By ALICIA KREUGER
From league titles and championships to record-breaking performances, spring quickly became a strong sporting season for the Padres, with each team accomplishing unexpected feats and the majority dominating league play.
Girls’ swim and dive won their league, while the boys’ team had a successful season with four broken records, including senior Jacob Dorn beating Grayson Huston’s 2009 record with a total of 509.45 points, competing in 11 dives at the Pacific Coast Athletic League Championships.Senior Matt Trotter timed 50.32 seconds in the men’s 100 fly race, qualifying for the state championship where he placed 41st, and sophomore Kai Garren broke two records, timing at 1 minute, 43 seconds in the men’s 200 free and 4:40.96 in the men’s 500 free.
“My goal was to swim as fast and hard as I could,” Garren says. “I knew I was going to beat the record because my times were there and because I have a lot of experience. For club, I practice every day in the afternoon except for Sundays, plus there’s school practice too.”
On April 26, the girls’ track and field team won the league championship and saw five record-breaking events. The team consisted of freshmen Kandace Kimes and Isabelle Silverie and sophomores Lauren Pritchard, Sarah Graessley and Cosima Cristofalo, with Graessley vaulting 10 feet, 6 inches, Cristofalo timing 16.75 seconds on the 100-meter hurdles and senior Soana Laulotu throwing 37 feet, 3 inches for shot put. Two 4×100 meter relay teams competed both timing at 51.27 seconds.
With four broken records, the boys’ track and field team became the runner-up in the league. Senior Rashaan Ward timed 22.28 seconds in the men’s 100-meter race. The 4×100 meter relay was run by senior Nick Sloan, sophomore Benicio Cristofalo, junior Lavar Edwards and Ward at a time of 42.34 seconds. Junior Kieren Daste, senior Elijah Smith, freshman Mark Foley and freshman Christopher Seybold broke the 4×800 meter relay race with a time of 9:26.82. Smith, Foley, Seybold and Daste broke the distance medley relay at 12 minutes, 15.85 seconds (1200-400-800-1600).
On the field itself, boys’ lacrosse earned the title of league champions and the girls’ team saw its first-ever program win.
“It’s great to see the girls’ lacrosse building because they started from such humble beginnings,” athletic director Golden Anderson says. “People get so used to winning defining success, but for a group that had been losing, winning one game signified getting over that hump.”
On the volleyball court, both senior All-League MVP Charlie DeLapa and senior All-League Offensive Player of the Year Benjamin Airola led their team to a close second at CCS and a bid to the state playoffs. Airola holds the record for most kills in a season at 507, while DeLapa owns most assists in a season at 1,080. Senior Palmer Bajari established the most digs in a season at 396.
“This is one of the better years for sports,” Anderson adds. “We’ve had nine league championships, and I really think it is a credit to the seniors. When you look at our teams, you can see that we had a lot of seniors who participated and who stayed involved with athletics. They’re experienced, and they’re at the peak of their powers. Our seniors were clutch this year.”
Daniel Papacica is one of those “clutch” seniors, holding a perfect league record of 12-0 and 6-0 postseason in boys’tennis, allowing him to advance to the CCS singles playoffs. There he continued to increase his record. Papacica’s goal has been to win the CCS singles championship, becoming the first CHS student to do so in over 30 years.
Baseball finished second in league and lost in the first round of playoffs, going 18-3 on the season.
“This was the deepest, most talented team we’ve ever had,” baseball head coach Randall Bispo says. “We’ve never had this many guys who can play at this level. With three games a week, we were bound to have a bad game and that bad game just happened to be our first playoff game.”
Winning a PCAL Mission Division title, the girls’ softball team advanced to CCS and defeated King’s Academy 5-0 during the first round before dropping a 2-0 heartbreaker to Aptos. Graduating senior Jessica Pavloff earned Most Valuable Pitcher in the league, and Kendra Hyles earned PCAL Player of the Year.
