
Track and field The boys and girls teams come into this week with perfect marks of 4-0.
According to head coach Danny Perez, sophomore TK Berhe, nephew of marathon runner Meb Keflezighi, leads the squad in the 1600m and 3200m, being the fastest miler in more than eight years. Meantime, sophomore Alec Plotegher leads the team in the long jump, triple jump and is the fastest short sprinter on the team. Senior Blake Edmunds leads the longer sprints (400, 200, 4×100 and 4×400). On the girls’ side, CIF cross country state meet freshman qualifier Gina Queck leads the team in the 800, 1600, and 3200m. Senior Alyssa Hernandez has been tops in the 300m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. Fellow senior Crystall Ollison is the fastest short sprinter in the 100, 200, and 4x100m.
“The boys’ division is extremely competitive,” Perez noted. “We have wins versus Clairemont and Crawford by less than four points, respectively. “Our girls have won by a wider margin. Our league has many section leaders, so the city league is no pushover. The remaining three meets we have Coronado, Christian, and Madison will be a tough task but believe we will have a fighting chance to win.” Baseball
Mission Bay heads into the week with a record of 5-12 for head coach Dennis Pugh.
According to Pugh, top players to date have included Parker St. Germain, Aiden Young, Zay Pena, Jayden Correa and Dusty Schraeder.
“We’ve lost a lot of close games,” Pugh commented. “The pitching has been good, but we’re not scoring a lot of runs. Losing Shane Severson (left-handed pitcher) has hurt pitching depth and starting two freshmen in some games is a formula for some tough situations. We battle most games and at this point our goal is to try and make the playoffs.” As Pugh noted, in a tougher league this year, the end result has meant more losses. That said, Pugh feels it will make the program better in the long run.
“I’ve had to rebuild the structure of the program and we are in year two of a three-year process,” Pugh added. “We have a good group of freshmen and better times ahead.” Boys volleyball
The Bucs, under head coach Nikki Caufield, are back in action again this year after a strong playoff run last year and moving up from Division IV to Division III in just two years. They started the season with wins against Crawford and San Diego and then lost tight matches to Madison, Serra, Clairemont and Morse. “We have four new starters in our starting rotation and a couple of returning starters missed the first five weeks of the season, so we are just getting everyone back and ready to play,” Caufield remarked. “We are training a new setter this year to replace last year’s first-team all-league player, Jacob Cayatano, so there are some pretty big shoes to fill on the court.”
The team is starting to come together and we just need to tighten up a few items and we’ll be really solid again this year.” Key returners include junior Zander Caufield, junior Josh Leone, senior Stephen Tarbell and junior setter Tetsoro Escudero. Key newcomers include sophomore Andre Jovien and freshman Filippo Miticocchio. In recent action, the Bucs hosted Kearny High and soundly beat the Komets with a 25-8, 25-12, 25-12 three-game sweep. “We have a few key games coming up over the next couple of weeks and if we can get a few more wins we have a chance at making the playoffs,” Caufield stated. “A lot will depend if we can bring the new players along fast enough to starting winning the close games.” Girls sand volleyball
The team, under head coach Brittany Johnson, came into this week with a 1-4 record, with three matches remaining.
“We’re carrying a large team because everyone is young (11 sophomores, three freshmen, one junior) with great potential, and pretty even-skilled,” Johnson commented.
The top four (A/B team players in no particular order) are Kate Geenan, Jesse Grigliotte, Juliette Castner and Chloe Gallego.
“We’re off to a rough start with a very young team, but have an extremely bright future. There is tons of talent, enthusiasm, and work ethic to contribute to this ever-growing, club sport,” Johnson added. Boys tennis
The Bucs come into the week at 3-6 (3-3 league play) for head coach Trong Tong.
To date, top players have included Jake Stone (No. 1 singles), Arthur Maury (No. 2 singles), and the No. 1 doubles team of Nicolas Guevara and Alex Li.
“As a few of our seasoned prospective players decided to play other sports this season, we didn’t quite end up with the roster depth that we were hoping we’d get,” Tong commented. “On the bright side, however, our handful of new players has been showing great strides in improving their games,” Tong continued. “Although our top players exhibit some promising talents, they’re going through some growing pains as they are somewhat inexperienced when it comes to competitive tennis. “The silver linings are that we’ll get much better once everyone has learned the ropes, and hope for postseason play is still in the cards on both the team and individual level.”