There were scads of successes on the local sports scene in 2011.
Some prep teams made school history, several won section championships – with a few more coming oh-so close – and one captured a state crown. Individual athletes excelled as well, winning meets, earning medals and setting records.
Here’s a countdown of the Town Crier’s top 11 sports stories of 2011.
11 Locals almost rule the pool. There was a local water polo team in all four Central Coast Section championship games, which has never happened before. But that’s as good as it would get for the boys and girls teams from Los Altos and St. Francis highs. Both Los Altos squads lost to top-seeded teams from Sacred Heart Prep in the Division II finals, while Bellarmine and Leland defeated the higher-seeded St. Francis boys and girls, respectively, in Division I. The Los Altos girls made the CCS final for the first time.
10 Tumbling toward success. St. Francis won its 12th consecutive CCS crown in gymnastics, though Los Altos made the champs work for it. The plucky Eagles finished second, posting their best score of the season (146.875). Los Altos led after three rotations, but the Lancers rallied with a strong showing on the floor exercise to post a 148.250 team total. Emma Orner (third all-around) and Krysteena Snyder (fourth) led the Eagles.
9 Pinewood boys rebound. Still smarting from last year’s two-point loss in the CCS Division V final, a determined Pinewood School boys basketball team beat Mid-Peninsula 71-66 to win its first section title since 1996. The top-seeded Panthers dominated the boards (56-26) and overcame a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Solomone Wolfgramm paced Pinewood with 21 points and a game-best 21 rebounds.
8 St. Francis swimmer shines. Maddy Schaefer capped a stellar swimming career at St. Francis by winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races at the CCS championships. The Los Altos resident, now at Stanford University, set seven school records at St. Francis and earned 21 All-America honors.
7 Spartans great at state. Thanks to personal-best performances, Mountain View High juniors Allison Sturges and Samantha Sinclair earned fifth-place medals at the state track and field meet. Sturges medaled in the 1,600-meter run (4 minutes, 47.65 seconds) and Sinclair in the shot put (41 feet, 1 1/2 inches), leading the Mountain View girls to a 19th-place finish at the spring meet.
6 St. Francis stuns top seed. Some questioned St. Francis’ decision to play in the rugged Open Division of the CCS football playoffs with a 5-5 record, but not after the opening round. The eighth-seeded Lancers upset No. 1 Oak Grove 20-17 on Jason Shelton’s 24-yard field goal with five seconds left. St. Francis lost to Palo Alto in the next week’s semifinals.
5 Myjer, Robinson run to CCS championships. Gunn High sophomore Sarah Robinson, a Los Altos Hills resident, and Mountain View senior Aubrey Myjer returned from the CCS cross-country championships victorious. Robinson won the Division I girls title in a personal-record 17:12, while Myjer claimed the Division II boys crown with a 15:06 – the second-fastest time of the day. Both runners placed third in their respective races at the state finals.
4 Eagles prove to be a tough out. The fourth-seeded Los Altos baseball team made it all the way to the CCS Division II final, where it took No. 2 Monterey to extra innings before falling 2-1. The Eagles, whose three CCS wins included an upset of top seed Pioneer, didn’t commit a postseason error until the final. Those two errors proved costly, leading to Monterey’s winning run in the eighth and wasting pitcher Mitch Kehlet’s complete-game effort.
3 Mountain View makes history. Mountain View’s boys and girls soccer teams made the CCS finals for the first time in school history. Both squads lost by a goal to the defending Division I champs – the Bellarmine boys and St. Francis girls, respectively. The second-seeded boys fell 3-2 in overtime; the third-seeded girls went down 2-1.
2 Shorthanded St. Francis defends CCS crown. Despite playing without two starters – one injured, the other ill – the St. Francis girls volleyball team knocked off top seed Presentation in five games to repeat as CCS Division II champs. Junior middle blocker Stephanie Kellogg (15 kills) and sophomore outside hitter Alex Espinosa (11) stepped up for the Lancers, while senior setter Taylor Formico (42 assists) was steady as usual. The teams met again in the NorCal final, where the Panthers eked out a five-game win.
1 Panthers repeat the feat. The Pinewood girls did what so few basketball teams even dream of – win back-to-back state championships. The Panthers beat St. Bernard of Playa del Rey 67-56 to repeat as Division V champs. Pinewood didn’t have the size to match St. Bernard, but the Panthers had Hailie Eackles (31 points) and a whole lot more experience. Pinewood made nearly half its shots and played pressure defense that stymied the younger Vikings (21 turnovers).
