The Talon

Freshman and Senior Make CCS All-time Top 100 List

The Talon — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:26:46 +0000

Freshman Lauren Jacobs and senior Danny Yeager made the CCS All-time Top 100 list for their respective track and field events.

Lauren’s 3200m time of 10:47.51 at the SCVAL Championship ranked her 42nd on the All-Time CCS list, while Danny’s 300m Hurdles time of 38.51 at CCS Finals ranked him 75th on the All-Time CCS list.

The list for the All-Time CCS records and All-Time Top 100 lists for each event are available here: http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/ccsalltm.htm.

First Day of School

The Talon — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 22:06:46 +0000

Class of 2013 Graduation

The Talon — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 06:34:46 +0000

Photos from the class of 2013's graduation.

School Receives Six Year Accreditation

The Talon — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 04:31:19 +0000

This week, the school received the final verdict on March’s Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation. The Accrediting Commission for Schools of the WASC evaluated the school from Sunday, March 3 to Wednesday, March 6, when they assessed the school’s classroom and campus environments by interviewing and observing campus life. Los Altos received another six-year accreditation term.

“The accreditation committee gives [schools] different degrees of accreditation, and we basically received the longest term,” Assistant Principal Galen Rosenberg said. “That indicates they think we are in good shape and don’t need to be reviewed [until the next accreditation visit]. This is the best level of accreditation we can get.”

The WASC committee ultimately described Los Altos as a learning institution with exceptional strengths: its academic achievement and campus environment. The committee identified the school’s diligent and devoted staff as crucial to the school’s commendable accomplishment. The school will check in with the WASC at the midway point of the accreditation term, which is three years later.

“We need to submit a report after three years to the accreditation committee to show that we’ve been following up on what said we were going to do,” Rosenberg said.

Sophomore Places Third in Badminton CCS

The Talon — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:22:22 +0000

Despite competing against a number of badminton powerhouses throughout a difficult season, Los Altos’ badminton team was able to send one player to CCS at Monta Vista High School from Tuesday, May 21 to Thursday, May 23: sophomore Louis Hinnant.

A nationally ranked player, Louis plowed his way through four of the other 14 players contending for the CCS title. Louis advanced all the way until the top three, where he faced off against Derek Chao, a senior from Saratoga High School.

In his final match, Louis focused on playing at a slow pace and capitalizing on his technique and skill. His style contrasted greatly with Derek’s, a more offensive, powerful and quick type of play. Eventually, Louis’ more offensive style of play gave him a narrow win over Louis. Derek won the first set in 15-12 and the third set in 15-13, while Louis defeated Derek in the second set 15-6.

Louis’ third place performance is a welcome improvement from last year. He and sophomore Albert Li played in CCS as a freshman doubles team, where tough competition and more experienced seniors pushed them out of contention for the top 8 spots.

“Last year there were a lot of good seniors playing doubles and we were only freshmen , so we didn’t have much of a chance,” Louis said. “This year, I was more motivated to do well at CCS. I was also singles this year, so things were different.”

Louis cites his preparation for CCS as key to his success and is looking ahead to improving on his third place finish next year.

“I worked on my stamina throughout the season,” Louis said. “Hopefully, I can take first next year. I’ll work on being stronger at closing out matches without choking.”

May 21–Dodgeball Player of the Day

The Talon — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:10:46 +0000

The dodgeball competition heated up today, with several teams winning in shutouts and others going down to the last minute. The Talon Player of the Day is junior Joey Malgesini, who led his team, Team Negative, to a thrilling 2-0 victory.

[Photo by Juliet Moore]

“Our team plays like a unit, and having attended the same elementary school, the chemistry is there,” Joey said. “We may not have the strongest of arms or the biggest of names but our success is embodied by our strategy and teamwork.”

Team Negative moves on to play DK in the next round. Good luck to all teams tomorrow, and tune in for the dodgeball finale!

Dodgeball: Round Three Recap

The Talon — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:26:53 +0000

After two more exciting rounds of dodgeball today, May 21, we are now down to our final eight teams and down to our final day of dodgeball. The tournament has gone chalk for the most part, with six of the final eight teams being teams that received first-round byes.

In today’s games, team DK had a dominant 5-0 victory over Fat Boi Fresh. Although Team DK is heavily favored in tomorrow’s quarterfinals against Team Negative, it will have to play against today’s Talon Player of the Day, Team Negative’s sophomore Joey Malgesini.

Two senior teams, PBMJ and Hood Prospects & Co., both won easily, defeating their respective opponents 3-0 and 5-0. The two teams will face each other in the quarterfinals. PBMJ beat Hood Prospects & Co. 1-0 in a practice game in the first round of the tournament.

On the other side of the bracket, two senior teams, Don’t Chase the Goose and Hawhy, will face each other after winning 3-0 and 2-0 today, respectively. Senior Steven McClean stars on team Hawhy and he will be facing his former team of the past three years in the quarterfinals. The upset of the day was in the sweet 16 matchup of the Phenom Freshmen and team All American. All American came out looking like it would dominate after winning the first game in 45 seconds. However, the Phenom Freshmen then ran three straight games by making several catches, helped by freshman Chad Dowdell. The team will face a junior team, the Chief Hunters, who won its game 3-0 today.

Tomorrow the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will all take place. Be sure to come out and see which team will be crowned as the champion, and which team will take home the best costume award.

Boys Tennis Rallies Behind Senior Leadership

Sports — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:00:44 +0000

The boys tennis team had another strong season in the De Anza Division, finishing second behind Monta Vista. The team advanced to the quarterfinals of CCS and also had their two senior team captains, Spencer Simonides and Anthony Bello, win the CCS doubles championship for the second straight year.

Even though the Eagles were not able to grab the elusive league title, they did manage to beat Monta Vista twice, once in league and the other in the Fresno Tournament. Monta Vista is known around the Bay Area to be a tennis powerhouse, so taking them down twice is no small accomplishment.

This year’s squad had plenty of experience as every one of the players returned from the 2012 team.

“It helped that we didn’t lose anyone from last year’s team, so the same leaders were continuing to lead and the fact that everyone was comfortable together on the team was definitely big for this season,” Spencer said.

For CCS, the Eagles were the fifth seed and received a first round bye. As they entered the second round of team CCS, they had to contend with a new format designed to prevent teams from stacking their lineups. This year’s new rules dictated that each school would have three doubles teams and three singles players, and every singles player and doubles team would play one set against singles players and doubles teams from the opposing school. Whichever school won more sets would win and if there was a 9-9 tie, total games would be the tiebreaker. Under the new rules, winning nine sets effectively secured a win.

“I know a lot of coaches have complained about the format change because it forces a lot more players to play three sets, which many players aren’t used to, and it is completely different from how all of the teams have played all regular season,” Spencer said. “I personally have come to like it though, because it makes it so teams can’t stack, even though this format change is an imperfect way to prevent the problem of stacking.”

In the second round of CCS, the Eagles faced off against St. Francis on a brutally hot day. The Eagles got out quickly to a 5-1 lead, and took a 10-3 lead soon after the second round of sets to seal the win.

The next match for the team was a quarterfinal matchup against the number four seed Bellarmine, where the Eagles lost 6-12. Bellarmine came out ready to play against Los Altos and jumped out to a 6-0 lead against the Eagles after the first round of sets.

“I think going down 6-0 just made it hard for our team to dig back into that match because we were down, and everyone knew we couldn’t lose four more sets in the rest of the 12 sets, which is mentally difficult,” Spencer said. “Bellarmine is a really strong team, they have a lot of highly ranked national tournament players, and we knew going in it was going to be a tough match.”

After the the loss to Bellarmine the season still continued for two of the Eagles, Spencer and Co-captain senior Anthony Bello. Last year, Spencer and Anthony were the first doubles team in Los Altos history to take the CCS doubles title. Knowing that they would have targets on their backs this year, the duo came out hungry for another title this spring.

“[We thought] it would be really fun to win doubles once and then win it again,” Spencer said. [Winning one title] had never been done before at our school, let alone having a repeat winner for the tournament. So we thought we’d do it both for the school and because it would be a lot of fun and a lot of competition.”

The two qualified for CCS after winning the SCVAL doubles championship before CCS began. Spencer and Anthony were the number one seed in the tournament, and did not drop a set en route to their second straight CCS doubles title. They beat the Valley Christian doubles team of Bryce McElvie and Bernardo de la Cabada 6-4 6-2, to win the title.

“We got a couple of [favorable] matches that helped us work our way into form and I feel like the finals of that league tournament we started to hit form,” Spencer said. “Going into the finals we didn’t take anything for granted.”

Both Spencer and Anthony will both be playing tennis at Pomona College next year, and they will go into college as two time CCS doubles champions.

Sophomore Takes Cycling to National Level

Sports — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:00:38 +0000

Students at LAHS are involved in sports both inside and outside the school, and compete in sports that range from football to lacrosse to horseback riding, whether it be for competitive or recreational purposes. In the midst of this diversity, sophomore Adrien Costa competes in something many students do to simply get to school: biking.

Adrien is a road cyclist, competing in a bike races ranging from local junior races to the country’s top amateur races, such as the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico. He is also a part of Slipstream-Craddock, a competitive biking team based in Texas with members who compete both individually and as a team in local and international races, stage races and time trials.

Adrien was first inspired to start competitive cycling when he watched the Tour de France on TV when he was eight. When he went out for a bike ride shortly after, Adrien knew this was the sport for him.

“After going out on an old mountain bike on the local hills, I was hooked,” Adrien said. “I love the speed, freedom and exploration that is possible through cycling. Riding to breathtaking places that nobody knows of is really special to the sport, which makes training so much more enjoyable.”

Due to the rigor of the sport, Adrien spends a lot of his time outside of school training for races. His usual training hours consist of climbing local hills, completing interval workouts and sprinting to improve his capacity on every terrain. Because the races he participates in can be as long as 120 miles, Adrien finds himself on the road up to 25 hours a week.

Although he enjoys the time he spends to improve, Adrien acknowledges that it has its drawbacks — he has to sacrifice time from other activities and follow a strict diet. However, Adrien believes that the pros outweigh the cons.

“There are countless physical benefits to cycling, including health, mental clearness and the ability to overcome obstacles,” Adrien said. “Cycling has also brought me to beautiful places throughout the world that would otherwise be overlooked by normal people.”

One day, Adrien hopes to become professional and join a European team. While he plans on going to college, Adrien only wants higher education as a backup plan if cycling itself isn’t able to financially support him. But regardless of what he decides to do, Adrien knows that cycling will definitely be a part of his future.

“I want to live the dream life — getting paid to do what you love and travel the world,” Adrien said. “But really, enjoying the sport, the countless adventures, the fresh air, the views, the exhilaration of going down a descent, pushing yourself to your physical and mental limit — the little things that make the sport beautiful — is what I want the most.”

Lacrosse Takes League Title for Second Consecutive Year

Sports — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:00:27 +0000

Lacrosse paralleled the success of last year’s team by claiming the league title this season. Even though the team was relatively young this spring, it still managed to excel and meet its high expectations.

The team ended its season at the top of the El Camino division, but its success wasn’t immediate. Early in the season, the relatively young team faced off against some of the top teams in the Bay Area, and as a result sustained a few losses to teams like St. Mary’s High School, St. Francis High School and Dougherty Valley High School.

In addition, the team was hindered by the absence of two seniors due to injury. Co-captain senior Daniel Kahan broke his collarbone in a skiing accident just before the start of the the season and senior Andrew Thomas sustained a knee injury during rock climbing that also kept him from participating.

After persevering through injury and tough matchups early in the season, the Eagles came out with fire as the season progressed. Early difficulties helped the team rally together, and the team was able to finish the season with a 10-2 in-league record. By the end of the season, the Eagles had claimed the El Camino League title for the second time in school history. Along the way, Los Altos took down top teams like Saratoga, Woodside and Sequoia.

Daniel cites the team’s athleticism as the driving force for the teams success in such a short period of time. Many of the players were on the younger side, but the already present athleticism among the various players lent to a team that was able to learn and adapt quickly.

Some key, experienced players also contributed to the success of this season. One of those players, sophomore AJ Guralas broke the goals record this year by scoring 63 of the 85 goals in the season.

“[The goals count] well surpassed the point total for anybody else who’s played lacrosse,” Daniel said. “He played a large part in our success.”

As the season came to a close, the team had a lot to be excited about. The team overcame the challenge of playing with younger, more inexperienced players and yet managed to match the accomplishments of last year’s team.

“Highlight of the season I’d definitely say was watching the team grow and come together, making it to playoffs and winning the league championship,” Daniel said. “We didn’t do it as easily as last year.“