The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Underwood, Ghosh post All-American times

Homestead is the top volleyball seed in CCS

By MIKE BARNHART

Russ Underwood of Monta Vista and Nilasha Ghosh of Lynbrook punctuated their spectacular Santa Clara Valley Athletic League careers with All-American performances at the De Anza Division swimming finals May 5 at Palo Alto. Meanwhile, a talented trio of Monta Vista freshmen girls served notice that they have arrived.

Underwood won both freestyle sprints and anchored both of the Matadors' victorious free relay teams. His blistering 46.67 in the 100-yard free and 21.32 in the 50 are All-American times, as is the 1:27.69 clocking posted by him and fellow seniors Kevin Leonard, David Wong and Tyler Fischer-Colbrie in the 200 free relay.

In the 400 relay, Monta Vista's unit of sophomore Dustin Chien, freshman Arthur Lam, Fischer-Colbrie and Underwood recorded an All-American Consideration time of 3:14.11.

Underwood may need to swim even faster in order to successfully defend the sprint titles he won at the 2005 Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships. This year's CCS meet is set for May 12-13 at Stanford University.

Ghosh, who in 2005 set the CCS girls meet record for the 100 butterfly (54.35), established a new De Anza meet fly standard last week, an AA time of 56.61. Ghosh also became the division champ in the 100 backstroke, clocking another All-American time (57.85) and edging runner-up Dominique Lazarovici (59.39) of Monta Vista.

Lazarovici helped Monta Vista claim first place in two relays, including a meet record in the 400 relay. Freshmen Audrey Kwong, Emma Drysdale and Megan Fischer-Colbrie joined Lazarovici in blitzing the field with an AA time of 3:34.55. Earlier, Lazarovici, Fischer-Colbrie, freshman Elsa Cheng and sophomore Mao Ueno combined to win the medley relay in 1:54.72, just .4 better than Lynbrook's team of Jenny Wei, Andrea Tham, Ghosh and Tiffany Chen.

Drysdale turned a few heads in the freestyle sprints, winning the 50 in 24.67 and the 100 in 53.82. Kwong took third in the 100 with 54.07, after going 1:55.33 for second in the 200 free. Lazarovici was fifth in the 200 and Ueno sixth.

Fischer-Colbrie took second in the 200 individual medley and third in the butterfly.

El Camino swimming

Homestead's Paul Kim displayed his versatility, sprinting to victories on his front side and his back at the El Camino Division boys finals May 5 at Fremont.

After winning the 50 free (22.61), Kim later took first in the100 back (56.53). He also helped Homestead's two triumphant relay teams, leading off the medley and anchoring the 400 free.

The Mustangs won the medley in 1:44.19, with Kim's backstroke leg followed by Paul Chen, Simon Iacob and Geovid Kali. In the 400 relay, Kali, Jeff Meadows, Iacob and Kim combined to clock 3:27.54. Chen captured the 200 individual medley in 2:10.52.

Fremont junior Larry Wen and Cupertino sophomore Martin Chuang were double winners. Wen touched first in the100 butterfly (54.53) and the 100 breast (1:00.60), while Chuang won the 200 (1:53.77) and 500 (5:05.52) freestyle races.

Other winners were Cupertino junior Derrik Jarvis (49.48) in the 100 free and Los Gatos' 200 free relay team. Brian Dunmire of Wilcox won the diving event.

In the girls competition, Los Gatos won half of the 12 events en route to the team title. Homestead, which went unbeaten in dual meets, claimed four events, and junior Michelle Camburn was involved in three of them.

Camburn impressed with wins in the 200 IM (2:13.61) and 500 free (5:09.43), and her anchor leg helped the Mustangs win the 400 free relay. Camburn teamed up with Kristen Peanasky, Yoshiko Shimizu and Megan Meadows to take the relay in 3:49.67.

Emily Pool of Homestead won the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.77, and Fremont's Aly Meyer claimed the 200 free in 2:03.08. Cupertino's Jessica Buzawa clocked 25.62 to win the 50 free.

Volleyball playoffs

After closing out a perfect run to the SCVAL championship last week, Homestead received the top seed in the 16-team CCS playoffs, which begin on May 11.

The Mustangs, coached by Matt Hoffman, will take an overall record of 25-4 into a first-round home game against No. 16 Monterey (23-9). at 7 p.m. In another tourney opener, No. 15 The King's Academy (18-8) will play at No. 2 seed Leland (25-6). Both games begin at 7 p.m.

First-round winners advance to the quarterfinals May 13 at Santa Clara High, the site of the last three rounds. The semifinals are set for May 16 at 5:30 p.m. The championship match is set for May 18 at 7 p.m.

If Homestead beats Monterey, it will meet a team from the West Catholic Athletic League, either No. 8 Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco or No. 9 St. Francis (23-11). Other teams in Homestead's half of the bracket are No. 4 San Lorenzo Valley (27-4), No. 5 Mt. Madonna (23-8), Valley Christian (16-14) and Mountain View (20-11), which placed third in the SCVAL behind the Mustangs and Los Gatos.

The Wildcats (29-5), seeded No. 3 and matched up with No. 14 Willow Glen (22-13) in the first round, are in the other half of the bracket, along with Leland, The King's Academy, No. 6 Bellarmine, Leigh, Archbishop Mitty, Serra.

Homestead, the SCVAL co-champions with Los Gatos a year ago, claimed the 2006 title outright by dumping Saratoga 25-20, 25-12, 25-15 at home on May 2. Two nights later at Mountain View, Matt Hoffman's squad won 25-16, 25-20, 25-21 and finished league play with a 14-0 record. Senior Sam Kridl and junior Ryan Dedrick had seven kills apiece against Saratoga. Junior Weston Buckner led the charge at Mountain View with nine.

After going 9-1 and tying Harker for first place in the Private Schools Athletic League, The King's Academy received the nod to represent the PSAL in the CCS tourney. Coached by Philip Wang, the Knights secured their playoff berth by posting wins over Woodside Priory and Eastside College Prep last week. Sophomore Joe Sereda put away 12 kills against Priory, and junior Colin Forshay had 15 to lead the way against Eastside.