Laguna’s Boys and Girls cross country teams became the first school sports team to compete officially this season as they traveled to face St. Margaret’s in a dual meet held on Feb. 6 at Crean Lutheran in Irvine.
The boys team sat out a few varsity runners, and was defeated by St. Margaret’s, 35-20. The boys were led by Chris Drews and Will Goodwin who placed fourth and fifth both running 16:39. The other varsity boys runners were Freshmen Dylan Zevnik who placed seventh, and Theo Drews who placed ninth, Sophomore Connor Joyce tenth, and frosh runner Evan Stykeman at eleventh.
The girls squad defeated St Margaret’s 25-30 and were led by junior Melanie Falkowski who placed 1st overall running 18:20. Grace Wilson placed second running 18:37, Coco Reed was third running 18:39. Sydney Schaefgen (12), Meike Casolari (10), Morgan Zevnik (11), and Tess Brobeck (12) were the other varsity finishers who placed ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth.
On Feb. 13, the Breakers faced Crean Lutheran with the boys dropping the race 24-31. Efforts to obtain correct results for the Boys squad from Laguna’s coaches were not received in-time for this week’s edition.
The Girls team defeated the Saints 17-46 taking the top three spots with Morgan Falkowski at first, Grace Wilson at second, and Coco Reed finishing third. Also scoring were Audrey Sutton and Morgan Zevnick,
Remaining Schedule
Feb. 20: at Los Alamitos
Feb. 27: Corona del Mar at Bonita Creek Park
March 6: Los Alamitos at Central Park, Huntington Beach
State Revises Coaching and Athlete Participation Restrictions
Southern Section received an update from the CDPH that the original ban from coaches and athletes participating in both activities was only a recommendation and not a mandate as originally conveyed. Effective Feb. 10 the SSCIF restriction has been lifted thus allowing athletes and coaches to participate in their regular club sport seasons and the modified California high school seasons concurrently.
The National High School Federation has officially urged California to drop the state’s restrictive tier system. Only four National Federation members have yet to allow any high school activity: Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and the District of Columbia. The vast majority of the U.S. has had normal high school competition this year in all sports. The California tier system currently is only allowing cross country in Orange County. Football, Water Polo, and Girls Volleyball are still sidelined due to the state’s tiered requirements.
California’s spring sport season will begin in March for Basketball, Soccer, Softball, Baseball, Track, Swimming, Tennis, and Boys Volleyball.
The Sunset Conference may still have a single championship cross country meet involving all eight conference members. In the meantime, the Huntington Beach High School District announced they would restrict their high schools to regular season play involving only district schools in the sports of cross country, swimming, golf, tennis, track, baseball and softball. If other multi-school districts follow the same format, Laguna may struggle for opponents this spring depending on how the State of California responds.
Girls Beach Volleyball Now a CIF Sport
State CIF voted on Feb. 5 to sponsor Girls Beach Volleyball beginning with the 2021-22 school term. The proposal approved covers only girls. No proposal was presented for boys beach volleyball, which has been an official Laguna boys sport since 2014. The girls season is during the spring while boys beach volleyball is a fall sport.
Email Breaker Sports notes to Frank at [email protected].
