy Padilla, Rachel Freitas, Erin Plauche, T’ai Lunsford, Tiffany Barthel, Colleen Cooney and Maggie Marini. Head coach Scott Buss and assistant Kirsty Beneton.

Sentinel September 26. SC 5, Watsonville 2. SC won their league opener with strong play at the top of both the singles and doubles ladders. SC won the top three singles matches in straight sets with Bree Nystrom, Adriana Consorte and Lara Minium chalking up victories. Mercedes Bauer and Cindy Padilla won the number one doubles and Rachel Freitas and Brette Plauche were impressive at number two.

September 28. Harbor Sweeps Cards 7-0. Coach Scott Buss took heart in the fact that three of the matches went to three sets and expects a better showing by his team next week.

October 3. Aptos 5, SC 2. Maggie Marini won the number three singles match and the doubles team of Mercedes Bauer-Cindy Padilla won. SC is now 1-2.

October 5. SC 5, SLV 2. SC swept the doubles play and Bree Nystrom won the number one singles 6-0, 6-4. The most exciting singles was Maggie Marini’s 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win in a three hour match. Winning doubles teams were Cindy Padilla-Brett Plauche at number one, Rochelle Freitas-Nicole Gillette at two and Sandy Barta-Erin Plauche at three.

October 10. SC 4, Soquel 3. SC needed to win the number three singles and two doubles matches and they did just that to edge Soquel. At three singles, Maggie Marini won in three sets, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. At three doubles, Erin Plauche- Nicole Gillette battled back from 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(6-1) to win. SC improved to 3-2.

Trident October 11. New coach Scott Buss is also the coach of the Cabrillo men’s tennis team. He is assisted by Kristy Bennington, a local pro. In the teams first match against RLS, who is known for its strong tennis program. The closest match was between the number one doubles team of senior Mercedes Blair and sophomore Cindy Padilla, we led most of the first set but lost 5-7. RLS won the second set as easily as the rest of their team won the overall match with a score of 7-0. Despite the loss, the Cards were not dismayed.

Sentinel. October 12. SC 5, Watsonville 2. SC upped its SCCAL record to 4-2, even though Watsonville won the first and second singles, but lost the rest of the matches. In singles, SC Number 3, Maggie Marini came back from a 5-1 deficit in the first set to win. Number 4 Lara Minium also won in straight sets. In doubles, SC made a clean sweep. The three teams of Mercedes Bauer and Brette Plauche; Cindy Padilla and Rachel Freitas; Erin Plauche and Nicole Gillette all won for the Cards.

October 17. Harbor 4, SC 3. Lara Minium lost in three sets 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 that broke the 3-3 tie for a Harbor win. Harbor is now 6-1 and 9-1 overall. Cardinal doubles teams swept Harbor preventing another 7-0 victory by Harbor the last time the teams met.

October 19. Aptos 6, SC 0. Aptos kept their league record spotless. Maggie Marini’s singles match was called due to darkness with her behind 5-7. At number one doubles, Mercedes Bauer-Brette Plauche went three sets, but lost, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

October 24. SC 6, SLV 1. At number three singles, Lara Minium lost 4-6, 0-6. Bree Nystrom, Adriana Consort and Mercedes Bauer won singles matches. SC is now 5-4 in league.

October 26. SC 5, Soquel 2. SC locked up third place. SC finished the season 6-4. Number one Bree Nystrom lost 1-6, 1-6. At two, Lara Minium lost 0-6, 2-6. At three, Maggie Marini won and at four, SC won by default. SC swept the doubles matches. “We definitely maximized our potential from where we started from. A lot of girls thought they wouldn’t do very well, but they realized they can win if they believe they can. And that took them a long ways,” said coach Scott Buss. Both team will send four players each to the SCCAL singles and doubles championships.

Trident November 29. Tennis Team Improves Season Record. At the league meet SC’s number one singles player junior Maggie Marini defeated SLV’s number one player in one of Marini’s better matches to put her up against the best player in the league from Soquel and she was defeated in straight sets. As a whole SC did extremely well considering last seasons disappointment. The Cards went 6-4 for third place, a great improvement over last year. The key to their much improved season was the great depth in this years team. Seniors Bree Nystrom and Lara Minium contributed a great deal to the success along with foreign exchange student Adriana Consorte from Italy, who played the number two spot.

Junior Maggie Marini played a match against SLV that lasted three hours. “This year I’ve learned to be more mental. I don’t think about the overall score, just about getting each play, one point at a time,” said Marini. This mental strength was the key to her 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph. Marinin’s last match was in the league semi-finals were she lost to the two time league champion. She feels that experience is definitely the key. “The more you play, the better you get,” she said. “The coaches were supportive and really cared. They wanted us to win, but it didn’t matter if you lost as long as you felt you played well.”

BOYS WATER POLO
Practice: RLS 4-21. League: Aptos 14-6, 11-12; Harbor 3-16, 5-19; Watsonville 9-15, 9-10; Soquel 11-4, 10-7. Record 3-5. League playoffs” Aptos 5-6, Harbor 3-18.
League standings: Harbor 8-0, Watsonville 6-2, SC and Aptos 3-5

Sentinel preseason write up September 26. New coach Jim Scott is looking for leadership from senior team captains Joaquin Munoz and Pat Chapman. Behind them are the junior/sophomore brother combination of Dave and Zach Thompson. “They’re real speedsters and are scoring threats whenever they get the ball,” said Scott. Scott also sees a great defensive effort from goalie Adam Phillips. “in preseason he’s made some big saves and he really controls our defense,” said Scott. “We’ll get goals against anyone. I think our defense is our strongest point. It will be an interesting season to watch,” Scott. Former coach Mike Bennett stepped down to train full time for professional triathlons. SC made the CCS playoffs last year, but lost in the first round.

Trident November 29. Water Polo’s CCS Hopes Dashed. It came down to the final seconds with the score tied 9-9 with Watsonville, when the strong Cat offense overpowered SC for the winning goal and sending the Cards hopes for a trip to CCS crashing against the back of the cage. With the loss, SC is forced into a tie-breaking match with Aptos to decide third seed in the SCCAL, which the Cards lost to end their season. The teams top scorers were senior Joaquin Munoz, junior Dave Thompson and sophomore Zack Thompson.

Playing Tough After Tough losses. Losing by one point in water polo match is hard. Losing by one point in three matches in a row is a disaster. Losing these last three matches eliminated the team from CCS contention. Senior Stefan Freeman and junior David Thompson both felt the team did not play to their full ability. Losing to Aptos in double overtime was the hardest loss for the Cards as they had beaten Aptos 14-6 in their first game.

Senior co-captain Joaquin Munoz paced the offensive effort, scoring in almost every game. The Thompson brothers, junior David and sophomore Zack, contributed strong swimming skills to give the team speed on the fast breaks. Strong defensive efforts were given by Pat Chapman and goalies Mark Yellin and Adam Philips.

Pat Keeps Defense Alive. Defense is the name of game for the Cardinal water Polo team. “If you shut them down defensively, the goals well come,” said Coach Jim Scott. No other player had as much defensive power as senior co-captain Pat Chapman. Chapman’s position was to defend the two-meter-set, or the “hole” player, who commands the offense of the opposing team. “If you can shut down the hole player they won’t score any goals,” said Chapman. “You have to get in his face. You have to let him know you’re there.” Rest of squad: Gabe Schoonover, Ron Poole, Chris Stevens and Jesse Boyd. Coach Jim Scott.

Trident October 11. Water Polo Team Drowned By RLS. An untested team opened their season with RLS and lost 21-4. Long time coach Mike Bennett left the program and the team was not able to practice until the first week of school, when the new coach Jim Scott could be hired. Co-captain senior Pat Chapman said, “We had a slow start and a later start than the rest of the league schools. Senior Juaquin Munoz said, “We didn’t defend the fast break well enough. I think we have a ways to go.” Levels of improvement will come quickly as new coach Scott plans to switch gears in the training schedule. “We need to play water polo more in practice and drills are over. The players need to deal with game situations. The team is looking for a strong season to put them into he CCS tournament for the second straight year. Their top contenders are Soquel, Aptos and Watsonville, the same teams the Cards had to beat last year to get into CCS.

Sentinel September 26. Cards Rally To Win. SC trailed 7-5 entering the final quarter, but played excellent defense down the stretch, holding Soquel to one shot on goal and pulled away for a 10-7 victory in the SCCAL season opener. “I told the team to focus on defense and we’d catch up,” said Coach Scott, whose team outscored Soquel 5-0 in the last quarter. “It was a case of all six guys playing together. In the first three quarters, Soquel did a real good job of taking advantage of our weakness,” Scott. Scott singled out senior Joaquin Munoz, who he said played a pivotal role in holding Soquel’s hole player in check, while scoring three goals himself. SC also got four goals from junior David Thompson. The win improved the SC overall record to 4-3.

Sentinel Oct. 3. Thompson, Chapman Pace SC Past Aptos. Stifling defense and a hot scorer are usually necessary ingredients for a winning team. SC received both in its 14-6 win over Aptos. Dave Thompson’s five goals and Pat Chapman’s dominating defense directed SC past the Mariners. SC is 2-0 in league and 6-7 overall. “Pat single-handedly shut down their offense. And our team defense, as a whole played outstanding, especially in the second half. SC led 6-1 at halftime. Zack Thompson and Joaquin Munoz added three goals apiece. “We’re a good team. We’ve played well against some good teams. But we haven’t played Harbor yet or Watsonville. Those two might be the best teams in the league,” said coach Jim Scott.

Oct. 12. Harbor Sinks Santa Cruz. Harbor whipped SC 16-3 at Cabrillo. SC is now 2-1 in league and 6-8 overall. Joaquin Munoz had two of SC’s goals. SC goalie Adam Phillips had his hands full. (From picture with the article).

Oct. 17. Watsonville had a player score ten goals in the 15-9 win over SC. Watsonville jumped to a 5-1 first quarter lead. Watsonville had beaten SC in a September tournament in September.

Oct. 19. SC 11, Soquel 4 at Cabrillo. SC is 3-2 in league and 8-9 overall. Joaquin Munoz led with four goals and Jesse Boyd came off the bench and scored thee times. “We played a lot better, but we still have some work to do. We started slow and then got our focus into water polo in the second half,” said first-year coach Jim Scott. Scott said that Ronnie Poole did an excellent job of putting pressure on the Knights.

Oct. 24. Mariners Surprise Cardinals. Pair Of Double-OT Goals Rallies Aptos. Scoring twice in the first three minutes of double-overtime, Aptos scored a stunning victory over SC 12-11 at Cabrillo. SC took a 10-9 lead with 21 seconds to play in the fourth quarter on a goal by David Thompson and appeared on its way to a salvaging victory. But Aptos scored with 8 seconds left. Aptos score twice in the first overtime and Joaquin Munoz countered with a goal, his sixth of the game. The teams played the second overtime period without any scoring. Thompson scored five goals to complete the Cards two man point list. SC dropped to 3-3 in league.

Oct. 31. Harbor 19, SC 5. Fighting to a 2-2 tie after the first quarter, SC was held scoreless in the second quarter as Harbor took control with six goals, then built a 14-3 led by the end of the third period. “SC put the pressure on and played god in the first quarter,” said Harbor coach Jack Dufour, whose team improved to 28-10 overall and is ranked number five in CCS. David Thompson had three goals and Joaquin Munoz had two for all SC’s scoring. Harbor has now won 49 straight SCCAL games, dating back to 1985.

November 2. Hot Race For Third Place. SC and Aptos are tied for third place. In the league finales, Aptos won and SC lost to Watsonville 10-9. Third place is especially important, because it allows the team a shot at the CCS playoffs. In the league tournament, the second and third place teams play each other, with the winner garnering a playoff spot. If SC had managed to beat Watsonville, the playoff would have been avoided. Watsonville scored the winning goal with 2 seconds on the clock. “This game was a kick. We had three or four lead changes. It was tied 7-7 after three quarters. It was a lot of fun,” said coach Jim Scott. Dave Thompson led SC with five goals, Joaquin Munoz and Chris Stevens had two and Stefan Freeman and Ron Poole had one each. “I feel good going into our match with Aptos. We’ve go a shot at CCS,” said Scott.
Aptos Nips Santa Cruz In Playoff. Taking it down to the decisive fourth quarter, Aptos edged past SC 6-5. This means SC is the fourth seed in the tournament and plays five seed Soquel in the first round of the SCCAL playoffs. The winner goes on to play one seeded Harbor. SC score three times in the third quarter, to pull even at 4-4 going into the fourth quarter, but got only one more goal to Aptos’ two. David Thompson scored twice.

November 10. Harbor 18, SC 3. Coached by (former SC athlete) Jack Dufour. the Harbor juggernaut keeps rolling, Eleven Pirates scored. “Our numbers wore them down. I kept rotating in fresh players and they just wore down. I’ve got 20 swimmers on the team and they’re great players all the way down the line.” SC Coach Scott said, “It was a fun season. We played hard and respectably all season. We had some close games, some overtime and one goal games, which I think has built a lot of character in the players,” Joaquin Munoz scored twice, while the final SC goal came on a defiant, last second half-pool shot by Pat Chapman.

November 11. Harbor Wins Again. Eight Straight Water Polo Titles For Bucs and 12 of the last 14. Harbor beat Watsonville 15-7.

ALL SCCAL selected by the coaches: First team senior Joaquin Munoz a field player, mainly a shooter. Second team Adam Phillips. Honorable mention, Dave Anderson.

JV BOYS WATER POLO
Roster: Ramey White, Scott Reed, Chris Apra, Pat Winters, Robby Holmberg, Ryan Beauregard, Jeff Smith, Gabe Tuter and John Golder. Coach Joel Wilson.

GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING
SCCAL meet scoring: Aptos had 432 points to Harbor’s 274, Soquel 189, SC 178 and Watsonville 114.
League: Aptos. 61-123; Harbor, loss; Soquel, 100-81 and Watsonville, 131-55. Record 2-2.

November 4. At the SCCAL championship tournament Aptos celebrated their “four peat” as they placed 1-2 in all eight individual events and swept all three relays dominating the SCCAL finals for the fourth straight season. Aptos had 432 points to Harbor’s 274, Soquel 189, SC 178 and Watsonville 114. Things didn’t go well for SC. The Cards top seeded 50 freestyle swimmer, Ann Shumate placed fifth in 27.34 in her best event and false started in the first leg of the 400 free relay. Aptos and Harbor are way ahead of the other teams, as they have girls swimming year around with the SC Aquatics and Cabrillo Threshers.

Trident November 29. SC Sends Five Swimmers And Two Divers To CCS.
As a team the following Cardinals qualified for CCS in both the 200 medley with the team of Ann Shumate, Meghan Kinney, Jessica Lang and Lorraine LeBer and the 200 freestyle relay with Shumate, Kinney, Lang and Jana Zuckwert. As individuals, Shumate also qualified in the 50 and 100 freestyle and Kinney qualified in the 50 freestyle. Last year only one swimmer qualified for CCS. Senior divers Ann Wolfsen took fourth place at the SCCAL meet and Liza Fitchen placed seventh to qualify for CCS. Though no one from SC placed at CCS, all the squad members felt proud of a great season during which they learned a lot about team spirit, cooperation and the sport they love so much.

The shouts of “iky la boom ba, iky la boom ba!” is a traditional team cheer, which plays an important part in the feelings of the team. “It motivates us and revs us up. In all the meets, we get in groups and cheer against the other team,” said senior Lorraine LeBer. “Swimming is so individual,” added senior Laura Ross, “the cheer makes us more of a team.”

Senior diver Ann Wolfsen placed nineteenth out of forty two divers at CCS and reached the semi-finals. Ann says, “Diving is much more mental then physical. Her coaches expertise in diving and Ann’s own experience in gymnastics have both played a large part in her success as a diver. Ann recalls one of her best memories of the season, “I learned a dive that I’ve never seen anyone else at this level do, a reverse flip with a one and one-half twist. I was stoked when I did it at the league meet, because it was original.”

Rest of squad: Arie Bonnell, Melissa Sutkus, Laura Ross, Shannon Mooney, Dana Sherwood, Leslie Laurent, Sarah Maranghi, Lisa Walters, Meghan Palochek, Grace Robinson, Sheshona Olson, Lani Forester, Stacy Weins, Shawan Wolsen, Cary Creel and Liza Fitchen.
Head Coach Carol Kreppel.

Trident October 11. Meet was on September 21. Aptos 123, SC 61. SC’s lone winner was Liza Fitchen in the 1 meter spring-board diving with 147.20 points in the first league meet. Ann Shumate took second in the 100 freestyle and swam on the second place medley relay team. The four year varsity swimmer has gone to CCS the last two years is clearly SC
s top swimmer. Cards took second in the 200 meter medley relay and the 400 meter freestyle relay. A lot of the team was sick with the flu, but stepped up to the starting blocks, never the less. Aptos trains year around with a club team, which puts them at another level than the rest of the league. SC begins just before school starts. SC is confident of taking second place in league as they took second at the League Sprint Meet. Strong swimmers for SC are co-captain senior Lorraine LeBer, seniors Meghan Kinney and Jana Zucksworth and sophomore Jessica Lang, whose competing on varsity for her second year. What will be key for SC is the sophomores competing for varsity this year for the first time. They will improve significantly as the season goes on. They are just so nervous and the events are longer. It takes some transition,” said coach Kreppel.

Sentinel. October 5. SC 100, Soquel 81. SC pulled ahead in the final events to chalk up its first SCCAL win this season. Jessica Lang and Ann Shumate where both double winners. Lang won the 200 individual medley in 2:49.65. She also lowered her personal best to 1:15.96 in the 100 backstroke. Her time places her among the leagues best this year. Shumate won the 50 freestyle in 27.34 and the 100 freestyle in 1;01.08. “We don’t have a lot of experienced swimmers,” said Coach Carol Kreppel, whose league record is now 1-2. “Most of our swimmers only swim during the school year. We have some freshmen swimming on the varsity. We’re excited to have our first win.”

Sentinel. October 12. Cardinal Romp Over Wildcats 131-55 in a SCCAL dual meet to finish their league season 2-2. “That’s all for us in dual meets. It sure went fast. I wish we had another school in the league,” said coach Carol Kreppel. SC will have two weeks to prepare for the SCCAL trials and finals, which get under way November 2. Jana Zuckswert won a pair of events, taking the 200 yard freestyle in 2:36 and the 100 free in 1:05.26. Jessica Lang had two wins in the 200 individual medley in 2:43.97 and the 100 backstroke in 1:20.35. In one of the more interesting events, two seniors battled in the 300 breaststroke. Ann Shumate finished just ahead of Meghan Kinney, 1:20.25 to 1:20.35. “That was really fun, It was the last one for the seniors, so I let them choose what events they wanted to swim,” Kreppel said.

Sentinel stats for girls swimming on November 1 listed by place in rankings, name and best time.
200 medley relay: 2. SC. 2:10.89
50 freestyle: 5. Shumate, 27.34
100 freestyle: 4. Shumate 59.31
500 freestyle relay: 2. SC in 1:57.23
100 backstroke: 5. Lang 1:21.08
100 breaststroke: 4. Kinney 1:21.08 and LeBer 1:24.79
200 freestyle relay: 2 SC, 1:57.23
400 freestyle relay: 2. SC. 4:23.18
Diving: 4. Fitchen 165.50 and 5. Wolfson, 159.15.

CCS qualifiers were Ann Shumate and Meghan Kinney as individuals and on a relay team. Other relay members were Jessica Lang, Lorraine LeBer and Jana Zuckwert. Divers Liza Fitchen and Ann Wolfsen

GIRLS JV SWIMMING
Roster: Theresa Gilbert, Eve Anderson, Jennifer Gill, Jennifer Kerr, Kelli Baldwin, Dana Mellon, Anna Aspesi, Erin Gentry, Margaret Talamantes, Megan Simons, Amy Harris, Kim McGuiness, Amanda Leggett, Jamie Strange, Elena DeCoste, Emily Jacobsen, Jessica Abraham and Laura Fuller. Coach Cathie Santos.

Trident November 1. Girls Wallop Wildcats In Wet Win by one point 94-93. It all came down to the final event the 400 freestyle relay. It was an adrenaline rush at the end!” exclaimed coach Cathy Santos, “every girl who placed helped in our win. This was a true team effort.” Key roles were played by four girls, who pace the Cards in the tight victory. One freshman Kim McGuiness won the 50 and 100 backstroke races. She has placed first in every backstroke event she’s raced in this year. Sophomores are listed next. Jennifer Gill placed first in the 100 individual medley and second in the 100 breaststroke. Dana Mellon took a second in the 50 breast and third in the 100 breaststroke. Megan Simons took third in the 50 fly and fourth in the 100 individual medley, both of which are extremely difficult events. “She’s very versatile. She can swim what ever event I need her too,” said Santos.

This wasn’t SC’s only one point victory, as they also squeaked past Soquel earlier this season. The JV’s have and overall record of 3-1 with the only loss coming from league powerhouse Harbor. Next on the agenda is the league meet. “I expect big things from the 200 medley relay team at the meet. The girls have the best time in the league,” commented Santos. Sophomore Elena DeCoste commented, “It’s been a challenging and rewarding season.” “All the girls are doing really well. We have an excellent environment and everyone is supportive. Who knows, perhaps we’ll pull out another one point victory at the league meet. With their luck and talent, don’t’ bet against us.”

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Yearbook. San Jose Classic: North Monterey 2-0, Westmont 2-0 and two other wins. Two losses to Milpitas and Gilroy 0-2 for a 4-2 tournament record. League: Aptos 3-0, 3-2; Harbor, 1-3, 0-3; Watsonville, 3-0, 3-0; SLV, 3-1, 3-1; North Monterey, 3-1, 2-3; Soquel, 2-3, 3-1. League record 8-4 for second place.
CCS division III South, first round of playoff: King City 0-3. King City was in the CCS finals.
Overall season 12-7.

Yearbook. The senior dominated team was one the reasons for the teams success. Diane Gergen was the top hitter followed by another senior Rachel Heit. Senior Ieko Imai did a good job as a setter.
Volleyball is a game of precision and error.. In order for a team to succeed, they must play with flawless perfection. “Be Robots,” is what coach Blair Barnett told this years players. “If you have to think, you haven’t practiced enough.” Anderson said, “I just think about the simple things, like getting into position.” “In my freshmen year, when we were trying out for positions, my coach said, you’re short and you’re quick, so you’ll be the setter.”
Roster: Mieko Imai, Becky Long, Diane Gergen, Rachel Heit, Krista Anderson, Meghan Freitas, Rosalyn Pillars, Josie Heyward, Misty Doughty and Merissa Cruz. Coach Blair Barnett

Trident November 29. Cards Make It To CCS For First Time In Four Years.
The team won the wild card berth to participate in CCS competition. The first round opponent was King City, who went on to take second in the state. With tenacity and hard play SC charged to an early lead in the first game, before the much taller Mustangs took over the court with a 11-1 run to finish the game. Through the next two 8-4record was led by senior Micko Imai with back row passing and consistent serving. Strong hitting came from seniors Rachel Heit at the outside and Rosalyn Pillars at weak side hitter. Senior setter Krista Anderson helped lead the offense and Megan Freitas helped the defense as middle blocker. Juniors Becky Long and Josie Howard, both starters gained valuable varsity experience, which will help them be leaders next year.
Heit commented, “Overall we had a great season. It was up and down sometimes, but when we played together, we were almost unstoppable.” The team has made steady progress the last two years. Two years ago the team won only two matches and then upped the wins to ten last year.

Sentinel preseason write up on September 20. Coach Blair Barnett in his fifth season with the Cardinal program said, “This year looks pretty good, with six returning players.” The highest SC has finished under Barnett is third, last season ended with a tie for fifth. “We had only one senior last year and we took our knocks.” Senior middle hitter Diane Gergen is the key to the Card attack. A standout athlete, who was the SCCAL softball player of the year last spring “will be an all league volleyball player this year,” Barnett predicts. We will be looking for her most of the time. If other teams don’t stop her, she will dominate the match. We’ll try to feature her as much as we can in our offense. Senior out side hitter Rachel Heit, is a sleeper. She’s only 5-6, but has a great jump and now she is learning to hit. Senior outside hitter, Megan Freitas may also play in the middle with Mysti Doughty, a middle blocker. Rosalyn Pillars is another outside hitter.

Sentinel and Trident September 21. Knights Win War Against Cards. Soquel Takes 3 ½ Hour Match In Five games. The match was a long three and a half hour, five game battle. “It was a lack of concentration. Physically we can play any other team, but mentally we’re not prepared,” said coach Blair Barnett of the 14-16, 15-12, 15-10, 4-15, 10-15 loss to Soquel. This year the Card should be one of the top teams in the league with nine seniors and one returning junior. Seniors Diane Gergen and Rachel Heit, both are strong outside hitters and aiding them are setters senior Krista Anderson and junior Becky Long. Mieko Imai, is the Cards most versatile player, who is a strong link in the defense.
“The goal this season is to finish higher than third place,” said coach Barnett. This year it seems the coach is more interested in winning. He’s playing people who will do best for the team, not just giving everyone a chance to play. The team to beat in the league is Harbor, who has won the league championship nine of the last ten years.

Sentinel articles:
September 28. Dominant Santa Cruz Team Spikes Aptos 15-10, 15-9, 15-6. With consistent play from several key players, SC took the drivers seat in every game without letting Aptos get too close. It was consistency that SC had worked on following its loss to Soquel last week. “We worked on this all week and it looks like it paid off,” said coach Blair Barnett. Apparently so, as the Cards controlled the serves well, serving 60 times and missing just twice.
Leading SC in service was Becky Long with 10 aces on 20 service points, including a streak of seven in game two. Also serving well was Josie Heyward, who had a five point serving streak in the final game. SC was also dominate at the net, as Diane Gergen led the team with seven kills on 18 tries with four errors. Meghan Freitas followed with four kills on 11 attempts with a single error. But Barnett credited the whole team with pulling together defensively, getting side outs without giving up more than three consecutive points. With the victory, SC improves to 1-1 in league, while this was Aptos’ first loss.

September 30. At the San Jose Classic, SC lasted until the semi-finals of the silver division playoff bracket before falling to Gilroy 15-13, 15-11. The Cards played valiantly coming back from deficits of 13-6 and 9-2. In the match senior outsider Diane Gergen had 16 kills and nine errors in 41 attempts. The Cards went 4-2 in pool play, losing a pair of tough games to Milpitas that knocked them out of the championship bracket. In the playoffs, SC defeated Westmont 15-10, 16-14. SC’s first game of the Classic was a 15-6, 16-14 win over North Monterey in the Cards best match of the day. The top players Friday were seniors, junior outside hitters Rachel Heit, seven aces and Diane Gergen four blocks. Senior setter Krista Anderson had 19 assists and six aces.

October 3. Cards Fend Off Pesky Cougars. Heit’s 14 Kills Give Santa Cruz A Lift. Rachel Heit hammered 14 kills in a whopping 38 attempts. SC pulled off the win in four games, 11-15, 15-6, 15-9, 15-13. SC is 2-1 in league and 8-4 overall. Megan Freitas was 6 for 16 in kills with no errors. “I kind of wish I was a spectator and not a coach, said coach Barnett. “It was one of those matches you can really sit back and enjoy.

October 5. Santa Cruz defeats North Monterey in four games, 12-15, 15-13, 15-4, 16-14. After trailing through most of the fourth game and facing game point at 14-8, SC reeled off eight straight points behind the serving of Becky Long. Outside hitters Rachel Heit and Diane Gergen led the Card attack with ten kills each. In the final match, SC kept setting for Gergen, There were no surprises or tricks, as Gergen had some late kills. SC is now 3-1 in league and 9-4 overall.

October 9. Sentinel Athlete of the Week was 5-6 senior outside hitter Rachel Heit, had 31 kills in 98 tries as SC beat SLV and North Monterey. She also had 28 aces in 80 attempts at the service line and had 43 digs. “She helped lead the team in both of those matches, said Coach Blair Barnett, whose team has won three matches in a row and is 3-1 in league.
”Rachel’s been playing for me for four years and I think she’s finally starting to come around to understand what the game is all about. She’s a pretty smart kid, a really hard worker and has lot of desire to be a good player. She’s always lived in the shadow of Diane Gergen, a teammate who’s on of the best players in the league and now she’s starting to come into her own. She certainly can play in college, there’s no doubt about it in my mind,” coach Barnett said.

October 10. Santa Cruz Does A Fade-out Against Harbor. What could have been wasn’t. Even though SC was the first team to reach 11 points in both of the first two games, Harbor rallied to win. “In the third game all Harbor had to do was kick the ball over the net and they would have won. We weren’t into the third game. We had already lost. We were mentally beaten,” said coach Barnett. Harbor couldn’t stop Diane Gergen, who had ten kills in 20 tries with only two errors. The Pirates shut down the rest of the Cards attack effectively enough to win 15-13, 15-11, 15-3. SC is 3-2 in league and 9-5 overall. Harbor is 5-0 and 9-2.

October 12. SC defeated Watsonville 15-3, 15-10, 15-6 in just under and hour. Megan Freitas played a strong game at middle blocker with six kills in 12 attempts and had three blocks. Senior outside hitter Misti Doughty also played well with three kills in four attempts.

October 17. SC Escapes Soquel With Hard Fought Win. In an exciting match with virtually every point up for grabs, SC won three out of four games 15-13, 8-15, 16-14, 15-9 to come away with their fifth win against two losses in SCCAL play. Coach Barnett after SC’s game against Harbor last week, talked to his team about, “Playing every point without worrying about the last one or the next. In the games we won, we did that on the last three or four points.”
Dominating the net was Diane Gregen with 17 kills and nine errors in 42 attempts, followed by Rachel Heit, who had six kills in 23 tries with four errors. Also contributing were Marrisa Cruz and Micko Imai, who were strong on the defensive back line. Combined with consistent serving, SC’s defense kept Soquel at bay. “We got our serves in the court. They had to play almost every serve and our defense didn’t give up. Soquel had a tough time getting side outs, when they need to,” Barnett said.

October 24. Cardinal Now In The Hunt For League Title. With a five game win over Aptos 4-15, 15-10, 15-8. 7-15, 15-11, the Cards are now 6-2, just one game behind leader Harbor. “It was just a great match. Both teams played at a really high level of volleyball. There were a lot of long rallies, a lot of great offense and defense. Unbelievable match. It was youth vs. experience tonight. I have a pretty senior heavy team and most of the seniors play major roles. The experience was definitely on the court for us when we were playing,” said coach Barnett. Barnet said it was the play of his setters, Becky Long and Krista Anderson, which paced the win.
Long, a junior, ended up with three aces in 19 serves and just one error. She also had 15 assists. Anderson had 12 assist to go with two aces in 19 serves and no errors. After dropping the first game of the match 4-15, Barnett told his players, “It’s only one game.” And the Cards responded. “They blew us off the court in the first game. But we hung together. We never faltered under pressure, Clearly, we felt this match was for second place and a chance to play in the CCS playoffs,” said Barnett. SC has four more matches in league, which includes Harbor. “This league has become so competitive. And it keeps getting better,” Barnett said and the play of Diane Gergen and Rachel Heit also were instrumental in the SC win. Gergen finished with 12 kills in 19 attempts with only four errors. Heit had 13 kills in 25 attempts with four errors.

October 27. Santa Cruz Continues to Play Good Volleyball. Card defeat SLV 15-5, 11-15, 15-11, 15-9. “Now if we can beat North Monterey next, we will have second place wrapped up,” Coach Barnett said. SC is now 7-2 in league. A win over the Condors will give SC its first berth in the CCS playoff in the six seasons Barnett has coached the Cards. And if SC wins its final three games, it would become SCCAL champion for the first time. Marissa Cruz and Meiko Imai controlled the back row for the Cards. Imai contributed 15 digs and Cruz had 10. In 15 serves, Cruz had three aces and only two errors. Imai in 12 serves had one ace and two errors.

October 31. Just When Santa Cruz Thought It Was over …. North Monterey Rallies From 0-2 Deficit To Stun Cards. After breaking Harbors 61 match SCCAL win streak last week, the Condors broke the hearts of the favored Cards 3-15, 8-15, 15-13, 15-13, 15-6 at Fehliman gym. “We thought we had it won,” said Rachel Heit of taking a commanding lead in a SCCAL match SC needed to win. “We didn’t think we were going to have to play for the next three games.” Had SC won, they would have clinched a CCS playoff spot. SC is 7-3, North Monterey and Soquel are 6-4 and Aptos 6-5.
SC down 4-12 in the final game made a last stand featuring sharp servers by Marrisa Cruz, big hits by Gergen and Heit and good passing. SC was able to hold North Monterey in a long exchange of side outs and score two more point, but it was a case of too little to late. SC breezed through the first two games and had leads of 13-11 in the third and 13-8 in the fourth.
“North Monterey played well, They deserved it. We played like we didn’t want it,” Barnett said. Gergen had 13 kills. She was obviously the most powerful hitter on the court, but the Condors did an excellent job of blocking and digging her kill attempts. Heit had 12 kills, several important blocks and a good serving series.

November 2. Harbor Clinches Another SCCAL Volleyball Title. SC went down 14-16, 11-15, 15-13, 6-15. In the first game SC played with great enthusiasm and went ahead 9-5, then 12-7, had the serve and the lead 14-12, but failed to convert the winning point. SC, now 7-4 face Watsonville in their last league game. There are more than one possible result for second place. We’ll see how it works out as the league ends in the next match.

November 7. Santa Cruz, Aptos To Meet In Playoff. SC defeated Watsonville 15-10, 15-9, 15-7. “The most important thing is we were mentally focused,” said coach Blair Barnett. “It would have been easy for us to look past this one, but we took them seriously. No fooling around.” Diane Gergen and Rachel Heit combined were 15 for 31in kills with two errors. Senior Krista Anderson had four aces and two errors on 14 serves. SC is 8-4 in league tied for second place with Aptos. The two teams will play a playoff game to determine the leagues second automatic representative to CCS will be.

Sentinel Nov. 11. SCCAL Trio In CCS Volleyball Playoffs in Division II South Bracket. SCCAL champion Harbor was seeded second out of eight teams in the divisions south bracket. League runner up Aptos was seeded fourth and SC earned an at-large berth along with the eighth and final seed. SC will travel to King City, who is 18-3 for the season.

November 14. Cardinals Ousted. King City defeats SC 15-9, 15-6, 15-9. “We played hard, we hung with them. Our girls were a little frightened, because the stands were filled and we didn’t know what to expect. I’m proud of them for not giving up down 2-0 though,” said coach Barnett. SC was an at large team and King City was the Mission Trail Athletic League champion with a 12-0 record and was seeded number one with a 18-3 record. SC was ahead 8-4 in the first game, before the taller Mustangs charged ahead with an 11-1 run to close the game. In the second game, Barnett said his team played tentatively. But game three was more exciting. “King City was up 6-1, but we came back and tied it. We looked tough. We were under control.” But the Mustangs raced ahead 12-6, then 12-8, before slamming the door. SC ended the season with a 12-7 record.

That Type of Player. Toughness A Gergen Trademark. Living up to others expectations can test an athletes inner strength. For Gergen, it hasn’t been any worse than living with an older brother. “It helped my athleticism and toughened me up,” said Gergen. She has played up to all the expectations as a standout middle hitter. “We expected her to be a dominate player in league and my feeling she is one,” said coach Barnett. Harbor coach Jim Reilly, whose teams have been dominating the league said, “We pretty much don’t handle her. I just figure Diane is worth her points every match. She’s a really good player, she’s smart, jumps high and hits hard. When you go to higher levels, you face certain players and you just concede they will get their points. She is that type of player.
At the end of the softball season last spring, when Coach Miguel told Gergen she was the league MVP, she thought he was teasing her, “I didn’t believe him,” she said. But Gergen not only made believers out of the softball coaches, she’s made believers in volleyball this fall. Girls basketball coach Kathy Pappas believes her athleticism can make the transition onto the court this winter, when Gergen plays high school basketball for the first time.
In college, Gergen likely will play outside hitter in volleyball. At 5 feet, 8 inches, she’s not really tall enough o play the middle for a Division I program, where Barnett is convinced she will go. But Barnett said, she could play in the back row too. “Nobody has seen her hands, she has great hands and she can set, too.
“Kids dream of going to Stanford or UCLA,” Reilly said, “but in reality, only, only one in a 1,00 gets a chance. That doesn’t mean they are bad players. There are more than 400 schools out there giving scholarships. You have to make yourself aware of the opportunities. And nobody comes to Santa Cruz to watch us.” Barnett said, “I am going to try and steer her away from California schools. If she can get an education free and go to a school like Michigan and be a starter on the team, what an experience that would be. There is a huge network now in women’s volleyball, but Santa Cruz is on the periphery.”
Gergen says there is some connection to the intensity she takes with her into the batter’s box, with what she takes to the net in volleyball. Softball is a lot more a concentration sport then volleyball. But you have to be in the same frame of mind. A lot of us were on the varsity as sophomores an we said that when we’re seniors, that’s our year. We wanted it badly and now we’re in good position.”
Its been a long season, long than most people realize. “It started on August 20, that’s when we get in shape,” said Gergen. “We go through two a day workouts, from 7-9 a.m. and then 7-9 p.m. it’s as demanding as football, even if the girls don’t get the same recognition as the boys. I’ve noticed a lot more people coming to the games.” Tonight a big home crowd may be just the thing to help the Cards. North Monterey is coming off a win over Harbor last week. “The first game will set the table for the whole match,” Gergen said.

Gergen Volleyball Player of Year.
The coaches ALL SCCAL Player of the Year is senior outside hitter Diane Gergen, who is also included on the first team along with two seniors, outside hitters Krista Anderson, a four year starter as a setter and Rachel Heit. On the second team is Megan Freitas. Co-Coach Of The Year is Cardinal coach Blair Barnett.

JV GIRLS VOLLEYBALL League: Aptos, two losses; Harbor, two losses; Watsonville, two wins; North Monterey, two wins; Soquel, two losses and SLV, two losses. League record 4-8.

Roster: Audrey Mantell, Carol Gardner, Sasha Abrams, Jessica Damon, Nu Elle, Vera Mantell, Marietta Ofrancia, Yevonne Krammer, Casey Coonerty and Casey Stumpf.

Sentinel. SC defeated Watsonville 15-1, 15-13. Junior setter sparked the Cards to a straight games victory over the Wildcats.

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL
Practice games: Stevenson 65-66, Los Gatos Tournament: Silver Creek 65-63, Blackford 64-52, Yerba Buena 57-52. Dads Club Tournament: Won, Soquel 66-63, Salinas 57-63 for second place. Carmel Tournament: Pacific Grove 54-46, ?
League: SLV 78-60, 65-66; Soquel 68-64, 53-58; Aptos 70-86, 79-71; North Monterey 63-56, 58-45; Watsonville ?; Harbor 39-49 League record 7-5 for third place behind Harbor and Soquel. Lost in the first round of CCS playoffs to Lynbrook.
Season record 13-17.

Yearbook. Roster: Mike Keogh, Gabe Jones, Aaron Woliczko, Tim Nordahl, Djang Sussman, Reed Criswell, Ben Branch, Robert Henderson, Femi Ayanbadejo, Von Barnes, Todd Trowbridge, Jason Williams, K. C, Kaiser, Jason Nee, Ryan Mills and Anthony Fernando.
Coach Pete Newell.

A three game losing streak dampened the season, while elating the rest of the league. “At that time we played as individuals,” said junior Femi Ayanbadejo, “not as one.” After the losses, the Cards picked themselves up and regained the championship spirit. The wins came back, along with the confidence of a better team. “it’s a great bunch of guys,” said Australian exchange student Tim Nordahl. “We all want to win, because we can’t stand losing. The biggest loss for the team was the injury to senior Gabe Jones, on of the team’s top scorers. Not having a star player was one of the Cards strongest attributes. When Jones went out, a half dozen players stepped in to fill his shoes. From Django Sussman, Von Barnes and Reed Criswell, to underclassmen Femi Ayanbadejo, Jason Nee and Aaron Woliczko, the team was well represented.

Trident. Key seniors are Von Barnes, 5-9, point guard; Norman Hutchings, 6-0, forward; Todd Trowbridge, 6-0, forward; Mike Keogh, 6-2, forward; Gabe Jones, forward, 6-3; Reed Criswell, forward, 6-3; Django Sussman, center, 6-5. Gone from last years team are all leaguers, center Patrick Jones and point guard Bernie Escalante. Sussman and 6-5 junior Tim Nordahl are rugged around the basket. “It’s really hard to say that any one or two players are going to be the key ones, just because we have talent and depth at every position. I’m pleased with the competitiveness that we’ve had daily at practice and the work ethic of the players. We are further along this year than we were at the same time last year,” said Newell.

Sentinel. November 25. Stevenson 66, SC 65. The game was close all the way and was tied 12-12 after one quarter, SC held a 35-33 lead at halftime and led 54-52 after thee quarters. Gabe Jones led SC in scoring with 20 points and Norman Hutchings had ten points. A dozen players saw action for the Cards. Stevenson’s top player scored 29 points and launched his winning three pointer from 23 feet out at the buzzer.

Trident December 13. At the Wildcat Shootout at Los Gatos against Silver Creek with the game tied 63-63 and with Silver Creek taking the ball out of bounds under SC’s basket and only three seconds on the clock. SC set up in a zone defense and Silver Creek converted on the inbound pass for a 65-63 win, giving SC their second straight lose.

December 1. SC 64, Blackford 52. At the Los Gatos Tournament, the Cards earned their first win and moved into the consolation finals. Tim Nordahl scored 11 points and had 14 rebounds. Reed Criswell chipped in 8 rebounds and Norman Hutchings and Mike Keogh each had 8 points. SC won the rebounding battle 52-24. SC led 30-25 at halftime and 46-38 after three quarters.

In the consolation final, the Cards lost to a good Yerba Buena team 57-52. Reed Criswell led the Cards with 16 points and Gabe Jones had 8 points and eight rebounds. But there were definite signs of improvement. Coach Newell called it, “Our best game against a good Yerba Buena team, despite losing.”

December 8. Aussie Powers Cards. Santa Cruz, Salinas Play For Tourney Title. It was a big night for the man from Down Under in more ways than one. With 11 rebounds and 16 points, big Tim Nordahl led the Cards to a hard fought 66-63 win over Soquel in the semi-finals of the Dad’s Club Tournament. SC plays Salinas in the finals.
“It was very physical inside,” said Nordahl, a 6-4 exchange student from Australia, who attributes his blocking out under the boards to playing a lot of Australian Rules Football and some very physical basketball. “We played our best defensive game in the first half and let down in the second. Even though Soquel gave us a scare toward the end, I knew we’d win.” Soquel has inside players at 6-8, 6-5 and 6-4. Despite Soquel’s height advantage, the Cards won the rebounding advantage 40-26. The Knights trailed by an average of nine points all night, but things tightened up in the last two minutes. The Cards led 52-43 at the end of the third period. But a string of bad passes and fouling allowed Soquel to close the gap. But Norhahl with 14 points and forward Reed Criswell who had 13 points and five rebounds in the second half, kept SC ahead.
With the score 63-59, SC drove the ball down court and had the ball stolen for a layup to close the score to 63-61. Point guard Hutchings was fouled and made both free throws to make it 65-61. Soquel was fouled and made two to make it 65-63. K.C. Kaiser was fouled and made the shot for the final score of 66-63. Newell may have been nonchalant about the game, but he played all but three of his 17 players with virtually everyone scoring. “I try to play everybody. I’m just looking for the right combinations,” Newell said.

Salinas Chills Cards. Cold Shooting Dooms SC In Dad’s Club Final 63-57. The Cardinals could not score a field goal in the final 4:32 of the game and Salinas was able to come back from a 54-51 deficit for a 63-57 win. Turnovers and ice cold shooting in the final minutes doomed the Cards. Until that time the two teams either tied the score or exchanged the lead 24 times.
Even though the Cards were missing from the field, they tied the score at 56 with 3:19 left. A turnover and a press breaking bucket put the Cowboys ahead for good with 3 minutes left. SC was led by Norman Hutchings with 17 points, including all three of SC’s field goals during a 1:27 stretch in the final quarter . But he injured his leg and hobbled through the rest of the game. In addition to Hutchings, the Cards got eight points from Von Barnes, Tim Nordahl and Reed Criswell.

December 14. At the Carmel Tournament, SC defeated Pacific Grove 54-46. SC rallied from a 22-25 deficit at halftime with a 16-6 run in the third quarter to win the first round of play. Tim Nordahl topped the Cards scoring with 16 points, followed by Reed Criswell with 13. SC’s record is now 4-4.

January 9, the second league game. SC Sweeps Past SLV In Bold Style. 78-60. The three time defending SCCAL champions put the Cougars away in the second quarter with a ferocious display of power and textbook basketball and never looked back. The Cards, who led by 15 at halftime, extended their lead to as much as 32 points in the second half. By then Tim Nordahl had scored most of his 27 points. “The intensity is approaching the level we need to compete in this league. Our passing was excellent and we’re asserting ourselves defensively,” Coach Newell said.
Reed Criswell and Von Barnes held the leagues top scorer to 11 points down from his 21 game average. No one could stop Nordahl, the 6-4 forward quietly became a dominate force inside the key. He was the big reason SC controlled the boards 51-27. He had 13 rebounds overall and 21 of his 27 points in the first half. The Cards, now 2-0 in league play ran post up plays for Nordahl and he buried the ball in the net with efficiency. Gabe Jones had 11 points and Aaron Woliczko had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

February 3. In a close hard fought SCCAL game SC defeated second place Soquel 68-64. With 15 seconds left SC led 66-64 and on a long pass to Nordahl, who put the ball off the glass to cinch the win. Nordahl led SC with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Jason Williams added 13 points and Reed Criswell 10. SC seems to have some fight left in them after struggling for much of the preseason with various injures. SC is now 4-5 in league play. Shooting 25 for 52 from the field, SC took the lead in the opening minutes of the second half and kept it. “For the most part, we did execute on offense and got the shots we wanted, We made some defensive adjustments and ran our half court offense better in the second half.” said Coach Newell.

February 5. Sentinel Athletes of the Week were Tim Nordahl and Faith Hasty. Nordahl has the toughness about him that he won’t back down to anybody. He has the ability to get the tough rebound in a crowd. He wants the ball inside in all situations and is willing to make any play in a pressure situation. Nordahl is a tenacious player, who scored eight points in the third quarter as the Cards rallied from a 29-33 halftime deficit to take a 53-45 lead. I think he came to our program with a tenacity that evolved from his participation in Australia. He has adjusted to American competition and more often than not is playing beyond his junior year level. He’s probably been our most consistent player all season,” said Coach Newell.

(For Faith Hasty look under girls basketball)

February 6. Cardinals Making Late Season Run. Five days ago, things didn’t look too good for the Cards, who had lost five of six games, were 3-5 and in fifth place in league. They went out and upset Soquel 68-64 on Saturday and combined with a 63-56 win Tuesday over North Monterey are in position to nail down third place in the round robin standings at 7-5.
“We talked to the kids Monday about the fact that really there are three games in league, we could’ve won. Noting a 53-58 loss at Soquel in the final seconds, a 65-66 loss at SLV and a 45-47 loss to Harbor. If we win those three, all of a sudden 5-5 becomes 8-2 and we are in a two way tie for first place. Yes, we’ve got a chance to get third, but we’re not that far from being tied for first. That’s important for our kids to realize, because we’re going into the league playoffs with the confidence that we can play with any team in the league,” Coach Newell said.
In beating North Monterey, SC received 15 points and 11 rebounds from junior center Tim Nordahl and 12 points and 8 rebounds from forward Gabe Jones. “We got solid performances from a number of players, including Tim, Gabe and Django Sussman.” The game was close throughout. SC led 15-14 after the first quarter, 36-29 at halftime and 52-40 after three quarters. The Condors got within five points during the fourth quarter.

February 9. Barnes Steps Forward In Clutch For Cards. Someone had to step forward. Despite substantial depth and talent, SC has dropped no less than seven close games this season, games which were the Cards for the taking. With the Cards trailing Aptos in a pivotal SCCAL contest, Von Barnes stepped off the bench and poured in 18 points on a series of flashy drivers to give SC a big lift in their 79-71 victory over Aptos.
“Someone had to step forward and take charge. Someone had to have a big night. I decided to come forward,” said the quick 5-9 senior guard. With center Tim Nordahl handcuffed by the Mariners and the point guards tentative about shooting from the perimeter, the Cards needed some offensive firepower and Barnes filled the bill. He was also able to hit Gabe Jones on quick passes inside the lane. Jones had a big night inside with 14 points and five rebounds.
Barnes entered the game in the second quarter with SC trailing 11-18. SC took the lead momentarily with help of seven quick points from Barnes, stayed close and trailed Aptos at the half 31-33. At the end of the third quarter SC overtook Aptos 51-50, on a Jones turnaround jumper in the key. Despite a strong finish by the Aptos guards, who scored 19 points in the last quarter between them, the Cards held the lead. Aptos was only down 68-64 with 2:36 remaining in the game. SC opened a the lead to 74-65 and Aptos was forced to foul to get the ball back. The kind of collapse which typified SC in mid-season did not return.
SC hit their free throws, played tough defense and held on to the game. Despite sustaining a groin injury at the beginning of the third quarter, Barnes returned in the fourth to nail three field goals on spidery moves to the bucket in the closing minutes. Though Barnes and Jones gave the Cards the big lift, it was the team defense which sealed their third consecutive victory. In their previous meeting Aptos ran up 86 points. The game effectively decided third place in the SCCAL. It assured the Cards 6-5 of a winning record, thus qualifying them for entry in the CCS tournament.

February 10. In a make up a game with North Monterey, postponed by a power failure, SC defeated North Monterey 58-45, for their fourth win in a row and their fifth in seven games. SC ends league play at 7-5. Only two losses by a total of three points stand between the Cards and a seven game win streak. We’re playing better now than at any other time this season and we can still get better,” said Coach Newell, whose team is 12-15 for the season.

Cards Head Into Tourney On Upswing. The end of the regular league season couldn’t have come at a better time for SC. This is a team on the roll and the league championship tournament coming up, the Cards appear primed to go for their fourth consecutive SCCAL title. To win the league title SC will have to win four more games without a loss. They start Tuesday at home against Watsonville, Thursday at Cabrillo College against either Soquel or North Monterey and Friday at Cabrillo against either Aptos, San Lorenzo Valley or round robin champion Harbor and Saturday at Cabrillo against Harbor for the league title.
Depth is not a problem for the Cards, Newell regularly goes ten deep. In Saturday nights game, he had everyone in the game before the first half was over. Aaron Woliczko finished with a team high 15 points, including a dunk and seven rebounds. One player who didn’t see action was senior Von Barnes, the hero of the Aptos game with 18 points and a number of assist. He suffered a minor groin injury and was held out of the game as a precautionary move.

Sentinel ALL COUNTY first team player and only Cardinal, is Tim Nordahl a 6-5, junior, center, who averaged 11.8 points a game for sixth place in the county. “Tim had a fine year considering tat this was his first experience with American basketball. His rebounding, scoring and inside defense were consistent. He has been a great ambassador for Australian basketball players,” Coach Newell said.

JV BOYS BASKETBALL had a 5-1 record in the first half of the league season.
Yearbook. Roster: Brian Jones, Cody Dumont, Gonzalo Vasquez, Dov Rothman, Chris Croghan, Joel Ackecnecht, Brooks Allen, Reggie Stephens, Efrian Bristo, William Delgado, Chris Crawford and Jason Nevin. Coach Charles Burks coach both the JV’s and freshman team, which is difficult to do.

Coach Burks after coaching both the JV’s and Freshmen last year guided both teams to winning records and did it again this year. Freshmen Reggie Stephens and Jermaine “Slam Dunk” Robinson along with sophomore sensation Dov Rothman led the way, as the team had lost only one game in the first half of the season. “We’re totally small and quick. Our speed allows us to dictate the pace of the game. Our team’s success is based on our running and up-paced game. If we don’t run, we struggle,” said Chris Crawford.

Sophomore guard Dov Rathman average over 15 points a game, with a high total of 27 in a preseason game. Rothman credits good passing from the team for his offensive success, as well as the fast temp of play. “It gives me more opportunities to handle the ball and make shots,,” said Rothman. His favorite play is an ali-up pass to Jermaine Robinson, who is the teams leading dunker. “Jermaine can catch anything near the basket an make it go in,” said Rothman.

FROSH BASKETBALL
Yearbook. Roster: Donald Keller, Adrian Corcoran, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Josh Levy, Jorge Perez, Albert Cuellar, Strider Kemp, James Kilpatrick, Jonathan Pillsbury, Javier Gomez and Paul Quilici.

Strider Kemp said, “the freshmen’s philosophy is a little different than the JV team’s. We practice hard and we win.”

GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL
Practice games: RLS 65-46, Ceres won, Carmel 57-25, Gonzales 65-37, 63-39; California High 68-27, Silver Creek 61-50. Watsonville Wildcat Tournament: Soquel 50-43, St. Francis of Mt. View 44-39 in two overtimes, Harbor 38-54 for second place. SLV Lady Cougar Classic: San Jose 77-61, Los Altos 32-45, SLV 55-35 for third place. Monte Vista 57-25, Hollister 59-25. (This is 10-2 practice record, but could be more)
League games: Watsonville 42-31, 57-44; SLV 55-17, 53-24; Harbor 34-52, 39-49; Soquel 48-35, 48-36; North Monterey 49-40, 56-35; Aptos 54-36, 58-53. League record 10-2. For second place. In SCCAL tournament in the first round SLV 65-30, Watsonville 53-44 in the second round. Lost to Harbor in the finals 33-43. Played two games in CCS, lost to Los Altos one of the only two teams to defeat the Cards.
Season record 24-6.

Sentinel preseason write up on November 23. Husband Pete Pappas and wife Kathy are the coaches for the fourth season. Returning starters are 5-8, senior, forward Meghan Kinney; 5-10, junior, center Heather Singer; 5-9, junior, post Erin Chandley and sophomore, point guard Jessica Lang. Returnees from last years team include 5-9, wing Josie Heyward; 5-4, junior guard, Maggie Marini and senior Rachel Heit, who played her first year of high school basketball last year. Four players are up from last years 19-1 JV team are 5-5, sophomore guards, Kenna Karst and Jesse Gonzales. Sophomore, forwards at 5-9 are Christina Thompson and Elayne Brown. Senior Diane Gergen, who was the Player of the Year in Volleyball this year will add her abilities to the team. Sophomore forward Faith Hasty at 5-10 is a transfer from Harbor and will be expected to be playing a lot this year. Last year the squad dwindled to eight or nine players. This year there are 13 qualified girls.

Kathy Pappas took leave of absence from coaching the team last year, because she was pregnant. She planned to come back this year, but there is a problem, though. Her husband Pete, coached the team last year and finished second in league an was named the league’s Coach of the Year. “You can’t fire the Coach of the Year,” Kathy said, “So I don’t know what I’ll do. I guess I’ll be the water girl or something.”

Having depth is important, but depth alone doesn’t win games. It takes experience and dedication down the line to build a strong team. Sophomore Faith Hasty, a transfer from Harbor, had her top scoring game of 25 points in a 65-37 win over Gonzales. She went on to be the teams leading scorer, along with fellow sophomore Kenna Karst.

December 1. Sentinel. Santa Cruz Rolls Over Cal High 68-27. The Cards outscored Cal High 19-4 in the first quarter and only gained momentum from there. “A deep bench was the most effective tool for the Cards,” said Coach Pete Pappas. “I’ve got 13 girls and all but one scored. It’s a real strong bench and their all fighting for positions.” That translates into strong play at both ends of the court for the Cards, now 3-0 in non league action.
Faith Hasty led SC in scoring with 11 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore point guard Kenna Karst led in assist with ten. Top rebounder was Josie Heyward with 8 boards. Pappas was most pleased with the team’s defensive performance. After leading 33-16 at halftime, Pappas took off the full court press. The Cards handled the ball well, stayed in control and passed very well.

December 4. Sentinel Athlete of the Week was Kenna Karst a sophomore, who came off the bench in the first three games to chip in 27 points and 21 steals. SC won all three games. Karst, a point guard and an off guard, has been the first reserve off the bench so far. But co-coach Pete Pappas said, “Karst has played so well that she may get to break into the starting lineup sometime soon. “She kind of doubted herself as to whether she was ready to play varsity this year, but this proves she’s ready. She’s just a catalyst for us. She’s our best passer and sees the court real well. I don’t know where she got such good instinct, it must be in-bred,” Pappas said. Karst is backing up the more experience Jessica Lang at the point. But Karst’s role in the full court press defense and her quarterbacking on offense have impressed Pappas. “She’s even showing some leadership as a sophomore. That’s real nice to see so early in the season and so early in her career,” said Pappas.

Trident December 13. Cards Dominate Pre-season winning all of their first four games. Last years coach of the year Pete Pappas, “We have a lot of depth and all the girls want to play and all can play, so we can put a lot of pressure on the other team.” SC opened the season with an impressive win over RLS 65-46. “We played good defense, when we needed it the most,” said sophomore, point guard Jessica Lang.
In their next game against Ceres, SC took control early and were led by sophomore transfer from Harbor Faith Hasty, who scored 18 points. On the defensive side it was fellow sophomores Lang and Christina Thompson, who had several big steals. (no score)
SC dominated Carmel 57-25, while giving up only four points the second half. Sophomores Elaine Brown and Kenna Karst combined for 21 points.
The fourth game was against Cal High, which is covered above.

Dec. 5. Cards Stay Undefeated taking down Silver Creek 61-50. “Tonight was a great win. These girls had a lot of hustle out there. This was our first road game and we showed a lot of intensity. I don’t think I’m surprised we’re 5-0. This is the first decent team we have played. I was definitely concerned about this game,“ said coach Pete Pappas.
Once again, Kenna Karst was the sparkplug for the Cards. She led SC with 12 points, five rebounds and eight steals. She now has 39 steals on the season or nearly eight for game. Elaine Brown chipped in 11 points and Heather Singer, “played her first real good all around game of the season,” Pappas said.
Singer had 10 rebounds, eight points and five steals. The game was the first of ten straight games on the road for SC, which won’t be home until the first league game on January 8. “These girls are going to grow up,” Pappas said.

Dec. 6. Soquel Pushes SC, But Cards Still Win in the first round of the Wildcat Invitational. “We knew Soquel was a pretty good team,” said Pappas, whose team nipped Soquel 50-43. “We’ve been beating teams by like 30 points, but Soquel is going to have a good year,” Pappas said. Kenna Karst and Jessica Lang were the chief instigators for SC. Karst, who usually backs up Lang at point guard shared time this game, scored 13 points and had eight steals. Lang was 7 for 8 from the field for 14 points. The SC cruised to a 27-16 halftime lead. Soquel kept it close with a big edge on rebounds.

December 8. Sentinel. SC, Harbor To Meet In Wildcat Title Game. It took SC an extra ten minutes to do it, but the Cards reached the finals with a semi-final, double overtime win over St. Francis of Mt. View 44-39. It wasn’t easy for the Cards against a physical St. Francis club. The Cards are now 7-0 on the season. SC hit just 19 of 78 shots from the field for 24 percent. The teams were tied at 37 at the end of regulation and 39-39 after the first five minute overtime. In the second OT, the Cards pulled away, with Heather Singer grabbing some key rebounds. The game winning sequence occurred, when Card Kenna Karst blocked a shot and fed it to Jessica Lang to pad SC’s lead to three. Faith Hasty led the Cards with nine points, Singer added eight and finished with 17 rebounds. Karst had a solid all around game with nine steals, four rebounds, four assists and six points. The championship game will the Cards eighth game in the past 11 days.

December 9. Harbor Knocks Out Santa Cruz 54-38 to claim the Wildcat Tourney title. The match up involved two undefeated teams. SC at 7-0 and Harbor 5-0. The outside shooting of SC and their key defensive plays kept them in the game and the period ended with Harbor ahead 11-10. In the second period, SC’s erratic passing and early foul trouble gave the Pirates the edge they needed to win the title. SC wasn’t about to give up that quick. A steal by Faith Hasty with an assist to Christina Thompson gave the Cards some spark and cut the lead to 16-19. Another steal by Jesse Gonzales at the four minute mark, another bucket by ace shooter Kenna Karst, who led her team with 13 points, put the Cards ahead 20-19.
Harbor came back and led 31-25 at halftime. The Pirates outscored the Cards 23-13 in the second half. “I thought it was a good game, a good battle. Our problem was we couldn’t execute our offense. I’ve got to hand it to Karst our 5-5 sophomore. She did a heck of a job defending against the top player in the league, who is 5-11, even though it was her eighth game in 12 days. Other top scorers were Singer and Hasty with 8 apiece. Of the six girls picked for All Tourney, Singer was the lone Card. Karst was selected as The Best Defensive Player.

Dec. 13. In the first round of the Lady Cougar Classic, SC downed San Jose 77-61. SC broke open a close game by outscoring San Jose 18-10 in the third quarter. SC now 8-1 on the season, led only 35-33 at halftime. “They were a short team that spread it out and tried a lot of three point shots. In the first half, they shot very well. In the second half, their shooting percent wasn’t anything. But I don’t think we played that well. We have a long way to go,” said coach Pappas. Kenna Karst and Elayne Brown each scored 16 points, followed by Faith Hasty with 12, Jesse Gonzales 11, and Diane Gergen 10. Gergen the SCCAL volleyball player of the year, who is in her first year of high school basketball, made her first start of the season. Gergen had ten rebounds too, to give her a double-double. Karst also had ten steals for a double-double.

Dec. 15. Los Altos 45, SC 32. Los Altos, using superior team speed and excellent ball handling used a 9-0 run early in the second quarter to build a ten point lead, one they would not relinquish. SC was led by Faith Hasty with ten points and Heather Singer’s ten rebounds.

December 16. In the third place game of the Lady Cougar Classic the Cards defeated SLV 55-35. SC got off to a hot start scoring the first 16 points and never letting SLV back into the game. SC took third place. SC dominated the entire game, especially on the offensive boards, where their superior inside game provided many easy baskets. SC was led by sophomore Elayne Brown with 14 points. Faith Hasty and Heather Singer led in rebounding with 12 and 11 respectively.

Dec. 21. SC 57, Monte Vista 25. Despite having only six players suited up, SC improve its record to 10-2. With seven players missing to attend the school’s prom, SC was without a point guard. Coach Pete Pappas, said he tried all of the players available at the point and the results were obviously favorable. “It was pretty neat. It was fun for them, great for the six girls.. They all got to play a lot.” Elayne Brown and Diane Gergen paced the Cards in scoring and rebounding. Brown scored 20 and hauled in 13 rebounds. Gergen scored 19 points and had 14 rebounds.

Dec. 28. SC 63, Gonzales 39. With seven players ailing from the flu, the Cards jumped out to an early lead and kept going. Faith Hasty, despite fighting the flu, had her best game of the year with 25 points, ten rebounds, four steals, three assists and only one turnover. Senior Diane Gergen helped on the boards with 16 rebounds.

Dec. 30. Balers Bail Out Against SC as the Cards rolled to a 59-25 victory. Of the eight girls SC had suited up because of the flu, five were sophomores and three started. SC improved to 12-2 for the season. Kenna Karst, one of the sophomores starters, picked a season high 12 steals and scored 14 points. Meghan Kinney added 11 points and Heather Singer had 10 rebounds.

Jan. 6. In the SCCAL opener, SC defeated Watsonville 42-31. Diane Gergen had 13 points and 17 rebounds to pace the Cards. It wasn’t until midway through the fourth quarter that SC was able to pull away from Watsonville. SC lead 10-8 after the first quarter, 19-17 at halftime and 28-23 after the third period. SC led by five with 4 minutes remaining, when back to back layups after steals put them up by nine. Faith Hasty led SC scoring with 10 points.

Jan. 9. SC 55, SLV 17. Kenna Karst contributed 10 points, 10 steals, six rebounds and five assists off the bench to help SC move to 2-0 in league games heading into their show down against Harbor. Team records: SC 14-2 and Harbor 15-2. Meghan Kinney paced the Cards scoring with 13 points and Diane Gergen led in rebounds with 11.

Jan. 12. Things Looking Up For Harbor. In a crucial battle for the league lead, Harbor beat SC 52-34. Harbor is 4-0 in league, while SC is 2-1 and 13-3 overall. Faith Hasty and three junior varsity players transferred from Harbor to SC after last season. SC had many open shots, but couldn’t put the ball in the basket. They shot just 27 percent on 15 for 54 and were out rebounded 30-17. SC turned the ball over 19 times, while Harbor did it 16 times. Harbor jumped out to a 11-5 first quarter lead, but just before halftime, SC fought back to a five point deficit 23-18 on a driving shot by Jessica Lang. Then Harbor scored twice to make the halftime score 24-18. In the third quarter, Harbor took their largest lead 39-25. Coach Pappas, “Their whole team out played us. They’re the best team right now.”

Jan. 16. SC Gets By Sloppy Soquel. SC unleashed their press to the tune of 39 turnovers, leading to a 48-35 victory. SC upped their SCCAL record to 3-1 and 15-3 overall. Trailing 28-25 at the end of the third quarter, SC erupted for 23 points, while holding Soquel to just seven. SC held Soquel to just 15 second half points. A jumper by Kenna Karst gave SC the lead with 5:55 to play in the game. Karst scored five points in the quarter and finished with eight. SC then scored eight unanswered points to give them a 39-32 lead, which they never gave up. “It was a good game for us and I knew it was going to be a tough game. The way we started, I thought we were in some real trouble,” coach Pete Pappas said. Soquel jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but 11 first quarter turnovers, and 12 more in the second quarter, kept SC in contention. Faith Hasty had a game high ten points.

Jan. 18. SC 49, North Monterey 40. The North Monterey coach has been impressed by point guard Kenna Karst for two years now. “I remember her on the junior varsity team and I was saying, what is she doing on the JV team?” Now a sophomore, Karst is no longer a understudy. She’s displaying her considerable talents at the varsity level. The Coach again, “Karst was the difference in the game as far as I’m concerned. They have a great point guard. She was just ripping our point guards for a while. She was doing a job on us and when she wasn’t, other people were.” Though Karst scored only seven points, she was a disruptive force at both ends of the floor. Karst finished with eight steals and added six rebounds. Twelve of the 13 SC players who played scored. Karst, Faith Hasty and Elayne Brown each had seven points to lead the team.

January 20. Sentinel. Cards Scuttle Mariners 54-36. Outscoring Aptos 16-2 in the second quarter, SC ran its league record to 5-1. “This was the first all around good game we’ve played this year. We completely dominated the boards and we haven’t done that all year,” said Coach Pappas. Primarily playing a full court man to man defense, SC controlled the game from early in the second quarter, getting rebounds, follow shots and steals. SC out rebounded Aptos 31-18 and it was the offensive rebounding which was the major factor. In the first half SC had eight offensive rebounds and some were for scores. Gergen led both teams in rebounding with 9, had four steals and scored 9 points. Coach Pappas commented on Singers output, “I am happy with her performance. She hasn’t played like that all year.” Hasty led SC in scoring with 14. The Cards led 31-12 at halftime. Pappas substituted often throughout the game, “I always play everybody. I’ve got six sophomores, four juniors and three seniors. They don’t always play as cohesively as tonight.”

Added from the yearbook to the Sentinel article above. A big play in the game was when an Aptos player flew down the court for what she thought was going to be an easy lay up. Sophomore Kenna Karst had other thoughts as she gently stripped the ball from the Aptos player and went to the other end of the floor for he own layup. Karst made over ten steals in the game. The victory gave the Cards a 13-2 record in the preseason. “It was one of the best starts we have had here,” said coach Pete Pappas. “Everybody on the team can play and everyone wants to play. This team has incredible depth.”

January 26. Cards Dominate Boards Against Cats to win 57-44. Faith Hasty made her first three field goals of the game against the Cats zone defense, helping the Cards take a 13-10 lead after one quarter. “We were swinging the ball around pretty well, We kind of knew what their zone defense was all about and nobody could guard Hasty early in the game. Gergen and Singer controlled the boards and that was the difference in the game.” said Coach Pappas. Gergen had 13 rebounds and 16 points. Singer added 12 rebounds. Hasty had 10 points and eight rebounds. SC upped their overall record to 18-3.

January 29. SC 53, SLV 24.
The Cards man to man defense swamped the host Cougars, who managed just five points in each of the first three quarters. Diane Gergen contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds for SC now 7-1 in SCCAL play. No other SC player reached double figures in scoring, although ten players scored. “SC has great quickness, that’s what really hurt us,” said SLV coach.

Feb. 1. Pirates Trail Early, Then Slip By Cards 49-39. SC took a 21-19 lead into halftime, but with 3:30 left in the third period, the lead was down to 29-28. Harbor went on to outscore SC 14-6 in the fourth quarter. Both coaches agreed that the game was much closer then the final score indicated. SC had the lead from the beginning, but never put any distance between them and the Pirates.
At halftime, the Harbor coach said, “SC’s intensity was higher than we expected it would be and we knew we were going to have to get up to that level.” Harbor is 10-0 in league and SC is 7-2 and 19-3 for the season. For SC, the key problems were at the foul line and with turnovers. “We missed about eight layups and three or four of them on good opportunities,” Coach Pete Pappas. SC hit on only 8 of 21 free throws. As SC shagged in the late stages of the game, Harbor took off. Meghan Kinney led the scoring with 11 followed by Kenna Karst with ten and Faith Hasty 9.

February 3. Hasty’s 26 points Lift Cards. Faith Hasty blistered the nets for 26 points to lead the Cards to a 48-36 victory over Soquel. Hasty hit five baskets in both the second and third quarters, then added two buckets and two foul shots in the fourth. Combine that with eight rebounds and four steals and she was too much for the Knights to handle. Soquel coach Stu Walters, “We had people all over her. She hit shots with hand right in her face.” Soquel held the lead for the first half, but couldn’t keep up with the Cards run and gun offense in the second half. Despite SC’s dismal first half shooting, Soquel held just a 22-18 lead at halftime.
In the second half SC played scrappy ball, using defensive rebounds to set up the offense and using offensive rebounds to put points on the board. The Cards combined for 23 steals and 41 rebounds. Gergen led the rebounding with 10, followed by Heather Singer with nine rebounds and five steals. As SC continued to pick u[ the loose ball and run with it, Soquel found themselves wearing down. “We play like that, fast break, all the time so we are used to it,“ said Coach Pete Pappas.

February 5. Sentinel Athletes of The Week. Faith Hasty, a 5-10 sophomore forward on the Cardinal girls basketball team, scored a season high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds and four steals in a 48-36 win over Soquel. “This was the first night she’s come out and gotten into the flow for most of the game. She’s just getting her legs and playing both ends of the court after being injured last year and missing the summer, so that is exciting,” said Coach Pete Pappas.
Hasty scored ten point in each of the second and third quarters as SC turned a 6-12 deficit into a 35-29 lead after three quarters. Hasty is in her first year with the Cards after playing for Harbor last season as freshman. “I think it has been hard for her physically and emotionally coming over from Harbor and leaving some of her friends. But I think she’s settling in right now and having a good time. She’s really likes where she’s at,’ coach Pappas. For the week, Hasty had 42 points, 24 rebounds and nine steals. SC beat SLV 53-24, but lost to Harbor 3949.

Feb. 6. SC 56, North Monterey 35. SC followed Faith Hasty’s lead in getting off to a hot start and wrapping up second place in the SCCAL regular season. Hasty scored ten points in the first period, as SC zipped to a 17-8 lead and didn’t look back. SC is 9-2 in league with one game to play and 21-4 overall with three of the losses to Harbor. Meghan Kinney scored 13 points. Diane Gergen led in rebounds with 12, while Elaine Brown and Kinney had seven apiece.

February 9. Santa Cruz 58, Aptos 53. The Cards outscored Aptos 22-5 in the second quarter and withstood a 38 point second half by the Mariners to wrap up second place in the SCCAL round robin season with a 10-2 record. Meghan Kinney had a career high 19 points and Faith Hasty added 14. Diane Gergen led in rebounding with ten.

Feb. 13. In the first round of the SCCAL girls playoff tournament, SC had little trouble advancing to the second round with a win over SLV 65-30. SC jumped to a 16-9 lead at the end of the first period and 31-13 at halftime. Sophomore Faith Hasty paced the SC attack with 16 points, followed by Meghan Kinney with 12. It was the sixth time Kinney has scored in double figures in the past eight games. “Kinney is shooting very well right now. She’s been shooting off-balance for three years. I told her to quit shooting her jumper unless she was inside 6 or 7 feet. She’s shooting more of a tip-toe jumper so she is hitting. She stands there and shoots pretty good,” Coach Pappas. SC had 20 steals, 46 rebounds and a lot of assists. Pappas said, “We played a lot of girls and they helped each other on defense really well.” SC is 23-4 on the season.

February 15. At the SCCAL playoff tournament, Watsonville beat Soquel in the first round in an upset, but was not able to do the same in the second round against the Cards, who won 53-44. “They were really scrappy and played tough on transition,” said Pappas, who felt his team was fortunate it didn’t suffer the same fate as Soquel did against the Cats. “We were real lucky. We didn’t play very smart for most of the game.” After trailing by five at halftime, Watsonville kept the gap close for the third quarter, down only by four with three minutes left in the quarter. But SC got hot in the fourth quarter and outscored the Cats 16-10 to pull away. Faith Hasty was the major factor in SC bolting to an early lead. She poured in eight first quarter points and finished with a game high 16 points.

Feb 16. Bucs Deny Cards Once Again as Harbor won going away 43-33. Eight minutes stood between SC and its elusive object of desire, a victory over Harbor. The score was tie 28-28 after three quarters. It was the kind of game in which players from both teams didn’t hesitate to dive to the floor for loose balls. But victory was once again denied SC, by the steady hand of the leagues best and most valuable player. It was the Cards fourth defeat of the year to Harbor. SC 24-5 for the season. lost to only one other team, Los Altos. There were hugs and tears among SC players after the game. “Same story, different night,” lamented Coach Pappas. “The players are frustrated, because they are right there and then ….” The game didn’t begin on a frustrating note for SC, it just ended that way. A great defensive effort staked SC to a 12-5 first quarter lead.
A tough man-to-man defense enabled SC to deny Harbors trademark lob pass to their All league center. If SC had shot a little higher percentage for outside the lane, Harbor might have been in real trouble. Utilizing its natural height advantage, Harbor rebounded, literally and figuratively, in the second quarter when they picked up 13 points by getting second shots up for scores and led 20-17 at half. SC hung tough in the third quarter with a 11-4 run. SC tied the game up 24-24 on a 15 foot jumper by Kenna Karst and then went ahead 28-24 on free throws by Meghan Kinney, an All SCCAL guard.
Faith Hasty, SC’s best inside defender, received her fourth foul with 4:12 to play in the third quarter and left the game for a while. Harbor took advantage with a 10-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter. A Karst three pointer with 3:24 remaining made the score 34-31. Harbor score two points and Hasty, who had eight points in the game, hit a baseline jumper to cut the lead again to 36-33. Through several possessions, SC was not able to score and Harbors top player took over.

Trident March 14. Long Season Ends Quickly For Girls Basketball with 27 Wins. The first CCS game was against Los Altos a team that had beaten them back in December, when the Cards lost a close game. The tempo was set from the beginning as both teams visited the foul line due to their aggressiveness and the intense pressure of the big game. Faith Hasty took the initiative for the Cards offense drilling her outside shots. Kenna Karst and Meghen Kinney contributed on both ends of the floor.
In the last minute the score remained tied as neither team could manage to capitalize and the game went into overtime. SC fought hard, but lost by four points. The team has taken great strides, but came up a few minutes short of their goal of winning league and going far in CCS. Los Altos was one of only two teams, Harbor the other, to beat SC this year. “I felt this season has been a very positive one. Everyone on the team has played excellently, even better than I had hoped,” coach Pete Pappas said. All but one starter is returning and the team now has valuable experience that they lacked when this season began.

March 4. Sentinel ALL COUNTY team. On the five member first team was Meghan Kinney, senior 5-8 guard. On the second team were two sophomores, Kenna Karst, 5-8 guard and Faith Hasty, 5-10 forward, Faith was also Sophomore of the Year. Diane Gergen was honorable mention.
Meghan Kinney. “She worked hard all year and just kept getting better and better. By the end of the year, she was great at both ends of the floor,” said coach Pete Pappas. Kinney averaged eight points a game.
Faith Hasty. “Faith had a good attitude. She struggled through the first half of league, before she found her niche on the team,” said Coach Pappas. She was fifth in the league with a scoring average of 11.3 and added an average of 6.6 in rebounds.
Kenna Kurst. “Started the season on an amazing steal binge. “She averaged eight steals a game throughout the first half of league. She took over the point and led us to a real good year,” said Coach Pappas. Karst averaged 7.5 points a game.

SCCAL ALL LEAGUE selected by the league coaches. Meghan Kinney senior, 5-8, guard and Faith Hasty sophomore, 5-10, forward were selected on the first team. Kenna Karst sophomore 5-8, guard was a second team selection. Diane Gergen, senior, 5-9 center was selected for the third team. Faith Hasty was chosen Sophomore of the Year. Heather Singer was honorable mention.

GIRLS JV BASKETBALL
Yearbook. Roster: Erin Jones, Tam Perez, Arie Bonnell, Stacy Wiens, Gretchin Krebs, Noelle Walker, Jennifer Elmore, Ali Trybom, Vera Mantell and Brandi Hoffman. Coach John Wilson.

In the third week of the season against Aptos, the score was constantly tied, until the Cards pulled out all stops to win in the final minutes. Their success was guaranteed with the excellent free throw percentage of freshman Erin Jones, who was the teams leading scorer and free throw expert, shooting seventy percent. She and two other sophomores Jenny Elmore and Ali Trybom transferred from Harbor.

The primary goal of any JV player is to reach the level in their sport where they can be competitive in varsity sports. This was accomplished by everyone on the team.

WRESTLING
Unseeded Issa Brandt made it to the State meet and lost to the eventual State Champion.

Yearbook. A Small Team With A Tough Attitude.
There are 13 weight divisions that a wrestling team needs to fill, but the Cards were usually only able to fill seven weights, which means they had to forfeit six of the matches. Individual wrestlers did well even though the team could not score enough points to win the team matches. Those who had their pictures in the yearbook wrestling were third year varsity wrestler Issa Brandt, senior Paul Burdette, sophomore Josh Peterson, Chris Farelli, Sean Brand, Robbie Parry and Jason Johnson.

Trident November 29. Assistant coach for the last few years and former SC football quarterback and wrestler and now Head Coach Chris Lavato received accolades from his players. He is an exceptional coach, not to mention a good friend is the norm from the players. In 1985 and 1986 Lavato was a league champion wrestler for SC. The next two years he took All American honors for both years for at West Valley College. For the two years at the Californian Community College state finals he placed third and fifth.
The team needs more wrestlers, those interested practices are 4-6 Monday through Friday.

Roster: Josh Peterson, Robert Parry, Jason Johnson, Nathan Atkinson, Steven Marenghi, Chris Farelli, Sean Brandt, Paul Burdett, Issa Brandt and Brice Dimitruk. Head coach Chris Lavato and Garth Taylor.

Sentinel. January 10. Too bad that SC had only eight men in their first SCCAL dual meet. SC defeated Soquel 21-19 in the head to head competition, but had to forfeit five matches in which they fielded no wrestler and lost 49-21 in the overall scoring. In team wrestling four points are awarded for a victory, five points if the win is by more than eight points and six points are awarded for a pin or a forfeit. SC had to spot Soquel 30 points, before the meet started. Issa Brandt and Chris Farelli staked the Cards to an early lead in the first two matches. Brandt won in a pin in 1:52 in the first round. Farelli dominated his match and scored 11 points. In the 135 pound class Robbie Parry pinned his man with authority to restore the lead to SC. Josh Peterson followed with a pin in 1:29 of the second round. The best match of the night featured the teams two captains in the 165 pound division. Steve Marenghi battled back in the third round from a near pin and a 5-0 deficit, before falling 10-7. In the last match Jason Johansen was pinned.

January 13. At the West Valley Jim Root Classic a 32 team event, Issa Brandt placed fourth. At 103 pounds Brandt went 4-2, losing twice to the top seed and the eventual champion. Robbie Parry was fifth at 135 pounds and Steve Marenghi was fifth at 160.

January 20. At the Dick Force Invitational at Gonzales, Issa Brandt captured the 104 pound championship In his toughest match, he won with a counter move in overtime to win 9-4. Robbie Parry at 130 was second, Chris Farelli at 112 was third and Steve Marenghi at 160 was fourth.

Trident February 1. At the seventh Annual Coast Classic Wrestling Tournament at Fehliman Gym, which attracted 44 teams from around state and was the first major tournament of the season, it gave local wrestlers a chance to view potential challenges for section. Card coach Chris Lovato, viewed the tourney, “As a lot tougher than years past with 44 teams. We had some great success with our younger members. There was good competition and learning experiences with teams as far away as Nevada, Oregon and Southern California.” Junior Steve Maranghi advanced into the second day by starting out pinning his opponents, but was eliminated, even though he did very well against tough competition. Junior Sean Brandt and sophomore first year wrestler Jason Johnson made it to late in the first day.

At the CCS finals, unseeded Issa Brandt said, “I don’t really feel the pressure of having to go out and win. I’m not expected to. So I’m working on my moves.” Brandt the SCCAL 103 champion, pinned his first two men, before losing to the seconded seeded wrestler in the finals. At the state meet Brandt eventually lost to the eventual champion.

BOYS VARSITY SOCCER CCS DIVISION II CO-CHAMPIONS
Harbor 5-1, 2-1; Soquel 3-0, 2-0; Watsonville 0-3, 2-2; Aptos 3-1, SLV 2-0, (matches missing) League record 10-1-1 second place.
CCS Division II playoffs: Gonzales, 4-3 in overtime; Live Oak 1-0 in semifinals and tied Gilroy 1-1 in overtime to take a Co-Championship of Division II South for the first CCS championship in soccer for SC.

Yearbook. Rolling Over League! Soccer Team Crushes Opponents.

After an inconsistent preseason, the Cards fine tuned and made the necessary adjustments, which allowed them to operate smoothly by the start of the league season. On defense sophomore “Ocho” Torres and junior Matt Moses switched from sweeper to stopper and with the combination of seniors Pedro “Baby” Sierra, Isidro “Easy” Laguna and Alejandro Aguierre on the front line drew immediate success. Since that time the team scored 15 goals. The right combination allowed the Cards to go on a six game winning streak through the middle of the season.

Highlights included six to eight pass combinations starting from behind the half line and ending in rocket goals netted by Sierra. Breakaways down the wings by Aguierre and “Chuey” always left opposing defenders coughing in the dust. Beautiful passing combinations with pinpoint accuracy were their trademarks. “they have great ball control and work really well together,” said a fan.

Oliver Bettancourt from Spain was a sensational surprise taking over the halfback position left empty by former ALL CCS player Jevin Albequerque. The young defense of Mosses, Torres and juniors Kyle Murphy and Felipe Nieto had solid performances all season long, with goalie Javier Gonzales being particularly outstanding. Gonzales starting with a January 11 win over Soquel and throughout the Cards winning streak, Gonzales made key saves to keep his team in the game.

Family traditions are usually passed from generation to generation, but for Pedro Sierra, the family tradition in soccer started in his generation. Pedro is the last of five brothers that have brought the standards of soccer at SC to new heights, not only as players, but as coaches as well. Sergio coaches the varsity team, Gorge the junior varsity, plus other brothers serve as assistants (and later they coached the girls teams). Gorge said, “Soccer is a natural thing with him. He has the ability to slow down the game and play it at his own pace.”

Team co-captains were Jerry Meyer and Pedro Sierra. Rest of squad: Jessie Martin, Alejandro Romero, Brian McGinley, Mauricio Reyes, Celso Cruz, Jason Swolgaard, Mike Richards, Jesus Corcoles. Coach Sergio Sierra.

Trident December 13. Cards Still A Little Unsure In Preseason. Frustrations, Lack Of Team Play Leave Soccer Team With A 1-1-3 Preseason Record. Penalty shots, fast breaks, corner kicks and second attempts have provide goals for SC. Unfortunately, the same factors provided goals for the Cards opponents. On December 4, SC traveled to Gilroy for a tense “down-to-the-wire” battle as SC won 4-3. Seniors Oliver Bettancourt, an exchange student from Spain. Jesus Corcoles and Pedro “Baby” Sierra all had goals. On the ride home, the bus echoed with victorious chants such as “SC, SC….”
In the season opener with Alisal, SC looked strong and had some nice passing combinations. Alisal had a freak goal in the final minutes to tie the score 2-2. Sierra had a goal and sophomore Ocho Torres and senior Alejandro Aguirre played well.
In their loss to Gonzales, SC was hampered by a turbulent wind ripping lengthwise across the field and the absence of three starters. But SC was “out hustled and beat to the ball,” commented fans.
Other losses were to last years CCS champion Overfelt and to Live Oak.
The general attitude of the team is they have the talent and are coming together, but there still needs to be more communication, passing and team play. Torres said, “on defense, we need to start talking and covering for each others positions. Whenever someone gets to the ball he dribbles too much instead of making the easy pass.”
On December 12, SC opens the league season against Watsonville. The last tune up before the Cats is with the high powered Alumni team.

January 10. Sentinel. Hot Cards Score Win Over Aptos 3-1. Following a scoreless first half, the Cards settled into their own strategy. “We started playing our own game in the second half. In the first half, we weren’t playing a control game and we were getting beaten to the ball,” said Coach Sergio Sierra. The Aptos coach thought it was a fired up Card team that overwhelmed a tired Mariner defense. “Their intensity was high and we fell asleep. Our defense held pretty well, but you can’t keep it up for a whole game,”
SC scored first on a fine play by defenseman Felipe Nieto, who broke through the right side of the Aptos defense and kicked the ball high into the left side of the goal. Aptos scored on a free kick to tie the score. SC regained the lead on a free kick goal by Baby Sierra from 20 yards out and iced the game away on a breakaway goal by Jesus Corcoles. Corcoles moved up the middle angling to the left to draw the goalkeeper out of the net. As the keeper sprawled for the ball, Corcoles brought it back to the right and tapped it into the empty net sealing the win for the Cards.
“I told them once we got the first goal that more would follow. Our tendency all season has been to get a goal early and go from there. The first goal builds confidence and gets the players going,” Coach Sierra said.

January 12. SC 3, Soquel 0. SC jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and goalkeeper Javier Gonzales had one of his best games of the season as SC improved to 4-2 in league. On offense, the Cards broke out of the gate quickly scoring five minutes into the game. Jesus Corcoles took a feed from Oliver Bettencourt, beat a defender on the right side of the goal and scored on a shot into the upper corner. Midway through the second half, Baby Sierra scored off an assist from Corcoles.

January 19. Cats Escape SC With A 2-2 tie. Cards Miss Opportunities To Win Game against first place Watsonville. SC is now 4-2-1 and Watsonville is 6-0-1. “We just didn’t capitalize. We had the opportunities. We controlled the tempo of the game. I was very happy with the way we controlled the ball. Our game is control and the long ball on defense because of our forwards. We do use a lot of technique on the ball looking for the open man on the wings. Watsonville is all control,” Coach Sierra said. SC was up 2-1 until late in the second half, when a ball was deflected off a SC player for the tying goal.
In the second half and in overtime, SC seniors Pedro Sierra and Oliver Bettencourt repeatedly fed forwards Alejandro Aguirre and Jesus Corcoles with accurate passes, but the Cards kept missing their shots or had the ball stolen. Shortly after Watsonville scored their second goal, they got the ball near the goal area. SC’s Jeremy Meyer dug the ball out the melee and kicked it down field. “I think we should’ve scored more goals. We wanted to beat them real bad. I think we beat them. We were just unlucky on the goals.” said Pedro Sierra.
The score was tied at one at halftime. Pedro Sierra scored the first goal on a direct free kick from about 25 yards out early in the first half. Watsonville tied the score on a penalty kick midway through the half. Aguirre scored the Cards second goal early in the second half on a penalty kick. In their previous meeting Watsonville won 3-0.
Additional information on the game from the Trident of February 1. Senior goalie Javier Gonzales had over 15 quality saves. Two of the most brilliant were when he dove through two Watsonville players to bat the ball out of reach. The other, when he jumped and caught the ball just as a leaping Watsonville player was about to head it into the goal.
The powerful forward combination of Sierra, Aguierre and Jesus Corcoles pressured the Cats the whole game. Aguirre and Corcoles would take the ball down the wings, weaving in and out of Cat defenders. However the goal continued to elude them. The penalty shot made by Sierra was his third of the season.

January 29. SC beat Harbor 2-1 in overtime. Oliver Bettencourt, an exchange student from Spain, dribbled past three defenders and fired successfully from 30 yards out with one minute remaining in the first ten minute overtime period. SC moved to 6-2-1. “It was his only shot of the game. He couldn’t wait to take a shot and it was getting late,” said Coach Sierra. Isidro Laguna scored on an assist form Pedro Sierra in the first half. Harbor countered with a corner kick goal midway through the second half.

Santa Cruz Clinches CCS Playoff Spot with a 2-0 win over Soquel. Being the second place team in the league gives the Cards an automatic berth in Division II. Three leagues fit under Division II, SCCAL, MBL and Mission Trail Athletic League. SC lost their first two league games, but since a win over Harbor in their third league game have a ten game unbeaten streak. ”I think the turnaround was the first win of league against Harbor.
I made some crucial adjustment in the defensive personnel. Then there are the three forwards, Pedro Sierra, Jesus Corcoles and Alejandro Aguirre, that basically do all the scoring. Having center halfback Oliver Bettencourt controlling the middle of the field worked out perfectly. And of course, the marvelous job Javier Gonzales has done in the goal for us,” said coach Sierra. Gonzales turned in his third shut out of the season keeping Soquel out of the net, while his defense scored twice. “That was probably the highlight of the game. He played above everybody’s level for sure.”
The offense was provided by Baby Sierra, Sergio’s youngest brother and Aguirre. Sierra scored 5 minutes into the game on an assist from Corcoles. With 25 minutes into the second half, Aguirre scored on an assist from Jerry Meyer.

February 17. Cards Reach Finals: Acorns Shocked. Corcoles Goal Sends SC Into CCS Title Game. On the SC sideline, there was exultation. Coach Sierra was lifted and given a joy ride on the shoulders of his players. SC had just delivered a decisive performance in the CCS Division II semi-final game with Jesus Corcoles scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory over top seeded Live Oak, champions of the MBL.
SC essentially controlled the game on the ground against the favored Acorns. They beat the Acorns to the ball time and time again and fended off a prolonged assault on their goal in the second half. “We wanted it more. We wanted it so bad we just went for the ball every time,” said Pedro “Baby” Sierra. Live Oak was in shock. SC earned the right to face Gilroy a 2-1 victor over three time defending CCS Champions Watsonville in an earlier semi-final game.
With 21 minutes remaining in the first half, Corcoles split two defenders as he raced toward the Live Oak goal and struck a blow past the keeper for the games only score. The early goal changed the complexion of the game as the Acorn players found themselves pressing too hard to get the ball back up field to score in reply.
Midfielder Oliver Bettencourt was key to the defensive effort, as he stole the ball and sufficiently harassed the Live Oak forwards as they attempted with increased desperation to tie the game. As the second half neared its conclusion, the intensity picked up and contact on the field got wilder. “Oliver was tough. He was getting pushed around out there. But when you play a physical team like Live Oak, you’ve got to expect that. We beat them at their own game,” said coach Sierra.
Javier Gonzales defended the SC goal brilliantly. Always in the right place, he fended off a dozen good shots. Once with the ball trickling out in front of the goal and no one defended, he raced out and dived on it just as a Live Oak player began to kick the certain game tying goal.
On the other side of the field, the SC forward trio of Sierra, Corcoles and Alex Aguirre did not let down after scoring the opening point. They kept the pressure on Live Oak and the Acorn goalie blocked a couple bullets in the game, including the second kick from Corcoles on a feed from Sierra, which just missed. “These three guys are probably the best forwards that SC has ever put together. My kids just knew that if we played a really tough game, there isn’t a team that can beat us.” coach Sierra said. SC has never won a CCS championship. “Just being in CCS feels great, but I really think we could win it all. Other SC teams have been real good and I think we have as much talent. I would think we’re champions even if we lose Tuesday. If we win, my happiness would never end. It would be the first time for our school and that would mean a lot to us,” said Baby Sierra.

SC, Gilroy Share Title. Not Even OT’s Settle CCS Soccer Game. SC will share the CCS Division II title with Gilroy. Through two 10 minute overtime periods, followed by two five minute sudden death tie breaker periods, the Cardinals dueled the Mustangs to a 1-1 tie. The co-championship, the first ever for SC was bittersweet for Coach Sergio Sierra. “It doesn’t feel as good as if we had won it outright. That call on Baby’s goal was questionable. But it’s still a championship and we’re going to enjoy it.”
In the closing minutes of the first overtime period, forward Pedro “Baby” Sierra booted the apparent winning goal for SC. Pandemonium turned to disbelief and than to anger as the goal, which broke a 1-1 tie was nullified by an off sides penalty. It was the second SC goal in the game voided by the officials. In the first period, a Jesus Corcoles goal was called back for high kicking. After the goal was called back, Pedro Sierra was subsequently red carded for his protest and the Cards had to play the next 20 minutes, not only without their starting center forward, a gifted ball handler and passer, with without a substitute for him, One man down. Despite the disadvantage the undermanned Cards denied Gilroy the go ahead goal. A defensive first period saw the Cards dealt a series of open field opportunities, which they came progressively closer to converting to scores. SC finally broke through with 25 minutes remaining in the second half. Corcoles roped a 20 yard kick from the opposite side of the goal after Pedro Sierra’s attempt was blocked and squibbed wildly cross field. One could tell as soon as Sierra dribbled past a defender at midfield that SC was going to score on that possession. The ball went from Sierra to mid-field man Oliver Bettencourt, then back to Sierra and then to Alex Aguirre as they dribbled and passed the ball furiously up field. SC backed the Gilroy defense all the way to the goalie’s box before Sierra’s blocked kick was swooped on by Corcoles.
The momentum quickly turned to SC as the Cards came close to scoring two more goals in the next few minutes. Smelling the kill, SC kept the pressure on and the ball in Gilroy’s side of the field. As though they held something in reserve all the while, the Cards threatened repeatedly, allowing the Mustangs no chance for reprisal. “You’ve got to give Gilroy credit. We kept creating opportunities for ourselves and they stopped us.” coach Sierra said.
The next 15 minutes were marked by a sustained offensive effort and a good defense assisted by SC goalie Javier Gonzales, who had 14 blocks in the game. Then with less than three minutes to play in regulation, disaster struck. A crucial lapse on defense allowed Gilroy to poke the tying goal past Gonzales, the leagues Defensive Player of the Year. A Mustang kick from the corner passed harmlessly across the goal mouth and beyond Gonzales. The ball landed right in front of a undefended Mustang player, on the other side of the goal.. Gonzales turned, but was too late, the ball was kicked past him easily.
Gilroy whose title hopes were only moments from being extinguished were back in the hunt. “We got to attack the ball and we got to beat them to the ball. That’s what this next 10 minutes are about,” Coach Sierra told his players in the huddle before the first overtime. “It was a great battle and this team demonstrated their abilities all year. They played at a level, which for high school players was fantastic,” said Sierra.
Pictures in the Sentinel contained action shots showing, defensive stars like junior Brian McGinley reacting to a ball as he was pressured hard, but not as hard as the Gilroy defenders. Plus, halfback Jerry Meyer, jockeying for header position.

Addition, Trident March 14. Cards Net CCS Title. This team might be the best SC soccer team ever at SC. “I’m very proud of this team. I love them all. They are great kids,” summed up coach Sergio Sierra. Against Live Oak, the Card defense of sophomore “Ocho” Torrres and juniors Matt Musses, Felipe Nieto and Brian McGinlley had solid performances. Goalie Javier Gonzales had another career game, smothering 13 shots. “The awesome front line trio of Sierra, Corcoles and Aguirre kept the offensive pressure up with beautiful passing combinations. These guys are probably the best forwards SC has ever put together,” commented Coach Sierra.
Senior Oliver Bettancourt secured the midfield, starting up the Card counter attack and taking long range, blistering shots at the Live Oak goal. “Oliver was tough. He was getting pushed around out there, but when you are playing a physical team like Live Oak, you’ve got to expect that. We beat them at their own game,” said Sierra.
This capped off a remarkable season for SC, who in the preseason lost to both Gonzales and Live Oak. Things didn’t look good as they went into the regular season 1-1-3. Then the team “came together” and with some lineup adjustments went on to be CCS Co-Champions. This is the first CCS Championship in any sport.

Sentinel Athlete of the Week of January 29. This week senior striker Baby Sierra, scored a goal in the Watsonville 2-2 tie game and in the 2-0 win over SLV. He had an assist in the 2-1 win over Harbor. He leads the team in scoring with nine goals and five assists. “he’s the one who controls the tempo of the game. His all around skills inspire the rest of the team to play at his level,” said his coach and brother Sergio. Pedro scored the first goal against SLV on a shot form 35 yards out. He took a pass and turned around and “took a rocket of a shot,” that went toward the goalie. But the velocity of the ball knocked the goalie’s hands back and the ball went into the net. I kind of though I’d have some problems coaching my brother, but he’s been great and dedicated and listens to what I have to say more than anything. He’s hasn’t missed a practice all year and that tells me he wants it just as much as I do, said coach Sergio.

Sentinel Athlete of the Week of February 19. Jesus Corcoles, a sophomore forward, scored two big goals last week in the CCS Division II play offs. In the first round of play against Gonzales, he tied the game 3-3 with 5 minutes to go in regulation time during a 4-3 overtime win. He scored the only goal in a win over top seeded Live Oak in the semi-finals to send the Cards into the title game against Gilroy.
“The funny thing is through the course of the year he’s been creating opportunities for himself, opportunities that he should put in the net, but doesn’t. I had to tell him to be patient, be patient, you’ll score when we need it and in these two CCS games he came through,” said Coach Sierra.
With 21 minutes remaining in the first half against Live Oak, Corcoles split two defenders as he raced toward the goal and struck a blow past the keeper. He can take on anybody and maintain control of the ball. I’ve seen him take on seven guys, but then when he gets to the goal, when he should put the ball in then net, that’s when they normally take the ball away from him. But not this time,” said Coach Sierra.

ALL SCCAL selections. Goal keeper Javier Gonzales was selected Defender of the Year, by the league coaches. (there are more we don’t have)

JV BOYS SOCCER
Yearbook. The team focused on the attitude of trying to “Move To Open Space, Attack The Gap, Mark Up On Defense and Be In The Other Teams Face,” said coach Sean Sullivan.

New coach Sean Sullivan wanted to “play more attractive, creative, soccer. Boring soccer is not enjoyable to watch or play. I’d rather take our chances up front then play a defensive 0-0 game of soccer.”

The Big Three. Three things are essential for a soccer teams success. The offense, forwards; midfielders, halfbacks; and the defense, fullbacks. These three areas were covered by sophomores, who are the teams MVP Neil Churchill, Mike Ferrante and Kevin Murphy. Churchill’s fast breaks on offense, Ferrante’s passing and ball control as center halfback and Murphy’s “all out” stifling defense proved to be key factors in the Cards success.

Fullback Murphy said, “All defenders have to be ruthless hardened warriors, who would stop at nothing to keep the ball out of the net.” Once the fullbacks control the ball the next step is to get it to a halfback/midfielder, most likely Ferrante, whose position requires helping support the defense and get into position to receive and outlet pass from them. The midfields job is to then get it to the forwards. Churchill was the top scorer having scored 12 goals midway through the season.

An all around solid lineup made the Cards tough to play. Rounding out the other three starters were Leo Gonzales a forward who scored a bicycle kick goal against Soquel. Midfielders were Carlos Ruiz, Tony Garcia and Mike Ferrante. Sweepers were Javier Acevedo, Sean Barbera and Javier Acevedo, who put in all the teams penalty shots. Sophomores Ramey White and Ariel Brown rounded out the starters. Rest of squad: Josh Porter, Gabe Chavez, Greg Bruland, Joe Street, Chris Apra, Hector Galvez, Ben Henry, Jose, Pepe and Felipe. Coach Sean Sullivan.

GIRLS VARSITY SOCCER
Practice games: James Lick 4-0, Palo Alto 1-4. League: Soquel 0-2, Watsonville 7-1, win; Harbor 2-1, North Monterey 3-1 in OT, split with SLV. (matches missing)

Yearbook. It’s Not The Size Of The Dog In The Fight, It’s The Size Of The Fight In The Dog, a soccer cheer. “Blow them out or lose by a point,” seems to the motto of the girls soccer team. From 6-0 and 7-1 victories to a 1-2 loss to North Monterey, the team kept pace with the rest of the league. “We’ve never been physically out of a game, but as any athlete will tell you sports are ninety percent mental,” said coach Tim Morley. “We couldn’t seem to get our heads into the game,” said halfback Malinda Ferrante. The two broken feet of senior halfback Janell Flynn hampered the Cards season. Picking up the slack left by injuries were the job of seniors Siri Moeller, Ruby Lipsenthal, Mieko Imai and freshman Rita Dunderdale.

Senior Ruby Lipsenthal has been a starting varsity forward for all four years at SC and has played a total of nine years counting girls leagues. Her strengths are a hard shot, good passing and she always finds the open teammate. Twice this year Ruby turned in three goal hat tricks in both games against Watsonville. Coach Morley said, “Ruby is a good role model for the younger plays as she does well in both the field and classroom. Ruby said, “I tell people what to do a lot, but I also give people a lot of encouragement.

Rest of squad: Jana Zuckswert, Vanessa Nabokov, Ann Shumate, Mercedes Bauer, Janell Flynn, Allison Agosti, Andrea Seeger, Jessica Pusser, Erin Latner, Kara Vernor, Hafiett Norteye and Anna Rothman. Coach Tim Morley.

Trident December 13. Girls Soccer Team Kicking Off In Style. With nine returning players and some fresh talent, the season looks like a promising one. For the fourth year in a row the team has a new coach. Normally starting with a new coach has set the team back before everyone get used to each other. This year, the transition has gone much more smoothly than in the past and the team and coach are working together. Varsity has played three games and hosted a jamboree.
The first game was a 2-0 loss to Soquel. Next was a 4-0 win over James Lick. “We finally started to play our game, an offensive one,” said Ruby Lipsenthal. Palo Alto won 4-1. Coach Morely reminds the girls that, “in practice games it doesn’t matter if we win or lose. These games give us the chance to grow as a team, before the league season starts.”
In the jamboree on December 1 at SC, the girls played three games with the halves only 20 minutes each, instead of the usual 40 minutes. The team beat Harbor 2-1, lost to North Monterey 0-1 and lost to Soquel 0-1. Besides playing in the jamboree, the teams get to scope out the competition which, according to Malinda Ferrante, SLV is the top team.

Sentinel. December 12. Cards Boot Cats, 7-1 Lipsenthal’s 3 Goals Lead SC In Opener. A strong SC defense allowed Watsonville only three shots on goal and a high scoring offense took over the league opener. “We played our best game of the season,” said coach Tim Morley, whose team is now 1-0 in league and 5-2 overall. SC opened a 3-0 lead in the first half and then coasted in the second half. Ruby Lipsenthal led the scoring with three goals, followed by Andrea Seeger with two, while Janell Flynn and Siri Moeller each scored once. Morley, praised the play of left fullback Mieko Imai for playing a strong game.

December 19. Sentinel. SC 2, Harbor 1. SC broke a scoreless tie with two second half goals and held on to beat Harbor to bring their league record to 2-1 and overall record a 6-3. Allison Agosti gave SC a 1-0 lead, ten minutes into the second half, when she took a perfect throw in from Jana Zuckswert and put the ball into the goal. With ten minutes left in the game, Andrea Seeger made it 2-0 on a breakaway. Harbor scored with 7 minutes left.

January 29. “Weird’ Bounces Aid Santa Cruz in their 3-1 win over North Monterey in overtime. “The only reason we won was because of “the weird bounces that went our way in overtime,” said coach Tim Morley. Maybe that wasn’t the only reason. Ruby Lipsenthal scored twice, once in the first ten minute overtime and again in the second overtime. The result switched the teams spots in the league standings. SC is 5-3-1 and North Monterey 5-4.
The first overtime went scoreless. With the game locked in the second overtime at 1-1 Lipsenthal took a long pass from Vanessa Norbakov and scored from 20 yards. Two minutes later, Allison Agosti’s free kick from midfield bounce between North Monterey defenders and Lipsenthal was there to punch it past the goalkeeper.
Morley, whose team has allowed just three goals in the past four league games, credited the defense for keeping the game close. He said that sweeper Kara Verner and freshman goalie Harriet Norteye were standouts against the Condors. Freshman Anna Rothman scored the first goal at the games ten minute mark.

Trident February 1. This season the girls have had the skill, but winning has just been a mental problem. “We can’t seem to get our heads into the game,” said midfielder Malinda Ferrante. “We average a higher number of shots than any other team, we just aren’t thinking about where we put them.” Coach Morley agrees and states, “We’ve never physically been out of a game.” Senior Mieko Imai will be playing center halfback the rest of the season, taking over for the injured senior Janell Flynn.
All other injured players will be back for the second half of the season. Although the offense has been a little weak, the defense has been strong. Junior, stopper Kara Vernor is the last line of defense and averages twenty to thirty clears a game. In front of her is junior Allison Agosti, who directs the defense and also plays offensively.
Against Watsonville, the girls played exceptionally well. Imai said, “We started passing and playing our game, instead of just reacting to the other team. The win against Watsonville put the team back on its feet, as they went on to beat SLV. SC is now 4-3. Coach Morely gives the players a quote each week to help them along mentally. The one the whole team knows by heart is, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” (scores not mentioned)

ALL SCCAL had 16 players picked by the coaches. SC choices were Ruby Lipsenthal, senior forward and Allison Agosti, junior defender a two time repeat first team member.

GIRLS JV SOCCER
Yearbook. Coming off an undefeated season, the team had only four returning players and some members had never played soccer before. That didn’t stop them from romping over half of the league and losing only once in the first half of the league season to Harbor. “Everyone played really well and wanted to win,” said second year coach Tara Rice. The teams leading players were freshmen Casey Coonerty and Rachel Moeller and sophomore Megan Palochak.

Freshman Rachel Moeller at 5’8” has a powerful leg and one doesn’t want to get within fire range when she kick one. She takes almost all the corner kicks, goal kicks and has even scored off a penalty kick for her team this season.

Rest of squad: Amy Jones, Theresa Gilbert, Eve Anderson, Monica Silver, Molly Carter, Anna Warensjo, Elena Decoste, Lindsay Harrington, Anandi Allison, Shoshona Olsen, Marietta O’Francia and Amber Yale. Coach Tara Rice.

Sentinel. December 12. SC 2, Watsonville 0. In the league opener for both teams SC defeated Watsonville 2-0. Eve Anderson and Shoshona Olsen scored for SC. Goalie Marietta O’Francia recorded a shut out.

BASEBALL
Practice games: North Salinas 2-4, Monte Vista 10-4, Alisal 9-1, Gilroy 2-4, Palma 1-2, Soquel tournament: Monterey 1-9, Harbor 5-2, Bellarmine 4-11, Soquel 9-6 for fifth place. Practice record 4-5 9 with games we have) Sentinel records 7-6. League: North Monterey 3-7, 7-9; Harbor 4-3, 6-8; Aptos 1-3, 4-14; SLV 7-13, 0-9; Soquel 4-5, 6-4; Watsonville loss, 1-13. League record 2-10. Overall record according to the Sentinel 9-16. Watsonville undefeated in league.
Yearbook. (There is no mention of game action as the yearbook must get material ready to print before the end of school and doesn’t allow time to get results for the season.)

Five starters were seniors and the other four sophomores. Chris Crawford has pitched for the varsity since his freshman year. Top hitters were Jamie Carr and Jason Nee.

Roster: Nick Marini, Jamie Carr, Todd Trowbridge, Bill Yong, Femi Ayanbadejo, Aaron Woliczko, Mike Hendren, Jack McCormick, Zack McCormick, Bill Orton, K. C. Kaiser, Ryan Mills, Chris Crawford, Mike Goldstein, Jason Nee, Joey Webber and Andrew McGraw.
Head coach Fred Phyffer and assistant John Wilson.

Sentinel preseason write up: Coach Fred Pfyffer in his fifth year. Last years overall record 8-17, 2-10 in league for seventh place. Key senior returnees are Todd Trowbridge, INF/P and Andrew McGraw, OF. Junior Jamie Carr, C/ P/1B and sophomore Chris Crawford, P. Key newcomers: juniors: Ryan Mills, P and Zack McCormick, P/INF. Sophomores: Aaron Woliczko, INF; K.C. Kaiser, INF; Jason Nee, CF; Ben Gersick, P. Carr, one of the only three seniors back, hit .305 last year and is one of the few certainties as catcher. He will likely play some first base and pitch, too.
The experience Crawford gained as a freshman pitcher on the varsity last year should pay off. “I see it as a teaching year more than anything else. We will take our lumps. If we don’t make improvements it’s going to be tough for us to compete. We have no positions other than catcher locked up. We will have at least six sophomores and probably five juniors on the team,” said Coach Pfyffer.

Sentinel March 2. North Salinas 4, SC 2. Pitchers Femi Ayanbadejo and Chris Crawford combined for a no hitter, but that was the good news The bad news was the Cards made seven errors to allow four unearned runs. SC scored two runs in the first inning as Mike Goldstein singled in Jason Nee and Jamie Carr. The loss evened the Cards record to 1-1.

Sentinel. March 7. Cards Roll Over Monte Vista 10-4. Zack McCormick went 4 for 4 an pitched the final 2 2/3 innings to get the save. The host Mustangs were down only 3-1 going into the top of the fifty inning. SC got a runner on base and Mike Hendren came off the bench to deliver a pinch hit homer, giving SC a 5-1 lead. Hendren seemed to ignite SC, which scored three more runs to go up 8-1. Pitcher Chris Crawford picked up his first win of the season as SC improved to 3-1. SC dominated the offense getting 12 hits to the Mustangs 3 hits. Jamie Carr went 3 for 5.

March 9. SC 9, Alisal 1. Four SC pitchers combined for a one-hitter. Todd Trowbridge was the winning pitcher, with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts. Jason Nee led the hitting going 3 for 3 with two RBI’s and Aaron Woliczko was 2 for 3. SC broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning.

March 10. Gilroy 4, SC 2. Pitcher Femi Ayanbadejo was victimized by three errors in the final two innings. Chris Crawford pitched the first four innings and gave up all four of Gilroy’s hits and a run. Jamie Carr doubled home the Cards two runs in the third inning to give SC a 2-1 lead.

March 13. SC lost to Palma 2-1 to fall to 4-3 on the season. SC had only two hits in the game\ and left five runners in scoring position. Palma scored both of its runs in the first inning off starter Femi Ayanbadejo, who worked the first two innings. Mike Hendren and Bill Young shutout Palma the last five innings. Young and Zak McCormick had the two Card hits. Palma had five hits.

March 17. Hollister 7, SC 3. Hollister got to starting pitcher Todd Trowbridge for four runs in the third inning. SC is now 5-4 for the season. Pitcher Zak McCormick came in to relieve in the sixth inning and hurled two scoreless innings. He gave up one hit and struck out three. McCormick has yet to be scored upon in ten innings this season. SC had four hits. Aaron Woliczko singled and scored in the first inning. SC scored their other two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

March 23. North Monterey 7, SC 3. SC came back from a three run deficit to tie the score 3-3 in the third. One run came on a balk, another on a error and one on a hit. Three SC runners were picked off base. Starter Chris Crawford lasted five and one-third innings and took the lose.

March 29. In the second round of the Soquel tournament, Monterey beat SC 9-1. SC committed six errors and dropped to 5-6 for the season. Monterey broke a 1-1 game with three runs in the second inning and third innings. Jamie Carr, who went 2 for 3 drove in the SC run with a sacrifice fly.
March 30. At the Soquel tournament, SC beat Harbor 5-2. Three Card pitchers combined for a three hitter as the Cards scored two runs in the second inning and three in the third to pick up the win. Ryan Mills won the game in relief entering in the fourth inning and pitched out of a jam with two men on and no outs. Zack McCormick picked up the save. Femi Ayanbadejo’s RBI double highlighted the Cards third inning.
At the tournament, Bellarmine defeated SC 11-4 to drop SC to a 6-6 record.

Sentinel. March 31. SC 9, Soquel 6. SC scored six runs in the third inning to defeat Soquel in the fifth place game at Soquel. SC sent nine batters to the plate in the inning an took advantage of six walks off two Soquel pitchers. Mike Hendren, who finished 3 for 5, has a two run double as the Cards took a 6-1 lead. Zak McCormick pitched five solid innings of relief giving up only one run. SC had nine hits and Andrew McGraw scored three runs.

April 2. Sentinel Athlete of the Week was Zack McCormick, a junior relief pitcher, who pitched in three games at the Soquel High, Capitola Lions Tournament and only allowed one earned run in 9 1/3 innings, while picking up a win and a save. The threw 5 1/3 innings of relief, his longest stint of the season to get the win in a 9-6 triumph over Soquel. It would have been 9-2 and McCormick would have been out of the inning on three pitches, but an error on a ground ball kept the inning going and Soquel went on to score four unearned runs. McCormick scattered four hits and gave up one earned run, his first of the season, while walking one and striking out one.
“He throws strikes,” said pitching coach John Wilson, noting that McCormick throws a fast ball, curve and change up and the best of which is his curveball. “He’s at that speed where he kind of doesn’t blow it by anybody, he just keeps them off balance. It just seems everybody’s out in front and pops it up or flies out,” Wilson said. McCormick pitched two innings against Harbor and Bellarmine giving up a total of two hits, two unearned runs and two walks, while striking out two. He got the save against Harbor in a 5-2 win. SC lost to Bellarmine 11-4.
He has pitched in nine of the Cards 14 games, all in relief. He has allowed 13 hits and four walks in 19 innings, while striking out 11. He has five saves, one win and an earned run average of 0.37. There has been talk among the coaching staff of putting McCormick in the starting rotation, but Wilson said it’s doubtful that it will happen. “He is so great coming in for relief. We bring him in after our right-handers, usually. The hitters are used to seeing pitchers from the right side, so we come in with him at the end. Being a left-hander, it just seems to be beneficial for him,” Wilson said.

April 3. Cards Come Back Top Harbor 4-3. SC overcame it’s mistakes and a solid pitching performance by Harbor to win. Tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Jamie Carr ripped an outside fastball past first base, scoring Bill Orton from second base for the win. Orton pinch ran for designated hitter Femi Ayanbadejo, who started the rally by get hit by a pitch with one out. For Carr, who pitched the first four innings, the game winning hit erased a Todd Trowbridge throwing error in the second that helped the Pirates to two unearned runs and an early 2-0 lead. “This was a typical game we’ve been playing . We make mistakes early on, but we hang in there,” Pfyffer said.
The Cards scraped together a run in the third. With Harbor leading 3-2 in the fifth with two outs and Aaron Woliczko at second , a ground ball hit by Mike Hendren was thrown away by the third baseman and Woliczko raced home. After Carr left the mound, McCormick climbed the hill and made another solid claim as king of the hill. McCormick walked the first man he faced, then proceed to set down the next eight in succession for the win.

April 6. Aptos 3, SC 1. SC’s four errors allowed two unearned runs behind pitcher Chris Crawford, which was the difference the pitchers duel. The only earned run for Aptos was a home run.

April 10. Cougars Rally In Seventh To Survive Cardinal Threat. SLV scored nine times in the top of the seventh inning to capture a 13-7 comeback from behind to win 13-7. SC was ahead 5-3 after five innings and 5-4 after six. In the top of the seventh, the nine runs scored came from four hits, five walks against four Card pitchers and three big SC errors. “The seventh inning told the story of our season,” said coach Pfyffer, whose team is 1-3 in league. ”We cant field routine ground balls. That’s been our demise. SC scored three times in the third and twice in the fifth.

April 13. Soquel 5, SC 4. Soquel rallied for five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning for the win after SC had scored four times in the top of the inning. Starter Chris Crawford and relievers Zack McCormick and Jamie Carr combined to allow only two hits and six walks. “We have not walked that many guys all year. Those pitches in the eighth cost us the game. It was totally untypical of us and of Jamie. He is usually effective. Chris was getting tired, so I took him out. He did a great job. It was his best outing of the year,” Coach Phyffer said.
It seemed SC had the game wrapped up, when it scored four runs in the top of the eighth. The eighth inning completely overshadowed the scoreless pitching duel between Chris Crawford and his opponent. From a Soquel player, ”Crawford was keeping us off balance all the time. It’s tough, because he doesn’t usually walk anyone.” Crawford, “I had the best change-up all year and I was fooling them with my breaking ball. I did really well. Its just a shame we lost, when we were doing so well.”

April 24. North Monterey 9, SC 7. After looking dead in the fifth inning, SC breathed life into the game in the bottom of the seventh, rally for four runs and putting the potential tying run at the plate with one out. But a strike out and a ground out ended the threat in a error plagued game. SC had two errors and the Condors six. Trailing 6-2 through five innings, the Cards managed a run in the sixth and went into the final inning down 9-3. In the seventh, an infield error, two wild pitches and a single by Todd Trowbridge got SC going. On a bad pick off attempt Trowbridge went to third. Femi Ayanbadejo walked and stole second. Trowbridge scored on a Condor mistake. Jamie Carr single in Ayanbadejo. Pinch runner Ryan Mills went to third on a wild throw. Aaron Woliczko single home Mills to pulled SC to 9-7.

April 27. Harbor won its first league game beating SC 8-6. SC jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the first inning. After Harbor took a 5-2 lead, SC rallied back to score a pair of runs on Woliczko’s triple, which made the score 5-4. Harbor responded to make it 7-4. In the fourth, SC scored on two unearned runs to close it to 7-6.

May 1. Aptos 14, SC 4. Aptos batted around the order in the fourth inning, breaking open a 1-1 game with seven runs on four hits and three errors. Aptos out hit SC 15-8.

May 4. SLV blanks SC 9-0. (No SC names mentioned)

May 8. SC 6, Soquel 4. Chris Crawford went the distance on the mound, scattering eight hits and four runs, to halt the Cards losing streak at eight games. SC is 9-15 on the season and 2-9 in league and has not won since beating Harbor 4-3 on April 3. Crawford, who walked four and struck out seven, received offensive support from K.C Kaiser and Jamie Carr. Kaiser tripled in two runs in the third and later scored on Todd Trowbridge’s single and Carr singled in two runs in the sixth. After Soquel scored a run in the third for a 2-0 lead, Crawford allowed only three base runners over the next three innings while his teammates were putting six runs of their own on the board to go up 6-2.

May 11. Wildcats Finish Undefeated In League. Watsonville easily dispatched SC 13-1. (No SC names mentioned)

Sentinel Prep Baseball Stats of May 29. By place, name, at bats, runs, hits, runs batted in and average.

PL NAME AB R H RBI AV
23 Carr 73 10 24 12 .329
24 Woliczko 64 16 21 9 .328
37 tie Hendren 60 12 17 9 .283
37 tie Nee 46 13 13 5 .283
40 McGraw 54 14 15 6 .278
42 Kaiser 52 8 14 9 .269
48 Z.McCormi 56 11 14 5 .250
7 SC Team 648 123 152 69 .248
No SC players listed as tops in doubles and triples
Home runs: Hendren tied for third with two
Stolen bases: Nee third with 13.

Individual pitching with at least a one inning a game average.
By place, name, won-loss, innings pitched, hits, walks, strike outs and earned runs.
PL NAME W-L IP H BB SO ERA
9 McCormick 2-3 28 27 7 33 2.50
14 Crawford 3-5 55 49 35 23 3.31
4 SC team 168 154 107 130 3.25

Sentinel ALL COUNTY team. Jamie Carr a junior catcher, whose average was .328 was selected to the second team. The only Card selected by the Sentinel.

May 24. No Cardinal made the ALL SCCAL first team. Two Cards made the second team, they were first baseman Zack McCormick and DH Aaron Wolizcko. Jamie Carr was an honorable mention.

JV BASEBALL
Yearbook. There were twenty players on the team and most were freshmen. “We only had five sophomores on the team and we were real low on pitchers,” said sophomore leader and first baseman Ben Gersick. Freshman Mike Libertore played both baseball and track in the Spring. The best outfielder was the quick Neil Churchill. Freshman Adrian Corcoran was the top pitcher and best hitter. Sophomore catcher Jonah Shank’s was an added hitting threat.
Rest of squad: Ben Person, Matt Bartlett, Brendan Ayanbadejo, Brian Pacino, Joel Ackerknecht, Mark Rivas, Mike Ferrante, Strider Kemp, Todd Kidder, Jesse Hutchinson, Mark Neumann, Albert Cuellar and Jorge Perez. Coach Barry Bariteau.

GIRLS SOFTBALL
Practice games: Live Oak 1-7, North Salinas 0-10, Pacific Grove 13-8, Monterey 6-4, Hollister 9-2. Gilroy Tournament: Leigh 1-3, North Monterey 8-6, Harbor 4-13. Miguel Tournament: Andrew Hill 4-2, Santa Teresa 1-9, Lynbrook 0-5. Practice record 6-6. (three wins missing as the above shows only five wins)
League: North Monterey 3-1, 2-6; Harbor 2-22, 2-11; Aptos 18-5, 7-3; SLV 5-14, 6-4; Soquel 20-3, 10-9; Watsonville 2-3, 3-11. League record 6-6 for fifth place. Overall record 12-12 from Sentinel.

Yearbook. The team started off their season on the right track defeating Hollister 9-2. Then injuries, the success of the girls basketball team that extended their season for three weeks and a two week long downpour cancelled games affected the teams success. Seven returning players worked well together, but the team record didn’t reflect it. Outstanding athletes such as Diane Gergen and Jessica Lang, along with two prominent and experienced pitchers Thea Lincoln and Colleen Schaffer led the team straight to the top of the league standings.

Two seniors Diane Gergen and Lori Welch with three years of varsity experience under their belts along with two league titles will be working to add a third title this year. Diane also played volleyball in the Fall and basketball in the Winter. Rest of squad: Lily Rivas, Debbie Raver, Kelli Dunn, Vanessa Dunn, Kenna Karst, Melaine Arnott, Kristy Lombard and Marisol Garcia. Coach Vic Miguel.

Sentinel preseason write up. February 23. Coach Vic Miguel starting his seventeenth year. Last years record 12-11-1. SCCAL 7-5 tied for second. Key returning seniors are Diane Gergen, INF; Colleen Schaeffer, P/INF; Lori Welch, C. Juniors: Thea Lincoln, P; Melanie Arnott, INF and sophomore Jessica Lang, INF. Key newcomer: sophomore Kenna Karst, OF.
SCCAL Player of the Year, Diane Gergen, who hit .449 last year and All County, Freshman of the Year Jessica Lang, who hit .397 are back. Gergen never holds back at the plate and will concentrate on up grading her fielding and speed. Lang’s arm and bat are both strong. Melaine Arnott may be the “sleeper that really comes around this year.” The lefthander may get her shot at starting at first base. Karst’s speed will be valuable in the outfield and ominous as a bunter. The battery is solid with Welch behind the plate and Lincoln and Schaeffer alternating on the mound. Neither pitcher is overpowering, but both can throw strikes. Coaches comments: If I’m able to place the personnel we have in the right positions, well be stronger defensively. There will be some juggling early, We should be a stronger team than last year. We’ll do pretty well if the five returning players play the key roles they are capable of and set good examples on the field.

Sentinel. March 8. Live Oak 7, SC 1. The Cards made four errors in the first inning to go down 3-0. SC had five errors in all, was held to one hit. Thea Lincoln scattered five hits and took the loss. Kenna Karst had the Cards only hit. SC is 1-1.

March 13. North Salinas 10, SC 0. Three pitchers held SC to one hit, Mel Arnott’s first inning single. SC is 1-2.

March 15. SC 13, Pacific Grove 8. SC improved to 2-2 as Thea Lincoln went the distance on the mound. Melaine Arnott banged out three hits in five trips. Lincoln had two hits, as the team had a season high 11 hits.

March 16. In the opening round of the Gilroy Tournament Leigh defeated the Cards 3-1. Senior Colleen Schaeffer pitched a four hitter. SC was limited to three hits.
SC 8, North Monterey 6. SC mounted a 7-2 lead in the fifth inning and then hung on. At the top of the second inning, North Monterey went ahead 2-0. SC took the lead for good with three runs in the bottom half of the second. SC got the lead through pass balls, errors and no hits. Sophomore pitcher Thea Lincoln didn’t allow many hits, staying in control with five strike outs and one walk. SC was out hit 7-2.
In the tournament consolation semifinals, Harbor defeated the Cards 13-4. “It was a tight game for four innings our so, then we didn’t play well after that,” said coach Miguel. SC is now 4-4.

Sentinel. March 30. SC split its two games at the Miguel Tournament in Santa Clara. Beating Andrew Hill 4-2 and losing to Santa Teresa 1-9. Against Hill, Colleen Schaeffer went six innings, allowed four hits, stuck out six to earn the win. Diane Gergen belted a solo home run to give the Cards the go ahead run.

March 20. SC 6, Monterey 4. “I think we played a little better as a team today,” said coach Miguel, whose team is 5-4 for the season. Thea Lincoln pitched a complete game, giving up five hits and two walks, while striking out eight. Kenna Karst had three of SC’s six hits and had an RBI. Jessica Lang had two hits, including a double and scored twice. “I wish we could have gotten in a few more games in preseason. We just have to hang together and iron out the little problems we’re having,” coach Miguel.

March 23. Cards Hustle Past Condors. Santa Cruz Bounces Back In League Opener. After spotting North Monterey an early run on a pair of first inning errors, SC came back to take a 3-1 victory. The fourth time was the charm for pitcher Colleen Schaeffer, who clinched her first victory of the season after three losses, with no earned runs and no walks in a six strikeout performance. In the second inning she had runners on second and third with one out, but got out of the jam, when she struck out the next two batters.
“Colleen started to mix up her pitches a little more. This was a better game than last time. A good softball game is when the score is low and there are no walks,” Coach Miguel. Schaeffer aided her own cause in the fifth inning, when she scored from second on Melaine Arnott’s line drive single for the go ahead run. SC got an insurance run in the sixth inning on a single to right by Kelly Dunn, scoring her sister Vanessa from second base.

March 30. At the Miguel Tournament SC split two games, defeating Andrew Hill 4-2 and losing to Santa Teresa 1-9. Against Hill, Schaeffer went six innings, allowing four hits, struck out six to earn the win. Diane Gergen belted a solo home run to give SC the go ahead run.

March 31 Cards ousted From Tourney with a 0-5 loss to Lynbrook. SC went 1-2 in the tournament. The Lynbrook pitcher had a perfect game. The loss dropped SC to 7-6.

April 3. Harbor Whips Cards 22-2. SC had seven errors. Diane Gergen had a single and double.

April 6. SC 18, Aptos 5. Up until the bottom of the fifth inning, Aptos held a 5-4 lead. SC then scored nine runs and five more in the sixth to win going away. SC had only seven hits in the game, but received 16 walks. Vanessa Dunn had a two run triple. Colleen Schaeffer pitched the first five innings to get the win. She walked one and struck out three. Thea Lincoln threw the final two innings. The Cards are now 2-1 in league and 8-7 overall.

April 10. SLV Breaks Free From SC winning 14-5. SLV broke open a 6-5 game, by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and five in the sixth inning. Coach Miguel was pleased with his teams early play, “It was nice to have our team come back like it did. We haven’t been in that situation a lot this season. It was too bad that we made so many mental errors.” SC had four errors and SLV five. SLV took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. SC scored one run in each of the second and third innings to tighten the game up to SLV ahead just 3-2. SLV scored three runs in the fourth, two runs via errors, to go ahead 6-2. SC closed it to 6-5 in the fifth. Vanessa Dunn singled in Diane Gergen and then scored on a pass ball. Debbie Rayer scored on an error.

April 13. SC defeats Soquel 20-3, which is not so bad as the 49-0 loss last year. Soquel has improved. SC has had their problems this year losing to Harbor 22-2 and SLV 14-5 in their most recent games. A three hit pitching performance by Thea Lincoln raised the Card league record to 3-2. Lincoln had a no hitter in the works until two outs in the sixth inning. “I was just throwing them a lot of drops and corners so they wound’s pull the ball into the outfield. She walked three and struck out six. SC had 16 hits and Soquel had 8 errors. (Soquel’s freshman pitcher advanced to be the best pitcher in the league and went on to Cal Poly on a scholarship)

April 17. Cats Capitalize On SC Errors For 3-2 Victory. Four SC errors, including two in the decisive fourth inning were enough breaks for the Cat’ to win. Watsonville broke the 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth on an error, stolen base, bunted to third and scored on an error. Harbor is on top of the league at 5-1, then SLV 4-1, Watsonville 4-2 and SC 3-3. Pitcher Colleen Schaeffer did not give up an earned run, allowed only four hits, walked three and struck out two. SC had only three hits. SC has been batting under .200 as a team this season, got off to a 1-0 lead, when Kenna Karst led off the game with a single, then scored on Jessica Lang’s one out triple.

April 24. North Monterey 6, SC 2. North Monterey at 4-4 jumped ahead of the Cards, who are 3-4 in the league standings.

April 27. Harbor 11, SC 2. SC had only five hits. Thea Lincoln gave up six first inning runs and took the loss. Kenna Karst was 2 for 4 and Leah Croghan was 2 for 3 to lead the Cards.

Sentinel. May 1. SC 7, Aptos 3. The Cards snapped a two game losing skid with the win. It wasn’t easy as the score might indicate. “A couple of break downs, that was about it. It was a really fast game, maybe 1:15,” said Aptos’ Coach. The two pitchers each walked only one batter. Jessica Lang got the scoring going early for the Cards, belting a two run homer in the first inning. Aptos had a two run homer and the score was 3-2 after two innings. SC plated three runs in the third to put the game away as Colleen Schaeffer controlled Aptos the rest of the way. Three hits, a sacrifice and an error contributed to the Cards outburst in the third.

May 3. Cards Help Watsonville With Win Over SLV 6-4. Watsonville sits atop the league standings at 8-2 and Harbor and SLV art tied for second with 7-3 records. The big blow for the Cards came in the first inning. Utility player Debbie Rayer came to the plate with the bases loaded and promptly tripled to clear the bases to give the Cards a 4-0 lead. SLV came back to tie 4-4 in the top of the third inning on three SC errors. In the bottom of the third SC scored twice more, which proved to be enough to win. Top SC defensive plays were made by third baseman Jessica Lang, who turned in a double play and made a diving stab for an out on another occasion. SC is now 4-5 in league.

May 8. SC 10, Soquel 9. SC rallied from a 9-5 deficit with five runs in the top of the seventh inning. Diane Gergen hit a ground rule double and Debbie Rayer’s RBI double tied the game at 9-9. After Rayer went to third on an error, Thea Lincoln’s ground out drove Rayer in for the winning run.

May 11. Watsonville SCCAL Champion as it wrapped up its first championship since 1978 with a 11-3 win over SC. Watsonville was 10-2 in league after losing their first two games. (Nothing about SC in the article.)

May 21. Sentinel complete season Softball Stats for county teams: Final leaders. In hitting SC averaged .217 for seventh with a 12-12 record.
In team pitching the Cards ERA was 4.82 for sixth place. Individual pitching had Lincoln’s record as 7-5, 85 innings pitched, 47 walks, 37 strike outs and an ERA of 3.62 Schaeffer’s record was 5-7, 73 innings pitched, 43 walks and 58 strike outs and a ERA of 6.20.
Batting averages go down to .254. SC had three hitters in that range. Long .343, Gergen .333 and Karst .303. SC’s team batting average was seventy in the county at .217.
Doubles go down to six. Lang was fourth in doubles with 6, first in triples with 5, second in home runs with 2 and seventh in stolen bases with 19. In stolen bases Gergen was eighth with 18.

June 5. Sentinel Softball Dream Team Lineup Card by Greg Lathrop.
Sixth place hitter, third baseman, sophomore Jessica Lang has more ball sense than a lot of seniors. Player of the Year potential. Batting average .343, 23 runs, 12 RBI, 6 doubles, 5 triples and 19 stolen bases.
Seventh place hitter, senior Diane Gergen played first last year. Team needed a short stop this year, so she filled in, Still best first baseman in the league. Batting average .333, 18 hits, 23 runs, 14 RBI, 4 triples and 18 stolen bases.

June 5. Sentinel All County softball team. Sophomore of the Year, Jessica Lang. Second team selections were senior short stop Diane Gergen average .333. Sophomore, second baseman Kenna Karst average .303.

May 22. Two Cards made the ALL SCCAL first team. Senior Diane Gergen at third base with an average of .455 and sophomore Jessica Lang at shortstop hitting .410. On the second team was Kenna Karst. Honorable mention were Laurie Welch, Debbie Rayer, Melanie Arnott, Thea Lincoln and Colleen Schaeffer.

JV GIRLS SOFTBALL
Yearbook. The team started conditioning in December every day until actual softball practice started in February. There were long strenuous workouts to put the team in perfect condition for the season. Hitting was their strongest point. The team was about eventually divided between freshmen and sophomores.

Roster: Tam Perez, Teresa Gilbert, Erin Belcher, Sunday Favor, Angie Agosti, Jennifer Craw, Meghan Lang, Meghan Morelli, Julie Randle, Kim Perry, Kristina McLoud, Pauline Carothers, Gina Dowd, Sarah Marenghi. Coach Dina Avila.

TRACK COMBINED BOYS AND GIRLS
BOYS finished second at the SCCAL meet and fifth at the CCS Region IV meet.
League dual meet scores: Harbor 92-43, North Monterey 42-94, Soquel 83-52, SLV 80-47, Aptos 83-52, Watsonville 92-37. League record 5-1.

GIRLS finish second in the SCCAL meet and the CCS Region IV meet.
League dual meets; Harbor 78-36, North Monterey 51-76, Soquel 95-37, SLV 74-53, Aptos 66-61, Watsonville 85-36. League record of 5-1.

May 12. SC BOYS took second place at the SCCAL meet with 97 points. North Monterey won with a eye popping 173 and Watsonville was third with 75. SLV coach Gary Grellmann (former SC athlete) said, SC’s 97 point in a normal year would be enough to win league. The Condors have lost only one meet in league, since entering the league in 1982. The Condors team triumph tends to over shadow the efforts of athletes from other schools, but they were no less impressive.
Take SC’s Nate Bell, for example. The junior sprinter was expected to do well in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, but win no way. Watsonville’s runner had the best times in these two events for the season. But Bell came on strong and edged the Cat runner in both races. In the 100, Bell clocked in at 11 seconds flat to his opponents 11.03. In the 200 he won in 22.4 to his opponents 22.5. “That was the real surprise to the league,” said Coach Brian Wall.
Vic Lang and a Soquel runner dueled to the bitter end in the 1,600. And bitter is a good word to describe the hard fought race, which featured plenty of bumping and grinding between the two in the final lap. After Lang’s opponent left his lane and entered Lang’s with about 300 meters left to go, knocking Lang off his stride, the SC biathlete, who competed in the CCS swimming championships the day before, said he got pumped up. “I wouldn’t say it made me mad. But it did pump me up. I had no other option but to go for it,” said Lang, who sported a nasty looking laceration on his ankle after the race. Lang won the 1,600 meters in 4:26.9 to his opponents 4:27.4. In the 800 meters Lang won in 2:00.4 to his opponents 2:02.6.

GIRLS: At the SCCAL finals SC finished second with 89 points to North Monterey with 99 points. The turning point in the meet was North Monterey sweeping the first three places in the high jump. Heather Singer had a fine day winning the discus in 32-11 and the discus in 119-5. And then there was controversy. Sprinter Koren Clark won the 400 meters easily with the leagues best time of the season at 58.5. She also ran the 200 for a win. But it was later overturned following a protest by the Harbor coach. Harbor seemed to clearly nudge ahead at the wire to win, but the judges determined that Clark won. The Acu-Track timing system wasn’t operating, so the grievance committee had to put its trust in the cameras of KRUZ television, which filmed the meet. Upon further review, the win was rightfully awarded to Harbor.

May 14. Sentinel Athlete of the Week was Nate Bell. Bell, a junior at SC had two individual wins and anchored two relay wins at the SCCAL championships. Bell upset the league runner with the top times in the 100 and 200 in 11.0 and 22.4 respectively. Coach Bryan Wall, ”I don’t think Nate really felt it was a surprise. After the trials on Thursday, when he ran so tall and felt so good, he just felt it was going to happen.” Bell brought home both SC relay teams in season league best times. SC won the 400 meter relay in 43.5 easily breaking the previous season standard of 3:35.4.
“He’s very strong for a sprinter. He does a lot of weight training and he’s been working more on his flexibility lately, so his stride length has increased a bit,” said Coach Wall. Bell will be running all four events at the Region IV meet. “I think he’s even going to run a little faster this week. We usually try to peak our kids for meets after league. Nate’s got an awful lot of raw talent for the 100. If he were to pick an event he’d want to excel in, it’d be the 100. Its shorter and it’s a little more fun for him and he can get fired up. It‘s also the glamour event,” said Wall.

May 18. Athletes Aim To Make CCS. Next meet is the CCS Region IV meet. “We tell our kids before the season that were defending Region IV champions, said coach Bryan Wall, whose boys teams have won three straight Region titles and whose girls have won two out of the three. It gives us a sense of camaraderie and shows the new kids what we’re all about. We don’t emphasize it, but we’re pretty proud of it.” But the qualifying of the athletes for the next level is the top priority.
Track and field in the SCCAL is almost different than any other sport. Athletes and coaches from rival schools really pull for one another in events such as the Region meet at Hartnell College. School from four leagues will be participating in this event, which is one of the reasons, that each league is trying to out do the other. SC girls expected to do well are Heather Singer in the shot put and discus, Koren Clark and Roz Pillars in the sprints. On the boys side Nate Bell and Vic Lang are the top boys.

May 19. Top five boys teams in the Region IV meet: North Salinas 65, Palma 64, North Monterey 63, Watsonville 38 and SC 33.
Lang Shines In 800 At Region Meet. SC was turned back from getting its fourth straight Region IV title by North Salinas. But at least one Card served notice that he may be headed for the state championships. Vic Lang, who also swims for SC was clocked in 1:55 in winning the 800 meter race going away. His victory was perhaps the most impressive of the day, which featured many top-notch performances for the day. But it was Lang who really served notice in this meet.
“He’s got an extra gear that no one else in the section has,” said SC distance coach Jim Scott. “He’s going into the CCS finals with a lot of confidence. I think he has a great shot at winning the section.” Scott believes Lang can go even faster. “He can clobber anyone in the 200 or 300 to go. He has such a great kick. We’ve been planning for him to peak at CCS. He will take a second or two off his time. The best mark so far this season in CCS has been 1:55.44. Lang ran 1:55 flat to not only top that, but set a school record. “The main factor for me was that I haven’t swam this week. I felt so strong in the upper body. Last year, I remember I was scared of having extra energy. This year, I was able to use it to my advantage.” The top six finishers advance to the CCS finals at San Jose City College. North Monterey qualified in nine events, four from Watsonville and three from SC. Nate Johnson was second in the 3,200 in 9:46.9. The first six finishers qualify for the CCS finals.
SC qualifiers are Lang, Johnson, Bell, who qualified in the 100, 200 and the 400 relay. Jermaine Robinson qualified in the high jump, with a JV record 6’4” for fourth place, and on the 400 relay team.

At the GIRLS Region IV meet the team scores for the top teams were Seaside 77, North Monterey 74, SC 58, SLV 36, Watsonville 27, Aptos 23.
SC Leads In Sprints. In the sprints it was all SC with Rosalyn Pillars, leading from the sound of the gun, stormed to victory in the 100 in 12.72. “I was just happy to make Region,” said Pillars, a senior who was third in the SCCAL meet last week with a time of 12.9. “I’m feeling a lot better now.” There were two more sprint victories for SC. Koren Clark won both the 200 and 400. In the 200, Clark was clocked in 25.94, which is four-hundredths off her SCCAL best time of 25.9. Clark won the hotly contested 400 in 58.8. SC was up to the challenge in the 1,600 relay, winning in 4:05.6.
“We’ve got a shot at winning CCS,” said distance coach Jim Scott. SC’s time would place the Cards second in CCS. Heather Singer was one of only two SCCAL girls to win a weight event. Singer, who won the shot and discus in the SCCAL meet, took the Region crown in the discus with a heave of 121-8 and was sixth in the shot put at 32-3. Along with Pillars, Clark and Singer, SC placed freshman Melanie Café into the CCS in the 300 hurdles and both relay teams.

May 21. Sentinel Girl Athlete of the Week was Koren Clark, who won the 200 and 400 meters at the CCS Region IV championships. Her time in the 200 of 25.7, hand timed, broke her own school record for the third time this year, Her 58.56 in the 400 was just off her school record of 58.5. She also anchored the Cards winning 1,600 relay team to a 4:05.6 , which is almost six seconds better than the 4:11.2 turned in the week before in the SCCAL championships. In her fourth event of the day, Clark anchored the third place Cardinal 400 meter relay team to a 54.39 time.

Clark will compete in those four events at the CCS finals. Coach Wall said, “She has a good chance to break both of those records again in the 200 and 400. She certainly has a good chance to go to the state meet in three events. This is Clark’s third year running track at SC and during this time Wall has come to know her as ’one of the sweetest people that we’ve had on the team. She has just a fantastic attitude. She’s very team supportive and very coach supportive. In spite of the fact that she’s a nice person, she’s very competitive, She never gives up.

May 21. Sentinel Athlete of the Week, Vic Lang broke a school record that had stood for nearly two decades, when he ran at the CCS Region IV track meet were he won the 800 meters in 1:55. He bettered the school mark of 1:56 set in 1973 by Elloy Villa. He also set the best time in CCS, eclipsing the 1:55.44 set earlier this season. Until a couple of weeks ago when swimming season ended, Lang had been a two sport athlete this spring, just like years past.
But with swimming done , he has been able to focus on one thing and that’s really made all the difference in the world. There are two coaches working together for the same end. They coordinate things together and talk about Vic’s workouts and its worked out great. Coach Wall said. “What all this has done for Lang is put him in optimum cardiovascular fitness. He ran a smart race and he had a awful lot left at the end. I would say he has a good chance of duplicating the time or possibly doing better this week at CCS.”

May 23. Virtual Plethora Of Talent. CCS Meet A Springboard To Bigger Things For SCCAL’s Track Athletes. At the CCS championships, if your not in the top three, your season is over. Sixty-seven athletes from the SCCAL will be competing. A look at the prime candidates:
Senior Vic Lang, who ran the sections best time of 1:55 in the 800 meters last week has him right in line to go against the states best with a time of 1:50.2 this season. The same runner from outside the section also has the states best time in the 1,600 in 4:12.1. Lang appears to have and excellent chance of reaching the state meet. He definitely is a favorite to be in the top three at CCS.
Senior Koren Clark had three Region wins in the 200, 400 as well as the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay team. Clark is considered a possible multi-event state meet entrant. Koren was a member of the 1,600 relay team at state last year, which only adds to her chances. Perhaps Clark’s best opportunity to reach a second state meet would be in the 400 a well as the relay. Her 58.5 personal best time in the 400 puts her among the top five in the section. Scratching of a few more tenths of a second will be the key for Clark.
As for the relay, which also features Sabrina Dalbesio, Melanie Café and Christina Thompson, the Cards time of 4:05.6 is among the sections best.
Nate Bell won both the 100 and 200 at the SCCAL meet finished fourth in both at the Region meet. However, he is capable of better times and he will need them for a top three finish at CCS.
Rosalyn Pillars has an outside shot in the 100. Her time of 12.72 at Region was a personal best. She may be peaking at the right time of the season.
Heather Singer, the Region champion in the discus will need to improve her 121-8 mark to be among the top three at CCS.

May 24. Lang State Meet Bound. Lang’s second place finish in the 800 meters at the CCS finals clinched a first state meet appearance for the senior. it’s not that Lang hasn’t had the opportunity to reach the state meet in the past, it’s just unfortunate circumstances that have hindered his progress. Last year as the number three seed in the section entering the CCS meet in the 800, Lang was disqualified for not having his jersey. If that was not bad enough, the 1,600 relay team, which had Lang running third, ended up eighth after Mike Jones broke his ankle with 50 meters to go and the Cards leading.
“I really thought I would go to state last year, but I was denied,” said Lang after turning in a 1:56.2 time in the 800. In the third 200 meters of the race, Lang turned it on and built a sizable lead over the rest of the pack. But over the final 100 meters a Los Gatos runner closed the gap and edged his way for the win in 1:55.1 “In the final 100, I could feel that he wanted to win the race more than I did.
At state I really want to pop a great time,” Lang said. Lang had lost to the same runner at the CCS Top 8 meet earlier in the year. Just a freshman, Robinson finished in a five way tie for fourth place in the high jump at 6-4. “He’s a tremendously gifted athlete,” said assistant coach Jim Scott. “Robinson will have another chance next year and beyond

GIRLS: Overall it was another good performance for the SCCAL at the CCS meet. Heather Singer finished fourth in the discus, just missing a spot at state. “It hurts,” she said. Singer, a junior, will have another chance next year.
Rosalyn Pillars fell victim to a faulty Accutrack timing system in the 100 trials. Because there was a four way tie in her heat and the Accutrack wasn’t functioning, the four had to have a run off to determine the three who would advance to the finals. Pillars, who went 12.5 in the heat, fell to 12.77 in the runoff and didn’t make the finals.
Koren Clark may have expended too much energy early. After the 400, where she finished fourth, she collapsed at the finish line. “She was exhausted,” said coach Wall. The damage done in that race forced Clark to with draw from the 200 about 45 minutes later. She did manage to run in the 1,600 relay, but SC finished out of the top three and didn’t advance. “She felt pretty bad after the 400. She just felt for her sake that she shouldn’t run the 200 with so little recovery time,” Coach Wall. Four SCCAL athletes are going to state and SC’s Lang is one of them.

DUAL MEETS, INVITATIONAL MEETS, TRIDENT AND YEARBOOK MATERIAL
March 2. No official team scores were tallied, but there were some noteworthy times and marks recorded with teams from SC, Soquel, Monte Vista and Monterey involved. For the boys: Victor Lang won the 800 in 2:07.6; Nate Johnson won the two mile in 10:23.4.
For the girls winners were Christina Thompson the 200 in 28.2; Amy Jones, 300 hurdles in 53.0 and Heather Singer threw the shot 29-0.

March 8. With the SC track under water, SC ran its meet with San Jose Academy at Soquel. SC won the meet. No score given. Winners were junior Heather Singer, showed some of the form that could carry her to the state meet this year. She threw the discus 106-11 and the shot put 32-9. Linda Alvarez won the long jump at 14-11. Laura Anderson was a a double winner on the track, taking the 400 in 1:06.0 and the 800 in 2:46.2. Freshman Namaste Chisam won the mile in 6:38 and Amy Jones took the 300 hurdles in 51.5.
The boys won also, but no score given. Josh Holman and Nate Bell were double winners. Holman set personal bests with wins in the 100 high hurdles in 16.4 and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 44.6. Bell looked very strong for the early season winning the 100 in 11.1 and the 200 in 23.5.

Sentinel March 14 girls pre-season preview. Coach Brian Wall is excited about his team. “I think our girls team is very strong. We have 80 kids out and 45 of them are girls.” Seniors Koren Clark, Rosalyn Pillars and Meghan Kinney provide the punch for the team to roll over any competition. Clark is strong from the 100 to 400 as well as both relays. Pillars is a sprinter and Kinney runs the hurdles. Underclassmen Heather Singer is back to throw the discus and shot. Singer already has the school record in the shot put at 34-1 and is chasing the discus record. Returning State qualifier Christina Thompson gives the team another sprinting threat.

Sentinel March 14 boys pre-season high school track and field preview. Senior distance runners, who are the top returning runners from the CCS Region IV championship team are Victor Lang, who paced the league with strong performances in the mile and half mile and Nathan Johnson, who covered the dreaded two mile. Junior sprinter Nate Bell has already run the 100 in 11.1. Josh Homan will do the hurdles and foreign exchange student from Australia, Tim Nordahl will do the jumps. “I think this is a pretty promising team, but it is really young. I know we have a lot of promise for the future. I see us highly competitive next year. This year, we’re more in it for the fun,” Coach Bryan Wall. Other Cards to watch are Jason Nevin and Nik Whiting, both sophomores who are multi-event athletes, who will get better. Jim Weaver is the top SC threat in the weights.

March 22. Boys: SC defeats Harbor 92-43. It may have been cold, but that didn’t stop SC from improving its SCCAL record to 3-0 over Harbor at Soquel’s all weather track. Nate Bell led SC with two victories, taking the 100 in 11.2 and 200 in 23.1. Vic Lang took the 1,600 in 4:42.3. Freshman Jermaine Robinson won the high jump at 5-10 and took second in the long jump at 19-1. Jim Weaver was a double winner in the shot put at 38-0 and discus at 116-3. Coach Bryan Wall admitted the weather is making life difficult, “but we’re trying to find new things to do in the rain. It’s tough, but the kids have kept a pretty good attitude.”
Girls: SC defeats Harbor 78-36. Koren Clark won three events in the 400 in 1:01.3, and ran legs on the 400 relay in time of 51.7 and the 1,600 relay in 4:27.3. Meghan Kinney was a double winner in the 100 low hurdles in 17.6 and ran a leg on the 400 relay. Ann Shumate won the 300 hurdles in 51.7 and ran a leg on the 1,600 relay team. Heather Singer was a double winner in shot put at 29-10 and discus at 107.0.

April 5. Boys: North Monterey defeated SC 94-42. Vic Lang took second in the 800 in 2:05. (that is all the information on SC)
Girls: North Monterey defeated SC 76-51. Koren Clark had a banner day with a league season best 59.2 in the 400; her 1;01.3 last week was already the SCCAL precedent. Her 26.6 in the 200 was 0.3 off the leagues top time. Heather Singer was dominant in the weight categories with a 110-10 discus and 35.4 in the shot put for the league best by more than two feet.

Sentinel. April 12. Soquel Makes Its Move Too Late VS Santa Cruz as the Cards win the dual meet 83-52. Soquel’s coach gave praise to the 800 time of 4:20 by Vic Lang, which was the second best in the SCCAL and his personal best. Running two races back to back, Nate Bell was a double winner in the 100 and 400. He was a triple winner running on the winning 400 relay team as well. Bell normally runs the 200, but as a, experiment in conditioning, he tried going a full lap for the first time in competition this year. Bell’s time of 53.8 is fourth best in the SCCAL this year. Sophomore Jason Nevin was .2 of a second behind Bell in the 100 in 11.5. Nevin took first in the 200 in a personal best 23.4. Jim Weaver was a double winner with a 39-1 shot put and a 119-0 heave in the discus.
Girls: Thompson Shines For Victorious Cards. SC 95-37 over Soquel to go 4-1 in league. Sophomore, Christina Thompson normally runs the 100 and 400, but got a chance to get in some distance running, when she filled in running the 800 to win in 2:42.9, which ranks as one of the top ten times in the league. “I didn’t know if I was going to get tired or not, I just started out to finish the race. Usually at the end of a 400, I’m dead tired, but the first lap was like jogging,” said Thompson. Thompson won the 400 in 13.5. Triple winners included Clark in the 400 in 1:05.1, the 200 in 27.1 and a leg on the 400 wining 400 relay team in 52.8, anchored by Thompson. Heather Singer was a double winner in the discus and shot put. Michelle Cafe, a freshman, posted a winning time in the 300 hurdles in 51.2 for the eighth best time in the league.

April 14. At the Gilroy Invitational Meet SC took fourth place. The SC winners were Vic Lang in the 800 in 1:58.1 and Nathan Johnson in the two mile in 9:54. Johnson, whose best time in the 3,200 this season is 10:03, ran the longer, non metric version of the race in even better time. Lang’s time was his seasons best by 6 seconds.
Girls: At the Gilroy Invitational Meet SC was third in the overall in the standings. SC had two winners, Koren Clark took first place in the 400 in 59.9, which nearly duplicated her seasons best of 59.2. She was second in the 200 at 26.6. The mile relay team of Clark, Thompson, Dalbesio and Naima Contos won in 4:12 for a SCCAL season best, dropping their own top time by 5 seconds. The 400 relay team was third at 52.2. Heather Singer was third in the discus at 108-9 and fifth in the shot put at 33-1.

April 19. SC 80, SLV 47 in a league dual meet. In a confrontation of the three best local distance runners, SLV came out ahead winning in 4:33.1, the third fastest time in the league this year Vic Lang, last years SCCAL 1,600 champ came in second in 4:34.2, which is 3.5 seconds under his best time. Nate Johnson took third in 4:37.4. Lang has the fastest 800 time in the league this year. Johnson normally the 3,200 man was working on his speed. Sprinter Nat Bell was a quadruple winner, as he won the 100, equaling his best time of 11.1, the 200 in 23.2. He also anchored both winning relay teams. Normally a 3,200 man Nate Johnson ran the mile and took third place. Vic Lang took second place in the 1,600. Nic Whiting, only a sophomore took the pole vault at 11-6.
Girls: SC 74, SLV 53. Heather Singer continued her domination of the throwing events, sweeping the discus and shot put. Her throw of 118-5 in the discus is the new best in the SCCAL. Koren Clark was a quadruple winner in the 200 in 26.1, which establishes a new season best in the league, the 400 in 1:09 and both relays. SC is now 4-1 in league dual meets.

April 21. Clark Shines In Salinas Meet. Santa Cruz Senior Wins Twice, Breaks 1 minute in 400 meters. The highlight of the meet was Koren Clark, who hopes to run at UC Berkeley next year, racked up victories in both the 400 meters in 59.1 and 200 in 26.6 as well as anchoring the third place 4×100 relay team in 52.2 and the 4×400 relays. Clark’s time in the 400 was .3 off her season’s best, but she remains the only SCCAL runner to break a minute in the event. Heather Singer won the discus at 115 feet and took third in the shot put at 31-5 to medal.
Boys: Senior distance specialist Nate Johnson continues to look good in the 3,200, winning the event in a respectable 9:55. Vic Lang was second in the 1,600 in 4:30.3. Nate Bell placed second in the 100 in 11.2. Freshman jumper Jermaine Robinson showed signs of developing as a long jumper took third at 20-2. Other Card medallists included Josh Homan with a fifth in the 100 high hurdles in 16.64.

April 24. Double Wins Spark Santa Cruz. Nate Johnson, Victor Lang and Josh Homan were all double winners in 83-52 win over Aptos to give SC a 5-1 league record. Johnson won the 1,600 in 4:39 and the 3,200 in 10:18.07. Lang won the 400 in 53.5 and 800 in 2:05.24. Homan won the 110 high hurdles in 16.23 and 300 intermediate hurdles in 44.1. The 400 relay team of Jason Nevin, Jermaine Robinson, Reggie Stephens and Nat Bell won in 46.07.
Girls: Cards Win On Last Event Of Day. Tied 61-61 entering the final event of the day, SC won the mile relay to come away with a 66-61 win. SC is now 5-1 in league dual meets. The mile relay team of Sabrina Dalbesio, Melanie Café, Christina Thompson and Koren Clark finished in 4:14.81. The Aptos coach, “SC just had stronger girls. They ran an excellent time.” Clark was in on four wins and Thompson three. Clark won the 100 in 13.18 and 200 in 26.80, in addition to helping win the final relay of the day, she also anchored the 400 relay team of Dalbesio, Thompson and Meghan Kinney to a 52.88 win. Plus the two relays, Thompson won the 400 in 1:04.1. Heather Singer was another double winner, taking the discus at 116 feet and the shot put at 32-7.

April 28. Locals Do Well At CCS Top 8. There were no winners from SCCAL teams. The top three SCCAL finishers, included two Cardinals Vic Lang and Heather Singer. Singer took second in the discus with a personal best of 122 feet. Koren Clark was fourth in the 400 in 59.01 and fifth in the 200 in 26.2. SC lead the SCCAL contingent with 17 total participants at the meet.

May 3. Boys: Depleted Cat Roster Aids SC in a 92-37 league victory. Watsonville had some discipline problems and some of their athletes did not compete, which was a big reason for the
lopsided score. SC won all but two events, the shot put and discus. Jermaine Robinson won four events. The freshman won the high jump at 5-6, the long jump at 19-7, the triple jump at 38-5 and was part of the winning 400 meter relay team. Nate Bell and Josh Homan won two events. Homan won the 110 hurdles in 16 flat and te 300 hurdles in 43.5. Bell took the 100 in 11.5 ant the 200 in 23.9. Vic Lang was not pushed in winning the 800 in 2:09 and the 1,600 in 4:47.
Girls: Café, Clark Spark SC over Watsonville 85-36 in a league dual meet. Freshman Café won the 100 meter low hurdles in 17.2, the 300 hurdles in 49.3 and the long jump at 15-2. Clark took the 100 in 12.6 and SCCAL best this season and anchored the winning 400 relay team that finished in 53.8. In the weight events Heather Singer dominated. Singer won the shot put at 32-5 and the discus at 112-8. Linda Alvarez won the triple jump in her first attempt at 31-6.

May 5. Intriguing Track Meet. Annual Kiwanis Event is a Good Tune up For SCCAL Meet. Watsonville won the 18 team boys meet. Several upsets and some dramatic improvements and personal best made the meet intriguing for the up coming SCCAL trials and finals. Koren Clark won the 100 meters in 12.8. Then Clark false started in the 200 and was disqualified.

Strong freshmen contributions were made by Jermaine Robinson, Reggie Stephens, Ben Henry and Joe Street. Top throwers of the shot and discus was Jim Weaver. Coach Don Robert’s hurdlers were led by senior Josh Homan. Coach Brian Wall feels the track athletes are some of the easiest to work with and adds, “I think track people are a special breed of people.” The track team provided a melting pot for athletes of all abilities in events ranging from the pole vault to the 300 meter hurdles. Top pole vaulters were Jason Dalbesio and Nick Whiting.

Senior Victor Lang had run and swam in competition in Minnesota as they were in different seasons their. But in California the two sports come during the Spring. It was worked out so he could compete in both at the same time. It worked out well for both sports. He helped break the school mile relay record in track and anchor the swim team’s medley relay team.

Boys Roster from yearbook: J. Robinson; Nate Bell; J. Sanchez, G. Blanchette, R. Stevens, J. Weaver, C. Croghan, C. Peterson, A. Robinson, J. VanAlstyne, N. Cook, J. Homan, S. Kaiser, K. Stoval, B. Jones, B. Allen, N. Whiting, A. Vega, W. Delgado, J. Orozco, J. Meyer, B. Henry, J. Street, B. Dalvesio, J. Nevin, V. Land, N. Johnson and M. Libertore.
Head coach Brian Wall and assistants Allen, Scott and Don Roberts.

Sentinel. April 4. SCCAL bests ten places in boys track and field by place, name and time or distance.
100 meters: 2, Bell 11.1 and 5, Stephens 11.3.
200 meters: 2, Bell 23 flat and 5, Nevin 23.5.
400 meters: 4, Henry 54.7.
800 meters: 6, Allen 2:12.0 and 6, Street 2:12 flat.
1,600 meters: 4, Lang 4:42.7.
3,200 meters: 3, Johnson 10:.03 and 7, Liberatore 10:40.3 and 10, Stovall 11:03.7.
110 meter high hurdles: 3, Homan 16.1 and 8, Keyser 18.1.
300 meters intermediate hurdles: 7, Homan 44.6.
400 meter relay: 1, Santa Cruz 44 flat.
1,600 meter relay: 2, Santa Cruz 3:41.2.
Long jump: 2, Robinson 19-6. High jump: 2, Robinson 5-10.
Triple jump: 7, Robinson 35-8.
Shot put: 9, Weaver 38-0.
Discus: 4, Weaver 116-3 and 6, Sutton 107-2 and 7, Croghan 105-0.
Pole vault: 6, Whiting 10-0.

May 3. Card Works Double Time. This has been another busy Spring for senior Vic Lang, who for the second straight year competed on both the boys swim team and track team at the same time. “We share him whenever we can. We work it out. He knows how to deal with it now. It’s a pretty tough double,” said Coach Wall. Lang, who in the pool anchors the 200 medley relay team, but hasn’t broken into the SCCAL top five swim times this season. But in track, he is running number 2 in the 800 meters at 1:58.1 and number 3 in the 1,600 in 4:30.3. “It’s a lot of work,” Wall said. What Lang can’t work out this weekend is being at two places at once. The SCCAL swim championship meet is the Saturday and the Annual Kiwanis track meet is at Soquel at the same time.

Trident May 9. Young teams have always been a trademark of SC track teams. This year is no exception. The team of freshman Ben Henry, Jermaine Robinson and Joe Street and sophomore Jason Nevin broke the school record for the sophomore mile relay by four seconds in 3:37. Nevin, Robinson, Henry and freshman Reggie Stephans have teamed up to come within a tenth of a second of breaking the sophomore 400 relay record of 44.2. “I run my best races in the relays,” said Nevin. “I had my eye on he mile relay record all year. I had a feeling we could beat it.” At the next level is where seniors Nate Johnson and Josh Homan and junior Nate Bell have been competing all year.
Bell owns the second best time in the county in the 100 meters, fourth best in the 200 meters and sixth best in the 400 meters.
Johnson has the third best time in the two mile and fifth in the mile.
Homan has the fourth best time in the 110 hurdles.
Sophomores Nick Whiting in the pole vault and Brooks Allen in the half mile and freshman Mike Libertore in the mile have contributed to the teams success.
Junior Jim Weaver after three years of football decided, “to join the track team, because I wanted something new and it’s fun too.” He has surprised everyone with the fifth best throw in the league in the discus at 126-7 and is in the top ten in the shot put with a mark of 39-8 good for eighty best in the league. Coach Wall and teammate Doug Kishi, “Have helped me learn the technique and continue to work with me.”
Like the girls the boys team is entering the SCCAL meet with a 7-1 dual meet record.

Sentinel. May 30. SCCAL bests ten in boys track and field by place, name and time or distance.
100 meters: 2, Bell 11.15 and 6, Stephens 11.3.
200 meters: 3, Bell 22.37 and 7, Nevin 23.4 and 9, Stephens 23.7
400 meters: 4, Nevin 52.5 and 9, Henry 54.7 and 10, Bell 53.3
800 meters: 1, Lang 1:55 and 7 tie, Allen 2:05.1 and 7 tie, Cary 2:05.1 and 9, Street 2:06.3
1,600 meters: 2, Lang 4:26.9 and 5, Johnson 4:32.4
3,200 meters: 3, Johnson 9:42 and 9, Liberatore 10:40.3
110 meter high hurdles: 5, Homan 15.9
300 meters intermediate hurdles: none
400 meter relay: 1, Santa Cruz 43.5
1,600 meter relay: 1, Santa Cruz 3:30.6
Long jump: 5, Robinson 20-2 and 8, Stephens 19-10
High jump: 2, Robinson 6-4.
Triple jump: 6, Robinson 39-9.
Shot put: 10, Weaver 40-3.
Discus: 8, Weaver 126-2
Pole vault: 4, Whiting 12-6 and 5, Dalbesio10.6 and 7, Newman 9-6

Yearbook. Track is a sport of individuals working as a team. For many teams it’s hard for athletes to relate to one another. Shot putters, for example, have little in common with milers or hurdlers. For SC however, a strong team attitude contributed to a close knit and successful group of athletes. Their support for one another showed most often during team workouts, where teammates would cheer each other on to complete an interval or stay with the pack. “The athletes really pull for each other and have the best attitude I’ve seen,” said head coach Brian Wall.
The team has won the CCS Region IV meet two of the last three years. “I’m pretty proud of the track program, because its come so far in such a short period of time,” said Coach Wall.

Koren Clark from Zimbabwe started running there as a ten year old. She has now established herself as one of the top relay runners in Santa Cruz county history. As a junior, Clark’s personal best of 58.7 in the 400 meters helped lead the mile relay team to eleventh place at the State meet. The relay teams time of 4:01 also set a school record. Clark broke the school records in the 200 meters at 25.8 and with the 400 meter relay team.

Girls Roster from yearbook: A. Littlejohn; A. Jones, L. Anderson, H. Singer, G. Krebs, H. Musselman, E. Brown, E. LaRoque, C. Thompson, F. Hasty, A. Tom, L. Ross, S. Dalbesio, A. Shumate, K. Clark, R. Pillers, M. Kinney, W. Lemmon, D. Kishi, N. Contos, M. Simmons, M. Fahl, O. Suchman, E. Jacobs, T. Barthel, A. Yale, N. Narver, N. Chism, M. Kardon, M. Wrankle, C. Cleveland, L. Alvarez, M. Café, R. Jones, M. Silver, A. Montalvo, S. Flegal and D. Bock. Head coach Brian Wall and assistants Allen, Scott and Don Roberts.

Sentinel. April 4. SCCAL bests in ten girls in track and field by place, name and time or distance.
100 meters: 3, Pillar’s 13 flat and 5, Clark 13.3 and 8, Jones 13.5 and 9, Flegal 13.6
200 meters: 3, Clark 3, 27 flat and 5, Flegal 27.6 and 8, Jones 28.3
400 meters: 1, Clark 1:01.3 and 6, Anderson 1: 06.6 and 7, Simons 1:07.7 and 8, Ross 1:08.8
800 meters: 9, Anderson 2:46.3
400 meter relay: 1, Santa Cruz 50.1
1,600 meter relay: 1. Santa Cruz 4:22 flat
1,600 meters: SC had none listed
3,200 meters: Suchman 14:18
100 meter low hurdles: 4, Zemny 17 flat and 6, Kinney 17.6
300 meter low hurdles: 6, A. Jones 51.5; 7, Shumate 51.7; 8, Café 53.4; 9. Littlejohn 54.5
Long jump: 5, Alvarez 14-12
High jump: 7, Jacobsen 4-8
Triple jump: 6, Beckstrom 31-0 and 7, Singer 26-5 and 8, Flegal 25-6
Shot put: 6, Hasty 27-11 and 9, Brown 27-2
Discus: 2, Singer 112-0

Trident May 9. Every member of the track team was running and screaming as the first leg of the mile relay rounded the first turn against Aptos. The score is tied at 61 points with the mile relay being the last event. Sabrina Dalbesio, Melanie Café, Christina Thompson and Koren Clark trampled the Aptos relay team and won the meet. Clark, who anchored the relay team, couldn’t help but smile when she crossed the finish line. “I knew that I had to win it for the team,” Clark said, “and coach Don Roberts told me to smile, so I finished the last 100 meters smiling.”
Clark wasn’t the only one smiling, as head coach Brian Wall said, “I feel the happiest in my 15 years of coaching. It’s the biggest one we’ve had in a long time. Our girls did everything they had to do to win that meet.” Wall noted the exceptional performances of sophomores Christina Thompson and Laura Anderson as key factors. Thompson took first in the 400 and second in the 800 meters and ran on the winning 400 and mile relay teams. Anderson took third in the 800 and second in the two mile an event she usually doesn’t run. “The coaches asked me to compete instead of just jog,” she said. With this victory and another a week later against Watsonville the girls team end their dual meet season with a 7-1 record. The following are in the top ten going into the SCCAL meet, they are Clark in the 100, 200 and 400; Rosalyn Pillars, a senior in the 100 and 200; Melanie Café in the 100 and 300 hurdles and Heather Singer in the shot and discus. Singer ranks first in the league in the shot put with a mark of 34-4 and also in the discus with a throw of 122 feet. Singer would like to break the school record for the girls discus, which has been standing for 14 years. She missed the mark at the CCS Top Eight meet by 2 feet, while taking third place. Her main goal is to compete in the State meet. Singer credits coach Wall for “sticking with me when I had problems with my throws,” Senior Rosalyn Pillars goal is to break the 100 meter dash record of 12.4 seconds.

Sentinel. May 30. SCCAL bests ten in girls track and field by place, name and time or distance.
100 meters: 2, Pillars 12.5; 3, Clark 12.6; 8, Thompson 13.2; 9, Silver 13.3
200 meters: 1, Clark 25.94; 5, Pillars 27.2; 6, Dalbesio 27.5; 7, Flegal 27.6
400 meters: 1, Clark 57.40 and 7, Thompson 1:02.3
800 meters: 7, Thompson 2:28
Mile relay: 1, Santa Cruz 4:03.2
400 meter relay: 1. Santa Cruz 50.19
1,600 meters: SC had none listed
3,200 meters: SC had none listed
100 meter low hurdles: 6, Café 16.7 and 9, Shumate 17.2
300 meter low hurdles: 4, Café 47.9; 7, Kinney 50.7; 8, Shumate 50.8; 9 A. Jones 51.0
Long jump: 7, Alvarez 15-7
High jump: 5, Jacobsen 4-10
Triple jump: 4, Alvarez 32-9
Shot put: 1, Singer 35-4 and 10, Brown 29.0
Discus: 1, Singer 125-8

Boys to State: Vic Lang. To CCS: Nate Bell, Nate Johnson and Jermaine Robinson.
Girls to CCS: Heather Singer, Rosalyn Pillars and Koren Clark individually. Relay team of Sabrina Dalbesio, Melaine Café, Christina Thompson and Clark.

BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING
At the SCCAL meet, Harbor first with 427 points, SC second with 260.
Practice meets: North Salinas 120-42, Carmel 101-83. League: Watsonville 105-79, Aptos 107-72, Harbor 67-119, Soquel 100-80. League record 3-1. Overall record 5-1.

Yearbook. Seniors with their top strokes were Jaoquin Munoz, breaststroke; Django Sussman, freestyle; Joe Ysselstien, butterfly; Pat Chapman, breaststoke; Morgan Raines, freestyle and Victor Lang, freestyle. Other top swimmers were juniors Marc Yellin, Gabe Schonoover and sophomore Damien Korte all of whom held their own in the varsity races.

Senior Joaquin Munoz has tried it all from backstroke to butterfly, experiencing every event in swimming. Last year he discovered the breaststroke and began training with league champion Zack Gallagher. Two months later Munoz took second place in league behind Gallagher. “Next to playing water polo, the league finals last year was my best experience,” said Munoz, who was selected on the league water polo first team.

Other swimmers: Adam Philips, Dan O’Conner, Chris Nur, Ryan Bauregard, Matt Reyes, Gabe Chavez, Pete Dixon, Greg Bruland, Mark Wolswinkel, Jeff Smith, Scott Watkins, Rob Holmberg, John Golder, Mark Yellin, Chris Dunlap, Corey Warner and Dan Acquauiva.
Head Coach Mike Bennett and assistant Joel Wilson.

March 10. At the Harbor-Aptos Invitational at Cabrillo College in the seven team event Harbor was first with 352 points and SC second with 219. (No mention of SC swimmers)

Santa Cruz Swims Past Cats 105-79. Thursday was a big day for Zack Thompson at the SC pool. Thompson was a double winner, winning the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:06.9, a personal best and a CCS qualifying time. It was the second fastest mark by a SCCAL swimmer this season. He also won the 200 freestyle in 1:6.68 also a season best. Junior Adam Phillips won the 200 individual medley in 2:21.5 and the 100 backstroke in 1:04.53. In the 200 free relay, Phillips and a Watsonville swimmer, swam the last legs in a dead heat. The teams were clocked in 1:39.90, seasons best for each. Matt Reyes became the first local diver to score more than 200 points with his winning total of 204.70.

Sentinel. April 9. Sentinel Athlete of the Week Zack Thompson, a sophomore in his second year on the varsity swim team, set a school frosh-soph record in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:06.6, eclipsing the old mark of 1:07.3 in a dual meet win over Watsonville. At the meet he also won the 200 freestyle in 1:26.68. Thompson’s time in the 100 breaststroke qualifies him for his first CCS championship meet next month. “He’s good in the middle distances, the 200 and 500 freestyle and the breaststroke. Those seem to be his three events. But he’s talented enough for us to use in any event, we need him for,” Coach Mike Bennett said.
Thompson has the league’s second best time in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.6 and 500 free in 5:16.10 and fifth in the 200 free in 1:55.95. Thompson will probably swim the 200 individual medley this week and should land in the top five in that event as well. Thompson, who’s 15 has been swimming for about half of his life.
Currently, he also swims for the Cabrillo Threshers a age group team. “I think he’s going to be great. He’s a hard worker. When he’s at practice, he works hard. He’s got the right attitude in terms of how he approaches it. Some swimmers his age in high school get burned out, but that doesn’t appear to be happening to him. He really seems to love to swim. Each year he improves. He’s going to be and outstanding swimmer,” said Coach Bennett.

April 10. Senior Victory Lang won two individual events and anchored a winning relay as SC overpowered North Salinas 120-42. Lang won the 50 yard freestyle in 25.19 and the 100 free in 55.53. SC was behind going into the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, but Lang’s final sprint won 4:03.01 to 4:03.49. Damian Korte was a double winner, touching the wall in 2:06.14 in the 200 free and taking part in the 200 medley relay team, which won in 1:55.11.

April 13. SC 107, Aptos 72. SC improved to 4-0 for the season and 2-0 for league, heading into a showdown against undefeated Harbor. Adam Phillips and Zack Thompson were both double winners. Phillips won the 100 yard butterfly in 1:03.97 and the 100 backstroke in 1:05.76. He also was on the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams. Thompson won the 200 individual medley in 2:13.65 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.15. He also on the winning 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams. Junior Mike McGuiness was third in the 200 freestyle in 2:10.64 and second in the 500 freestyle in 5:45.33.

April 18. Harbor 119, SC 67. Both team entered the pool unbeaten in league meets, but Harbor is 3-0 and SC 2-1 now. “We’re swimming real tired right now, because the kids have been gearing up for the league finals,” said Coach Mike Bennett., “I think we’re ready to start tapering. We’re hopping to give Harbor a better run for it then.” The two SC winners were Zack Thompson in the 500 free in 5:13.75 and Matt Reyes in diving. Strong second place finishers for SC were Thompson in the 200 free in 1:55.70 an Joaquin Munoz in the 100 breaststroke in :08.79.

Trident April 18. Swim Team Explodes To 4-0 Record. SC rolled over Carmel 101-83 in the seasons opening meet. The teams depth proved to be the deciding factor in the meet as SC had only three winners. They were juniors Marc Yellin in the 500 free and Matt Reyes in diving and sophomore Zack Thompson in the 200 free. Reyes has since proven himself the best diver in the county placing in the Aptos-Harbor Invitational and the SCCAL relay meet. SC took second in both meets.
Thompson has also risen to the top of the league, qualifying for CCS in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06 and posted the second fastest time in the 500 freestyle in 5:16 in the meet against Watsonville.
The junior varsity is also unbeaten, routing every team they have faced by over 100 points.

April 27. SC 100, Soquel 80. SC needed a strong finish to pull away from the Knights in the season ending dual meet. SC led 68-66 with three events remaining, but gained breathing room with a 2-3-4 finish in the 500 free and 1-2 finishes in both the 100 backstroke and 100 breast. Adam Phillips had the best day for SC, winning the 100 fly in 1:00.81 and 100 backstroke in 1:0246. Zack Thompson won the 200 free in 1:55.22 and, Joaquin Munoz in the 100 breast in 1:10.20. SC ended with a league record of 3-0.

Sentinel Pre-SCCAL swim meet article . Harbor Tough In SCCAL Swim Again. A threat to Harbor’s winning all the events is SC’s Joaquin Munoz had the best time in the league with a 100 meter time of 1:08.79. Other top contenders include, Zack Thompson of SC. Matt Reyes breezed to an SCCAL individual diving championships at Cabrillo scoring 342.10 points and distancing himself from the pack by less than 100 points. “I was totally stoked,“ said Reyes, a junior, who was runner up last year. Usually I don’t have a big attitude, but I feel that diving is overlooked around here and it’s a real challenging sport. I’m stoked, because I won by so much,” said Reyes. Reyes coach Stacy Foster, said “His best dive was a reverse 1-and a-half twist, for which he earned scores of 6s and 7s. Harbor coach and former Cardinal, Jack Dufour said, “Reyes just had a great day. He showed really good form and pulled away with his degree of difficulty.

May 5. Harbor Dominates SCCAL Meet, Winning Every Event For The Title winning for the eleventh consecutive time. Harbor totaled 427 points to second place SC’s 260. Even SC’s Joaquin Munoz, probably the leagues best threat to deny Harbor a first place finish in any event lost to Harbor by 1:04.81 to Joaquin’s time of 1:06.57.

Trident May 9. At the SCCAL finals, freshman divers Cory Warner and Danny Quaviva took first and second places for junior varsity. For the varsity junior Matt Reyes took first place with a score of 342.10 and sophomore Rob Holmberg took fifth.
The swimmers who placed were Damien Korter took sixth in the 200 free; Dave Thompson took fourth in the 200 individual medley and sixth in the 100 butterfly; Adam Phillips captured third place in the butterfly in 58.5; Pat Chapman took fourth in the 100 breaststroke; Joaquin Munoz took second in the breaststroke in 1:06; Damien Korte placed fourth in the 500 free and Zack Thompson took second in 5:03. Django Sussman placed sixth for the sprinters in the 50 free in 23.83; The Medley relay team of Phillips, Munoz, Thompson and Victor Lange was second. The 200 free relay of Phillips, Lang, Sussman and Thompson was third. The 400 free relay of McGuiness, Korte, Sussman and Thompson was second. All relay teams qualified for CCS.

Trident May 9. Sophomore Makes CCS In Four Races. When Zack Thompson stepped on to the blocks for last weeks SCCAL swim finals at Cabrillo College, he was one step closer to fulfilling his plans for the day. He qualified for the CCS championships in all four of his events. Thompson started his day with a fourth place finish in the 200 freestyle in 1:51, less than two seconds behind the winner. He then went on to swim back to back events, placing second in the 500 freestyle in 5:03 and anchored the 200 freestyle relay to third place in 1:35. He ended his day with a strong anchor leg of the 400 freestyle relay, which took second in 3:34. Coach Mike Bennett said, “I’m drooling. I’ve got him for two more years.” Zack swam most of his practices with the Cabrillo Threshers of Coach Jim Tripplet. Zack didn’t have it easy as he had to swim six to nine thousand yards a day.

Sentinel stats for boys swimming on May 18 listed by place in rankings, name and best time.
Included are the records of SC swimmers, who still hold the league record for the event.

200 medley relay: 4, Santa Cruz team members: Phillips, Munoz, D. Thompson and Lang in 1:47.99
200 freestyle: 5, Thompson in 1:51.49.
200 individual medley: last record, Hatch of SC in 1980 in time of 1:56.10
50 freestyle: none
100 butterfly: 5, Phillips 58:53
100 freestyle: none
500 freestyle: 2, Thompson 5:03.83
200 freestyle relay: 3, Korte, Sussman, Lang and Thompson 1:30.01
100 backstroke: 2. Phillips 59.78. last record, Hackbarth of SC in 1988 in time of 54.45
100 breaststroke: 2, Munoz 1:06.34
400 freestyle relay: 2, Korte, Sussman, Phillips and Z. Thompson 3:31.41
Last record , 1987 by Melton, Hackbarth, Shumate and Getty in 3:17.22
Diving: 1. Reyes 342.10 points
5. Holmberg 226.45 points

BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Defeated Aptos, Watsonville and Harbor twice and lost to Soquel twice for a league record of 6-2.

Trident. April 18. The volleyball team began its third year without financial support from the school. The team supports itself from ticket sales, food sales at games and fund raising in the community. Seniors Reed Criswell outside hitter and setter Jordan Leahy, both returning All County players are expected to lead the team. Team Santa Cruz, a 13/14 age group division is coming off a fifth place finish at the US Junior Olympics in Albuquerque, New Mexico last summer. Many of those athletes, including Hakuin Hass are now freshmen at SC. This should be a good year.

Trident May 9. Volleyball Hitters Try And Muscle Soquel. In its third year of play, behind the coaching of former UCLA volleyball standout Mark Tedsen, the SC Volleyball Club has a 4-2 record with only two games remaining. Despite having only the necessary seven players, the Club easily rolled over Aptos, Watsonville and Harbor twice. “It helps when every person hits well and has good defensive skills,” said outside hitter senior Joaquin Munoz. Their only losses came at the hands of two time champion Soquel. On both occasions, SC won the first game out of the best of five series, but then proceeded to drop the next three. Sophomore setter Ivan Mulkey broke his wrist half way through the season, leaving the team with only six players minimum to play. But the team could go to the junior varsity team to fill spots.

BOYS TENNIS
Practice matches: Monta Vista loss, RLS 0-7. League: Soquel 7-0, 5-2; Watsonville 7-0, 6-1; Harbor 4-3, 6-1; Aptos 0-7, 0-7; SLV 6-1, won. League record 8-2 for second place.

Yearbook. Long time coach Dennis Mullen had his work cut out for him this year, since there are only two returning starters. “This is the most inexperienced team we have had. It will put a lot of pressure on the young team to follow in the footsteps of last years league champions. Senior Chris Stevens is the teams top player. Two other seniors are Stefan Feeman and David Moore. Behind them are juniors Ryan Coonerty, Tao Stadler and the only other starter from last year Sean Kilpatrick.
Working on climbing the varsity ladder are sophomores David Sanford, ( whose brother John was a former number one player), Matt Sawyer and Brice Dimitruk, who also wrestled. Freshmen Sergio Forchio and Josh Sheridon are good enough to compete for a varsity spot.
Rest of squad: Mike Keogh, Derek Kroeger, Tyler Smith, Gabe Jones, Max Mugnier, Chris Hiromura, Colt Hangen, Jonah Otis, Darren Arnott, Randy Knox and Darren Crews. Coach Dennis Mullen.

Sentinel. SC Settles for Tie against Live Oak, because of darkness in the first match of the season. Winners in singles were number 2, Chris Stevens, 3. David Sanford and 4. Max Swanger a sophomore, who pulled out a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory.

Sentinel. March 14. Santa Cruz Improves Despite Loss. Despite an unlike 0-2 Card record the Cards are making progress, says coach Dennis Mullen. “It is good to see their improvements. It must be frustrating for them, but we are playing a pretty hard schedule. They have to keep working and learning.” The team lost to Monta Vista of Cupertino, which plays in one of the toughest leagues in CCS. Chris Stevens at number two singles won 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Number one singles Sean Kilpatrick and three singles David Sanford lost in three sets.

Sentinel Marach 23. Cardinals Pass First Test. Mike Keogh, a basketball player, who had never gone out for tennis in his three previous years at SC got his first test on the court, passed the test. The senior teamed with Bryce Dimitruk for a three set victory, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 at number one doubles during SC’s 7-0 blanking of Soquel. The duo won three challenge matches this week in practices to earn their roster spot. SC hard hit by graduation, earned its first victory of the season after two non-league loses. Sean Kilpatrick won number one singles 6-3, 6-3. Other Card winners were Chris Stevens, David Sanford, Tao Stadler and Max Swanger in singles. In doubles the team of Josh Sheridan and Sergio Torchio.

April 3. SC 7, Watsonville 0. SC number one singles player Sean Kilpatrick led the charge in winning 6-0, 6-2. The best match of the day was at number two doubles, where Sergio Torchio and Ryan Coonerty playing for the first time together won 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. SC is 2-0 and hasn’t lost in singles or doubles in its two league matches.

April 7. SC wins fifty fourth in a row since April of 1985. Defeated Harbor 4-3. Although the score was close, the win was decisive for the Cards, as all four of their victories were straight set victories, while two of their losses were in three sets. SC swept the top three singles matches and sewed things up at number two doubles. In singles play, number one Sean Kilpatrick won 6-3, 6-1. No. two, Chris Stevens won 6-3, 6-3. No. three, David Sanford won 6-1, 6-4. In no. two doubles, Josh Sheridan and Sergio Torchio won 6-2, 6-2.

April 10. Cards Streak Halted. Aptos Scores Big SCCAL Victory. Aptos wins 7-0, to end SC’s 55 match win streak. The Cards last loss was on April 24, 1985. It was Aptos, which won that match 4-3. Number one Sean Kilpatrick lost 3-6, 1-6. Number two singles player Chris Stevens lost in three sets, 7-5, 0-6, 3-6. Sophomore David Sanford playing number three lost 3-6, 3-6. Max Swanger at number four, lost his match in three sets, 6-3. 6-1, 6-3. Coach Mullen, whose Cardinals once had a 59 match win streak in the early 1980’s, said his current players have no reason to sulk. “We started off with almost a whole new group this year and their still learning. They’ve done a good job to get this far. Aptos is a lot more experienced and it showed today. SC is 2-1 in league and Aptos 4-0.

April 12. At Pebble Beach, SC was pounded by powerhouse RLS 7-0 in a non-league play. SC is 4-4 overall.

April 13. SC 6, SLV 1. Cards improve to 5-1 in league. Five of SC’s six wins were in the minimum two sets. Number one Sean Kilpatrick won 6-1, 6-0. In two doubles Josh Sheridan and Bryce Dimitruk rallied from a 6-3 loss to win 6-2, 6-2.

April 17. SC 5, Soquel 2. In their first match SC swept all matches, so this was a big improvement for Soquel. In the number one match, it took three hours to complete, because every point was really extended. Both players were intent on being patient. Kilpatrick won 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Trident April 18. Second Longest Win Streak Ends. After five years and fifty-five straight victories against league teams, the tennis team lost to Aptos last week. The longest win streak by SC was from 1975-1981 for fifty-nine games. “We were trying for our old record, but we fell short,’ said coach Dennis Mullen. Mullen stressed the fact that only the upper classmen were worried about the record and that most of the players were unaware of the winning streak. Their record is now 5-1 in league.

April 20. SC 6, Watsonville 1. Watsonville won the number one singles match. Scoring singles wins for SC were Chris Stevens, David Sanford, Max Swanger and Tao Stadler. In the doubles, Mike Keough and Bryce Dimiturk, as well as Josh Sheridan and freshman Sergio Torchio won.

April 24. Don’t Count Santa Cruz Out Just Yet. Having improved each step of the way this season, SC has worked its way into position to play for its tenth straight SCCAL championship. “We’ve been hoping to get to this point,” said coach Mullen after his Cards had beaten Harbor 6-1. The win improved SC to 8-1 in league going into the last game of the season against Aptos 9-0. SC got a big win from its number two doubles team of Josh Sheridan and Sergio Torchio, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4. Sean Kilpatrick at number one singles won 6-2, 6-2.
“We are play well, but Aptos is really tough,” said Mullen, whose team has lost only twice in league competition since April 1985, including a 7-0 loss to Aptos earlier this season. Aptos, which in 1981 was the last SCCAL team to win the championship outright, can lock up its first league title since 1985, when it was co-champion with SC.

April 26. Aptos Crowned Champs. Never, in SCCAL history, has any team beaten SC twice by the scores of 7-0 and that record remained intact as Aptos won 6-1. Aptos finished 10-0 and SC 8-2. Six of the nine Mariners are seniors and have been second all these years. SC received some heroic three set efforts to avert their second loss. In number one doubles play SC’s Tao Stadler and Mike Keogh battled back from a 1-6 dusting in the first set to win 7-5, 7-6 (7-2). In number one singles, the SCCAL’s best player had to struggle against Sean Kilpartrick in the first set, winning 7-5. In the second set he wrapped up the victory 6-2.

April 30. League Titles on Line at Imperial Courts. In the SCCAL first round of individual play for number one singles and doubles will be decided. In singles play, David Sanford was eliminated 6-4, 6-2 and Chris Stevens also lost in the first round. Kilpatrick, SC’s number one singles player opted to play in the doubles competition instead of singles. With a record of 7-3, he had the second best record in the league. Kilpatrick and Stadler won 6-2, 6-3 in the first round and won 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals, but lost in the finals to Aptos 1-6, 4-6 for second place.

Trident May 9. Tennis Team Finishes Season Strong. Coming into this season, the Cards had won 52 straight matches in league, won league titles in 15 out of the last 17 years and had an incredible 136 wins and only 4 losses. Those were tough shoes to fill, especially when the top seven players from last year graduated. Aptos stopped the records, by winning every match against the Cards. In the rematch, SC played hard and won several big sets, but a more experience Aptos pulled out the win. SC did beat all the rest of the teams in the league.

GOLF
(It has been a long time since SC has been almost to the top of the league but) this year the team took second in the SCCAL. Beat Aptos by 15 strokes; Monte Vista by 40 strokes, Watsonville by 20 strokes, Soquel by 59 strokes, SLV by 3 strokes and split with Harbor winning by 18 strokes and losing by 11.
Placed seventh at the CCS finals.

May 8. Cards Advances To CCS Golf Finals. Sophomore Dov Rothman held his game together in the wind and qualified to play in the CCS championships. Rothman shot a 5 over par 77 at Riverside Golf Course to finish second in the CCS regional tournament qualifying, making up for losing out last year in a tie breaker. “He was in there all day. He slipped only with a couple 3 putt bogeys down the stretch. Last year he was on the bubble and lost, so this is big for him to make the CCS finals in his sophomore year,” Coach Pete Pappas said. As a team though, SC in its first CCS appearance as a representative of the SCCAL, finished seventh out of eight teams. The Cards, runners up to Aptos in the SCCAL this season, shot 451, best of 5 of 6 scores.

Yearbook. After losing most of their matches by close scores last year, the team is expecting to win the league this year. Last year as a freshman Dov Rothman made it to the second round of CCS and this year he is expected to lead the team again. Three other starters are returning. They are seniors Phil Pedemonte, a four year player, Jerry Meyer and sophomore Micah Breedon. Rounding out the squad are Jonathon Pillsbury and Scott Brown.

Trident. March 5. Preseason write up. Returnees are junior and third year player Dov Rothman, seniors Kris Reyes and Luke Maura and sophomore Desi Anderson. Talented returnees are junior Mica Breedon and sophomore Justin Thoma. Coach Pete Pappas, “We have some talented new guys. We want the league title, and I think we can win it.”

Sentinel. March 7. Cardinal Golfers Top Harbor 225-243. Dov Rothman shot a seven over par 42 at Delavega Golf Course. Rothman, a sophomore, earned medalist honors just in front of senior teammates Phil Pedemonte and Jerry Meyer, who were at 43 and 44 respectively. Coach Pete Pappas, said he was happy to see the Cards fourth and fifth golfers not too far behind. Mike Breedan shot 47 and Scott Brown turned in a 49. “Harbor has been so strong for so long it’s good for the kids to beat them. I still think we have a lot of room for improvement,” Pappas said.

Trident March 14. Based on the fact that the top four placers are back from last year, the Cards are considered to be the SCCAL’s top team this year with seniors Phil Pedemonte and Jerry Meyer and sophomores Dov Rothman and Micah Breeden returning. During the summer Pedemonte, Meyer and Rothman swept the trophies in the under 18 county wide competition, which had contestants representing all the high schools in the county. In their first match of the season SC lost to Live Oak of Morgan Hill 219-230, the next day defeated Gunderson of San Jose 249-271.

April 10. SC 387, Soquel 446. SC improved with a 59 stroke win over Soquel over 15 holes at Pasatiempo Golf Club. Jerry Mayer took medalist honors with a 9 over 69. Dov Rothman was next at 71.

April 12. Despite Wind, Pirates Narrow Gap on Cards with a 227-238 victory. SC is now 5-2 and Harbor 4-2. Dov Rothman took medalist honors on the par 36 front nine with a 39. The ball was going straight up and coming straight down in the wind. It even moved some of the putts.

Trident April 18. Golf Team’s Best Year Ever (In recent years. In 1940’s and some other years there were good teams) SC is 5-1 at the end of the first half of the season with six matches left. The team started off with Harbor, a team they had never beaten before, but ended up winning by 20 strokes to start off league 1-0.
Next was SLV, who had its entire team back. In the rain and wind SC prevailed with a three shot victory.
Last years champion Aptos won by 15 strokes for the Cards first loss.
At Monte Vista the Cards won by 40 strokes led by Phil Pedemonte and Dov Rothman, who shot scores in the 30’s for the first time this year.
At Watsonville SC won by 20 strokes to improve to 4-1 in league.
Led by the 9 over par round of 69 by Jerry Meyer the Cards exploded with a 59 shot win over Soquel, ending the first half with a 5-1 record for second place.
The teams top four Rothman, Pedemonte, Meyer and Breeden have played well and hung together all season. The fifth and sixth men, Brown and Thomas have also come in with the key fifth score they’ve needed to win with all season long. SC has also acquired Jonathan Pillsbury, who has waited patiently to show what he can do in competition.

May 30. Dov Rothman was honored as Co-Player of the Year by the SCCAL coaches. Rothman helped take his team to CCS for the first time. He was also named to the ALL SCCAL first team.

SURF TEAM Stays Unbeaten At 4-0.
They pummeled SLV 104-59 and also crushed last years champion Soquel 102-59. First year coach Ward Coffee says, “We are the biggest and most talented team in the league.” Two strong, new additions to the team this year are seniors Abraham Sanchez, who just moved here from Mexico and Josh Pomer. Pomer has placed either first or second in all events. He says, “We are a self funded team and other sports should take a lesson from us with the upcoming budget cuts.” The surfers on the team are all enthusiastic and go beyond the average stereotype of surfers. They all show for practice and are motivated to surf well,” said teacher and advisor Jim Goodwin, who thinks “it takes unique kids to endure and enjoy the harsh environment of the ocean. The boys have a lot of energy, are cooperative and want to help each other become better at what they love to do.”