Sports STANFORD ROUNDUP
PREP ROUNDUP
A pitch to finish strong
Paly girls take shot at CCS swim title Menlo duo advances to NorCal golf while Knights’ tennis team goes after a third NorCal championship
Cardinal softball team hosts NCAA regional; Hansen named Pac-10 Player of Year by Rick Eymer shley Chinn made quite the first impression on Stanford softball coach John Rittman. The second, third and all other impressions have been much better received. Chinn is one of two seniors, with Melisa Koutz, who likely will be playing their final home games this weekend when Stanford plays host to one of 16 regional sites in the NCAA tournament. Stanford, the 15th overall seed, meets Pacific on Friday at 6 p.m. in the double-elimination tournament. Nebraska and Fresno State play the first game at 3 p.m. The 12th-ranked Cardinal (38-15) will be playing at the same time the Stanford women’s tennis team meets Northwestern in the Round of 16 and the Stanford baseball team opens a three-game set with Arizona. The softball team, though, has a solid core of faithful fans that will support Stanford in its quest to reach its first Women’s College World Series in seven years, and the third overall. The Cardinal qualified for its 14th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament and has won six regional titles. Stanford also features one of the most dynamic players in the nation in junior shortstop Ashley Hansen, who leads the country with a .506 batting average. This week she was named Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year. Hansen went 7-for-11 with three runs scored and a pair of RBI against Arizona State last weekend. The Sun Devils are the nation’s topranked team and were awarded the overall No. 1 seed. Chinn, who started the game Stanford won against Arizona State, began attending Stanford games when she was 10 or 11 years old. She attended a pitching camp at Stanford when she was 12 years old. “There were so many people there, not everyone could pitch on the dirt,” Chinn said. “I was pitching out in the left field and tore up the grass with my drag. Coach got mad because he liked to keep things nice.” Chinn, who starred at Carlmont High in Belmont, has been tearing up her opponents since arriving as a freshman. She owns a career record of 52-19, with 49 complete games and 15 shutouts over 454 2/3 innings heading into the regional and is enjoying her best season yet. “I think Teagan (Gerhart) and I have established a pretty pattern,” Chinn said. “We complement each other. It seems her strengths are sort of my weaknesses and some of my strengths counter some of her weak-
by Keith Peters anny Dye made quite a splash when he took over the Palo Alto swim teams for the 2005 season. His girls’ squad wound up winning the Central Coast Section title that season. Ever since the 2005 campaign, the Paly girls have been chasing Mitty at the section finals and have been coming up short. Palo Alto was second in 2006, finished third behind Mitty and Monta Vista in 2007, was No. 3 again in 2008 as Monta Vista topped Mitty, finished second to the Monarchs by just three points in 2009 and trailed in second once again last year y 36 points. Palo Alto will battle Mitty, and St. Francis, on Saturday when the year’s fastest meet gets under way at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara at 2 p.m. While Bellarmine goes after a 27th straight boys’ title and Paly gives chase along with Los Gatos, the focus will be on the top three girls’ teams battling it out. Not only will the Mitty, St. Francis and Palo Alto girls offer some great competition, but that half of the meet will feature two of the nation’s best in Palo Alto junior Jasmine Tosky and Stanford-bound St. Francis senior Maddy Schaefer. Tosky is back to defend her CCS titles in the 200 free (1:44.11) and 100 fly (52.77) and no one is close as Tosky closes in on national records in both events. Tosky also will anchor the opening 200 medley relay and closing 400 free relay, which could end up deciding the meet. “Our girls will have to swim well and the relays will be huge!” said Dye. “I expect some of our girls like (CCS recordholder) Sarah (Liang) to move up and we will need to win the medley relay. I am going to have to play around with my order and swimmers on the relays, and take a few chances there.” Dye is banking on St. Francis to help take points away from Mitty, which is exactly what Schaefer is expecting to do in the 50 and 100 freestyles. She set a national Independent School record of 22.24 while winning the 50 last season and added a CCS record of 48.61 to take the 100 free. Paly could get help from Sacred Heart Prep freshman Ally Howe, who is top seeded in the 200 IM (2:02.29) and 100 back (55.80), as long as she doesn’t beat Paly’s Liang in the IM. In the boys’ meet, Paly junior Byron Sanborn is back to defend his 100 breast title while Sacred Heart Prep junior Tom Kremer also returns to defend in the 200 free and 100 back. Menlo-Atherton has Kei Masuda, Nick Henze and Evan Navarro among the favorites in their events
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Stanford senior Ashley Chinn is hoping to help the Cardinal to advance this weekend’s NCAA softball regional at Stanford. nesses. Teagan has done a great job and carried the bulk of the load. I just want to come in and do what I can to help the team.” With is plenty, according to Rittman, an assistant for the United States Olympic softball team in 2008 and 2004. “It’s been a fantastic year,” Rittman said. “Ashley has been a consistent competitor for us and very reliable. She came in and had to sit two years behind (All-American) Missy Penna. Last year was the first time she was in that role of being No. 1 or No. 2. She had to deal with some adversity but when Teagan got hurt, Ashley had to fight through that and answer the call. She did a solid job.” Chinn and Koutz take an active leadership role on the field but both maintain a sense of team that allows anyone to speak up at any time. “We’ve always tried to develop an open, strong and comfortable team environment,” Chinn said. “We don’t dominate team meetings because that’s a time for any one to speak up or throw out an idea.” She is realizing, though, that she’s nearing the end of her college career. “I have to say it’s been scary how fast it went by,” Chinn said. “Every day I find new thing that is my last, fill in the blank. I’m trying to soak it all in.” Stanford finished fifth in arguably the toughest conference in the nation. Five different Pac-10 teams have won national titles, including a different school in each of the past four years — UCLA, Washington, Arizona State and Arizona. California has also won an NCAA championship.
The Bruins won their 13th overall title last year and Arizona owns eight national championship banners. Texas A&M is the only other school to win more than one NCAA crown. The Pac-10 is responsible for 22 of the previous 28 titles. “There’s no better way to prepare yourself for the postseason than coming off playing the No. 1 team in the nation. We only took one of three but it was good competition and we took a lot of positives away from it.” Koutz has also been an important part of the team during her career. “She has a great work ethic and goes about her business,” Rittman said. “She doesn’t say a whole lot and she’s a pleasure to coach.” Baseball Nationally No. 25 Stanford (10-11, 28-18) hosts its final four regularseason games, starting Friday, when the Cardinal plays Arizona (11-10, 32-17) at 5:30 p.m. Two weeks remain in the regular season with NCAA Regional selections set for Memorial Day. Stanford dropped two of three to Oregon last weekend, and currently shares sixth-place in the Pac-10 with USC, one game behind the Wildcats and two games behind California. Women’s crew Stanford was one of 16 teams selected to participate in the NCAA Division I Championships, to be contested May 27-29 at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center in Gold River, on the waters of Lake Natoma. It is the third straight year the Cardinal will participate in the event as a team. N
after all three helped the Bears defend their PAL championship last weekend. Henze is No. 2 in the 100 free (47.18) and No. 6 in the 200 free while Masuda is seeded No. 4 in the 100 fly (51.80) and Navarro is No. 7 in the 200 free. Boys’ golf Menlo School senior Patrick Grimes took a shot at history at the CCS Championships on Tuesday at Rancho Canada (West) in Carmel Valley. He missed. Grimes was hoping to become the first three-time champion in section history, following up on the titles he won in 2008 and 2010. Instead, his missed out on the feat by just three shots as Michael Decker of R.L. Stevenson won individual honors with a 2-under-par 69. “I had fun coming here,” said Grimes, who also finished 10th as a sophomore and third this year. “It’s always a confidence booster.” Grimes, who is entered in several summer tournaments, shot an evenpar 71 as did Menlo sophomore Andrew Buchanan. Both will advance to the CIF-NCGA NorCal Boys Golf Championships on Monday at Butte Creek Country Club in Chico. Grimes and Buchanan are the only local golfers moving on. MenloAtherton finished sixth in the team race with 400 and failed to advance, as did Palo Alto, which had a 413 and finished eighth. David McNamara shot 78 to lead M-A while teammate Travis Anderson had a 79. Palo Alto was led by Michael Yuan’s 79. None of the three advanced as individuals. Portola Valley’s Maverick McNealy of Harker and Sacred Heart Prep freshman Bradley Knox each shot 82. Lacrosse The Menlo School boys captured the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League playoff title with an 11-9 win over Mountain View while the Menlo girls took the West Bay Athletic League title with a 20-15 triumph over Sacred Heart Prep, both at Woodside High last Saturday. In the girls’ finale, Menlo sophomore Michaela Michael scored eight goals to finish the season with 120, ranking No. 2 in the nation. In the boys’ title match, Menlo sophomore Wiley Osborne scored four goals and added three assists as the Knights finished 16-7. Boys tennis Two-time defending champion Menlo School will seek a three-peat at the CIF-USTA NorCal championships that get under way Friday at the Natomas Racquet Club near Sacramento. Menlo (25-1) is coming off a record-setting 10th CCS title-winning effort last week at Courtside Club in Los Gatos, where the Knights dispatched Bellarmine, 7-0. N
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