Menlo-Atherton High School BearNotes 

BIG BEAR RUN RESULTS - The 9th Annual Big Bear Run, held last Sunday, was a great success with over 1,000 registered runners! Thank you to the many of volunteers who pulled together and made the race a success, to our fantastic sponsors, and to all who showed the community their incomparable school spirit. Congratulations to the fastest male and female M-A Bears, seniors Zack Plante and four-time winner Taylor Fortnam! Check out the race results and pictures on the M-A Boosters website. Go Bears!

 

BOYS VARSITY TENNIS - In team CCS competition, the Bears are seeded #3 in the 24-team format. After a first-round bye, the Bears defended their home court in a 6-1 win over previously unbeaten Homestead. The victory puts M-A in the CCS quarterfinals Monday, May 12 at 3 p.m., at home against #6 Serra. If the Bears win Monday, the semifinals will be played Wednesday, May 14 at 1:30 p.m., at a neutral site in Los Gatos with the finals on Friday. In the win over Homestead, the Bears took a quick 3-0 lead as Casey Morris at #4 singles, Drew Mathews and Danny LaPorte at #2 doubles, and Saul Menjivar and Axel Brenner at #1 doubles all won 6-1, 6-1. With Scott Morris at #1 singles and Reed Fratt at #2 singles winning their first sets easily, it looked like victory was assured. Both opponents upped their level of play in the second set. Reed forced an error to win 6-1, 6-3, and moved the Bears into the quarterfinals. Scott finished off his match 6-0, 6-4. At #3 doubles, Alex Iyer and Zach Novak came from behind to win 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6). At #3 singles, Nick Fratt lost a tight match 6-7 (5), 6-4, 1-0 (5).

 

After the team competition, Morris in singles and the doubles teams of N. Fratt/R. Fratt and Menjivar/Brenner will represent M-A in the CCS individual tournament by virtue of their performances in the PAL individual tournament. Morris won the singles title, while the 2 M-A doubles teams met in the finals, automatically qualifying both for CCS.

FROSH-SOPH BASEBALL - The team closed out its season with 2 more league wins last week, bringing its final league record to 7-5, and its over all record for the season to 15-8-1. On Wednesday at Terra Nova Nick Olsen pitched 5 very strong innings to get the win. Ben Stanley led the offense with a 3-4 day at the plate, which included a double and a run scored. Nick Prainito added 2 hits and drove in a run and scored a run. Final score, M-A 6, Terra Nova 1. On Friday the Bears were at home for the season finale against rival Sacred Heart. Ryan Klapper returned to the mound after being out for several weeks with a wrist injury. Showing no signs of rust, Klapper was overpowering, striking out 9 Gators in just 4 innings and picking up the win. Hunter Sevy closed out the game striking out the side in the seventh inning. Prainito had 3 hits and Ben Stanley 2 hits to pace the offense. Connor Nathan and Bret Rodrigues each scored 2 runs. Final score, Sacred Heart, 1, M-A, 7. Varsity starts postseason play this week playing in the PAL tournament and then the CCS playoffs. Please come out and support the team!

 GIRLS SOFTBALL - The Bears won all 3 games last week, bringing their record to 16-9, 6-5 in league. Last Monday, the team faced Pinewood. Pitcher Emily Katz gave up only 1 hit, struck out 4 and walked 1 on the way to a 14-2 win in 6 innings. The entire defense played well, making only 2 errors. The offensive stars of the game were freshman catcher Sarah Tiemann, who went 4 for 5 with 3 singles and a home run, and junior first baseman Erin Goode who went 3 for 4 with a walk, 2 singles and a ground rule double. Tanya Lazaro and Katz each had a double, and Lili Huerta and Alice Coleman each singled. On Tuesday, the Bears played Jefferson in a home league game. Pitching through an injury, Katz gave a gritty performance that ended in a 10-0 win in 6 innings. Katz struck out 12, walked 2, and gave up only 3 hits. Offensively, the Bears took advantage of walks and timely hits to rack up 10 unanswered runs. Goode hit her third home run of the season, a three run shot in the sixth that helped secure the early victory.  Katz had a triple and a single, Tiemann and Lazaro each had 2 singles, and Monika Gutierrez had a single.  Erin White had a hit at the bottom of the sixth that brought in the 10th run and ended the game.

 

On Thursday, the Bears faced South San Francisco. The team combined walks and hits to win the game 15-5. Showing great patience at the plate, the Bears racked up 21 walks and 1 hit batter. Taylor Conrad had 4 walks, and Tiemann, Huerta, Goode, Lazaro and Diana Palafox each walked 3 times, while White was hit by a pitch. The RBI leaders of the game were Katz, who went 2 for 5 and drove in 3 runs on 2 singles and a sacrifice fly, White, who drove in 3 runs on a single, a groundout, and a bases-loaded hit by pitch, and Lazaro, who drove in 4 runs on a bases-loaded walk in the first and a bases-loaded triple, the only extra base hit for the Bears. Other contributors included Georgette Libunao, with an RBI on a groundout, and Conrad with an RBI on a single to left. Tiemann and Huerta also had singles and had RBIs on bases-loaded walks. Goode had 2 singles as well.

 

Defensively, the Bears got good pitching and good play in the field. In spite of injuries to two starting infielders, the players filling the positions played well. Libunao had a put out and an assist playing third for only the second time this season, and Jessica Burgos played well at shortstop. Conrad had 2 assists at second and a nice put out at second base on a throw from center fielder Huerta. Lazaro and White each made nice catches in the outfield. Katz pitched well, scattering 12 hits, but with 9 strikeouts and only 1 walk and 1 hit batter. The Bears play their last game of the season at home on Tuesday, May 13 at 4 p.m. against San Mateo.

  

SWIMMING - The team competed in the PAL championship meet this weekend. The JV girls team won all 3 relays. Kate Denend won the 50 and 100 free, Marissa Shepard won the 50 and 100 breaststroke, Lexi Lobdell won the 200 free, Kyra Sheeper won the 50 back, and Olivia Jackson won the 50 fly. The JV girls team dominated with 744 points; the runner up scored 449. The JV boys team was also victorious, scoring 579 points with the runner up scoring 495 points. The boys won the 400 free relay. Teddy Paris won the 50 and 200 back (0.25 seconds off the CCS cut), Jorge Pont won the 100 IM and 50 fly, Connor Woods won the 50 free, and Joe Martin won the 200 free.

 

The Varsity girls came in second place to Burlingame by a score of 526.5 to 522. The girls won the medley relay and placed second in the 2 freestyle relays. Maddie Pont won the 200 free, Kindle Van Linge won the 100 fly, and Nicole Zanolli won the 500 free. The Varsity boys also placed second to Burlingame by a score of 448 to 422. The boys took second place in the 200 free relay and third place in the medley relay and the 400 free relay. Zach Goland won the 200 free and placed second in the 100 fly. Vincent Busque placed second in the 500 free and third in the 200 free. Jak Tedesco placed third in the 100 back. On Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17 18 swimmers and 3 divers will participate in the CCS Championship meet at Santa Clara Swim Center. 

  

 TRACK AND FIELD - The team did well at both the Varsity trials and Frosh/Soph finals last week. On Friday, many varsity athletes qualified for finals in the running events and had impressive performances in the final field events. On Saturday the Frosh/Soph meet at Westmoor was the windiest meet the team has seen in years. As a result, the times and marks were not as great as athletes had hoped for to end their season. A few performances that stood out from Friday's varsity meet: 

• Freshman Kalina Zanelli won the high jump, a Varsity league title!
• Deverick Meacham became league champ winning the long jump.
• Lisanne Horwitz finished fourth in the discus.
• Megan Kurtz finished in the top five in the triple jump.

All athletes listed above earned all-league honors and qualified for CCS. Many additional athletes qualified for league finals on Saturday, May 17 at Terra Nova.

 

The Frosh/Soph team battled through tough conditions for impressive performances: 

• The boys 4x100 team of David Richardson, Terrance Mathews-Murphy, Marquise Reid, and Jordan Mims ran their fastest time of the season to finish fourth overall.
• Freshman Eric Szymkowski finished eighth in the 1600m and broke the 5:00 minute barrier running a 4:58.9.
• Jordan Mims finished third in the 400m run.
• Lauren Bruce ran her fastest time of the season in the 300 hurdles taking more than 2 seconds off her personal record for a top 10 finish.
• Elena Belk had a great 3200m race finishing fourth with a personal record time.
• In the pole vault Bobby MacDonald achieved a personal record with a vault of 10'6" for a fourth place finish.

BADMINTON - The Bears had a bye this week and played only 1 game at home, a 12-3 victory over Woodside. The winning matches were: boys singles -  #1 Emmett Lee, #2 Jonathan Lam, and #3 Trenton Hall; girls singles - #1 Gray Perrone, and #3 Jorja Kahn; boys doubles - #2 Christopher Tam/Alfonso Yap, and #3 Brian Snyder/Neil Schott; girls doubles -  #1 Ashley Utz/Misato Muraoka, #2 Katrina Wijaya/Amara Trabosh, #3 Kimberly Klustner/Lizzie Ocon; and  #2 mixed doubles - #2 Adam Cook/Camilla Calmasini, and #3 Andreas Ralston/Libby Kirk.

 

GIRLS VARSITY LACROSSE - Coming off a dramatic triple overtime victory, the Bears let down on Tuesday, losing to Menlo 18-1. Freshman attacker Izzy Regonini provided the sole bright spot when she netted a loose ball and scored on a crease roll in the second half. The Bears rebounded on Friday, defeating Burlingame 12-10. Burlingame jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but M-A closed the gap to 5-4 at the half on goals from Emma Roellig and Grace Tully. In the second half, the Bears went on a 4-0 run in the first 5 minutes with goals from Amanda Wiseman and Emma Easton who both had 3 goals in the game. Cathrine Petersen added a goal and center Sally Carlson added 2 goals and 1 assist. M-A dominated the draw 18-6 due in part to consistent ground ball wins by junior Paige Muschott. Goalkeeper Allie Bayne had 8 saves and Hannah Wilson made 5 defensive stops. With the win, M-A secured third place in WBAL, its best finish since 2009. The Bears are the youngest team in the league. This week they play Notre Dame (San Jose) on Tuesday, May 13 at 5 p.m. at M-A in the first round of WBAL playoffs.

 

 

M-A's Big Bear Run is a good analogy for life: many people come together for a good cause. Someone finishes first and someone finishes last, and between those two is an effort of good will, community, and action. All ages participate and there is a lot of inspiration to be gained from each level of participation.                                        ~Anonymous