Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Winter is first in three events to lead Rams to track victory

By Dick Sparrer

It's one down and hopefully more to come for the Willow Glen boys track and field team. The Rams wrapped up the dual- meet championship in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League last week with a 95-31 win over Sobrato, and now they're ready for more.

Willow Glen will be back on the track this week for the BVAL Santa Teresa Division finals on May 1 and 3 at Lincoln before heading to Mt. Pleasant on May 10 for the BVAL championship meet.

The top qualifiers there will advance to the Central Coast Section semifinals set for May 19 at San Jose City College, and Willow Glen should have its share of qualifiers.

The Rams certainly had their share of winners when they won all but three events in the win over Sobrato.

Freshman Dan Winter was the Willow Glen leader with three individual victories in the long jump (18-7.5), the triple jump (40-3) and the discus (101-10).

Seniors Marcos Corona and Rafael Barriga were each double winners for the Rams. Corona ran to wins in the 800-meter run in 2:02 and the 1,600 in 4:27, and Barriga breezed to victories in the 400 in 52.47 and the 200 in 22.98.

Junior Eyoel Galato romped to a win in the 3,200 in 11:07, and sophomore Mike Gibilisco sprinted to a first in the 100 in 11.65. Soph Brandon Metcalf added a win in the high jump at 5-6.

The Rams, who also won the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, improved their dual-meet record to 7-0 with the win.

The girls, on the other hand, slipped to 2-5 after dropping a 74-49 decision to Sobrato.

Junior Michelle Moran raced to a win in the 800 in 2:35, senior Stephanie Serna won the shot put with a heave of 35-3 and senior Andrea Nankivell took the discus with an 84-2 effort.

Diamond teams fall

The diamonds at Willow Glen weren't exactly sparkling last week as the Rams lost twice in both baseball and softball.

The baseball team dropped a 4-2 heartbreaker to Santa Teresa before falling 8-1 to first-place Leigh in a couple of Mt. Hamilton Division games. The Rams are now 3-13 in the division in the 5-14 for the year.

Willow Glen actually led much of the way against the Saints. Santa Teresa scored in the third to take a 1-0 lead, but the Rams went up 2-1 with a pair of runs in the fourth. That lead stood up until the seventh, when the Saints scored three then held on for the win.

Senior hurler Corey Kingston was the hard-luck mound loser for the Rams. The Saints had only five hits in the game.

Freshman Elliot Hoffman ripped a pair of singles to lead a five-hit assault for the Rams.

Later in the week, Leigh broke up a scoreless tie with a run in the fourth and the Rams answered with a run in the fifth to tie the game 1-1. But the Longhorns picked up two in the sixth to break the tie, then unloaded for five in the seventh to win 8-1. Willow Glen had only one hit in the game, a single by Hoffman.

The Rams entered play this week with only four games remaining in the season. Willow Glen was to visit Leland on Wednesday and will host Piedmont Hills on Friday. The Rams entertain Westmont on May 8 and close out the year on the road at Pioneer on May 10. Games begin at 3:30 p.m.

The girls softball team at Willow Glen faced similar results last week. The Rams fell to 1-10 in the Santa Teresa Division play after losing 10-0 to Oak Grove and 8-4 to Prospect.

Willow Glen was up 1-0 after three innings against Prospect last week, but the Panthers put up fours in back-to-back innings and cruised from there to the win.

Junior Karina Delgado belted two hits and knocked in two runs for the Rams.

Rams top Mitty

It's not often that a Willow Glen team can come through with a victory over a private Catholic school like Archbishop Mitty, but the WG badminton squad did just that last week.

The Rams rallied behind senior Nguyen Le to knock off the Monarchs 10-5 in a Santa Teresa Division match. Le won 15-11, 15-17, 15-8 in the boys No. 1 singles spot to lead the Rams to the win that pushed their league record to 11-3.

Earlier in the week, it was senior Nadia Conroy winning 15-10, 15-12 in the girls No. 1 singles position to drive the Rams to an 11-4 victory over Mt. Pleasant.

Golfers drop a pair

Unbeaten Lincoln cruised to a pair of wins over Willow Glen in Santa Teresa Division golf action last week. The Lions topped the Rams 226-277 at Cinnabar Hills and won again 222-240 at the Spring Valley Golf Course. The Lions improved to 13-0 in the division while the Rams slipped to 10-4.