New Records in Cross Country and Golf Keep Fall Sports Lively, Water Polo Teams are Working Hard!

This past week, a Harker cross country runner set a new course record, and the girls golf team posted the best score of any girls golf team in Harker’s history. Here are the scores and great performances from the first week of October:

Cross Country:

At the first WBAL cross country meet of the year, Corey Gonzales, grade 11, avenged the narrow defeat he suffered on that same course last year by setting a new course record of 14:47.5. In the very next race, freshman Niki Iyer won the 60m. Iyer’s winning time of 17:10.0 missed the course record by a single second. Senior Claudia Tischler ran her best race of the year, finishing in fifth place with an time of 18:08.

Girls Tennis:

Girls tennis defeated league rival Sacred Heart Prep this past Tuesday by a score of 4-3 to improve their record to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in league play. Dora Tzeng grade 12, Izzy Gross, grade 1o, Sahithya Prakash,grade 12, and Arden Hu, grade 11, all won their singles matches. Two days later, the girls dropped their contest against state power Menlo, with Tzeng’s victory in her singles match serving as Harker’s only win of the day. This week, the girls head to play Crystal on the road and then return home to host Castilleja.

Girls Volleyball:

Both the junior varsity and varsity squads fell just shy of defeating Sacred Heart last Tuesday. Divya Kalidindi, grade 12, had 20 kills in varsity’s loss. The varsity team rebounded against Castilleja on Thursday, winning in five sets. They hit the road this week to face off against Priory and Menlo.

Water Polo:

Down four goals against Wilcox last Tuesday, the boys rallied back but ultimately came up short, dropping the game 14-12. Eric Holt, grade 11, scored five goals in the game. Karan Kurbur, grade 12, scored four. Billy Bloomquist, grade 11, scored two, and Jeremy Binkley, also grade 11, added a goal as well. The boys then headed to the Sobrato Tournament for the weekend, where they won one game and dropped two. The team’s record now stands at 5-9 overall. They start this week off against Cupertino.

The girls, meanwhile, dropped their game to Wilcox on Tuesday, 11-7, despite three goals from senior Anne Levine and more from Delaney Martin, grade 11, Yasemin Narin, grade 10, and Sheridan Tobin, grade 11. On Thursday, the girls eked out a 5-4 win against Monta Vista, led by Martin’s and junior Anushka Das’ two goals apiece.

Girls Golf:

The girls posted the best score ever for a Harker girls golf team this past Friday in a 199-211 loss to Sacred Heart Prep at Los Lagos. It took the best performance of any team in the league this season for Sacred Heart Prep to pull out a win and take sole possession of second place in the WBAL. A red-hot Kristine Lin, grade 12, earned her sixth medalist honors in as many matches, and Daphne Liang, grade 10, drained a 40-foot put on the ninth hole to make par. Harker is currently in third place in the WBAL with a 3-3 record.

Football:

Varsity football has its senior night this Friday against Livermore Valley Prep at 7 p.m.