2015 Sports Year Part One: Plenty of highlights

The 2015 prep sports year is a week away from its completion.

Over the past 12 months, local teams and athletes racked up impressive performances, team and individual championships. It all started last January with the winter sports season, and continued through the spring season which came to an end with a pair of CIF Southern Section championships and a CIF Regional title.

Below are some of the key highlights from the winter and spring seasons that appeared in the Independent.

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January through June

Girls’ Soccer

Huntington Beach claimed its first Sunset League championship and went into the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs with a No. 2 ranking. The Oilers drew a first-round bye then survived Upland on penalty kicks (7-6), to reach the quarterfinals. There, they were edged on penalty kicks (6-5) by Long Beach Poly.

The Oilers weren’t the only team to find success on the pitch.

Edison was the second-place team in the Sunset League and the Chargers won a Division 1 first-round game (1-0) against Dana Hills but lost a 1-0 sudden-death second-round match to Laguna Hills.

Ocean View took the Golden West League crown and the ninth-ranked Seahawks won their Division 5 opener (2-1) against Montclair and blanked Rio Mesa (1-0), before falling on penalty kicks (4-1) in the quarterfinal round to La Quinta La Quinta.

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Boys’ Soccer

Huntington Beach won its first Sunset League championship in 16 years, Edison finished runner-up to the title and the Oilers and Chargers, along with at-large entry Fountain Valley, made the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs.

In openers, fifth-ranked Huntington was edged (1-0) by Santa Margarita and Fountain Valley lost (7-0) to eventual division champion Servite. Edison, however, advanced all the way to the Division 1 semifinal round. The Chargers took down Mission Viejo (3-0), Warren (5-4, penalty kicks) and Corona (1-0) but in the semis, their title bid came to an end in a 2-1 loss to El Toro.

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Girls’ Water Polo

Ocean View won the Golden West League championship, and Edison took third place in the Sunset League, and both the Seahawks and Chargers made their way into postseason play.

In the lone wild-card game in Division 1, Edison routed Costa Mesa, 21-0, to earn a first-round date with Pacific Coast League champ Corona del Mar where the Chargers were eliminated by the fourth-seeded Sea Kings.

Ocean View played its best through the opening rounds of the Division 6 playoffs, turning back challenges from Santa Ynez, Westridge and Santa Monica, to reach the division’s title match. In the Feb. 28 finale, the second-seeded Seahawks trailed top-seeded Pasadena Poly throughout and ended up with a runner-up finish for the second-straight year after a 10-4 loss.

“I’m so proud of the girls,” said Coach Melissa Fernandez who guided the program to its three title-game appearances. “Obviously, this isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, but the girls have come so far. I hope in time, with a little perspective, they will look back and realize what they accomplished this year. A league title, a return to the final after moving up a division, is a great accomplishment.”

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Girls’ Basketball

Four local teams, Edison (second place), Huntington Beach (third) and Fountain Valley (at-large) of the Sunset League, and Ocean View (tie-second place) from the Golden West League, turned in strong regular seasons to advance to the CIF-SS playoffs.

Edison, the No. 7 seed in the Division 1A tournament, rolled past Beckman (63-34) in an opener but lost (50-47) in the second round to Alta Loma. Huntington, the No. 11 seed in the division, was eliminated following a first-round loss (66-57) to Placentia Valencia. Fountain Valley, the No. 16 seed in the Division 1AA tourney, lost (65-36) to top-seed Los Angeles Windward which went on to win the division title.

In Division 3A, No. 13-seeded Ocean View won (52-39) its opener at Beverly Hills but lost (61-47) a second-round game to Lompoc.

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Boys’ Basketball

Edison and Los Alamitos tied for the Sunset League title and Ocean View shared the Golden West League crown with Westminster, and both secured automatic berths to the CIF-SS playoffs. A third local team, Huntington Beach, was given an-large postseason bid.

In Division 3A, No. 15-seeded Ocean View opened with an easy win (85-54) over Los Amigos but was eliminated after a second-round loss (65-58) to No. 2-seeded Corona del Mar.

In Division 1A, 12th-seeded Huntington romped past Katella (74-30), then took third-seeded Westlake to overtime before falling (89-81) to the Warriors. Edison, the No. 4 seed in the division, won its first four games by double digits with victories over Lakewood (72-56), Glendale (78-32), Placentia Valencia (68-53) and top-seeded Los Angeles Loyola (79-65), to work its way to the 1A title game. In an intense, back-and-forth division final at The Honda Center, the Chargers were upended, 65-58, by second-seeded Foothill.

Edison was seeking its first section title in boys’ basketball. The program also earned a runner-up finish in 1994 in its only other appearance in a division final.

“It was a well-played game and I am as proud of this team as any in my 30 years of coaching high school basketball,” Edison Coach Rich Boyce said. “From winning league to getting to the CIF title game, this was a year to remember. Great kids made the year even more special.”

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Boys’ Tennis

Marina, the third-place team from the Sunset League, earned a berth to the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs. The Vikings dropped an 11-7 first-round match to Pacific Coast League champion University.

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Boys’ Golf

Sunset League champion Marina, which won the league title for the third consecutive year, shot a team-low score of even par-360 at Mile Square Park in mid-May to win the CIF-SS Southern Division Team championship. Huntington Beach (379) placed sixth at the event.

At the CIF-SS Individual Southern Regional at Skylinks Golf Course (par 72) in Long Beach, Marina senior Patrick Pockels shot a low 67 to win the tournament. The Vikings’ Nick Swanson (70) and Ramiz Jamal tied for fourth and 10th, respectively, and Huntington’s Brett Bennett (71) tied for eighth. By placing among the top 20 at the tournament, all four golfers qualified for the CIF-SS Individual Finals.

Marina also competed in late-May at the CIF-SS Individual Championship Tournament at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs. The Vikings shot a team score of 402 which tied them with Woodbridge for sixth place. They missed qualifying for the Southern California Golf Assn. Regional State Qualifying Tournament by three strokes.

Marina’s Nick Swanson, MVP of the Sunset League, shot a two-over-par 73, and Huntington’s Brett Bennett shot 77 at the tournament, and both made the cut for the CIF/SCGA Southern State Regional Tournament.

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Softball

Huntington Beach finished in second place and Edison third place in the Sunset League race, Ocean View was third in the Golden West League standings, and all three teams advanced to the CIF-SS playoffs.

Huntington won a first-round Division 1 game at Cypress — the program’s first postseason win since 1991, but lost (8-2) in the second round to El Modena. In a division first-round game, Edison lost (2-0) at Valencia West Ranch.

In a Division 4 second-round game, Ocean View fell (4-2) to San Bernardino Aquinas. The seventh-ranked Seahawks started the playoffs with a pair of road victories, taking a wild-card game (5-2) from Lakeside before claiming a first-round win (4-3) at La Canada.

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Swimming

The CIF-SS Swimming and Diving Championships at the Riverside Aquatics Complex (Riverside City College) in May featured outstanding performances for local teams and athletes at the divisional finals. In the Division 1 Girls’ team standings, Edison was 10th, Fountain Valley 16th, and Huntington Beach was 32nd. In Division 4 Girls, Ocean View was 28th. In Division 1 Boys, Huntington was 13th, Edison, 14th, Fountain Valley 16th, and Marina 21st. In Division 4 Boys, Ocean View was 16th.

Top-10 placements for local athletes at finals:

Division 1 Girls: 200-yard medley relay: Edison (Riley Crow, Nora Deleske, Gabrielle Limon, Megan Kluck, 10th, consolation title); 200-yard freestyle: Taylor Newton (Edison, 10th, consolation title), 200-yard individual medley: Nora Deleske (Edison, 10th, consolation title; 100-yard butterfly: Carly Perri (Fountain Valley, fifth); 200 free relay: Edison (Newton, Katie Lightle, Le, Kluck, eighth), 100-yard breaststroke: Nora Deleske (Edison, sixth); 400-yard free relay: Fountain Valley (Erickson, Alexandra Brooks, Monet Favreau, Cassie Koger, eighth).

Division 1 Boys: Diving: Grant Newcomb (Marina, fourth); 200-yard medley relay: Fountain Valley (Justin Nguyen, Samuel Knott, Kyle Reilly, Josh Bernardin, eighth), Edison (Thomas Smith, Matthew Dalija, Zachary Nelson, Dylan Nelson, 10th, consolation title); 50-yard free: Ethan Wojciechowski (Huntington Beach, fourth); 100-yard free: Justin Nguyen (Fountain Valley, third), Ethan Wojciechowski (Huntington Beach, fourth), Thomas Smith (Edison, fifth); 500 free: Joseph Lastelic (Marina, 10th, consolation title; 200-free relay: Huntington Beach (Crocker, Cavano, Brehm, Wojciechowski, 10th, consolation title); 100-yard backstroke: Thomas Smith (Edison, second); Justin Nguyen (Fountain Valley, fifth); 400-yard free relay: Huntington Beach (Crocker, Cavano, Brehm, Wojciechowski, 10th, consolation title),

Division 4 Girls (Ocean View only): 200-yard medley relay: Serena Ly, Hannah Cook, Brittany Yang, Shannon Graham, eighth.

Division 4 Boys (Ocean View only): Diving: Garrett Brown, sixth; 200-yard medley relay: Thomas Powell-Horan, Ryan Balajadia, Christian Estiamba, Tanner Johnson, seventh; 100-yard butterfly: Christian Estiamba, 55.40, eighth.

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Track and Field

Three Huntington Beach athletes turned in top marks and won their respective event titles in May at the CIF Southern Section Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

In Division 1, Junior Cassie Durgy of Huntington Beach High won the girls’ 800-meter run (Fountain Valley senior Natalie Grohmann was fifth), and Huntington senior Taylor Eddleman won the girls’ high jump. In Division 2, Jett Gordon of Marina won the boys’ pole vault.

Other top finishes turned in by local athletes:

Girls’ Division 1 -- 1,600 meter run: Julia Sienski, Edison (fourth); 3,200 meter run: Julia Sienski, Edison (fifth); 4x400 meter relay: Fountain Valley (seventh).

Boys’ Division 1 -- 1,600 meter run: George Gleason, Huntington Beach (fourth); High jump: AJ Beynon, Edison (fifth).

In the finals girls’ Division 1 team standings, Huntington finished in eighth place, Edison was 19th and Fountain Valley was 27th. In the finals boys’ Division 1 team standings, Huntington placed 29th and Edison was 36th. In the finals boys’ Division 2 team standings, Marina took 22nd.

At the CIF Masters Meet at Cerritos College on the final weekend in May, local athletes earned seven top-10 finishes including three top-five placements: Huntington’s Cassie Durgy was third in the girls’ 800 meters, Huntington senior George Gleason took second in the boys’ 1,600 meters, and Marina junior Jett Gordon was second in the boys’ pole vault.

Other top finishes included Fountain Valley senior Natalie Grohmann placing eighth in the girls’ 800, Edison senior Julia Sienski was eighth in the girls’ 1,600 meters and sixth in the girls’ 3,200 meters, Huntington senior Taylor Eddleman was 10th in the girls’ high jump, and Edison senior AJ Beynon was ninth in the boys’ high jump.

Gleason (boys’ 1,600 meter run), Gordon (boys’ pole vault), Durgy (girls’ 800 meter runs), Sienski (women’s 1,600, 3,200 meter runs), and Beynon (boys’ high jump), qualified for the CIF State Track and Field Championships.

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Boys’ Volleyball

Huntington Beach once again played to enormous success in 2015, taking another season to the hilt.

A week after capturing the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title, the Sunset League champion Oilers returned to Cerritos College in Norwalk on the final Saturday of May to win a CIF Southern California Regional crown by sweeping the Los Angeles Loyola Cubs in the Division 1 title match.

Huntington, the top seed in the tournament, has won the last three CIF-SS Division 1 and Southern California Regional Division 1 championships.

“This team never ceases to amaze me,” Huntington Coach Craig Pazanti said. “They saved their best match for last. What a great way to finish the season. In the first set we played flawless. It was awesome to be a part of.”

Huntington, ranked No.1 nationally by MaxPreps, completed a 40-0 season, the second perfect 40-win season in a row for the Oilers. They were 34-2 in 2013.

In addition to the CIF-SS and Southern California Regional championships, Huntington won the titles of the Best of the West Tournament, Orange County Championships, and Sunset League, in the regular season.

“I’m just honored and privileged that I get to coach at my alma mater, and that we have been fortunate to have such success,” Pazanti said. “It is amazing.”

The program went into the off-season with another stellar stat intact: a 104-match winning streak. It’s both a CIF-SS and state record, and eight victories shy of tying the national record for consecutive match victories of 112 held by Salem High of New Hampshire.

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Baseball

Having battled their way through the rigors of the regular season, four teams, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Edison and Ocean View, earned their way into the CIF-SS playoffs. Two of those squads, Huntington (Sunset) and Ocean View (Golden West) headed into the postseason as a league champion.

In Division 1, Fountain Valley, the second-place team from the Sunset League, won a first-round game from El Modena (1-0) but fell in the second round (7-5) to top-seeded JSerra, and Edison (Sunset No. 3) defeated Long Beach Poly (5-1) in a wild-card game but was edged (4-3) by No. 3-seeded Agoura. In Division 3, Ocean View downed Lancaster (3-1) at Angel Stadium in a first-round game, but was eliminated (9-1) in Round 2 by Palm Desert.

For Huntington, the season turned out to be record-setting.

The group of players and coaches who made up the 2015 Huntington roster went down in history as the team that brought the school its first CIF-SS championship in the sport. The Oilers enjoyed a magical June Saturday night in San Bernardino by winning the Division 1 title with a 3-1 victory over Newhall Hart at San Manuel Stadium.

For the fourth time in five playoff games, Huntington never trailed. When the final out was recorded, the Oilers exploded onto the field to celebrate a first for the program.

Huntington has been playing baseball for more than a century. The school earned a runner-up finish to a section title in 2009, its only other appearance in a championship game.

“It is surreal,” Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure, in his 15th year, said of the milestone. “Winning a CIF title wasn’t even a consideration when I first started. My only thought was to get kids to buy into the fact that hard work and dedication will eventually pay off. We were getting abused by all of the local schools in league and it seemed like there wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. But, we kept grinding and over time, the culture changed.

“There was a lot of alumni in the crowd and there was some raw emotion pouring out of them because they know how far the program has come. This championship isn’t just for us, but it is for all of those kids who helped take the steps up the ladder to get here.”

In the playoffs, the second-seeded Oilers outscored their opponents by a combined 22-4, with two shutout wins. They maneuvered their way through Eastvale Roosevelt (7-2), Long Beach Wilson (3-0), El Dorado (5-1) and Norco (4-0), to reach San Manuel Stadium the final Saturday of the season.

“It makes the hair stand up on my arms thinking about it,” Medure said of the CIF championship. “Not the plaque, the ring, the banner or anything like that. What gives me the chills, is how selfless everyone is on this team. They all gave themselves up for the greater good. We believed in each other and had each other’s back. It was truly a team effort...what a team.”