Another year of feats

Another prep sports year has come and gone. As has been the case in years past, several local teams and athletes reached the pinnacle of their respective sports.

Below is a listing of some of the top prep highlights reported to the Independent in the last 12 months.

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Winter

Marina senior Chad Schaeffer (3-2), Fountain Valley senior Barry Gee (3-2) and Edison’s Scott Sire (2-2), Weston Hawkins (2-2), Victor Diaz (1-1), Aaron Lopez (1-2) and Eric Zumwalt (0-2) competed at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield.

The Edison boys’ soccer team, which finished last in the Sunset League just a year before, came within one win of playing for the 2009 CIF Division I championship. The Chargers were denied a spot in the title game after losing, 4-3, on penalty kicks to Harvard-Westlake.

After spending 16 years on the job, Marina boys’ basketball coach Roger Holmes announced that he would step down from is position at season’s end. In May, Holmes would be named the new head coach at his alma mater Fountain Valley.

The Edison girls’ basketball team won the Sunset League championship and reached the semifinals of the Division II-AA playoffs. Senior Bonnie Samuelson scored 791 points to become the program’s single-season scoring record holder. Samuelson committed to Stanford.

Golden West League champion Ocean View was denied a second straight CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball championship by Foothill, which posted 64-58 victory March 6 at the Honda Center in the Division III-AA title game. The Seahawks regrouped to win their first-round CIF Southern California Division III regional over La Jolla (62-47) but were eliminated in the regional semifinals by Serra.

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Spring

The Huntington Beach boys’ volleyball team won the Division I title of the prestigious Orange County Championships in March. The Oilers went on to win the Sea View League title and advanced to the CIF Division I quarterfinals, where they were eliminated by top-seed Mira Costa.

Edison won the Sunset League baseball championship, giving the school back-to-back league titles for the first time in school history.

Pole vault athletes Jeremy Kennedy of Marina and Michael Loschiavo of Huntington Beach took the CIF track and field season to the extreme, as both seniors reached the CIF State Meet in Clovis. Kennedy advanced to the finals and went on to an 11th-place finish.

At the CIF-SS Swimming and Diving Championships at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Edison fell two points shy of winning a second consecutive Division I title. The Chargers’ 200 medley relay team of Cindy Tran, Kylie Boyce, Abby Oshio and Nicole Boyce swam a 1:43.34 to set both a Orange County and CIF record. The Cal-bound Tran also established a national record (51.85) at the meet in the girls’ 100 backstroke, breaking the previous national mark set in 1998 by U.S. Olympian Natalie Coughlin.

Fountain Valley senior Cynthia Fascella claimed an individual CIF title by winning the girls’ 100-yard freestyle (49.80), was third (23.36) in the 50 free and also swam the first leg on the Barons’ 200 free relay team that won the event in a CIF-record time of 1:34.75. Senior Erika Lucas, freshman Jaime Dang and junior Shelby Webbert rounded out the relay team that eclipsed the previous Southern Section record of 1:34.94, set last year by the Barons. In the boys’ Division I final, Marina junior Nick Soedel won a CIF title in the 100 free with a 45.63 swim. Soedel was also seventh in the boys’ 50 free.

Marina third baseman Chad Lewis was selected by the Oakland A’s in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft as the 125th overall pick. Lewis hit .395 with four home runs and 24 runs batted in during his senior year. His coach, Paul Renfrow, stepped down after 27 years in charge of the program. Renfrow, who also was the boys’ athletic director, won 420 games and two CIF championships during that time.

In June, the Ocean View baseball team went to Lake Elsinore to play for the CIF Division 3 title and won it by edging Bonita, 2-1. It was the third title for the program since 1998.

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Fall

The Marina girls’ golf team went turned in a perfect Sunset League season to capture the program’s second league title in four years.

Edison pitcher Henry Owens committed in late-October to play for the University of Miami. Owens, who was 9-2 on the mound last spring, is expected to be an early selection in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in June.

The Los Angeles Field Hockey Assn. Tournament of Champions title game played Nov. 3 again came down to a showdown between Huntington Beach and Newport Harbor. As was the case a year ago, it was the Sailors who got the best of the host Oilers, this time by a 2-0 score at Huntington’s Sheue Stadium. The teams have played in the last four championship games, with Huntington winning the title in 2007.

Huntington shared this year’s Sunset and Orange County Tournament of Champions titles with Newport Harbor. The Oilers’ Brooke Berns, a senior midfielder, was named co-MVP with Newport Harbor senior Stephanie Storch of the Sunset League.

Two area football teams, Edison and Ocean View, qualified for the CIF playoffs. Edison, which was dethroned as Sunset League champion by Los Alamitos, lost in the first round of the Pac-5 Division playoffs to Santa Margarita. Ocean View, the third-place team from the Golden West League, dropped a tight first-round Southern Division game to Corona del Mar. Both local teams ended the year 7-4.

The Ocean View boys’ water polo team made an improbable run through the CIF Division 7 playoffs. The Seahawks, who finished second in the Golden West League, won twice in the postseason before falling in the semifinal round to top-seed Santa Ynez. Ocean View junior Steven Kornahrens was named All-CIF Division 7.

The Marina boys’ and Edison girls’ cross-country teams qualified for the CIF Cross-Country Championships at Mount San Antonio College.

The Brethren Christian girls’ volleyball team, which finished second in the Academy League behind St. Margaret’s, played the Tartans for the CIF Division 4AA title in late-November. The Warriors played well in spurts but eventually fell in three games.

Huntington Beach senior setter Jianna Bonami and Edison junior opposite Cassie Strickland are two of 12 players named to the All-CIF Division 1AA team.

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Early Winter

By late-December, several local teams and athletes were making their marks in the early stages of the winter sports season.

During the first week of the holiday break last week, both the Edison and Huntington Beach girls’ basketball teams traveled to Chandler, Ariz., to compete at the renowned NIKE Tournament of Champions. Edison, the top-ranked team in Division 1A, won the Anderson Division title and Huntington took the Red Division crown.

Last week at the annual Orange County North/South Challenge at El Toro High, senior point guard Dylan Garrity became Edison’s career assists leader in boys’ basketball during a 48-36 win over Tustin.