CHS Track and Field Head Coach George Green and his team are having a good spring season, with several of his athletes turning in performances, which rank them among the leaders in their respective disciplines in San Diego County.

Here is Coach Green’s report on his squad. "Thursday The Girls Track Team won the first eight running events, the high jump and the discus against Madison High School to clinch the victory.

Katherine Wingert and Jamie Klages had two wins each. Wingert won the 1600-meter and 800-meter runs, while Klages won the 100-meter hurdles and the high jump, the latter event at 5 feet, 2.5 inches. Caitlin Alley added second place points in both the 1600 and 800-meter runs, leaving Caitlin Bigham to run solo in the 3200-meters, which she won easily. Sara Player was third in the 100 hurdles and won the 300 hurdles in 53 seconds, followed by Danielle Eckert in third place. Player also took second in the high jump.

Beth Wittry, Megan Mushovic, Ashley Huston and Nila Heurtelou teamed up for a close victory in the 4x100 relay in 53.31. Heurtelou also won the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, with Wittry taking third place in the 200 and first in the 400. In her other events, Mushovic picked up a trio of third place finishes in the long jump, triple jump, and the discus throw. Alexis Castro recently joined the team as a thrower and she won the shot put with a toss of 31 feet, 2.5 inches.

Faced with an army of sprinters from Madison, The Boys Track Team had no chance of winning their portion of the meet, so no one was taxed in light of their coming participation in the Elmer Runge Classic Invitational, which was to follow Saturday. Adam Munns won the high jump with an effort of 6 feet, two inches, and Reid McLean clocked a 43.4 effort in the 300-meter hurdles. McLean also placed second in the high jump, long jump and the 100-meter dash. He was followed by Brent Gladney in the 100. Jake Ruzevick cruised to an easy win in the 3200-meter run in 10:40 and ran a leg on the 4x400 relay as a workout for Saturday. Blake Gorey took second place in the 3200. Gino Jacob placed third in the 400, Mike Mitchell placed third in the 200 and David Zodrow placed third in the shot put.

Saturday at the Runge Classic, Ruzevick placed third in the 1600 with a time of 4:25.62, placing him well within the Top 10 "Milers" in San Diego County. McLean placed second in his heat of the 300 hurdles in 43.02 and he was third overall in the long jump with a jump of 20 feet, 10 inches. Munns raised his personal best mark in the high jump to 6 feet, 5 inches, ranking him among the Top 3 in the county in his specialty. Later Michael Mitchell, McLean, Munns and Ruzevick teamed up in the 4x400 and posted one of the Top 12 times in the county this season in 3:33.26.

On the Girls side of the competition, Heurtelou won the Open 400-meter run in 60.37 and placed third out of all the 200 heats in 26.53. These times rank her n the Top 5 countywide in the 200 and Top 10 countywide for the 400, along with Wittry who ran the same time in the recent Sun Devil Invitational the previous week.

In the 1600, Wingert placed second and then doubled back in the 800. In the field events, Eckert pole-vaulting for the first time in competition, cleared 7 feet, 6 inches for sixth place. Castro placed sixth in the shot put with a throw of 30 feet, 3 inches, and 15^th in the discus.

In CMS action, sixth grader Sallie Privett ran four 6:21 miles in a row to place 17^th overall out of 2,200 starters in the Liberty 4-Mile run over the Coronado Bay Bridge Sunday. Her time of 25:27 placed her second out of all female finishers and first in the 12 and under age group for both boys and girls."

The CHS Sailing Team appears to have another strong team this season. A year around sport, most of the major events on the interscholastic competition calendar are held in the spring. Bob Anderson supplies the report. "The CHS Varsity placed third out of the 22 teams in the Gold Fleet of the Gaucho Regatta held in Santa Barbara March 27-28. The Junior Varsity Team placed third in the Silver Fleet at the same event.

The Varsity team consisted of two teams comprised of Skipper Blaire Herron and Crew Lauren Usrey, along with the entry of Skipper Tinja Anderson-Mitterling and Crew Heather Miller. Katie Eckert was the designated alternate, meaning she could be called upon to crew or skipper as conditions dictated.

The JV Team was comprised of Mike Crawford/Tyler Kelleher and Kelly Kephart/Jimmy Usrey. The CHS Sailing Team is coached by Willem Van Waay and Mikee Anderson-Mitterling.

Conditions at the Gaucho Regatta were challenging. The wind velocity ranged from 1-6 knots with chop and several wind shifts of 110 degrees or more. One race saw the Gold Fleet rounding the reach mark, stall while the wind shifted, then sail close-hauled to the leeward mark, and reach into the finish. Sunday saw very light and flukey winds.

Competition in the Pacific Coast Conference is extremely tough. California schools now dominate high school sailing on the national level. The Pacific Coast Conference Championships will be sailed off the beach at Fiddler’s Cove over the weekend of April 17-18, with the Top 5 finishers qualifying for Nationals. Spectators are welcomed to enjoy the racing."

Some final housekeeping from the winter sports season as the Boys Basketball Banquet was held recently. Head Coach Sandy Dillon named seniors Brett Milke and Tony Moore as Co-MVPs; Tommy Corcoran was Most Improved Player; and Cote Perkins won the Coaches Award. Milke earned First Team All-Harbor League honors and Moore was named to the Second Team. Milke also was unanimously selected to the CIF Division IV First Team.

Boys Volleyball Head Coach Phil Trotter is quietly putting together a pretty good season with his squad, while significantly upgrading the team’s schedule. Those are two elements that don’t often happen in the same year. "Playing tougher competition is part of the building process," said Trotter. "We’re playing a lot better than I would have hoped at this point of the season. We’re still young, so we will be inconsistent. But it’s a great group of kids who really work hard."

Recently the Islanders played in the La Jolla Varsity Tournament, and played Orange Glen tough in a 30-28, 26-24 loss. They also lost to eventual champions Torrey Pines, who are ranked in the Top 5 in the county. "The kids were disappointed that we didn’t win matches, but that’s a good thing. Other than Torrey Pines, we felt like we could play with anybody."

Playing in the Harbor League, the Islanders are 3-0 with wins over Clairemont, Crawford and Madison. Last week they bested Madison 25-13, 25-20, and 25-17. Jared Gibson led Coronado with 19 kills and junior setter Jed Considine contributed 34 assists.

"Andy Farmer played well for us in the Madison victory," Trotter said, "and the Clairemont match was a great win for us. Considine has been playing really well and is a good leader. Gibson is our ‘go-to’ guy and is doing really well. Alan Cooper has been playing well in the middle as well."

After the completion of Spring Break, the Islanders, who are 5-8 overall and 3-0 in the Harbor League, return to play Gompers Secondary School Tuesday and the Bishop’s School Thursday. "They have a great coach," Trotter said of the Knights. "It should be a really good match."

After losing their initial outing of the season, The Boys Lacrosse Team has come on strong and after a 16-2 win over Scripps Ranch, have compiled a fine 3-1 record. Emory Chenoweth checks in with a report. "With point production (either goals or assists) from eight different Islanders, the Coronado offense used balanced scoring to record its highest goal output of the young season.

Led by Trevor Serfass and Glenn Goebels, (two goals and three assists each) and Steve Torkington’s four tallies, the Islanders were in command offensively from the opening face-off.

Kelcey Fisher added three goals, and fellow midfielders Geoff Worley (two goals), Zach Todaro (a goal and an assist) and Chris Leary (one goal) all contributed to the offensive production. Rob Kelly, who posted a five-goal effort against La Jolla, added two goals against Scripps Ranch. Cote Perkins completed the Islander scoring with an assist.

Hustling defenseman Ryan Cummins led all Islanders in ‘ground balls recovered’ with six. Defensively, the Islanders played an almost faultless game, yielding only two goals, both coming in the latter stages of the second half, when the game was already decided."

The Girls Softball Team is flirting with the .500 mark this season and they added a fine Western League victory over Point Loma to their record last week. Coronado defeated Point Loma 4-3 behind the pitching of Sara Noceto. Overall the Islanders are now 4-5, 1-2 in the Western League.

According to Head Coach Ed Shanholtz, "Missy Lopez played well. She was 3-4 and scored two runs. Farrell Pompa was 3-3 with an RBI and Sunshine D’Amico was 1-2 with two runs scored." Lopez and D’Amico are seniors, while Pompa is a sophomore and Noceto is a freshman.

The schedule picks up after Spring Break with Western League opponent Clairemont at home Wednesday and an away game at USDHS Friday.

The Boys Baseball Team schedule is hard to follow, even when you have been nattering for several years, like yours truly. Typically they play in back-to-back tournaments around this time of year, sometimes with non-league games added in and around the tournaments. This year the Islanders resisted the temptation to further confuse your scribe, competing in and completing the City Conference Tournament, before beginning play this week in the annual Lions Club Tournament.

Just to add a twist, the Islanders are playing in Division III in the Lions Club Tournament, two levels above where they competed last year. Success yields tougher competition it would seem.

In any event, Coronado’s 8-1 loss to Point Loma early last week was followed by a 3-1 victory over Serra. These results allowed the Islanders to win their pool of the City Conference Tournament and advance to the tourney semi-finals.

The Serra victory was notable on a couple of fronts. First, sophomore hurler Kevin Couture pitched six innings of no-hit ball for the Islanders. Senior reliever Geoff Thorne pitched the final inning to earn the save. Another unusual element to the game was that Coronado scored three runs on a total of only three hits by Couture, Ryan Nunn and David West. J.T. Rogan scored twice after walking once and reaching base on an error. Nunn scored the other Islander run.

Now qualified for the semis, the Islanders drew perennial power Mission Bay and Coronado lost 10-3. Mission Bay went on to win the tournament title with an 8-1 victory over USDHS.

Thorne had two hits against the Buccaneers, while Couture and Rogan added a hit apiece. Also contributing in the seven-hit Islander attack were Blake Spitzer, Jacques Spitzer and Gill Ryland.

"All in all, we played good defense, with good pitching Thursday against Serra," said Head Coach Sam Ceci. "We made the most of the hits we got against them. We got overpowered by Mission Bay Saturday. They hit the ball really well."

Armed with a 7-5 overall record, the Islanders now compete against much larger schools in the Lions Club Tournament. An early-week Monday home game vs. Calexico is followed by a Tuesday game at a neutral site vs. Ranch Verde and a Wednesday contest at St. Augustine. Both Calexico and Rancho Verde have enrollments roughly twice the size of Coronado, so the Islanders figure to have their hands full this week.