Rather quietly, at least until now, the Coronado High School Track and Field duo of Sarah Player and Danielle Eckert have both staked claims to be considered among the elite in San Diego County in their events. CHS Head Track Coach George Green provides the details.

"Not only are junior track standouts Eckert and Player good for nearly 40 combined points at dual meets, they are among San Diego’s top performers in the vertical jumps. Last Saturday at the Poway Titan Trackfest, Danielle faced the CIF San Diego Section leader in the pole vault, Oceanside’s Joanna Burkhart. After all of the other vaulters had been eliminated at lower heights, Burkhart and Eckert remained to contest the championship at 11 feet.

Danielle easily cleared the bar on her first jump, but it took Joanna two tries to match her. Neither girl cleared 11-6, so Danielle won based on fewer misses at the previous height of 11-0. Burkhart holds the best mark in the county this year at 11-6. Danielle’s second attempt at 11-6 was very close to being successful. Besides Eckert and Burkhart, only two other San Diego Section vaulters have cleared 11 feet this year, Rancho Bernardo’s Emily Matoon at 11-0 and La Jolla’s Dana Hookla, who jumped 11-3 at the Arcadia Invitational, also on Saturday.

Sarah eliminated all other contestants in the high jump at 5-feet, 2-inches, and then went on to clear 5-4 to join Vista’s Sara Macey, Valhalla’s Leslie Moiseaux, and La Costa Canyon’s Whitney Sisler at the top of this year’s county best marks board. Sara also competed in the two seeded hurdles, placing eighth in the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.58 and third in the 300-meter low hurdles in 47.35. Sarah is the Coronado High School record holder in the latter event, having run 45.9 at least year’s divisional prelims.

In the Boys events, distance runners Kasey Zapatka placed eighth in the 1,500-meter run in 4:28.5 and Ben Enowitz was 18^th in the 3,200 in 10:39.9. In the throws, Levi Lozano nearly broke the 40-foot barrier in the shot put with a personal best throw of 39-feet, 10-inches, which was good for ninth in his division. He also placed 12^th in the discus throw.

Last week’s dual meet at Clairemont was postponed due to a flooded track."

Based on their 7-6 victory over previously undefeated La Costa Canyon High School, Westsidelax.com was prepared to name Foothill High School as the No. 1 Boys Lacrosse Team in the West, if the team from Tustin defeated Coronado last week at Niedermeyer Field. Well, not so fast on that posting, if you don’t mind.

Last week the Islanders Boys Lacrosse Team lost 11-7 to Poway on Tuesday and then rebounded with a 19-0 victory over University City. All of this set the stage for the duel with previously undefeated Foothill, which was won convincingly by Coronado 11-4. That is why they go to the trouble of playing the games, instead of comparing records.

The obvious query to pose to CHS Head Coach Alex Cade was, "What caused the turnaround?" "We were a focused team," said Cade of his squad, now 7-3 on the season. "When we are a focused team, it allows us to execute the game plan we laid out for the team. As a coaching staff, we know where the talent lies on the team. The kids relied on that and executed the game plan. We played to our strengths, which we need to continue to do if we are going to be successful."

Balanced scoring played a large role in the victory, as Cory Couture scored three goals, with Will Purvis and Kelcey Fisher adding two goals each. Single goals were scored by Geoff Worley, Jacob Vita, Erik Karlsson and Pat Murphy. Worley also chipped in with four assists in the game, defined as passes that lead directly to goals.

Several players were noted for their strong play last week by Coach Cade. "Some of our usual suspects played well, Kelcey and Geoff. Cory had a real nice week, despite playing off of an injury. Erik Karlsson is also coming back from an injury and scored a few goals for us in limited playing time. Goalie Jake Benzian bounced back from the Poway game and played a great game against Foothill. He definitely was a difference maker. JJ Pontes (a long stick defender) played against Foothill’s No. 1 attack man and shut him down, which was good to see. He was on the field the entire game."

Despite soundly defeating them, Cade respects the Foothill program. "They have talented players and a good coaching staff. Their feeder system is similar to ours. They have talented attack men and a stingy defense."

So, where is Coronado currently in the ranks of the county’s lacrosse elite? "La Costa Canyon and Poway are at the top and then there is Coronado and Torrey Pines," Cade answered. "We still have to play Torrey Pines. Poway and LCC haven’t played yet and Poway is undefeated. We’re neck and neck with Torrey Pines for third place. LCC’s only loss is to Foothill."

Entering a light week due to Spring Break, with only a Monday day game scheduled at Serra, Cade handicapped his team’s CIF Playoff chances. "I think we’re in a good position to develop as a team. It’s better than in years past, when we peaked in the middle of the season and fell off during the playoffs. The key component is to improve through the playoffs. I don’t mind losses at this point of the year."

Although it’s only early April, the CHS Boys Golf Team clinched the Central League title last week with a 207-220 victory over Christian High School at Cottonwood. Islander Dillon Hakes shot a 37 to earn medalist honors. According to Head Coach Dean Cummings, the victory over second place Christian pushed Coronado’s conference record to 7-0 and 9-2-1 overall.

Two days later the Islanders faced the defending state champion squad from St. Augustine and fell to them at Riverwalk Country Club by the score of 187-202. "We played the Friars course, which is pretty easy, but it was blowing real hard," said Cummings. "We played pretty well." Bobby Senter and Hakes posted the best rounds for Coronado, each recording a 39.

The Islanders concluded their week with a 194-298 victory at Coronado Municipal over Hoover. Senter was the medalist with a 37.

Coronado has only four regular season matches remaining, one of them a return match with St. Augustine at Coronado. CIF competition starts April 26. During Spring Break the golfers will be working out on their own. A lesson from Coach Cummings is possibly in the offing later in the week.

Head Coach Robbin Adair’s Boys Varsity Tennis Team had a busy time of it last week and he checks in with this report. "We opened Monday with a match against Canyon Crest Academy. They had beaten us 13-5 a few weeks ago, but this time, we tied and beat them on total game count. The final score was 9-9 (70-69). Krishna Samperio took three sets playing doubles with Patrick Holman. Daniel Grazian and Frankie Harrison also managed to take all three, avenging two losses they had to Canyon Crest the last time we played.

Brenton Mashburn and Jordan Vance won a set to give us a sizeable 7-2 lead in doubles. Over in singles, Matt Oakley won one set 6-2, and lost two close ones 6-3 and 7-5. Evan Wheeler also took a set in singles to round out our scoring. Chris Mitchell played a great set against their No. 1. Although he lost 7-5, the overall game count swung our way because of how close he made that match.

Tuesday we traveled to Morley Field to play St. Augustine. They defeated us 10-6 in a rain-shortened match. Again Samperio was undefeated, while Holman and Wheeler each won one set in singles. Over in doubles, they were very tough, but Mitchell/Oakley won two sets, while Grazian/Wheeler lost two incredibly close sets 7-5 and 6-4. Mashburn/Vance continued to play well, but lost all three.

Thursday University City was our opponent and we got beat 12-6. Once again Samperio led us with three singles wins. However, Holman and Wheeler were unable to break through in singles. Over in doubles, each of our teams including Mitchell/Oakley, Grazian/Harrison and Mashburn/Vance each managed to win one set.

As we break for Easter, our cumulative record is 5-7 and Samperio has amassed a record of 27 set victories against only one loss. Over in doubles, the team of Grazian/Harrison has a 19-15 record, while Oakley playing with a couple of different doubles partners is 11-10. Our next match is at home a week from Thursday against La Jolla.

Facing one of the Top 15 pitchers in San Diego potentially makes for a tough afternoon, but the Islanders Softball Team acquitted themselves well in losing to Francis Parker 6-2 last Friday. Their game against Mission Bay scheduled for Wednesday was postponed due to rain.

"We played pretty well, but we made some mistakes," said CHS Head Coach Ed Shanholtz of his team’s effort against Parker. "Jessica Davis-Ricci was 2-3 with a triple and threw two runners out at first base, on balls hit to her in right field. Karli Massie was 1-2 at the plate and Brandi Bible played a good third base. We hit the ball hard, but they made a lot of plays. We had five hits and they had five as well."

RBIs in the game were credited to Farrell Pompa and Sandra Cepin. The freshman Cepin also pitched the first three innings for Coronado and then moved to first base. Pitcher Sara Noceto, who was struck by a line drive in a previous week’s game, threw well according to Shanholtz. "She pitched really well and had good control of her pitches the last few innings. The two runs she gave up were both unearned."

After being off this week, the softball squad returns to action Wednesday against Point Loma in a game played at Robb Field in Ocean Beach slated for a 3 pm start. Friday Coronado travels to Clairemont for a 3 pm first pitch.

The Islander Girls Lacrosse Team lost their first two games last week by a total of two goals, before putting together a fine offensive effort to conclude their schedule heading into Spring Break. Coronado lost to Poway 10-9, and then lost to Wycombe, a high school team from England, by the same score. Coronado then dominated Cathedral Catholic 14-4.

In the greater scheme of things, the Poway game was the important one of the week, as the Titans are among the County’s lacrosse elite. "It was a tough game," said Head Coach Jessica Battle. "Our team played very, very well. Our defense played tremendously well. In all honesty, I didn’t want to go undefeated this season. Taking a loss now and again is an okay thing to do. Our offense couldn’t find the net. Poway is right around where I thought they were. We had a couple of calls that didn’t go in our favor. If we play them again, I think we can win. There is the question of whether we have to play them again to get into the finals."

The Wycombe team played extremely aggressively, according to Battle. "It wasn’t a good game at all. It was a poor effort on the part of the whole (Coronado) team. At one point, we were down by six goals and we came back and lost by one. We had a turning point. We had a really good talk (with her team) Thursday. Friday we came back and played like a team and played very well. We had scoring all across the board, which we like to see."

Marissa Nagler scored six goals against Cathedral Catholic, with Hannah Sebenaler and Greer Goebels adding three each. Others scoring goals, according to Battle, included Hope Alexander, Erin Colvin, and Kelly Walsh.

"Spring break came at a good time," said Battle. "Everybody was getting a little burned out. We’ll regroup and start the second half of our season."

Facing Mission Bay a week ago in the finals of the City Conference Tournament, the Islanders Baseball Team fell to the Buccaneers 8-0. Six days later, with Coronado hosting Mission Bay in the Western League lid lifter for both teams, the Bucs prevailed again, this time by the score of 10-1.

Well, so much for the bad news - almost. The Islanders only offense production was a first inning single by Mike Baker-Denson. Ceci commended the senior catcher for his defensive play behind the plate. Third baseman Danny Cepin scored Coronado’s lone run of the afternoon.

Staff ace Kevin Couture was touched up for four earned runs against Mission Bay, which ‘ballooned’ his earned run average to 0.84 this year. Couture’s record now stands at 6-1 on the season, and he has recorded 63 strikeouts in 41.2 innings this season.

The good news is that thanks to the CIF San Diego Section home office, the Islanders will compete in the Division IV Playoffs this year, while the Bucs will remain in Division III. "Their kids play well together and they’re hungry," said Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci of the Mission Bay Nine. "They’re not intimidated by anything and they’re playing real well right now."

Combined with the postponement of Wednesday’s home game against University City, now slated for Saturday, April 29, the Islanders only had one game last week. They will more than make up for that with this week’s play.

Monday Coronado embarks on their schedule in the Annual Lions Tournament as they play Woodcreek High School of Roseville. Tuesday they host Steele Canyon at 1 pm and Wednesday they travel to Westview High School for a 3 pm contest. If they advance, the Islanders will play in the divisional semi-finals and finals on Thursday. They are competing in the Les Cassie AAAAA Division, Group C, of the 112-team tournament.