Crescenta Valley, Hart Showcase Talent

Crescenta Valley has shown it may be the favorite to win the Southern Section Division II boys’ swimming title with a second-place finish in the Southern Section boys’ relays last weekend at Belmont Plaza and a 92-78 dual meet victory over Hart on Tuesday.

But the Indians may not be far behind. Hart won the 400-yard medley and 400 freestyle relay in the Southern Section meet and won all three relays against the Falcons.

Juniors Anthony Ervin, Ryan Parmenter and German exchange student Christian Kneppeck won five individual races against Crescenta Valley. Kenny Carpenter, Michael Pak and Travis Taylor won events for the Falcons.

“[Crescenta Valley] has more depth than we do,” Hart Coach Steve Neale said. “But we’ll have a good shot later.”

BASKETBALL

Collins III: For the third consecutive season, there will be a Jason Collins playing for the boys’ Division III state championship.

However, it won’t be the Jason Collins who helped Harvard-Westlake win titles the last two seasons. That Jason Collins is a freshman at Stanford.

Northern Regional champion Redding Enterprise has a Jason Collins who will face University of San Diego High on Saturday in the state final at Arco Arena.

For the record, Harvard-Westlake’s Jason Collins was 2-0 against University.

On the rise: The Alemany girls’ team will depart Burbank Airport at 8:05 a.m. today for Sacramento, where it will make its first state championship-game appearance on Saturday against San Francisco Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Alemany rose from third to No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Division III state rankings after Lake of the Pines Bear River (33-1) and Lafayette Acalanes (31-5) lost last week in the Northern Regional.

The team that defeated Bear River and Acalanes: Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Retirement party: North Hollywood High retired the jersey of Lindsay Sotero-Higa at a school awards assembly Thursday.

Sotero-Higa, a 5-foot-4 senior guard who helped the Huskies reach the City Section 4-A Division semifinals this season, also was honored as the school’s athlete of the month.

Her No. 32 was the first girls’ jersey to be retired by North Hollywood.

Sotero-Higa, who holds the school’s single-season and career free-throw shooting records, averaged 10.4 points, 4.6 assists and 3.1 steals in a three-year career at North Hollywood after transferring from Monroe High.

“She leads by example,” North Hollywood Coach Rich Allen said. “She’s never missed a practice, never missed a game, and that kind of commitment is hard to find these days.

She’s done everything I’ve asked her to, and more, usually without my asking.”