Victor Bryant

San Marcos Boys Volleyball Defeats Santa Barbara to Claim Outright Channel League Title The Royals Are Outright Channel League Champions For the First Time Since 2014 San Marcos celebrates the outright Channel League soccer. | Credit: Victor Bryant In order to win a Channel League boys volleyball championship you have to go through Santa Barbara High and the San Marcos accomplished the feat, defeating their rivals 25-21, 23-25 25-21, 33-31 on Tuesday night at the Thunderhut San Marcos outside hitters Mason Rice and Jack Wilson combined for 48 kills as the Royals claimed their first outright Channel League title since 2014. I couldn't be more proud of all of thy guys, but our outside hitters lived up to every expectation we've had for them all year,” said San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz. “With the build up to all this I think this was one of the best Santa Barbara versus San Marcos matches that has ever been played. There were really strong players on both sides of the net.” San Marcos has been one of the best programs in Southern California the last several years, but has come up short when it mattered most against the Dons. “In 2014 we had to win over at their place and it went deep just like this one in game four,” said San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz. “It just went back and forth with the outside just crushing it and we were standing at the end.” The 2024 iteration of San Marcos high boys volleyball followed a similar script in its ascension to the top of the rough and tumble Channel League. Set four proved decisive as San Marcos had to climb out of a deep hole after a Will Harman kill followed by a Santa Barbara team block put the Dons ahead 20-15. However, the Royals did not concede the set as a left-handed kill by the right-handed Wilson cut the San Marcos deficit to 21-19. A spike by Raglan Kear increased the Santa Barbara lead to 22-19, but San Marcos responded with two straight points, including an ace serve by Wilson and spike by Rice that tied the score at 23-23. From there the two teams went back and forth with Santa Barbara desperate to force a fifth set and San Marcos unwilling to give up on its historical achievement. “You've got to give San Marcos credit they fought back,” said Santa Barbara coach Chad Arneson. “We thought we were going five, it sure did look like it with the runs we were going on.” A kill by Jack Holdren gave Santa Bara a 25-24 lead, but San Marcos set the stage for a marathon finish with a solo block by Declan Mclintock that evened the score at 25-25. The two teams traded points until a kill by Harman tied the score at 31-31. Mason Rice followed with a kill that gave San Marcos a 32-31 lead. Rice then went back to serve and delivered a tough float that gave Santa Barbara trouble. The Dons scrambled to get the ball over the net and once they did a Jack Wilson poke found the floor to clinch the San Marcos victory, That's the best thing about volleyball, even if you're down by a lot and you're feeling terrible you can keep going and you can win no matter what the score is,” Rice said. “Especially if you work as a team and never give up on each other.” With the victory, San Marcos improved to 27-2 overall and 9-1 in Channel League play. The Royals are ranked No. 8 in California and No. 13 in the nation according to Maxpreps.

Long-distance runner is breaking his own records, and heading to UCLA in the fall.

Ava Carter is a stalwart in the sprints for San Marcos High track & field. League play is wrapping up and the post season has arrived for many spring sports bringing excitement and anticipation to Harry's Cafe for the weekly SBART press luncheon. Among a crowded room of standout athletes Blaise Snow of Santa Barbara High track & field and Ava Carter of San Marcos track and field shined the brightest and were honored as athletes of the week. Snow was a member of Santa Barbara's first-place 4×800 relay team that broke the program record with a time of 7:45.47 at the prestigious Mt. Sac Invitational. That time is second best in California and fourth nationally this season. Snow also finished in third place in the 800 meter race with a time of 1:54.34. “Blaise had a tough year last year, he had a lot of growing issues. We all know as coaches as athletes develop it is not necessarily a clear path and it's a lot of adversity that we all have to deal with, especially some of these kids, he handled like a champ, never complained and kept moving forward,” said Blaises' father and Santa Barbara High distance coach Rusty Snow. “He kept training with Andreas in his quest to win the state championship in the mile last year. Here we are fast forwarding one more year and Blaise is back on track. He is one of the best in California in the mile at 4 minutes, 14 seconds.” On the girls side Ava Carter continues to add milestones to her spectacular career at San Marcos with first-place finishes in the 400-meter and 200-meter at the County Championships. “She has been the leader of our sprint group since she stepped on the track,,” said San Marcos High track and field coach Marilyn Hantgin. “She is going to be missed greatly. She is hopefully going to go far in CIF coming up after Channel league finals on Thursday. She is headed off to Boston College to run and be a student. I am excited for the next stage of her life.” Freshman Softball Phenoms Dos Pueblos High coach Mike Gerken brough two outstanding freshmen to Monday's press luncheon. Brookly Hendricks and Zella Cassidy were both elevated to varsity and have provided instant impact. “The thing about having a successful softball program is that you have to have some quality freshmen come in every year,” Gerken said. This year we've got two very high quality freshmen. They have started just about every game for us.” Cassidy is the starting shortstop for Dos Pueblos and has been solid in the field and at the plate. She is a multisport athlete, who also excels at tennis. Hendricks is also a multi-sport athlete who starred at Dos Pueblos in flag football and soccer at the varsity level. On the softball field she is the starting right fielder and is 3-for-4 on throwing out runners at the plate. She has also hit three triples this season. Dos Pueblos softball is 13-9 overall and 10-3 in Channel League play. Boys' Volleyball Playoffs Set to Begin The CIF-SS boys' volleyball playoff brackets have been released and several local teams have advanced to postseason play. Channel League champion San Marcos (32-3) will host a strong El Segundo team on Thursday at the Thunderhut in its Division 2 opener.. Dos Pueblos (24-8) will travel to Upland, which went undefeated in Baseline league play this season and had a 19-4 overall record Santa Barbara will host Canyon of Anaheim, which is the second place team out of the Crestview league. In Division 4 Laguna Blanca will host Bolsa Grande in a first round match, The Owls went undefeated in the Tri-Valley League and are 24-5 overall. In Division 5 Bishop Diego will travel to Flintridge Prep on Thursday. Cate will host Beacon Hill in a Division 6 wildcard match on Wednesday.

Boys Volleyball Playoffs Roundup: San Marcos Cruises to First Round Sweep of El Segundo Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara Also Advanced to the CIF-SS Division 2 Quarterfinals The Royals celebrate their sweep of El Segundo. | Credit: Victor Bryant After a spectacular regular season that culminated in the program's first outright Channel League title in a decade, the San Marcos High boys volleyball team made quick work of visiting El Segundo in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs. Senior Jack Wilson led the way for the Royals with 17 kills on an efficient .500 hitting percentage. Mason Rice added 17 kills and freshman Mateo Burdick chipped in three blocks. Because there are only 16 teams in division two this is like a second round match and so the reason why we kept the foot on the pedal is that we want to be in the quarterfinals,” said San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz. “I thought we were pretty efficient with our blocking tonight. We've been trying to improve and I thought we got better at it tonight.” San Marcos started slowly, falling behind 8-3 in the first set before outsourcing El Segundo 22-9 to close out the set. As the match went on the experience of many of San Marcos' key players came to the forefront. The Royals have reached the semifinals in Division 2 the past two seasons. In set two, San Marcos took an 8-7 lead on a dump by Cameron Earls and increased the lead to 14-10 when El Segundo hit wide. The Royals closed out the second set on a solo block by Burdick. “He's got a big future for us,” said Kuntz of Burdick. “He's a real fast-twitch kid.” Set three followed a similar script as a Wilson kill gave San Marcos a 9-6 lead. The Royals advantage increased to 16-7 on an ace serve by Earls and San Marcos clinched the third set and the match when Charlie Magid cleaned up an errant El Segundo pass. “You just let them go, we've all been together for a long time. We are very experienced,” Kuntz said. “If we play our best game we're the best team in Division 2 right now,” The Royals will travel to Servite for a quarterfinal match on Wednesday May 1. Servite defeated Los Alamitos 3-1(25-19, 25-17, 21-25, 25-12) in its first round match. The two teams met last year in the quarterfinals with San Marcos winning in four sets. “Going down into Orange County is always a difficult task,” Kuntz said. “We've had a lot of success in the {thunderhut} over the last three years so on the road we're going to have to figure out what it's all about.” Santa Barbara, 3; Canyon, 1 The Dons defeated Canyon 25-18, 28-26, 17-25, 28-26 in their CIF-SS Division 2 opening round match. The Dons will host Beckman of Tustin in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Dos Pueblos, 3; Upland, 0 The Chargers overcame a long road trip to sweep Upland in its first round match 25-19, 25-19, 25-23. Dos Pueblos will host top-seeded Redondo Union in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Laguna Blanca , 3; Bolsa Grande, 0 The Owls continued their dominant season with a sweep of Bolsa grande in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs 25-14, 25-13, 25-15. Flintridge Prep, 3; Bishop Diego, 1 The Cardinals failed to advance in the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs after dropping their opening round match on the road 25-17, 25-22, 19-25, 25-19.

San Marcos celebrated seniors Ari Rabinowitz, Erik Perez, Dayne Dreste, Steven Bradley, Jaxx Satterfield, Logan Stevenson, Holden Bougie and Palmer Kostrzewa. | Credit: Victor Bryant Erik Perez delivered a lights out performance on the mound on his senior day and the San Marco High baseball team closed the regular season with a 4-1 victory over Rio Mesa on Thursday afternoon. “Really we don't have a plan necessarily behind him. He's just the dude.and he's fulfilled that role the whole year,” said San Marcos coach Wes Ghan-Gibson. “He's been doubted for his whole career here and he just has gotten it done every time he's been up there.” The Royals came into the day with an opportunity to win the Channel League title a win and a Santa Barbara loss, but the Dons staged a seventh inning rally and the Royals had to settle for second place. Sophomore Landon Johnson was a standout at the plate, driving in all four San Marcos runs. His single up the middle in the first inning scored Perez to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Johnson followed with a three-run homer in the bottom of the third inning that increased the San Marcos lead to 4-0. “Those two sophomores are in the cage every night until nine o'clock. I don't get the seel or the rest that I should be getting. I think the work kind of came through today. At some point when you work really hard something good is going to happen,” said Ghan-Gibson of Johnson and fellow sophomore Mason Crang. “Both of those guys grind, especially Landon in the sense that he's been doing his best to do what he can for the team and he holds a lot on his shoulders.” Perez walked the first two batters in the top of the seventh inning and was replaced by Crang, who surrendered a two-out RBI single, before closing out the game by inducing a groundout to second base. The Royals will now advance to the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs. Santa Barbara, 4; Ventura The Dons came through in the clutch to clinch the Channel League title with a 4-3 victory at Ventura on Thursday afternoon. Santa Barbara trailed 3-2 going into the top of the seventh inning, but Zeke Adderley belted a solo home run to tie the game at 3-3.The next batter, Jetner Welch, singled, stole second base and scored the go-ahead run on a single to center field by Liam Keithley. Santa Barbara finished the regular season with an 18-6 overall record and will advance to the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs. Dos Pueblos, 12; Buena, 5 Jesse Dimaggio hit for the cycle and Dos Pueblos notched a resounding win on senior day. The Chargers end the regular season with a 15-12-1 record overall.

Local athletes sign National Letters of Intent

Caroline Kenny received the Phil Womble Ethics in Sports Award for Laguna Blanca.

San Marcos and Santa Barbara also dropped their quarterfinals matches in CIF-SS Division 2

Tosh Whitworth singled to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning. | Credit: Victor Bryant The Santa Barbara High baseball team brought the winning run to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but couldn't cash in as visiting Mission Viejo escaped with a 3-0 victory in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs on Friday afternoon. The Dons threatened several times, but never solved Mission Viejo starting pitcher Kennan Anzai, a UC Davis commit, who tossed a complete game shutout. “They played like champions, there's nothing more I can say,” said Santa Barbara coach Steve Schuck of his team. “When you're down all you can ask for is to bring the winning run to the plate and we brought the winning run to the plate.” Zeke Adderley got the start on the mound for Santa Barbara and was cruising early. Mission Viejo did not muster its first hit of the game until the top of the fourth inning when Anzai singled to lead off the inning. The Diablos made that first hit count as Anzai came around to score with some nifty base running after a sac bunt by the next batter, Tyler Holland, and an overthrow to third base by Santa Barbara. Adderley minimized the damage by retiring the next two batters, but Mission Viejo's 1-0 loomed large. Tosh Whitworth led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to left field and he advanced to third base after a sac bunt by Derek Jaye and a wild pitch by Anzai. It appeared the Dons would tie the score when Adderley hit a high chopper to shortstop with two outs, but Holland, an Arkansas commit, made a spectacular play fielding the short hop before making a spinning throw that narrowly beat Adderley to first base. In the top of the sixth inning, Adderley walked the first two batters he faced and Anzai followed with a double to the left-center field fence increasing the Mission Viejo lead to 3-0. Adriano Martinez came on in relief for Santa Barbara and retired the next three batters to escape the inning. “It was one of the moments as a coach where you wonder with runners on first and second and no outs should we sac bunt,” said Mission Viejo coach Daniel Holley. “He's been our best hitter all year so we let him hit and obviously it worked out well.” Kai Mault legged out an infield single with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Santa Barbara stranded him on base and Martinez retired Mission Viejo in order in the top of the seventh. The Dons did not go down quietly as Whitworth was hit by a pitch with one-out in the bottom of the seventh inning and pinch hitter Braden Becchio reached base on a ground ball that slipped through the Mission Viejo third baseman's legs. After another Anzai strikeout, Adderley came back from an 0-2 count to work a walk to load the bases. Senior Cal Lutheran commit Liam Keithley came up to the plate representing the winning run, but Anzai notched another strikeout to clinch the victory for Mission Viejo. Santa Barbara concludes a resurgent season with an 18-7 overall record and a Channel League Championship. The Diablos will take on Chaminade in a second round game on Tuesday.

The Gauchos are 20-0 at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium this season.