Serra High’s young girls’ track and field team had a strong showing in last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Masters Championships at Cerritos College.
The Lady Cavaliers were sparked by sophomore Jeanette Paul and freshman Jasmine Reed.
Paul, a transfer from Carson who came off an outstanding freshman year, finished in second place in the 300-meter hurdles at 41.54 seconds and fourth in the 100 hurdles clocking 14.34.
Serra High’s young girls’ track and field team had a strong showing in last Friday’s CIF-Southern Section Masters Championships at Cerritos College.
The Lady Cavaliers were sparked by sophomore Jeanette Paul and freshman Jasmine Reed.
Paul, a transfer from Carson who came off an outstanding freshman year, finished in second place in the 300-meter hurdles at 41.54 seconds and fourth in the 100 hurdles clocking 14.34.
Reed also showed outstanding promise by placing third in the 200-meter dash in 24.24 and fourth at the 100 timing 11.92. She also ran on the second leg of Serra’s 4×100-meter relay team that took third in 46.6 and anchored its 4×400 squad which was sixth clocking 3:50.26.
Other runners on the Lady Cavaliers’ 400 relay squad included Madison Golden, Gertrude Martin and anchor Kayla Pickens. Golden and Pickens are both sophomores and Martin is a senior.
The first three runners for Serra’s 1,600 relay team were Golden, Martin and Pickens.
“I feel that both (Paul and Reed) will come through in state,” Serra head coach Chris Faulknor said.
A year after capturing the California state championship, the Cavalier boys climaxed a very disappointing season and their Masters meet described it.
Prior to the meet, Serra’s squad took the controversial long jump disqualification of Adoree Jackson to the Los Angeles Superior Court to reverse the official’s decision of the incident that occurred on May 17 at the Southern Section Division IV Prelims at Carpinteria High. Unfortunately, the lack of jurisdiction caused the appeal to fail.
On top of that, the season for Jackson and the Cavaliers’ Southern Section Division IV champion 4×400 relay came to an end due to a dropped baton by third leg runner Jordan Lasley. Despite a strong effort by anchor runner Jackson to make things up for the miscue, Serra ended up eighth in the nine-team race at 3:19.17. The only good was that the Cavaliers’ time was better than their Division IV winning time of 3:19.81 on May 24 but it was still short of the state at-large maximum qualifying time of 3:18.31.
Lasley claimed that the baton was knocked out of his hand by a Long Beach Poly runner but race officials declared that it was incidental and unintentional. The Jackrabbits, in fact, won the race clocking 3:14.79.
Serra had just one athlete make the state prelims in Jeremy Franklin who was sixth in the discus at 172 feet.
Ronny Hall and Lasley also had disappointing showings in the 400 and 300 hurdles with non-qualifying ninth and eighth place finishes in 48.6 and 38.93, in order.
The state prelims begin at 1 p.m. on Friday at Buchanan High’s Memorial Stadium in Clovis. The state finals on Saturday start at 4 p.m. with the field events and 6 p.m. with the running events.
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Sports Scoop
Kings win third seventh game on road to face Rangers for Stanley Cup
By Joe Snyder
GVN Correspondent
The Los Angeles Kings National Hockey League team certainly has done what many felt was virtually impossible.
For the third time in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Kings won a seventh game on the road by coming from behind to defeat the host Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 in overtime, last Sunday at the United Center.
The Kings won the match and the Western Conference championship when defenseman Alec Martinez scored off an assist by Justin Williams with about six minutes left in the overtime period.
L.A. also won seventh games in the first round against the host San Jose Sharks, then against their L.A. area Interstate 5 rivals Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim.
They are certainly the Cardiac Kids.
Now it’s on to the championship series that will be the coast-to-coast classic against the New York Rangers that began on Wednesday at the Staples Center.
There have been a large number of classic Major League Baseball L.A. Dodgers versus New York Yankees World Series that occurred in 1963, 1977, 1978 and 1981 (The Dodgers won in 1963 and 1981; the Yankees won in 1977 and 1978.), but now we have the United States’ two largest cities squaring off for the Stanley Cup in the seven-game series.
Meanwhile, there was the L.A. Lakers versus New York Knicks, which the Knicks won in seven in 1970 and the Lakers won in five (their first National Basketball Association crown in L.A.) in 1972.
Both the Staples Center and Madison Square Gardens will be packed with screaming fans. Millions others will be watching the series that is slated to be broadcasted on NBC.
The series began on Wednesday with Game 2 on Channel 4 on Saturday at 4 p.m. Games 3 and 4 in New York next Monday and Wednesday will only be on its Cable network, NBC Sports Network.
For ages, hockey has been mostly an Eastern, Northern and Midwestern sport but it has certainly caught up here in Southern California, even though it lacks snow and ice with exception of the high mountains and that is if it can get enough precipitation.
The Kings already won their first Stanley Cup two years ago after beginning the playoffs as the Western Conference’s last seed. They defeated one of the Rangers’ top rivals, the New Jersey Devils in six games.
In 2007, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup.
It should be another thrilling series. The only difference is that the Kings will get the home ice advantage, something they did not get against the Sharks, Ducks or Blackhawks.
Baseball Playoffs: Serra and Gardena High’s baseball teams got out of the CIF-Southern Section Division III and CIF-L.A. City Section Division II playoffs, in order, early.
In the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division VII playoffs on May 27 at the Henderson Sports Complex in San Pedro, Pacific Lutheran from Gardena was eliminated by Nuevo Nuview Bridge, 11-1.
Nuview Bridge, one of the top seeds in the division, went on to edge Inglewood Animo Leadership High, 3-2, last Friday in Nuevo, in the quarterfinals to move on to last Tuesday’s semifinals.
Other nearby high schools, Narbonne, Torrance and South Torrance, however, moved on to the semifinals.
In the L.A. City Section Division I quarterfinals last Friday, Marine League champion Narbonne rolled over Granada Hills, 7-0.
The Gauchos faced Lake Balboa Birmingham in the semifinals last Tuesday at University of Southern California’s Dedeaux Field in an attempt to play for their first City Division I championship at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
Narbonne won the City-3A crown in 1992, but lost in the Division I final to powerful Chatsworth, 7-2, in 2008 at Dodger Stadium.
Sophomore Isaiah Flowers, who transferred from last year’s CIF-Southern Section Division III champion Serra, had a fine game for the Gauchos, who improved to 27-5. He had a home run and a run-scoring single that led Narbonne to a 3-0 fourth inning lead.
Winning pitcher Adrian Padilla hurled a three-hit shutout. He struck out three batters and walked two.
It was also the Gauchos’ second straight playoff shutout. On May 27 at Narbonne, the Gauchos, behind a one-hitter by Daniel Rocha, blanked Reseda Cleveland, 10-0, in a five-inning mercy rule first round contest.
Pioneer League co-champion Torrance moved to the semifinals by outlasting host San Dimas, 1-0, last Friday in the Southern Section Division IV quarterfinals.
Pinch runner Billy Bryant scored the winning run in the top of the seventh and Kyle Smith pitched a complete game two-hitter to improve his season record to 11-1.
The Tartars played Laguna Beach at a site to be determined in the semifinals last Tuesday in quest of Friday’s Division IV final at Dodger Stadium, maybe against cross town rival South Torrance.
That’s because the Spartans had a big 3-1 road victory over defending Division IV champion Westlake Village Oaks Christian in their quarterfinal last Friday.
South’s premiere pitcher, Matt Mogollon, went the distance with a six-hitter. He struck out five batters and walked only one.
The Spartans, who tied Torrance for the Pioneer crown, were also led by Taylor Carmona who was 2-for-3 with two runs and Matt Jacoby who went 3-for-3.
South is making its quest for its first championship appearance since winning the Southern Section Class 3A crowns in 1980 and 1984.
Meanwhile, Redondo, led by another Serra High transfer in junior Duncan McKinnon, also advanced to its first semifinal since 1988 by edging host Gahr High, 3-2, in the Southern Section Division III quarterfinals last Friday in Cerritos.
McKinnon had a hit and scored the Sea Hawks’ first run in the top of the first inning, but it was winning pitcher Cassius Hamm that proved dominant. He pitched a complete game five-hitter and was 2-for-4 with two RBI’s. Hamm also turned in a key double play that ended a threat by the Gladiators, who were ranked No. 1 in Division III over much of the season before falling down to a tie for second place in the San Gabriel Valley League in losing three of their final four regular season games to Downey schools, Warren and Downey.
Gahr had an 11-3 home win over Serra early this season.
The Sea Hawks visited co-Del Rey League champion Bishop Amat (tied with Serra for the top spot this season) in the semifinals in their quest to reach their first final in the program’s 100-year history. Redondo also had semifinal appearances in 1979 and 1988, with that squad being led by eventual Major League Seattle Mariners player Scott Davison, who played with them briefly in the mid 1990’s. Davison currently owns a baseball school, House of Hardball in Lomita, and trained several local prep and youth baseballers, including several from Gardena and Serra Highs.
Of course, both Flowers and McKinnon would love to play at Dodger Stadium for the second straight year even though they play for different teams on different CIF sections and on two different days (Southern Section on Friday and L.A. City on Saturday).
Carson wins City softball crown: Carson’s softball team captured its second consecutive CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division I championship by downing Chatsworth, 8-4, last Saturday at UCLA’s Easton Stadium.
Aniessa Maulupe belted two home runs to lead the Colts, who finished their season at 28-5.
Carson was once down 3-1 before rallying for the win and championship.
The winning pitcher for the Colts was Jessica Robledo in relief of starter Ramie Barajas.
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Holly Park Majors Record Sweep of Opponents
By Joe Snyder
GVN Correspondent
The Holly Park Little League was one of the top hosts of Saturday’s first round action of the District 37 Major Little League Baseball Tournament of Champions and all four of its teams were off to very good starts with all four teams getting through the first round.
Holly Park’s first team was able to top Aviation from Del Aire (a Los Angeles County unincorporated district located between El Segundo and Hawthorne) in the first game. The Holly Park Mariners outlasted Lennox No. 5, 7-6 in eight innings. That followed with the Holly Park Giants defeating the Tri Park Diamondbacks, 3-1. The day climaxed with the Holly Park Dodgers making quick work of the Lennox Dodgers, 10-0, in a four-inning mercy rule game.
In a good pitching duel between starters Dorian Echol of the Giants and Quinton Brown from the Diamondbacks, Holly Park, a northeast Hawthorne-based league which also has players from Gardena, Inglewood and the L.A. Athens District, pushed across a run apiece in the top of the fourth and sixth innings to put the game away.
Jonathan Ramos had two hits and two runs batted in for the Giants.
Andrew Nunez had a base hit in the bottom of the third to bring in a run and tie the contest at one for Tri Park from El Camino Village, which also includes players from Gardena, Hawthorne and Lawndale.
“It was a really good game,” Holly Park manager Randy Odum said. “There was very good pitching.”
In a battle of the Dodgers, Holly Park scored in each of its four innings, including three each in the first, third and fourth and one in the second to dominate Lennox.
Winning pitcher Marcellus Henry limited Lennox to just two hits, while striking out five batters, walking one and hitting one batter.
Henry also went 2-for-2 that included a two-run double in the bottom of the first. He scored three runs after he walked in the third. He scored on an error.
Keith Moore went 3-for-3 that included a second inning triple. He scored twice. Brian Garcia went 2-for-2 with one RBI and one run.
