Biondi, Johnson shine at CIF Swim Finals
As Nate Biondi entered the water at Riverside Aquatic Club, his mission was clear, to repeat his feat and win two CIF Championships. Biondi did not disappoint, winning both the 50M freestyle and the 100M freestyle.
Lacrosse wins 3rd consecutive league championship
By Carly Beard, The Standard
Miles Rosberg (‘17) has spent all of his high school years on the lacrosse team and has seen the team grow from a winless season his freshman year to now having been apart of the three consecutive league championships
The lacrosse team is battling against both their inexperience and their opponents. However last Thursday April 27, the team beat Brentwood 13-5 to continue their reign as league champions for the third year.
“I don’t think this feeling ever becomes less of an amazing feeling. Every year is such an adventure and to be able to top it off with a league title [is great].” Head Coach Mario Waibel, said.
The team currently has an overall record of 9-7 with an undefeated league record of 6-0. Outside of league the team has played schools with more established lacrosse programs. They lost to five top 25 in Los Angeles lacrosse programs throughout the season.
“We played a very aggressive schedule this year… I think we played 8 of the top ten schools around [LA} and as a program still in its relative infancy, with only two seniors and a host of young athletes going in it’s something that could have been disastrous and it ended up being one of those really special learning experiences.” Waibel said.
Golf team goes undefeated, breaks league record
By Sam Goodman, The Standard
With an undefeated league record of 6-0-0, the Golf team, led by Head Coach Mike Low, successfully achieved their goal of winning their first banner.
“Our strengths are our distance and putting, [while] our weakness is hitting into the green. The golf team has never won league, so that’s our goal, ” Antonio Defrank (‘19) said.
After winning League, the team went on the compete in the CIF qualifier tournament where they placed second behind Viewpoint, according to Luke Winfield (‘18). While the season is over, the team is still growing.
“There’s not much holding us back. We’ve already done better than in any previous years. If anything should improve, it should just be our mental attitude. If you believe you can do well, you will,” Christan Chitty (‘19) said.
The golf team has been coached by Low for six years, with 10 current golfers. According to Low, there is only one senior graduating and more freshman entering the team.
“As we get better and win more championships, we’ll [get more popular].The sport is always growing and we are still a young team,” Low said.
Making school history one game at a time
By Tej Bhasin, The Standard
On April 12, Leah Krivitsky (‘17) and Caitlyn Rivera (‘17) became the first Sierra Canyon softball players to sign their national letter of intent: Rivera to Chestnut Hill, and Krivitsky to Rhode Island.
With these two commits on their team and a talented set of juniors, the team is ranked first in the Gold Coast League with a league record of 8-1, and an overall record of 17-5-1. They also beat Paraclete for the first time in school history.
Now, the team is predicted to win the CIF SS Division 6 Championship by The Daily News.
“We have a good amount of talent with the players we have this year. I think we are meeting our expectations so far, … making it to CIF is definitely achievable,” Head Coach Regina Jorgenson said.
As a team, the team has held a batting average of .412, substantially above the national average, according to Maxpreps. They have also hit a total of 30 homeruns, with freshman Janae Weise (‘20 ) leading the way with 14 of them. The team has also stolen 46 bases, with Sarah Schneider (‘19) having stole 17 of them, according to Maxpreps.
The team’s lone loss of the league season came against Paraclete on March 10 by a score of 8-3. They avenged this loss on April 12 by a score of 15-5, beating Paraclete for the first time in school history.
The team’s lone grand slam of the season was hit by Lily Tucker (‘20) during the team’s 21-1 win against Viewpoint on April 24.
Seniors look for league championship
By Alyssa Nunez, The Standard
Seniors Seth Stone (‘17), Michael Croft (‘17), Joey Rodriguez (‘17), Dominic Shihabi (‘17) Jacob Patterson (‘17), and Eli Adams (‘17) were represented on April 27 on senior night against Brentwood for a 9-2 victory.
“We are currently 19-5 overall and 8-0 in the Gold Coast League. The next two weeks will determine our place in league as we play the two teams (Paraclete and Campbell Hall) right behind us,” Head Coach Rick Webber said.
The team is practicing everyday to get prepared for the upcoming league games. No team is to be taken lightly and the most difficult time of the season is in the next few weeks.
The team is currently ranked No. 1 in Gold Coast league play and are highly predicted to make it to playoffs this year. The team is currently also in sixth place in D4.
“The Village game was a nice victory as it went 11 innings. The league games are important and next week we play two verus Paraclete and the following week two verus Campbell Hall. Those are the ones that really matter,” Webber said.
Beach volleyball readies for next step
By Alexa Stiles, The Standard
Brooke Golik (‘18), who has been playing volleyball for five years, hopes to qualify for playoffs and ultimately take the title of IBVL Champions again. As a small group comprised of six players, the beach volleyball team has showed exceptional skill in going undefeated and winning the title of IBVL (Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League) champions last year.
“Our goal is to get better as a team and individually while still maintaining our strong suits,” Golik said.
Games and practices are held at the Metro Beach Volleyball Center in Chatsworth, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, making it easy for the team to commute from school. For members without a driver’s license, Coach Benny Hammond provides transportation to the facility.
Beyond the environment and players having to adapt to the wind and sand, beach volleyball is different than indoor volleyball with only two players on the court, as supposed to six.
“Each player has more responsibility and has the opportunity to expand their skills instead of being suited for one position,” Golik said.
In indoor volleyball, players are assigned a specific position based on their strengths.
Track team prepares for league finals
By Alyssa Harberger, The Standard
Hearts are racing, as runner Kayla Chong (‘18) kneels before the red clay of the starting line. As she takes her first stride, Chong and the track team plan to sprint their way into a season of success.
As she commemorates her third year on the team, Chong has spent the beginning of this season recovering from a concussion. Though she describes her personal expectations slightly lower due to the injury, Chong still managed to reign in victory for the team in her 4th in 800 win at the team’s third league meet at Cortell.
“[This year there are] a bunch of new people who joined the team. We are just starting to grow together… We’re all friends!” Chong said, when asked about the spirit of this year’s team.
While strengthening their bond, the team’s latest victories have set brand new school records. From Daniel Kamulali’s 10.78 in the Boy’s 100 Meter event, to Holden Rosberg’s 41′-10.5″ during the Boy’s Triple Jump, SC track stars are reaching new heights as the set new standards for seasons to come.
“We are always trying to increase the size, [so] this year isn’t much different than years before. [Track] is an individual sport. We just want to get kids’ times to improve and to place better in the league or the season” Track coach Joseph Pfleiger said.
Tennis looking to make individual impact
By Carly Beard, The Standard
It’s match point, and Shaan Sain (‘19) calmly bounces the ball as he prepares to close out the match. He and Tej Bhasin (‘18) are the most consistent winners on the team.
Despite their individual efforts, the team has been outscored 190-44 through 15 matches of the season.
Yet having lost every match the team has grown together according to captain Luke Zaelke (‘18).
Numbers have been the biggest problem for the boys tennis team this year. Tennis requires a team to have at least nine players, and there are exactly nine players on the tennis team this year.
This includes four international students: Xiaotian (Tony) Wu (‘18), ShangQi (Alex) Wu (‘19), Haotian (Dale) Wenren (‘20), and Cheng (Eric) Zhong (‘19).
“We held our ground during the matches even though for the entire season we had people who were either injured or sick. This was unfortunate, but there was nothing we could do except hope they got better. Next year will still be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to playing with my old teammates and some new ones too!” Zaelke said.
The team wil be starting individual playoffs tomorrow at 1 p.m.
Swim continues to impress in the pool
Marissa Johnson (‘19) has been swimming all year long on both her club team and the school’s team. She is hoping her hard work will pay off at League prelims tomorrow and finals on May 5.
The swim team has two tiers of swimmers: those who swim year round and those who only swim for school, according to swim coach Matt Biondi.Year-round swimmers are Deanne Umbay (‘17) and Gazelle Umbay (‘18), Johnson, Nate Biondi (‘17) and Alex Feldman (‘18). They swim every day, 365 days a years, so they have an advantage over the rest of the team, who only swim four months a year.
In practice, the team does different drills and activities such as practicing their starts and turns. They also do a lot of exercises to promote the feel of the water.
“Swimming is a hard sport to learn, much more so than any other [sport]. For example, you could take a kid that’s never played soccer before and you could put him in a game within a couple weeks, and they could get the idea of defending the goal and kicking the ball. Couple weeks for a beginning swimmer, and they’d probably still be drowning. It takes a long time for the feel, to be able to manipulate [the water],” Biondi said.
Biondi also has the team do timed races to prepare for meets. The team’s last three meets have been against Brentwood, Viewpoint, and Crossroads. Those meets serve as opportunities to race and qualify for CIF, but they don’t keep score.
Each swimmer has different strengths and weaknesses, so how the team does at a certain event depends upon who is swimming. For Johnson, her strongest events are the 200 free and the 500 free, partly because those are her favorite events. Her weakest events are the 100 breast and the 100 back because those are her two weakest strokes.
Coach Biondi thinks the team will at least eight first in individual events and the girls relay free and relay will do well at prelims. Prelims will be tougher for the boys because they lost their number four freestyle swimmer Leor Alon (‘17) after he injured his foot at the beginning of the season. Even if the swimmers don’t win their events, prelims will also be an opportunity for them to beat their personal best.
Help wanted: Cheer, dance, drum call for more members
By Joshua Park, The Standard
The already small cheer team will take a blow due to the graduating cheerleaders, but already they are ready to get back on their feet to start recruiting for next year. Although there are only four members leading, according to cheerleader Liza Gill (‘19), this will be a big change.
“Well we have four seniors leaving, which to other team teams isn’t a big difference, but for us it’s pretty significant, considering that the team is so small already,” Gill said.
To those considering to join, the auditions will consist of a short dance and cheer.
“As tryouts get closer, flyers will be posted around school, there’ll be announcements at morning meeting, information will hopefully be sent out in the weekly email, and an informational meeting will be held before the start of tryouts for anyone with even the slightest interest in joining,” Gil said.
Although the dance team will not have any seniors leaving the team, co-dance captains Caroline Zaelke (‘18) and Chase Laski (‘18) still plan on recruiting dancers.
“We only have one senior this year and she had to leave mid season because of family reasons. However, with a majority of the team being made up of rising seniors, we hope to especially recruit younger members onto the team,” Zaelke said.
The dance team will start try-outs soon, “We plan to start recruiting especially incoming freshmen and sophomores through announcements at weekly meetings and dance classes and holding multiple try-outs. [We hopefully will do] a performance at a Morning Meeting,” Zaelke said.
Similar to the dance team, drumline consists of juniors and sophomores, so their team will not be hit hard by the departing seniors. But, the team is still welcoming new drummers to help raise spirits at different sports games.
“We hold auditions toward the end of the year and is available to all high schoolers. Although most of us will be seniors next year, we have incoming people who we know are thrilled to join drumline. When we and graduate, we hope that the school will continue drumline,” Justin Mandel (‘18) said.
To expand their team, the team’s auditions will be a series of tests to see the ability of their candidates.
“The date is still to be determined, but there’s an audition with a test to see if you can read music, play what you hear, and answer basic questions like your name, and if you have played drums,” Mandel said.