Menlo Pounds Chapman in Season Finale

The football season ended mercifully for Chapman Saturday, but not before the Panthers suffered one final indignity.

Quarterback Zamir Amin threw seven touchdown passes and ran for another to lead host Menlo to a 70-28 thrashing of Chapman at Connor Field in Atherton. With five minutes remaining in the first half, Amin had already thrown five scoring passes, giving Menlo a 35-0 advantage.

Chapman (2-7) scored two minutes before intermission when Stan Villanueva connected with Andrew Blumen from five yards out, capping an eight-play, 70-yard drive. Villanueva also hit Gabe Giannandrea with a nine-yard, third-quarter scoring pass, before giving way to reserve Todd McLean, who threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Bobby Calderon.

With 10 catches for 105 yards against Menlo, Calderon set a Chapman record for receptions in a season. Finishing with 63, the senior from El Modena High broke Marvin Qualls’ mark of 58, set last season.

Amin was 22 of 33 for 282 yards for Menlo (5-4).

At the NCAA cross-country regionals:

Nilsson top local finisher--UC Irvine senior Kareen Nilsson finished 11th among 192 runners at Fresno’s Woodward Park.

Nilsson covered the 6,000-meter course in 20 minutes 48 seconds. Arizona State’s Lisa Aguilera won the race in 20:25.

The Anteater women’s team finished ninth among 26 teams. Freshman Julie Manson was 33rd in 21:30 and sophomores Courtney Baird (22:12) and Tessa Cendejas (22:14) were 59th and 60th.

UC Irvine did not field a full men’s team with just four runners competing. Senior Chris Evans finished 42nd in 32:03 for 10,000 meters. Stanford’s Jonathon Riley was the individual champion in 30:40 and Oregon’s Jason Hartmann was second in 30:42.