Hey everybody. If you’re reading this post, that means the Valley Sun Sports Section blog is no longer. There’s been a tremendous change at the Valley Sun over the last few months and it’s been challenging, but ultimately for the better.

This blog will no longer be updated as of immediately. You can find my updates at the following blogs. For all-encompassing immediate news on La Canada as it happens, go to:

TCN North

For more information on news and sports, see:

La Canada Valley Sun Blog
Sports coverage for La Canada, Glendale and Burbank

And, of course, the La Canada Valley Sun website

This should be a big help.

I started this blog about a year ago, just trying to get more exposure for the paper while also providing a one-stop source for local news and information in the area. Since then, the Valley Sun, News-Press and Burbank Leader have done pretty well for themselves online and it’s good to see everyone having the same vision, of getting news to the readers as soon as possible while maintaining journalistic integrity.

I hope you enjoy the new blogs and that they keep you as informed as possible. If there’s any problem, please contact me via email, SethAmitin@gmail.com.

Interesting day in High Jump at CIF State as La Canada’s Jonathan Sparks came in 21st at 6-04.  Not his best mark of the season, but he is a junior and as his coach John Ford said, this year was to get rid of the butterflies.

Regardless, it was a weird day because a number of these boys have jumped over 7-00, and the winning score today was 6-08.  Weird, no?  Anyway, Sparks likely didn’t qualify for State finals, but there’s next year.  A lot of the top cometitors this year were from the Southern Section as well

Here’s the complete standings.  The fabulously-named Harrison Steed too first place and is also a junior, so hopefully we’ll see them both back next year.

Preliminaries
  1 Steed, Harrison           11 Junipero Serra         6-08.00q 1-0
  2 Beal, Miles               12 St. John Bos          J6-08.00q 1-1
  3 Sharpe, Jules             12 Oaks Chr /ss          J6-08.00q 1-2
  4 Ross, Nick                12 Vis. Murrieta         J6-08.00q 2-1
  5 Williford, Xavier         12 Franklin, Sto/sj      J6-08.00q 3-2
  6 tracy, mike               12 Windsor/ nc           J6-08.00q 3-3
  6 Gwacham, Obum             12 Ayala/ss              J6-08.00q 3-3
  8 Coles, Idarre             11 Redwood/ce             6-06.00q 1-1
  9 Sadler, Graham            12 Poly (Pas.)           J6-06.00q 2-1
  9 Robbins, George              West/ce               J6-06.00q 2-1
 11 Villalba, Maxwell         12 Quartz Hill           J6-06.00q 2-2
 12 McCullum, Phillip            Garces/ce             J6-06.00  3-2
 12 Ridge, Nick               11 Jesuit/sj             J6-06.00  3-2
 12 Bell, Darius              12 Highlands/sj          J6-06.00  3-2
 15 Ford, Brandon             10 Mt Carmel/sd          J6-06.00  3-3
 16 Templeton, Alex           11 Poway/sd              J6-06.00  3-4
 16 Johnson, Moriah           12 Crenshaw/la           J6-06.00  3-4
 18 Jordan, Tyler             11 Ramona/sd              6-04.00  1-0
 18 Haag, Mitchell            12 Upland /ss             6-04.00  1-0
 20 Rabut, Russell            12 Chico/no              J6-04.00  1-1
 21 Fowler, Leon              12 Reseda/la             J6-04.00  2-1
 21 Sparks, Jonathan          11 La Canada/ss          J6-04.00  2-1
 21 Hopkins, Ramsey           12 Torrey Pn/sd          J6-04.00  2-1
 -- Spikes, Maurice           11 St Mary's/nc                NH
 -- Taylor, Derion            12 Evergreen V.                NH
 -- Lima, Frank               12 Half Moon/cc                NH
 -- Trotter, Reggie           12 Birmghm/la                  NH
 -- Woffinden, Cory           12 McKinlyvl/nc                NH
 -- Pizzo, Jared              12 Redwood/nc                  NH

Nothing is going on in sports in the area right now, it’s looking like we’ll be doing stuff on LAFC and the follow-ups on CV and LC track and field athletes at the CIF State Championship.

If you have any stories or anything you would like to see published, please email them to me at SAmitin@valleysun.net.

We spoke to Zack Torres before the 3,200 meters race and he said his main goal was to qualify today.  He came in second in the CIF-SS Finals, a second behind Vista Murrieta’s Noe Ramirez (still don’t quite know how to pronounce it), and managed to pace with him in the early parts of the race—both were hanging around fourth or fifth place.

Along with Torres is his Pacific League rival Amar Moussa of Arcadia.  Moussa took the early lead in the first two laps, but fell to the middle of the pack at the 1,600 mark.  Torres was in fifth.

At the 2,400 mark, Torres fell behind into sixth, just behind Ramirez, but after the 2,800 mark, Torres found a second wind.  It was him and Moussa battling for sixth at 3,000 with Ramirez dropping to ninth, but Torres outlasted him down the stretch and nearly beat Isaac Chavez of Barstow for fifth.

Torres finished well in the 3,200, 9 minutes, 04.85 seconds, nearly seven whole seconds better than the necessary qualifying time to reach State.  But Torres was still mildly dejected.
“He’s run 9:02,” said his coach, Mark Evans.  “It wasn’t what we wanted to do, but he qualified and he ran a fast time.  We wanted him to be in the front for the win.
But now that he’s qualified, the goal is for next week.
“We just got to get him rested and make sure he’s feeling good to go,” Evans said.
Torres, who congratulated every racer individually after the race, was slightly disappointed and took no consolation in beating Ramirez and Moussa.
“I should be aiming for that pack ahead of me,” Torres said.  “I’m fast enough to stay with these guys, I can tough it out with the best of them and I’m aiming to do that at State.”
Two runners in the Masters beat the nine-minute mark, Heydon Wooff of Adolfo Camarillo (8:57.66) and Matt McElroy of Edison (8:59.00).  Ahead of Torres were two other locals: Sam Pons of South Pasadena (9:00.95) and Western Nelson of Burroughs (9:04.19).  Chavez finished with 9:04.50.
Torres said that his studying this week might have affected his performance, due to lack of sleep.

“I grinded this race pretty hard, but after I figured out I had qualified, I cruised to the end, Torres said.  “I have a perfect race within me and I haven’t run my perfect race yet.”

It was a brilliant day for La Canada high jumper Jonathan Sparks, who cleared 6-04 with ease, passing on his first attempt.  On 6-06, he knocked over the bar on his first attempt, but managed to get over unscathed on his second attempt and relished his victory with a fist pump.
With that jump, Sparks had snagged a spot at the CIF State championships in Fresno this Friday.
“It felt good,” Sparks said moments after the high jump finished.  “I wanted to PR (personal record) today, but it was still a good jump.  Six-six was my best jump by far, you can only do so many jumps before you burn out.”
That mark was the highest he managed on the night—nine other jumpers finished at 6-06 and all qualified for State as well.
“I’ve been at La Canada for 12 years waiting for a kid like Jonathan to come along,” said La Canada High Jump Coach Eric Ford.  Ford works as a physicist for a day job and has worked as the La Canada high jump coach for the last 12 years.  “We were hoping for 6-08 [Friday], but warm weather is better for jumpers and we didn’t have that today.”
When asked who the last La Canada track and field athlete was to make CIF State, neither Ford, nor the other two La Canada track and field coaches, Casey Mollett and Andrea Lust, could come up with an answer.
Ford continued that this wasn’t
“Jon is capable of jumping 6-09,” Ford said.  If he had to do it, I think he could.”
Ford stated that the goal of their visit to Fresno next week is to get over the butterflies and prepare for next year, when he’s a senior.
“We want to get over the butterflies on Friday,” Ford said.  “He’s the only junior at this meet.”

Hello all.  Tonight I’m at the CIF Masters, computer in hand, and I’ll be live-blogging the events.  We got two local kids in events:

La Canada, Jonathan Sparks, high jump

Crescenta Valley, Zack Torres, 3,200 meters.

Sparks is just happy to be there, but if he gets his game on, he may finish in the top 8.  As for Torres, he’s aiming for his first CIF Masters title and hopes to beat the dude who outdid him at the CIF Finals, Noe Ramirez.

More on this later when I get there.

-Seth

That’s it for the Rebels.  The Flintridge Prep boys’ volleyball team lost tonight to No. 1 seed St. Margaret’s 15-25, 13-25, 23-25 in the semifinals of CIF-SS Div. V playoffs.  The Rebels played tough and had a great playoff run, but it ended there.  More on this tomorrow when we get the full report from our reporter in the field, Parimal.

Congrats to the Rebels for getting this far, they were ranked No. 4 going in and they got to the top 4, so mission accomplished.

I was kinda sorta thinking La Canada would win today and thus didn’t update to tell everyone the game was today this morning–had to work all morning on Fiesta Days stuff–but unfortunately La Canada met their end against San Dimas today, 2-1.  It happened so quickly, the game finished in about an hour and a half, but La Canada scored in the bottom of the second when, with runners on first and third, Devon Zerebko hit a ground out that scored Amanda Ulf.

Both pitchers, Lauren O’Leary and Lauren Cox pitched very well, three hits a piece and no earned runs.  The two runs scored by San Dimas came off of an error as, with runners on second and third and two outs, and SD sophomore Courtney Hine hit a dribbler to  shortstop Anna Edwards, whose throw was slightly off-line.  One run scored and the other runner followed closely behind, scoring as first baseman Devon Zerebko wasn’t properly in position to make a throw to home.

The Spartans got a runner on in the bottom of the seventh and two outs with Devon Zerebko up again.  The girl they had turned to light the fire all year long hit a lazer to center field that nearly fell, but centerfielder Ariel Shore made a great diving play.

“Six inches to the left or to the right and that’s a hit,” said Coach KC Mathews.

The Spartans will graduate seven seniors this year, but pitchers Lauren O’Leary, Lauren Cox and Lizzie Miller will be back next year.

It’s been a great season for the Spartans.  Congrats to them and special thanks to Laurie and KC for all of their help.

Perhaps you’ve heard the news, but Flintridge Prep baseball and softball lost yesterday.  Here’s the story on baseball from Charlie Slyngstad:

The Flintridge Prep Rebels varsity baseball season came to an end 150 miles from home in their first playoff game when they lost, 14-10, to Kern Valley High School in Lake Isabella Tuesday afternoon. The Rebels collected 17 hits but stranded 11 runners on base, leaving the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings. Connor McCann picked up four of those hits, while Nick Ostiller and Royce Park had three each and Aaron Fried and Kyle McDonald had two apiece.

La Canada resident Fried homered for Prep in the third inning as the local team took a 3-1 lead, but several Prep errors in the bottom half of the same inning extended a rally for the Broncs as they replied to take a 6-3 lead. The two teams exchanged the leads again before Kern Valley scored six runs in the fifth inning against the Rebels relief pitchers to put the game away.

Prep ended the season with a 12-10 record, finished in third place in the Prep League, and went to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. All but two of the Rebels players will return next season, including seven of the nine starting players in Tuesday’s loss to Kern Valley.

All right, LC softball’s game was moved up from tomorrow to today because Paraclete is graduating. But anyway, the Spartans beat Paraclete today, 8-2, to advance to the second round of the CIF-SS Div. V playoffs.

Any playoff momentum that LC could get would have to start with the pitching, and Lauren O’Leary and Lauren Cox both came through.  O’Leary pitched three no-hit innings and Cox pitched a solid four with one earned run off a home run. 

The hitting proved strong too; Devon Zerebko was 2-for-3 with a three-run home run in the fourth inning.  Anna Edwards was 2-for-4 with a single and a home run, Amanda Ulf was 0-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch and two runs scored.  Lucy Phillipone was 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run.  Catherine Horner was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.

They’ll play the winner of San Dimas/Schurr next week Tuesday.  Location won’t be set until their game is played, but if San Dimas wins, it’ll be at LC most likely.