Masters Track: Damien’s Thaddeus Smith, Zach Shinnick, Walnut’s Kayla Richardson and others advance to state

MASTERS MEET PHOTOS
shinnick
MASTERS MEET: It was a big night for San Gabriel Valley pole vaulters and 200-meter runners.
Four athletes from both events advanced.
Walnut’s Kayla Richardson and Damien’s Thaddeus Smith and Zach Shinnick all qualified in three events and Diamond Ranch’s Daniel Stokes qualified in two events.
Weiss and Jett were the only jumpers to clear 15-9. Neither made 16-3. They were given an additional attempt at that height to break the deadlock and both missed. Weiss then cleared 16-0 for the first time in his career and Jett missed.

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San Dimas and Walnut win and will meet in D-3 semifinals; Bishop Amat also advances with 3-2 win; Bonita falls 4-3 in 10 innings

Amat wins

TO SUM IT UP: Get ready for a great day of baseball on Tuesday. Walnut, which has a 17-game winning streak, will take on USA Today’s No. 1 and undefeated San Dimas (31-0) at San Dimas for a right to play in the D-3 championship. If Bishop Amat can beat Redondo Union at home, Amat would get the winner in an all valley final.

Friday’s quarterfinals
Division 2

San Clemente 4, Bonita 3, 10 innings
Chino Hills 3, Moorpark 2
Division 3
San Dimas 1, Santa Monica 0
Walnut 5, Quartz Hill 2
Bishop Amat 3, Paloma Valley 2
Redondo Union 6, Palm Desert 3
Tuesday’s semifinals
Walnut at San Dimas, 3:15 p.m.
Redondo Union at Bishop Amat, 3:15 p.m

DEFENDING CHAMP AMAT IN SEMIS: Bishop Amat coach Joe Hoggatt had the difficult task of replacing Andy Nieto, who not only won four championships to keep the tradition going at Amat, but Nieto won it last year with a team few expected could win it, then resigned and later took over at Damien.
It has been a bumpy ride for the first year coach, but during do-or-die time in the playoffs, Hoggatt and his boys are doing just fine.
Bishop Amat held on for a 3-2 upset over third-seed Paloma Valley on Friday to advance to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 semifinals, where it will host Redondo Union, a 6-3 upset winner over second-seed Palm Desert, in Tuesday’s semifinals.
It was Bishop Amat’s (17-12-1) eighth straight playoff win dating back to last year, and Hoggatt choked up when asked what it means to be the next in line to keep the tradition going.
“For just me personally, having to go through what I’ve had to go through to be here with these guys and respond the way they have, I mean …” Hoggatt said. “It’s a new guy, new things, a different philosophy than what they’re use to and they embraced it and did a great job. It says more about them and this place that it does about me.”

SAN DIMAS PERFECT 31-0: The record-breaking unbeaten San Dimas High School baseball team was taken to the limit Friday afternoon in a CIF-SS Division 3 quarterfinal game and defeated host Santa Monica, 1-0, behind the three-hit pitching of senior Peter Lambert.
The Saints (31-0) advance to their second semifinal in the last three years and will host Walnut, a 5-2 quarterfinal winner over Quartz Hill, on Tuesday.
After amassing 26 runs in their first two playoff games, the Saints managed just four singles and a lone run against Santa Monica, but nonetheless the march toward a second CIF-SS title in the last six years is just two wins away.

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Softball Quarterfinals: Bishop Amat, South Hills and San Dimas all advance to the semifinals

Bishop Amat photo gallery
amats
Thursday’s quarterfinal results
Division 2
South Hills 6, Agoura 1
Division 3
Bishop Amat 3, San Clemente 1
Division 5
St. Bonaventure 6, Sierra Vista 0
San Dimas 8, Mary Star of the Sea 2
Tuesday’s semifinals
Division 2

Mission Viejo at South Hills, 3:15 p.m.
Division 3
La Serna at Bishop Amat, 3:15 p.m.
Division 5
St. Bonaventure at San Dimas, 3:15 p.m.

AMAT MOVING ON: Bishop Amat held on for a 3-1 victory over San Clemente to advance to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 semifinals for the first time since 2012.
But not before a brief scare.
Bishop Amat trailed Burbank 3-0 in the second round and scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh for a miracle comeback to reach the final four.
That was the lead Bishop Amat had over San Clemente heading to the seventh, so when San Clemente’s Mikaela Mak led off the seventh with a single followed by Kelsie Horton’s double off the fence, Lancers centerfielder Alyssa Barrera started thinking the worst.
Would the tables turn?
“I started thinking about that,” Barrera said.But Barrera did something about it, one-handing Horton’s double off the fence and riflying the relay to shortstop Mandy Larios, who fired home to Julia Valenzuela to tag Mak out at the plate.It was a rally saver. Maybe a game saver.“I was just trying to get the ball to Mandy, trying to get the right throw,” Barrera said. “It was just a perfect play overall by everyone.”

LUGO LEADS SOUTH HILLS: Two very good young pitchers faced each other in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 softball playoffs Thursday afternoon at Agoura High School.
South Hills, led by sophomore Natalie Lugo’s game-high 11 strikeouts, defeated host Agoura 6-1 and will return to the semifinals for the first time since 2011.
The reward? A date to host top seed Mission Viejo (28-0), which is, according to USA Today, the top team in the nation in the Super 25 softball rankings.

San Dimas 8, Mary Star of the Sea 2 — Lindsey Hughes struck out nine and Brooke Jackson went 4 for 5 to lead the Saints (21-9) to the CIF-SS Division 5 semifinals. Also contributing to San Dimas’ win were Shelbie Moore, who went 4 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, and Carlie Salm, who had two hits and two RBIs. The Saints will host St. Bonaventure on Tuesday.

South Hills’ Clarissa Perez

South Hills’ Natalie Lugo

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Walnut’s Kayla Richardson finally healthy and set to go in Masters

KAYLAWALNUT SPEEDSTER SET FOR MASTERS: Kayla Richardson has finally stepped into the unknown.
he Walnut High School sprinter was expected to set foot in the final CIF-Southern Section track and field meet of the year, the Masters Meet, for the past two seasons, but a hamstring always managed to get in the way.
Not this time. The junior will be making her first Masters appearance as an individual in Friday’s meet at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Richardson has qualified in the 100- and 200-meter races.
“I’m pretty excited,” she said. “I’m obviously going in confident and will try and do as well as I can and see what happens. I think the biggest part of going into it is with confidence and to not let the previous race affect my next race. You have to go into it with the right attitude and let the legs do what they can do.”

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Charter Oak’s Zion Echols heading to Cal

ECHOLS TO CAL: One visit and Zion Echols was hooked.
That’s how the Charter Oak High School football standout felt about Cal and soon after setting foot on the Berkeley campus he was tweeting out to followers that his mind was made up.
Echols gave a verbal commitment to play at Cal this past weekend during a visit to the Bay Area, thus ending a recruiting process that saw the all-purpose threat pick up offers.
“I went on my visit last weekend and I just loved it. Everything about it,” Echols said. “I went on visits to Oregon, LSU, USC and Washington, but when I went to Cal it’s the first time ever I felt like home.”

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West Covina linebacker Isaiah Love could miss season with injury; coach Mike Maggiore not happy

LOVE SUFFERS NECK INJURY: West Covina defensive back Isaiah Love is in danger of missing his senior season after suffering a serious neck/upper back injury during a trip to the Bay Area on May 16 for an unofficial college visit.

Love was with Body By Tra, a workout club/7-on7 team owned and operated by Traison Lewis, on what was supposed to be an unofficial visit to Cal and San Jose St., and possibly a performance in that weekend’s Nike Camp in Oakland.

Instead, the van the team was traveling in was involved in an accident that saw several passengers end up hospitalized. Love wound up with a hairline fracture of one of his vertebrae’s and will be in a neck brace for eight weeks. The first specialist who saw him, according to Bulldogs coach Mike Maggiore, said that Love won’t play his senior season.

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