Boys Lacrosse seems to be divided this year in San Diego County between the trio of ‘haves,’ which includes Coronado, Torrey Pines and LaCosta Canyon, and ‘have not so muches,’ which is everyone else.

Proof of the surprising strength of local lacrosse is that five of the top eight Division I programs in the state are from San Diego County. According to the LaxPower website, Torrey Pines is No. 1, followed by Coronado at No. 2, and the Mavericks from LaCosta Canyon are third in the state rankings. Poway is currently ranked fifth and Rancho Bernardo eighth in the same poll.

Monday evening, the Islanders hosted the Falcons from Torrey Pines, who had defeated the Islanders 8-5 in Mid-March to start the regular season. After their initial loss to open the season, the Islanders had won 11 straight games, including a 7-2 win over Poway and a 9-2 domination of the Mavericks.

Unfortunately the grudge match aspect of the contest never really materialized as the Falcons scored the first three goals of the game and carried that early momentum to a 7-4 victory. In fact the game was not as close as the final score might indicate.

Senior Cote Perkins scored at the 8:20 mark of the second quarter to get the Islanders on the board, with the score 3-1. Perkins then had a nice unassisted scoring effort with 7 seconds remaining in the half to again get the margin down to two goals, this time at 4-2.

Any hopes at a momentum shift were dashed early on in the second half by the Falcons as they ran off three straight goals to make the score 7-2 at the end of the third quarter.

Seniors Steve Torkington and Trevor Serfass completed Coronado’s scoring with goals a few seconds apart, with roughly one minute left to play. Junior goalie Kevin Chenoweth had a nice effort in goal, stopping 15 Falcon shots.

It didn’t appear that Coronado played poorly, but rather that Torrey Pines truly deserves their No. 1 state ranking. They seemed to be a step quicker all night and their passing, especially on the offensive end of the field, is really quite good. Add in a solid goaltender who will be attending perennial collegiate powerhouse Syracuse next year, and you have a team without an apparent weakness.

After their loss to Torrey Pines, the Islanders regrouped to dominate Serra 15-2, followed closely by a 13-2 win over Patrick Henry. In the victory over the Patriots, Serfass scored four goals, Perkins added three scores, and Glenn Goebels contributed two goals and a pair of assists. Also scoring one goal were Zach Todaro, Geoff Worley, Kelcey Fisher and Pat Murphy.

Currently the Islanders are 13-2 overall and a perfect 9-0 in City Conference play.

This week the Islanders travel to LaCosta Canyon for an early-week contest, followed by the regular season finale against USDHS, which was postponed from earlier in the season. Then the Islanders are off to the CIF Playoffs, where they are sure to run into several of the aforementioned ‘haves’ in the postseason.

Several Coronado athletes earned honors and accolades in the past week. Senior Jessica Lindsay was chosen to be a member of the Pacific Coast Lacrosse Team and will participate over Memorial Day Weekend in a national competition at Lehigh University with other high school regional teams. Junior soccer, volleyball and track standout Jamie Klages as verbally committed accept a scholarship to play soccer at the University of Nebraska, starting in fall 2005. The versatile Klages was the subject of a national-level recruiting effort by many Division I programs. Junior Ashley Copp has committed to attend Santa Clara University to continue her soccer career. This year’s Islander team Captain, Copp was also widely recruited on the Division I level. Finally, Junior Rachel Poe, who played right midfielder on the Islanders Division III championship team, has pulled off a rare double, helping lead her Nomads club team to the 2004 Chevrolet State Cup Championship. Poe has been a member of the Nomads for 2 years and her club defeated the West Coast Soccer Club by the score of 2-1 in the State Cup finals.

When last we left the Boys Volleyball Team, they needed a victory over either Madison or Gompers Secondary to earn the Harbor League championship. Well, they earned both victories and the title.

"We had a good week," said Head Coach Phil Trotter. "We beat Madison in four games, but two of the games were very tight. The team is learning how to come from behind and win. The kids feel really good about themselves and rightly so. They have accomplished a lot in one year."

For the record, the Madison scores were 25-22, 16-25, 25-21, and 25-22 and Jared Gibson led the Islanders attack with 19 kills.

Coach Trotter is proud of the strides made by two of his players this season. "Junior middle blocker Alan Cooper has really picked up his game this year and Jonathan Smith is a great athlete who has improved dramatically."

This week the team, which was a perfect 10-0 in the Harbor League, faces the Bishop’s School in an early-week game, and then host Eastern League leader Point Loma at 3 pm Thursday. "That should be a really good tune-up for the playoffs," Trotter added. The week is also important for Division III playoff seeding purposes. Trotter predicted that the Islanders would be seeded somewhere between fourth and seventh, depending on the outcome of this week’s games.

The City Conference Match Play Golf Tournament, played at the Torrey Pines North course, found two Islanders turning in outstanding results. Senior Kyle Worley defeated Coronado teammate Kevin Mathis in the first round, won his second round match against a golfer form Saint Augustine and then lost on the last hole of this third match to the eventual tournament champion.

"Kyle was hitting the ball really well," said Head Coach Lee Price. "He was playing at one under par when he lost. Kyle came real close to winning the whole thing."

Also performing well was Sophomore Stewart Harris, who defeated the event’s defending champion in his first round match.

Early this week the team goes into battle in the CIF Team Competition to be played at Warner Springs. Mathis, Worley, Harris, Taylor Hakes, Bryan Reed and Stuart Gallant will represent Coronado High School in the match.

Head Track and Field Coach George Green reports the news from his team. "Among them Katherine Wingert, Beth Wittry, Nila Heurtelou and Jamie Klages amassed nearly all of the 60 points needed to win a track meet in the final dual meet of the season Thursday against Christian. The final tally was 88-39 as the Islander Girls went undefeated for the third season in a row, and won the Harbor League championship for the third consecutive year.

Wingert had a huge personal best time in the 1600-meter run, winning in 5:11.6, a time that ranks among the Top 5 in the county this year. She also won the 800 in 2:29, the 3200-meter run and ran the anchor leg on the winning 1600 meter relay team.

Klages won the high jump at 5-feet, as well as both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles. Wittry won the 400, the triple jump and along with Heurtelou, ran on both the 400 and 1600 relay teams. Heurtelou also won the 100 and 200-meter sprints.

Caitlin Alley added six points with a pair of seconds in the 1600 and 3200, with Caitlin Bigham finishing in third place in the 3200. Alexis Castro won the shot put and placed third in the discus throw behind winner Megan Mushovic, who also placed second in the high jump, third in the long jump, and ran the 4 x 100 relay. Ashlee Houston placed second in both the 100 hurdles and the long jump and rant the 4 x 100.

The closest girls’ race of the day was the 4 x 400. Christian put a surprisingly fast team into the event against the leg-weary Islander team of Wittry, Heurtelou, Danielle Eckert, and Wingert, which required Wingert to pass the Christian anchor in the final stretch to win in 4:18.1, compared to Christian’s time of 4:19.8.

The Boys won by an even larger margin, 91-34. Jake Ruzevick won the 1600 and 800-meter runs, leaving the 3200 to teammate Blake Gorey, who also placed second in the 1600 and third in the 800. Second place in the 800 went to Brad Munns, who has just started to compete again after an ankle injury sustained during the basketball season. Reid McLean set a personal best in the high jump at 6 feet, 3 inches, with Adam Munns and Tony Moore taking the second and third spots in 6-0 and 5-10 respectively.

McLean also won the long jump and led a sweep in the 400, followed by Adam Munns and Gino Jacob. David Zodrow won both the shot and the discus, with Levi Lozano third in the shot and Brandon Hoover third in the discus. Mike Mitchell won the 100, followed by Leon Jacob. In the 200, they switched places. Alton Smith won the 300 hurdles and placed second in the 100 hurdles. The 4 x 100 relay was won by Leon Jacob, Gino Jacob, Mike Mitchell and Jeremy Hastings.

At the county-wide Frost/Soph championships held May 1, Mitchell placed fifth in the Frosh 400 with a time of 56.3, and Danielle Eckert placed third in the Frosh pole vault with a personal best of 8 feet, six inches.

Saturday Ruzevick entered the Oxy Track Invitational and ran unattached, winning his heat in the 1500-meters with a time of 4:04.56. He is now ranked second in the county in this event.

Also on Saturday, Sallie Privett set a new County middle school record for the 1600-meter run while winning the sixth grade race at the County Middle School Track Championships. Her time of 5:28.1 was under both the 7^th and 8^th grade records. The former record was 5:28.4 held by Jenna Timensky set when she was in eighth grade. Sallie also had the best time of the day for the 800-meter urn, winning the event in 2:30. To top off her day, she joined forces with Harley Reed, Elizabeth Stone and Allison Hart to win the sixth grade 4 x 100 relay. Ben Enowitz won the 8^th grade 1600-meter run going away in 5:08. Michael Davies set a personal record in the eighth grade 800-meter run, placing second in 2:22."

The CHS Baseball Team was reminded just how deep the Western League is last week, as they lost to USDHS 2-0 and Mission Bay 13-3. "Kevin Couture pitched well enough to win against Uni," said Head Coach Sam Ceci. "He only gave up four hits. We had seven hits, but we stranded six or seven runners in scoring position. We faced a pretty good pitcher and he kept the ball away from our guys. He lived on the outside corner (of home plate) and kept the ball down."

Designated hitter Josh Okerman had two hits on the day, while senior Geoffrey Thorne had the only Islander extra base hit with a double. J.T. Rogan, Couture, Jacques Spitzer and Bryce Blumenthal supplied the rest of the hits for Coronado.

The Mission Bay game was unique on a couple of fronts. First, Thorne, who catches and is the team’s late inning closer, started his first game as an Islander on the mound. All went well through four innings, as Coronado, fueled by a Thorne homer, led the game 3-2. "It was a good game up to that point," said Ceci. "Geoff has never faced more than four or five guys and he ran out of gas. We switched pitchers, they got a couple of big hits and it got away from us. We hit a fair amount of balls hard that they caught."

In addition to the homer, Thorne had a double, which accounted for all of the Islanders extra base hits. Mike Denson went 2-3, David West was 2-3 and Okerman was 1-4 and scored one of the three Islander runs. Thorne scored the other two.

This week Coronado hosts Clairemont on Tuesday and La Jolla Saturday. Ceci knows the importance of the remaining games and their impact on the CIF Division III playoff seeding. "These games are important for us, how we end up and hopefully get into the playoffs. If we win two of the final four games, we should certainly make the playoffs. The USDHS loss was important to us. Had we won that game, we would have set ourselves up potentially for a No. 4 seed. That would have given us a sweep of the season series with the perennial 3-4 seed in our division. Now we are mid-pack instead of in the Top Third. Our Western League affiliation should help us in the seeding. Our focus now is to get into the playoffs. "

Currently the Islanders are 4-4 in the Western League and 14-9 overall.

The CHS Softball Team lost to San Dieguito, Point Loma and Clairemont last week, but there were some bright spots according to Head Coach Ed Shanholtz. "We stayed neck and neck with Clairemont and were tied 0-0 through four innings. Farrell Pompa caught for us and played real well, hitting close to .500 for the week. We received good pitching from Sara Noceto and Kristin Barker and Missy Lopez has a hit in every game this year. Jessica Bridges has played a real solid first base for us."

The Islanders have two games remaining on their season, a home game Wednesday vs. USDHS and a road game Friday at University City.

Finally, the Boys Tennis Team lost to USDHS 13-5, but the doubles combo of Dan Schneider and Alan Hernandez won their three sets and No. 1 singles player Nick Ivarsson won two of his three sets. The Islanders, under the direction of Head Coach Robbin Adair, drew the 8^th seed in the Division II CIF tournament, but have to travel to an early week match at Otay Ranch High School.