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Swimming and Diving - All 4 swim teams (JV boys, girls, and varsity boys and girls) won the PAL tournament on Saturday! JV girls beat the competition by 75 points, with individual wins by Brynn Williams (200 Free), Sarah Reichow (100 Free), Kyra Sheeper (100 back) and relay wins in the 200 Medley (Sheeper, B. Williams, Annabelle Paris, and Maddie Sonderby) and the 200 Free Relay (Reichow, Sheeper, Nadia Paquin, and Sonderby).

JV boys won by a confident 246 points, taking home wins by Demetri Sweezy (100 IM and 50 Fly), Elton Rosicki (200 Free) , James Calhoon (100 Free) , Henry Marks (100 Back), and Michael Giordano (50 Breast and 100 Breast). Winning relay teams were the 200 Free team (Adrien Carrou, Calhoon, Rosicki, Sweezy), and the 400 Free team (Calhoon, Andy Maxwell, Christian Huhn, Rosicki).

Varsity girls won by more than 100 points. Stellar swims were posted by Faith Dunn (200 IM), Claire Haldeman (100 Fly), and Mary Lane (500 Free). M-A girls won first in all three relays:  200 Medley (Maddie Worden, Emma Kaufman, Haldeman, and Tori Rarick), 200 Free (Worden, Dunn, Sophie Murff, Kate Denend) and the 400 Free (Dunn, Murff, Haldeman, Denend).  The Varsity Girls B teams also made CCS times in the 200 Free Relay (Lane, Olivia Jackson, Francesca Gilles, Sophia Goland) and the 400 Free Relay (Lane, Megan Mathews, Rarick, Jackson).

Varsity boys had tough competition from Carlmont, and was neck and neck early in the meet, but fell behind in the second half. Strong individual wins by Zach Goland (500 Free), Jak Tedesco (100 Back) and Scott Kuhnen (100 Breast) created a paper-thin lead. Needing 2 relays to win put a lot of pressure of the final relay event, but together the boys prevailed by a slim 2 point margin! The Bears won the 200 Medley relay earning a CCS time (Tedesco, Kuhnen, Willians, Matheus Santos), and the B team also made CCS qualifying times in the 400 Free Relay (Alex Hakanson, Nik Caryotakis, Jack Beasley, Tedesco), and the 200 Free Relay (Goland, Hakanson, Max Ferenczy, Kuhnen). 

The aqua bears are sending 12 swimmers to CCS:  Sofia Bergmann, Kate Denend, Faith Dunn, Mary Lane, Claire Haldeman, Sophie Murff, Maddie Worden, Zach Goland, Scott Kuhnen, Matheus Santos, Jak Tedesco, and Gordon Williams. M-A is also sending two divers to CCS:  Mia and Talbott Paulsen. Congratulations to the athletes on a great season. Thanks to our coaches Jane Worden, Laura Reyolds, Brett Koerten, Aaron Burrows, and Mr. Longyear for their dedication and support. 

Badminton - Early in the week the badminton team lost to Westmore 5-10. Bears winning matches include:  Emmett Lee in #1 singles (21-15, 22-20), Arash Asarifard and Matthew Volrath in #1 boys doubles (21-18, 21-16), and Ashley Utz and Miso Muraoka in #1 girls doubles (21-10 and 27-25). 

On Friday, the Bears beat Terra Nova 13-2. Lee won  #1 Boys Singles (21-2, 21-6). Erin Sanchez won #1 Girls Singles (21-6, 21-8). Asarifard and Volrath won #1 boys doubles (21-19, 21-3) while Gray Perrone and Max Pritchard won #1 mixed doubles (21-18, 21-4).

Varsity Baseball - On Saturday, the Bears faced Sacred Heart in a continuation of a protested game. Nick Olson started as he was the pitcher of record at the point of protest. Kodiak Conrad pitched all three innings of the Saturday conclusion, striking out 6 and giving up only 1 earned run. On offense Brian Coggins had a big day, with a walk, a single, and what turned out to be the game winning RBI double in the fifth inning. Matt McGarry and Nick Prainito also had doubles. Max Gardiner and Matthew Johnston had hits. Runs were scored by Evan Easton (2), Prainito (2), McGarry (2), and Coggins, Gardiner, Bret Rodrigues, Nikolai Tarran, and Cam Malloy. The Bears won 11-10.

On Monday, the Bears walloped Gunn 23-6. AJ Lemons started on the mound and threw only 44 pitches over 3 innings. Malloy followed with his curve ball. Tarran made his pitching debut and closed out the game. The big story was Prainito, who had a game for the ages at the plate. The right-handed shortstop hit for the cycle in his first 4 at-bats (double, triple, home run and single), but was not done as he also added another double and single to round out a 6-6 day at the plate. Prainito also scored 4 runs and drove in 9. Easton also had a big day with 3 hits, an RBI and 4 runs scored. Gardiner had 2 hits, 3 runs, and 3 RBIs. Ryan Klapper had 2 hits and 2 runs, and Rodrigues had 2 hits, an RBI, and 2 runs.

On Wednesday, the team beat Menlo. McGarry was solid on the hill going 6 innings for the win, striking out 9 hitters. Olson pitched the seventh inning and closed out the game. The Bears offense continued its run, with 9 more hits. Daniel K-G led the way with 3 hits including a double and 2 singles. He also scored a run and drove in a run. Prainito continued to swing a hot bat of his own, with 3 hits (a double and 2 singles), 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. Easton (run scored), Johnston (2 runs scored and an RBI), McGarry (run scored), Lemons (run scored), Rodrigues (run scored and an RBI) all added to the hit parade. Gardiner and Tarran also each scored a run for the Bears.

Friday was Senior Day and Conrad took the hill. In total 9 seniors took the field and along with a senior DH, put all 10 seniors into the starting lineup. Conrad went 4 2/3 innings before handing the ball to Olson, who went the rest of the way, and ended up with the win. On offense, K-G had another big game at the plate reaching base all 4 times with 2 hits and 2 walks. McGarry also reached base 4 times with 3 pedestrian walks in his first 3 at bats. There was nothing pedestrian about his fourth at bat. With a 2-1 count, and the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning, the senior dug in with his team trailing 5-3. In what may well turn out to be his last at bat on Bettencourt Field, McGarry made the most of it with a majestic grand slam home run to deep left field. The bench and grandstands exploded as all 4 runners crossed the plate. The Bears held on for the win and now wait for the seeding and schedule for next week's PAL tournament.

A big congratulations to all 10 seniors and their parents:  AJ Lemons, Matt McGarry, Tyler Koo, Peter Diller, Max Gardiner, Brian Coggins, Cam Malloy, Daniel K-G, Evan Easton, and Kodiak Conrad!
 

Boys Tennis - The season came to an end with a 7-0 home loss to St Ignatius (SI) in the second round of CCS playoffs.  In the match, M-A took the first set in #3 singles (Axel Brenner) and #3 doubles (Nishant Relan and Eric Laderman) and was tied 5-5 in both #1 and #2 singles (Reed Fratt and Casey Morris, respectively). The next several minutes were pivotal as momentum could swing either way. SI prevailed, however, 7-5, in both singles matches and took a dominant position with 5 first set wins. Though the Bears battled hard, SI took the remaining sets on all 7 courts. The team thanked its 3 senior captains, Alex Iyer, Danny LaPorte, and Zach Novak, for their leadership.

 Track and Field - Friday and Saturday brought out some great performances from the Track and Field Bears, even with windy and cold conditions. Friday's varsity trials (finals for a few field events) went well and the Bears put themselves in great position for next week's finals. Yesterday's F/S finals also had some impressive marks:

 Girls Varsity Lacrosse - The Bears finished their regular season at 15-5, their best record since 2007, earning second place in WBAL. On Monday, the girls hosted Archbishop Mitty. The Bears started fast with Annie Payne, Sally Carlson, and Grace Tully each scoring in the first 5 minutes to put the Bears up 3-0. However, the Monarchs scored the next 3 to even the score. After an M-A timeout, the Bears' defense stiffened with Gianna Prainito making stops and Kelly Woods winning ground balls. Emma Easton and Izzy Regonini scored to make it 5-3 at the half. The second half opened with a Mitty fast break goal. However the Bears put the game away by outscoring Mitty 5-1 with great defense by Hannah Wilson and Morgan Corona. M-A goalie Allie Bayne had 5 saves and 2 interceptions. The final score was 10-5.

On Friday, the Bears honored their Seniors, Morgan Corona, Cathrine Petersen, Gianna Prainto, Hannah Wilson and Amanda Wiseman before taking on Menlo in a battle between the first and second place teams in WBAL. The Bears scored 12 seconds in with Wiseman, who led M-A with 4 goals, finding the back of the net on a fast break. However the Knights scored 7 straight to give Menlo a 7-1 lead at the half despite strong defense from Petersen and 5 saves by Bayne. The second half opened with Woods making a defensive stop and transitioning the ball to Regonini who crease rolled for a goal. For most of the hard fought second half, the teams traded goals. The Bears ended on a high note scoring 2 goals in the final 45 seconds. Carlson snapped the net from the edge of the arc and Regonini scored after a beautiful fast break transition with 1 second remaining. The final score was 12-7.

With their second place finish, the Bears receive a first round bye in the WBAL Playoffs and will host a semi-final game on Thursday, May 14 at 5:30 p.m. If the Bears win, their final game will be the WBAL Championship Game on Saturday, May 16 at noon at Burlingame.

In awards news, this week Grace Tully and Amanda Wiseman were Palo Alto Weekly Honorable Mention Athletes of the Week. Emma Easton and Izzy Regonini will represent Northern California in this year's NCAA High School Girls National Tournament in Philadelphia. Separately, M-A Head Coach Juliette Mittlemann was named head coach of the NorCal Team.