Palisades-News-June-3-2015-

Palisades NewsPage 26 June 3, 2015Boys Volleyball Wins a ThrillerBy TYLER KECKEISENSports EditorThe end of the school year at PalisadesHigh School saw teams dominating in severalsports. Winning City championships forthe school were the boys and girls swimteams, boys volleyball, tennis and golf. Placingsecond were girls and boys lacrosse.Although the track team did not take aCity title, there were individual standouts,who qualified for the State meet in Fresno.Making it to the first round of playoffswere the baseball and softball teams.Seeking its first Division 1 City titlesince 2010, PaliHi did not make iteasy for head coach Carlos Gray inthe finals against Carson on May 23After the Dolphins won the first twogames, 25-21 and 25-21, Carson rallied towin the next two, 25-21 and 25-17 andseemed to have the necessary momentumgoing into the decisive fifth game.But Pali responded and never gave upthe lead. Shane Stoklos, who was votedCity Player of the Year, put his team up10-6 with a kill from the left side. A fewplays later, Jason Wittbrodt’s kill set upmatch point, and the junior followed withanother kill to close out the match, 15-12.“I’m excited and proud how hard thisteam fought as they have so much heart,”Gray said afterwards. “This was our goal.There were times I didn’t think we weregoing to get there after we lost gamesthree and four. But we fought back andresponded in the last game.”He added, “We had to make sure we gotGolfers Win City TitlePaliHi captured its third consecutive Citytitle and 14th overall at the Wilson GolfCourse in Griffith Park last week. The fivetop Dolphins shot a combined 397 to tieEl Camino Real, and then prevailed on thesixth-golfer tiebreaker: Ethan Rautbort’s86. This was the first such tiebreaker inCity finals history.Jason Simon led Pali with a 78. Ray Yangan early lead [in game five]. Once we didthat, everyone took a deep breath and everyonerelaxed and played side-out volleyball.”The Dolphins appeared headed for athree-game sweep after controlling eachof the first two games. But, as GrayPALIHI SPORTS ROUNDUPand Will Holbrow each shot 79, Max Hagarshot an 80 and Grant Ebner had an 81.The Dolphins advanced to the SouthernCalifornia Regionals at BrooksideGolf Club in Pasadena on May 28 and finishedeighth (out of 10 schools) with ascore of 427. Yang led the way with a 77.Torrey Pines won the team championshipwith a 362.Another City Title for Boys TennisPalisades captured its seventh straight City championship in May, crushingGranada High, 26 to 3-1/2, for its 33rd title overall.The Dolphins swept the individual finals a week later. Junior Ben Goldbergdefeated his teammate, Jake Sands, 7-6 (5) 6-4 for the singles championship.Pali’s duo of Barron Chavez and Diego Huttepain defeated Brian Bonilla andDaniel Lin of Granada Hills, 6-3, 6-1 in the doubles final.Seeded No. 4, the Dolphins moved on to the CIF Southern Regional playoffs,but were upset by No. 13 Arcadia, 4-3, at home on May 26.Jake Sands, Lucas Bellamy and RJ Sands won their individual matches, butGoldberg lost, 6-2, 6-2, to Arcadia’s top player, and Arcadia swept the threedoubles matches against Chavez-Huttepain, Bailey Joseph-Jack Harrington andArvin Hedayaty-Alex Strohmeier, all in two sets.The PaliHi boys varsity volleyball team celebrates winning the City title at Carson.pointed out, “Carson’s defense is alwaysgood. They started to execute and showeda lot of heart.”Pali advanced to the first round of theState playoffs last Tuesday, but lost 25-12,25-22, 25-13 to host Huntington Beach.Swimmers Reach State MeetPalisades High swim teams are accustomedto winning city meets bya large margin. In the City finalstwo weeks ago, the boys won their thirdconsecutive championship by 343 points,while the girls captured their sixth title ina row by 314 points.Yet as expected, that dominance didn’ttranslate at the inaugural CIF State championshipsin Fresno on May 22-23. ThePali boys finished 76th overall with onlyfour points, and the girls were shut out.“The State meet was an eye-openingexperience for all of us,” said Nance, whonoted “there were 11 All-Americans in the100 butterfly alone. That part was crazy.[But] we were gratified to be there andnow have our sights set on somethinghigher. We aim to get more kids to thatmeet and more kids to finals.“The ability to continue on this yearafter City was incredible,” Coach MaggieNance said, and she was happy with theway her 19 swimmers competed, and howPhoto: Tyler Keckeisenmuch they had achieved this season.Sophomore Kian Brouwer, who wonthe City title in the boys 200 freestyle, wasthe only PaliHi swimmer to score pointsin Fresno. He finished 13th in the sameevent, swimming 1:40.44, compared tothe winning time of 1:31.08. Brouwer alsofinished 18th in the 100 butterfly andcompeted in the 200 medley relay (22nd)and 400 freestyle relay (24th).Freshman Roy Yoo showed real promiseby finishing 23rd in the 50 freestyle,26th in the 100 freestyle and 29th in the200 individual medley, while also competingin the 200 freestyle relay (31st) and the400 freestyle relay (24th).On the girls side, Leah Timmermanfinished 22nd in the 200 individual medley,26th in the 100 breaststroke, andswam on the 200 medley relay (34th) and400 freestyle relay (27th) teams. MardellRamirez was 26th in the 100 freestyle and29th in the 100 backstroke, while alsocompeting in the 200 medley relay (34th).