Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Abdalla 3rd at CCS, earns state meet berth

Panthers fall to Mitty in softball semifinals

By Dick Sparrer

The track and field season ended for most high school athletes last Friday night at the Central Coast Section finals at San José City College. But not for Mohamed Abdalla of Willow Glen.

Abdalla will advance to the 2006 State Track and Field Championships set for June 2-3 at Falcon Stadium on the campus of Cerritos College in Norwalk.

The sophomore finished third in the 3,200-meter run at the CCS meet last week to earn a ticket to the meet that features the top high school track and field athletes in California. Abdalla cover the 3,200 meters in 9:22.36.

Bellarmine's Napoleon Greene will also make the state trip after finishing second in the 300 hurdles in 38.56. He was also one of three Bellarmine placers in the 110 hurdles. Bellarmine's Andreas Drbal was fourth in 14.64 with Greene fifth in 14.69 and Thomas Phillips sixth in 15.37. Phillips was also fifth in the 300 hurdles in 40.24.

Willow Glen's Stephanie Serna finished eighth in the girls' shot put with a heave of 33-2.

Panthers fall

It was a tough finish for the girls softball team at Presentation. The Panthers, the No. 2 seed in the CCS Division II tournament, lost a 5-2 decision to Mitty last week to face elimination from the tourney.

Presentation drew a first-round bye in the tournament, then knocked off St. Francis 4-1 to advance to the semifinals against the Monarchs. But Mitty scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back on the road to the 5-2 win.

Mitty went on to beat Notre Dame-Belmont 2-0 to claim the CCS championship. Notre Dame had edged Leigh 2-1 in the semifinals.

Kevin Newman's club, led by ace hurler Jamie Lettire all season long, finished the year with a 26-4 record. Lettire, a senior star for the Panthers, posted a 24-2 record and finished her career with a complete game 5-hitter against Mitty. She struck out nine in the loss.

Sophomores Joann Mendoza and Jennifer Carrow led the offensive effort in the semi-final game. Mendoza ripped two hits and Carrow slapped a double.

Newman will lose only five seniors from this year's club, but his ace, Lettire, is one of them. Amanda Moriarty, Molly McKeever, Coley Woyak and Andie Armao were other seniors playing their final game against Mitty.

Sophs Mendoza and Carrow along with junior Leann Witherspoon, freshmen Katie Hargadon and Ashley De Mello and sophomores Michelle Callaway, Anna Canino, Montana Maggetti and Alicia Pizarro will provide Newman with a strong cast of returners in 2007.

REACH Scholarships

There were 9,000 good reasons for the REACH Youth Scholarship finalists to get out of bed on the morning of May 3. And Leland's Margo Consul can certainly give you 1,500 of them.

Consul walked away with a $1,500 scholarship when 34 REACH nominees got up early for a Wednesday morning breakfast at the San Jose Marriott to find out how the San Jose Sports Authority would distribute the $9,000 in scholarship funds.

Joining Consul as winners were Amanda Polzin of Harker School, who won the top award of $2,500; Laine Armour of Fremont, $2,000; Nikhil Marathe of St. Francis, $1,500; and Justin Martin of Live Oak, $1,500.

Among the other nominees were Nick Aurelio and Timothy Danser of Bellarmine; Jenna Brogan of Presentation; and Maria Sosa of Willow Glen.

Kevin Sparrer contributed to this story.