Great start, perfect ending

Mike Sciacca

The 2004-05 prep sports calendar was chock-full of many outstanding

contributions by local teams and athletes.

The school year began with a CIF championship for one team, and

ended on a high note with a Southern Section title being won by

another.

Here’s a look back at a few of the major prep accomplishments

reported during the just-completed school year:

October-November-December

* Marina High School wins its first-ever league title in boys’

cross-country by running to the Sunset League championship at

Huntington Beach Central Park-West. The Vikings’ Robert Peck wins the

boys’ race in a course-record time of 15 minutes, 23 seconds.

* Only one local prep team -- Edison -- advances to CIF

competition in football.

* Late in the fall, the Edison High girls’ volleyball team claims

the CIF-Southern Section Division II-AA championship. A primed and

hungry bunch of Chargers upends tournament favorite Mater Dei in the

division final at Cypress College.

Not only is it the school’s first section title in the sport, it

also is the only CIF championship won by a local prep team in 2004.

“We worked so hard this year,” says Ashley Collier, an outside

hitter for the Chargers.

Collier, who earns first-team All-Sunset League and second-team

All-CIF honors, is one of six seniors on Edison’s squad.

“We started practicing in July and we practiced six days a week,”

she says. “By the time the season started, we were ready. We went

into that Mater Dei game so determined. All that hard work paid off

in the end.”

January-February-March

* The Edison wrestling program captures its first Southern Section

championship by beating out 42 other schools to win the CIF Coastal

Division team title.

Edison juniors Romney Fuga (heavyweight) and Dylan Jensen

(130-pounds) and senior Jimmy Hynes (160), along with Huntington

Beach junior Nathan Borden (152), win CIF individual titles in their

respective weight class.

Fuga goes on to finish fifth at the CIF Masters meet and wins four

matches in Bakersfield to claim fourth place in the heavyweight

division at the CIF state tournament. Fuga is the lone Sunset League

wrestler to earn a top-eight finish at the state meet.

“Finishing fourth at state was a good feeling,” Fuga says. “Next

year, though, I’d like to win a state championship. There’s nowhere

to go but up.”

* Huntington Beach resident Bryan Osuna, a senior at Calvary

Chapel in Santa Ana, wrestles his way to a sixth-place finish at

state at 125 pounds. Osuna enters the state meet having earned

Pacific Coast League, CIF and Masters titles in his weight class in

February.

April-May-June

* Tori Pena and Joe Gatel of Edison High each earn a second-place

finish in their respective events at the CIF state track and field

championships in Sacramento.

Pena, a junior, clears 13 feet in the girls’ pole vault. Gatel

actually finishes the boys’ 1600 meters in third place with a time of

4:13.24, but is awarded second place when another competitor is

disqualified for cutting off Gatel during the race.

Pena previously wins a CIF title in the girls’ pole vault with an

effort of 12-feet-6 and Tony Guadagnini of Marina also claims a CIF

crown by running a personal best 1:53.32 to win the Division I boys’

800 meters race at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Twenty track and field athletes from Edison, Huntington Beach and

Marina qualify for the CIF finals meet at Cerritos College.

* Marina claims a share of the Sunset League baseball championship

and Ocean View wins an outright Golden West League baseball title.

It is the third consecutive league title for Ocean View, and it is

only a prelude of what is to come for the Seahawks: winning a CIF

championship.

Ocean View earns its second Southern Section title in baseball by

defeating Temecula Valley, 3-2, in a hard-fought game that went to

the wire at Angel Stadium.

The Seahawks end the year with a 16-game win streak and finish

25-5 overall.

Golden West League MVP Jeff Roth of Ocean View, a senior, goes on

to be named the player of the year in Division III. Seahawks coach

Aaron Kavanagh, who announces his resignation following the

completion of the season, is named the division’s coach of the year.

“They made it to the big game, and that’s the biggest

accomplishment,” Kavanagh says. “Winning it all is just icing on our

cake.”