SHP Dominates Best of Local Sports Feats in 2010-11

With the 2010-11 school year in the books, here is a look at some of the top accomplishments of the teams and athletes at Menlo School, Menlo-Atherton High and Sacred Heart Prep:

1. SHP Football: The Gators won their first Central Coast Section football title behind over Division IV defending champion Carmel. Carmel led 32-11 in the third quarter before senior Colin Terndrup scored the first of three touchdowns to ignite SHP’s comeback. The Gators eventually won the title tilt, 39-32.

2. Menlo Baseball: The Knights blanked Santa Cruz 4-0 behind starter Freddy Avis’ 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball in the Division III final to win and fifth in school history. The Knights should contend again in 2012 with Dylan Mayer, Mikey Diekroeger, Jake Batchelder and Avis among those back in the fold. Earlier in the playoffs, in an 8-0 victory over Scotts Valley in an opening-round game. Then senior Jake Bruml threw in a 10-0 quarterfinal win over Sacred Heart Cathedral. Menlo, which finished the year atop Patch’s , became the county’s first program since Serra in 1993-94 to win back-to-back CCS championships. Coach Craig Schoof was named in the small schools division.

3. SHP Girls Volleyball: Boasting a core of four sophomores and just two seniors, the Gators beat Notre Dame-Belmont in two fiercely-contested postseason matches. First, SHP won the CCS Division IV championship in , its first section title since 1998. Then the Gators overcame a two-games-to-none deficit against Notre Dame to capture . SHP fell just short of its first California Interscholastic Federation state title in 14 years, losing to La Jolla Country Day in at San Jose State.

4. SHP Boys Basketball: The Gators won and the program’s fifth section title overall with a 61-51 victory over Santa Cruz at Santa Clara. Senior Tomas O’Donnell recorded 14 points and 11 rebounds in the Gators' triumph. SHP had high hopes of a deep run in the state playoffs, but saw its 21-game win streak and season end at home in to St. Patrick/St. Vincent. The Gators finished the year 25-3 and were third in Patch's final .

5. SHP Girls Water Polo: The Gators won the CCS Division II championship for . In the final, SHP (24-3) defeated Castilleja 12-4 behind veteran goalie Catherine Donahoe’s 11 saves and another impressive offensive display from the loaded team.

6. Menlo Boys Water Polo: The Knights bested archrival SHP 11-5 to capture . Five Menlo players, led by CCS Division II MVP John Holland-McCowan, will . Holland-McCowan will attend Harvard in the fall.  The Knights' other recruits are center defender Kyle Bowman (MIT), utilityman Jacob Dorn (Johns Hopkins), driver Jack Finch (Navy) and goalie Keegan Williams (Bucknell).

7. SHP Swimming: Junior Tom Kremer successfully defended his section titles in the boys 200-yard freestyle and backstroke at . Teammate Ally Howe, a freshman, also snatched up two CCS crowns with wins in the girls 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Both Gator stars set a section record in the process: Kremer in the 200 freestyle (1 minute, 36.72 seconds) and Howe in the 100 backstroke (53.95). Kremer also teamed with Andrew Savage, Kyle Koenig and Bret Hinrichs to win the 400 freestyle relay in 3:07.36.

8. M-A Girls Water Polo: Senior goalie Emily Dorst helped the Bears hold off defending champion St. Francis to capture the CCS Division I crown. The 6-5 victory gave M-A its second section crown in school history. The first came in 2007 when Dorst was a freshman.

9. Track and Field: Menlo-Atherton’s Stas Della Morte finished his senior season off in style with . The senior’s winning leap was 22 feet, 10 ½ inches. A week later, Menlo School’s Sam Parker broke in the boys 800-meter race during the first day of the CIF State Championships in Clovis. His time of 1:53.52 was a personal best by more than two seconds. Parker will attend MIT in the fall and participate in cross country and track.

10. Menlo Boys Golf: Patrick Grimes missed acquiring his third straight CCS title by just two strokes in the year’s section championships in Carmel. The Stanford-bound senior finished in third place. Earlier, Grimes was once again named the West Bay Athletic League’s most outstanding golfer.

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Interested in the top athletic feats in other parts of San Mateo County? Here are the highlights from , , , , , San Mateo, and .