More than a dozen players from Santa Cruz Water Polo Club were named Pacific Olympic Development Program Zone teams.
Players selected to the girls youth team (born in 2003 or ’04) have been invited to compete in USA Water Polo’s Pacific/Central California Evaluation Event on May 30. The 34-member Zone team will be broken into three teams to train for the Evaluation Event.
Locals selected to the youth team include Belene Rodriguez of Santa Cruz High, Olivia Harris, Quinn Healy, Kelsey Matthies, and Deijah Stephens of Soquel High, and Stevenson’s Olivia Garley, a Santa Cruz resident.
Some of the athletes from the Evaluation Event, temporarily slated to take place at Serra High in San Mateo, will earn invitations to National Team Selection Camp in late June.
Soquel’s Addison Lane, Summer Stelck, Leah Murphy and Kayla Matthies of Soquel made the Pacific Zone’s Cadet program (born in 2005 or ’06), as did Aptos resident Ciera Puente, who plays for Carmel, Kiera Blitzer of Valley Christian and Sofia Bozzo of Stevenson.
Chase Blitzer made the boys’ development team (born 2007 and later).
Boys track and field
Arcadia Invitational: Aptos seniors John Eikemeyer, Aidan Tomasini and Ben Laughlin and sophomore Trent Nosky took fourth in the 4×1,600 at the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday. They finished in 17:56.90, a new school record.
Laughlin (9:12.46) also finished 23rd in the 3,200-meter invitational run and Eikemeyer (9:18.37) was 24th.
Scotts Valley junior Jermey Kain took fifth in the mile invitational in 4:17.62.
Monte Vista Christian senior Andrew Bachman took eighth in 1:54.99 in the 800-meter invitational run. Bachman teamed with Jake Morris, Sage Oliver and Justin Lomeli to take 13th in the 4×400 relay in 3:33.21.
SLV senior Alex Castro-Neri took 10th in the 200 in 23.22. Castro-Neri teamed with Joe Rosenquist, Nathan Beverly, and Kenai Dindia to place 14th in the 4×400 relay in 3:33.29.
Scotts Valley junior Austin George took 12th in the 800 invitational in 1:55.75.
SLV senior Casey Crouch took 14th in the 800 in 1:59.25.
Girls track and field
Arcadia Invitational: Scotts Valley’s Amber and Ashlyn Boothby were separated by one-hundredth of a second in the mile run at the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday.
Amber, a sophomore, took ninth in 5:06.75 and Ashlyn took 10th in 5:06.76. They competed in different heats.
SLV sophomore Kaitlin Seigle took 22nd in the 800 in 2:23.34.
High school softball
Soquel 12, Scotts Valley 1 (5 inn.): Junior Carmella Muccilli was 2 for 2 with a sacrifice fly, two home runs and four RBIs to lead the Knights past the Falcons in their mercy-rule shortened SCCAL game Saturday.
Ellie Escalante was 2 for 3 with a triple, team leading fifth home run, two RBIs, a stolen base and two runs scored.
Muccilli has four home runs on the season and Knights, who have hit at least one HR in seven games, boosted their season total to 16.
Dillyn Vasconcellos was 3 for 4 with three stolen bases and scored twice. Kiera Mattas was 3 for 3 with a double and two RBIs.
Pitcher Tori Sierra threw all five innings for the win. She gave up seven hits and one earned run with two strikeouts and no walks.
The Knights (9-1) play at Aptos on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Dani Chace had a hit and RBI for the Falcons (2-8), Kylie Alvarez had a hit and run scored and Sydney Clark also had a hit.
High school baseball
Aptos 6, at Harbor 1: Owen Dueck threw a complete-game four-hitter with two walks and 11 strikeouts in the Mariners’ SCCAL win Saturday.
Reed Moring drew a walk and scored twice for the Mariners (8-1).
Ben Castro had two hits for Harbor (0-10, 0-6).
Losing pitcher Dylan Bettencourt scattered three hits over five innings, struck out two batters and walked six. He gave up six runs, but only four were earned. Jackson Gifford closed with two shutout innings.
At SLV 1, Soquel 0: Jaden Hunter had two hits and scored the decisive run in the fourth inning of the Cougars’ SCCAL win Saturday.
Junior Jeremy Nelson earned the complete-game win for the Cougars (4-5, 3-4), striking out seven batters and walking two. Junior Brady Spencer took the complete-game loss despite giving up just three hits.
Sophomore Joshua Fahrner had two of the Knights’ four hits. Soquel dropped to 5-4, 4-4.
Santa Cruz 9, at Scotts Valley 0: Santa Cruz improved to 7-3 with its SCCAL win Saturday.
Brock Siechen had the Falcons’ lone hit. Nic Erickson took the loss, giving up two unearned runs, five hits, and two walks in four innings. He struck out three batters.
At MVC 8, Watsonville 2: Eli Sepulveda had one hit, three RBIs and scored twice in the Mustangs’ SCCAL win Saturday.
Armando Vasquez-Green had two hits and two RBIs for MVC (6-4). Luis Quintero, Jack Brothers and JoJo Keldsen each had a hit and run scored. Quintero also had an RBI.
Pitchers Alex Marks and Dylan Hawkins combined to throw a three-hitter with three walks and six strikeouts.
Isidrio Lopez took the loss for the Wildcatz. He gave up all eight runs in five innings of work, but only one of them was earned.
Abraham Bonilla had a hit and run scored for the Wildcatz.
Girls soccer
Aptos 10, SLV 0: Jazmine Castaneda had two goals and three assists in the Mariners’ SCCAL rout Saturday.
Kirsten Martin had two goals and two assists, Gwen Chapman and Susana Estrada each scored twice. Nelly Rubio and Rowan Bowyer also scored.
Bella Christie had two assists for the Mariners (8-1, 6-1), who are 6-0, outscoring opponents 40-0 since losing 3-2 to Soquel on April 22.
Boys basketball
At SLV 65, Harbor 38: Freshman Kai Grouleau scored 24 points and the Cougars won their SCCAL game Satursday.
Freshman Cade Petersen had eight points and 11 rebounds for the Cougars (7-1, 6-0), who held the Pirates to 14 points in the first half.
SLV’s defense was led by junior Michael Kelly, who held Harbor’s Zach Trebbien to six points in the first half. Trebbien finished with 14 points and teammate Brody Fry chipped in 10 points.
SLV played without junior guard Asher Dolinger, who sat out the game with an ankle injury. The Cougars host Pacific Collegiate on Monday night.
At Santa Cruz 53, Saratoga 37: Aden Cury scored a team-high 10 points in the Cardinals’ nonleague win Saturday. Jack Busenart scored nine points for the Cardinals and Riley Vanwinckle added eight points.
Girls basketball
St. Francis 40, Pajaro Valley 30: Taylor Fischer scored a team-high 17 points to lead the Sharks to the SCCAL win Saturday.
St. Francis also received 12 points from Isabella Sumano and six from Natalya Soto.
