Latest news with #CitySection
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Who are the athletes to watch at this weekend's CIF State Track & Field Championships?
Chaparral senior Keelan Wright (middle) is the favorite to win the 200-meter dash at this weekend's CIF State Track & Field Championships. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times) The 105th CIF State Track & Field Championships will take place Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis and though the thermometer is expected to rise above 100 degrees both days, many Southland sprinters also will bring the heat. The absence of last spring's 100 and 200-meter dash winner Brandon Arrington, whose leg injury in a league meet May 9 forced him to miss the San Diego Section finals and denies him an opportunity to defend his state titles, opens lanes for the fastest athletes in the City and Southern Sections to take advantage. A junior from Mt. Miguel, Arrington broke the San Diego County record (20.35) in the 200 at Arcadia in April and one week later set a new section record (10.21) in the 100 at Mt. SAC. Advertisement The favorite in the 100 is Concord De La Salle junior Jaden Jefferson, who enters with the best qualifying time (10.30, three hundredths of a second better than Arrington's winning time last year), but challenging him will be Antrell Harris of Birmingham (who clocked 10.92 to win the City title May 22), back-to-back Masters Meet winner Demare Dezeurn of Bishop Alemany (10.35), RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga (10.47) and Servite's trio of Benjamin Harris (10.44), Robert Gardner (10.59) and Jorden Wells (10.63). Senior Antrell Harris (middle) of Birmingham was first in the 100 and 200 meters at the City Section finals May 22 in Lake Balboa. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times) In the 200, Masters champion Sermons (20.97) will be in the first heat along with Temecula Valley's Jack Stadlman (21.24), Dezeurn (21.04) has the fastest qualifying time in the second heat, Servite's Jace Wells (21.05) and Newbury Park's Jaden Griffin (21.36) are in the third heat and joining Jefferson (21.11) in the last heat are Santa Margarita's Leo Francis (21.14) and Harris (21.66). Sermons, who announced the day before the Masters Meet that he will skip his senior year of high school to play football at USC, clocked a career-best 20.88 at the Baseline League finals and will try to beat Arrington's winning time of 20.55 last year. Advertisement Servite freshman Jaelen Hunter (46.91) heads a talented group in the 400, which includes Stadlman (47.91), City champion Justin Hart from Granada Hills (47.45) and City runner-up Nathan Santacruz of Venice (47.48). Servite's 4x100 relay was first at the Masters in 40.40 followed by Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (40.77), which will be in the same heat Friday as JSerra (41.44) and City champion Granada Hills (41.78), and Murrieta Valley (41.55) will be in heat four with Birmingham (41.80). Servite also has one of the faster foursomes in the 4x400 as the Friars figure to challenge for the team title, won last year by Long Beach Poly, which won the Masters race Saturday in 3:10.83. The loaded field also features Cathedral (3:12.20), Mira Costa (3:18.73), Long Beach Wilson (3:14.93), Culver City (3:14.80) and Granada Hills (3:24.15). For the girls, Redondo Union's Journey Cole and Chaparral's Keelan Wright are in separate heats but should they advance they would go head-to-head in the finals in a rematch of last week's epic 100 meter showdown (Cole prevailed by five hundredths of a second in 11.36), however not to be underestimated are Malia Rainey (11.57) and Marley Scoggins (11.60) from Calabasas (11.57) and Carson's Christina Gray, who ran 12.05 to win the City title. Wright (23.21) is the leading qualifier in the 200. Other contenders are Rosary's Justine Wilson (23.38), Scoggins (23.59) and Gray (24.62). Advertisement Long Beach Poly carried the baton around the oval in 45.94 at Masters to avenge its loss to Oaks Christian at last year's state 4x100 final and the two schools could match up again Saturday alongside City winner Carson (46.84), which was third in Clovis last year. Long Beach Wilson, the state team champion in 2024, has the top qualifying time (3:43.71) in the 4x400 relay. In the distance events, Corona Santiago boasts two title contenders — Braelyn Combe in the 1600 and Rylee Blade in the 3200. Combe was second to Ventura's Sadie Englehardt last year and won the Masters four-lapper last week in 4:44.36 (more than two and a half seconds better than her winning time at the Southern Section Division 1 finals), second-best among all qualifiers behind Chiara Dailey (4:43.57) of La Jolla in San Diego. Blade ran 9:58.46 two weeks ago to break a Southern Section record that had stood since 1996 and cruised to the Masters win in 10:11.38. The Florida State-bound senior was third at state last year in 10:06.26 and she set a new meet standard of 15:20.3 at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in September. USC-bound RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga will try to double in the 100 and 200 meters at the CIF State Track & Field Championships. (Steve Galluzzo / For The Times) Stanford signee Evan Noonan of Dana Hills, winner of the Southern Section and Masters races the past two weeks, will try to defend his 3200 state title (he won in 8:43.12 as a junior). Advertisement Aliso Niguel's Jaslene Massey and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame's Aja Johnson have the first and second best throws in both shot put and discus. Massey swept the events at Masters (49-7.50 shot put; 165-06 discus). Johnson is the defending state discus champion and won the state shot put title in 2023. In the boys high jump, Mission League rivals Matthew Browner from Chaminade and JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame both achieved 6-10 to finish first and second at Masters. Harel cleared that same height to take second at the state finals last year behind Birmingham's Deshawn Banks. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bradford family: Giants in height and volleyball
When the Bradford family walks together on a beach, at an airport, in a restaurant, eyes turn. They aren't just tall, they're giants. They aren't a basketball family — they play volleyball. On Memorial Day, mom, dad, daughter and son were at the beach looking for games. Lee Bradford was a 6-foot-7 middle blocker at Pepperdine in the 1990s. His wife, Sara, is 6-1 and played basketball at Fordham. Their oldest daughter, Carissa, was the 6-2 City Section volleyball player of the year at Granada Hills, played at Tennessee and South Alabama and is now head coach at Bates College. Advertisement Their son, Derek, is 6-8, won a CIF title with Royal and now trains with the USA beach volleyball team. Their son, Grayson, is a 6-11 senior at Mira Costa and plays for a state championship on Saturday in Fresno. He's committed to UCLA. Even the youngest in the family, 12-year-old daughter Brooke, is 5-10 and headed for volleyball stardom. Talk about good height genes — no giant shoes go unused in this family. Dad gave his kids a choice growing up. 'I love the sport and offered free private lessons,' he said. They took him up and the rest is history. Lee has been a teacher at Granada Hills and used to be an assistant coach to Tom Harp. He eventually moved his family to Manhattan Beach after driving to the South Bay for years for club competition. Advertisement 'We made a really good decision four years ago to go to a high level club program,' he said. 'It's been a great journey.' Grayson has been a key player for Mira Costa, which won the Southern Section Division 1 championship, then the Southern California regional championship and play San José Archbishop Mitty in the first state Division 1 boys title match on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Fresno City College. It's a weekend for championships. The Southern Section baseball will be held Friday and Saturday at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach. The Southern Section softball finals are Friday and Saturday in Irvine. Advertisement The state track and field championships will be Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis (temperatures will hit triple digits). The state tennis championships are Saturday in Fresno. The City Section softball finals are Saturday at Cal State Northridge. Tuesday's Division 1 baseball semifinals produced a shocker. No. 1-seeded Corona, which started the year considered as high school baseball's version of the Dodgers, was beaten by St. John Bosco 2-0. It was the first high school pitching defeat for Seth Hernandez, who came in 18-0. St. John Bosco has unleashed a closer extraordinaire in junior Jack Champlin. Last week, in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied, Villa Park had the winning run on third and Champlin was brought in to get a strikeout. He threw 2 1/3 hitless relief before the Braves won 5-4 in nine innings. Advertisement He was inserted into the game with a 2-0 count, one runner on and one out in the seventh inning against Corona. He walked the first first batter, then got a strikeout and fly out to end the game. He said of the situation, "'I love it,' he said. 'There's close to 1,000 people and it's electric. I didn't feel any pressure, didn't feel nervous. It's just fun to compete against all these Power 5 players." That kind of closer's mentality and confidence should help St. John Bosco in Friday's 7 p.m. Division final against Santa Margarita at Cal State Fullerton. Champlin will gladly take the ball whenever coach Andy Rojo offers it. Advertisement 'I haven't had a blown save,' he said. That's not the kiss of death. That's a teenager who wants the ball with the game on the line. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Bradford family: Giants in height and volleyball
When the Bradford family walks together on a beach, at an airport, in a restaurant, eyes turn. They aren't just tall, they're giants. They aren't a basketball family — they play volleyball. On Memorial Day, mom, dad, daughter and son were at the beach looking for games. Lee Bradford was a 6-foot-7 middle blocker at Pepperdine in the 1990s. His wife, Sara, is 6-1 and played basketball at Fordham. Their oldest daughter, Carissa, was the 6-2 City Section volleyball player of the year at Granada Hills, played at Tennessee and South Alabama and is now head coach at Bates College. Their son, Derek, is 6-8, won a CIF title with Royal and now trains with the USA beach volleyball team. Their son, Grayson, is a 6-11 senior at Mira Costa and plays for a state championship on Saturday in Fresno. He's committed to UCLA. Even the youngest in the family, 12-year-old daughter Brooke, is 5-10 and headed for volleyball stardom. Talk about good height genes — no giant shoes go unused in this family. Dad gave his kids a choice growing up. 'I love the sport and offered free private lessons,' he said. They took him up and the rest is history. Lee has been a teacher at Granada Hills and used to be an assistant coach to Tom Harp. He eventually moved his family to Manhattan Beach after driving to the South Bay for years for club competition. 'We made a really good decision four years ago to go to a high level club program,' he said. 'It's been a great journey.' Grayson has been a key player for Mira Costa, which won the Southern Section Division 1 championship, then the Southern California regional championship and play San José Archbishop Mitty in the first state Division 1 boys title match on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Fresno City College. It's a weekend for championships. The Southern Section baseball will be held Friday and Saturday at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach. The Southern Section softball finals are Friday and Saturday in Irvine. The state track and field championships will be Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High in Clovis (temperatures will hit triple digits). The state tennis championships are Saturday in Fresno. The City Section softball finals are Saturday at Cal State Northridge. Tuesday's Division 1 baseball semifinals produced a shocker. No. 1-seeded Corona, which started the year considered as high school baseball's version of the Dodgers, was beaten by St. John Bosco 2-0. It was the first high school pitching defeat for Seth Hernandez, who came in 18-0. St. John Bosco has unleashed a closer extraordinaire in junior Jack Champlin. Last week, in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied, Villa Park had the winning run on third and Champlin was brought in to get a strikeout. He threw 2 1/3 hitless relief before the Braves won 5-4 in nine innings. He was inserted into the game with a 2-0 count, one runner on and one out in the seventh inning against Corona. He walked the first first batter, then got a strikeout and fly out to end the game. He said of the situation, ''I love it,' he said. 'There's close to 1,000 people and it's electric. I didn't feel any pressure, didn't feel nervous. It's just fun to compete against all these Power 5 players.' That kind of closer's mentality and confidence should help St. John Bosco in Friday's 7 p.m. Division final against Santa Margarita at Cal State Fullerton. Champlin will gladly take the ball whenever coach Andy Rojo offers it. 'I haven't had a blown save,' he said. That's not the kiss of death. That's a teenager who wants the ball with the game on the line.
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep Rally: High school football is changing, but for the better or for the worse?
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. Whether you've been paying attention or not, high school football is changing. Let's discuss. Rolling your eyes has been the theme if you follow college football and high school football. Changes keep happening because rules are in flux regarding name, image and likeness. Transfer numbers keep growing. Agents are picking up clients who are teenagers. Parents are examining options. Coaches are adjusting on the fly. It's the best of times and the worst of times. Many believe things will settle when court cases are finalized. Others believe amateur football has been changed forever. Here's a look at some of the issues, good and bad, that are affecting the high school football world. Devin Gonor of El Camino Real proved Saturday at Dodger Stadium that trusting the process still works. He played on the freshman team, then the junior varsity team for two years. He waited his turn, made his varsity debut last season as a junior and this season is 11-1 and pitched a three-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over Venice to give El Camino Real its 10th City Section Open Division title. Here's a look at how the Royals did it. Carson won its first ever City Section title in baseball by taking the Division I crown with a 3-1 comeback win over rival Banning at Dodger Stadium. Here's the report. The final week of the Southern Section season begins Tuesday with semifinals in Division 1 featuring Corona at St. John Bosco and Crespi at Santa Margarita. Here's a report on the quarterfinals that saw four close games. It also was the week Seth Hernandez of Corona hit two three-run home runs and struck out 10 in an impressive playoff performance. He'll pitch Tuesday. Here's a report. And Venice's Canon King went five for five in a semifinal win over Sylmar. Here's the report. Here's the complete Tuesday schedule. It will be El Modena playing Norco for the Southern Section Division 1 softball championship this weekend in Irvine. El Modena came through earlier in the week with a comeback semifinal win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Here's the report. On Saturday, Norco defeated Ayala and El Modena knocked off Temescal Canyon to reach the final in a season where hitters have had the advantage over pitchers. Here's the report. The City Section has its semifinals Wednesday with Granada Hills hosting Venice and San Pedro hosting Carson. The championship game will be played Saturday at Cal State Northridge. Birmingham football standout Antrell Harris was one of the stars at the City Section track and field championships, winning the 100 and 200. He's headed this weekend to compete in the state championships at Buchanan High in Clovis. The weather report is for temperatures in the triple digits. Here's a report from the City championships. The Southern Section held its Masters Meet, and RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga was the top qualifier in the 200 and has one more week of high school competition left before he heads off to play football at USC. Here's the report. Joseph Wong of Granada Hills won the City Section golf championship. Here's the report. Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf championship with a 66 for a one-stroke victory. Here's a roundup of Southern Section team champions. Here's a look at Leary. Mira Costa has qualified from Southern California to compete in the first state championship in boys volleyball Saturday at Fresno City College. The Mustangs will face Archbishop Mitty from San Jose. Here's the compete schedule of state championship matchups and results from regional finals. Catcher Trent Grindlinger of Huntington Beach has changed his commitment from Mississippi State to Tennessee. . . . Former Bishop Amat football coach Steve Hagerty will become athletic director at West Covina. . . . Ethan Damato is leaving Laguna Beach to become girls water polo coach at JSerra. . . . Connor Ohl, a junior at Newport Harbor, has committed to Stanford for water polo. . . . Oliver Muller is the new boys soccer coach at Oaks Christian. . . . YULA and Shalhevet, two schools that pulled out of the Southern Section baseball playoffs to participate in a Jewish tournament in Ohio, have been placed on probation and banned from next year's playoffs for violating Southern Section rules about outside participation during the season. Here's an opinion piece on how the decision by the two schools will hurt coaches and athletes. . . . Former Chatsworth football coach Marvin Street has accepted a teaching position at El Camino Real and will become the junior varsity head coach. . . . Loyola running back Sean Morris has committed to Northwestern. . . . Kevin Reynolds, the basketball coach at Villa Park for 30 years, died Friday morning, the school announced. He was 59. He had been diagnosed with cancer. His teams won 634 games in his coaching career. . . . John Quick, who was a longtime basketball coach in the South Bay, has died. . . . Loyola's James Dell'Amico has committed to Pepperdine baseball. . . . Former Tesoro football coach Matt Poston is the new athletic director at San Clemente. . . . The CIF state championships in tennis will be held Saturday in Fresno. Irvine University has qualified. ... Darius Spates is the new athletic director at Verbum Dei. He's a 2012 graduate. Harvard-Westlake has produced some outstanding pitchers who went on to the major leagues, but Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs is the Wolverines' first breakthrough every day player. As a center fielder with electric speed, he has come into his own this season to become an All-Star candidate. He used to be a teammate of Drew Bowser, who went to Stanford instead of signing out of high school and is now working his way up in the minors. Crow-Armstrong entered last week hitting .290 with 12 home runs. He hit a two-run home run Friday against former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame pitcher Hunter Greene of the Reds. His senior year got cut short in 2020 because of the pandemic. Here's an interview with Crow-Armtrong from that year and how he kept his focus on the future. Here's a story from 2019 on how he had become a hitting machine. From the Washington Post, a story on what a rowing coxswain does. From the Los Angeles Times, a story on UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff, a Simi Valley High graduate. From the Los Angeles Times, a story on the new Compton High campus opening this fall with fantastic athletic facilities. Have a question, comment or something you'd like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer. Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Nathan Santa Cruz takes aim at City Section 400 title
Sitting in the Birmingham High bleachers wearing headphones before running the 400 meters at the City Section track and field prelims, 17-year-old senior Nathan Santa Cruz looks like a teenager comfortable and confident. Teammates gravitate to him. Maybe it's his smile. Or maybe they want to be near someone enjoying each and every day. A traumatic experience changed his outlook on life in the fall of 2022 when he suffered a brain injury in the opening football game for Venice High and underwent emergency surgery to stop bleeding. Advertisement 'We don't know if he's going to make it,' his mother, Crystal Clark, remembers being told at the hospital. Santa Cruz recovered so well that he played two more years of football, but his real love was using his speed in track. Last season he finished second in the City Section 400. This year, he ran a career-best time of 47.74 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational. On Thursday, he'll have a rematch against Justin Hart of Granada Hills in the 400 final. They ran one-two last season. 'I think it's going to be a real competitive race,' Santa Cruz said. 'I'm going to try to come out on top.' If he doesn't finish first, he's already won. He has a track scholarship waiting for him at Cal Poly Pomona, where he plans to study business or criminology. And he has grown up fast because of what happened to him. He's no normal teenager when you listen to what he believes. Advertisement 'At the end of the day, it's God giving you another chance to wake up,' he said. 'Make sure I'm better than yesterday. That's what I do.' His competitor, Hart, has his own story to tell. He's the son of Kentucky basketball assistant coach Jason Hart, who spent 10 years in the NBA. An older brother, Jason II, also played basketball but Justin was different. Justin played lots of sports, including basketball, but when he was 7, he told his father, 'I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want you to waste your money." He wanted to run. "I didn't want to be in my dad's shadow. I wanted to create my own identity in my own sport," he said. Advertisement He won the 400 and was second in the 200 at last year's City final. He's going for a sweep on Thursday and is just getting started. "I think the ceiling is really high," Granada Hills coach Johnny Wiley said. He'll welcome his father and mother in the bleachers cheering loudly. There really won't be any losers when Hart and Santa Cruz square off. They come from great families and have learned lessons that will help them succeed for years to come. Santa Cruz makes it clear he runs to make his mother proud because he'll never forget a memory from his hospital experience. 'Seeing her cry at the hospital, I knew I had to go make an impact in her life, make it so she didn't have to pay for her kid to go to college,' he said. 'Seeing her smile, that's why I do it." Advertisement And when days don't go as well as he might like, Santa Cruz said he has learned, 'It's just the way life goes. I think God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.' Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
