PVP-PANORAMA No. 294 • 11/19/22

Transitions

• The fall sports season is coming to an end with players and teams set to go indoors for winter sports.

The high school fall sports season is over with basketball and soccer taking over along with water polo and wrestling.

The annual King and Queen of the Hill tournament is on deck as well as the beginning of the Palos Verdes Youth Basket ball League season.

Check out the next edition of Panorama as we try to capture all the good stuff on the Hill.

Season

Ridgecrest Throws Annual Pumpkin Toss

Flying Pumpkins

Charting a path to Growth

Photos by Carly Funk

• High school football playoffs attract controversy over rankings, seedings and divisions.

High school football season is racing to the finish line. CIF Southern Section playoff games began in early November and champions of each of the 14 South ern Section divisions will be crowned the weekend following Thanksgiving.

However, there is a controversy about how the Southern Section seeds teams and breaks them up into divisions for the playoffs.

To account for the 605 schools repre sented in the Southern Section, there are 14 divisions of playoffs at the end of the football season. Each division consists of 16 teams that are placed into a bracket with one another. The bracket consists of four single elimination rounds, compa

rable to the regional part of NCAA’s bas ketball March Madness.

There tends to be little debate over which teams qualify for the playoff, as most teams that finish in the upper por tion of their league get an automatic qualifier and most .500 teams receive an at-large bid.

Controversy arises, however, when discussing how to place teams into their respective divisions at the end of the sea son.

In order to maintain a competitive balance, in football the Southern Sec tion does not use previous seasons to de termine what division a team should be assigned, unlike like most other sports. In football, teams are placed into divisions at the conclusion of the regular season. This is where debates start to arise.

Considering that it has to deal with so many teams and so many different levels of competition, it has been difficult for the Southern Section to come up with a

system that pleases its fans and the me dia.

Last season, the Southern Section be gan using the CalPreps computer rank ings to rank and seed teams to determine playoff divisions and first-round match ups.

Once teams qualify for the playoffs, there is no human input to determine seeding and matchups. The computer alone determines this.

The one exception to this is that the top seed in each division must have au tomatically qualified for the playoffs, so if the computer rankings place an at-large team as a top seed, the bracket needs to be adjusted slightly.

Computer rankings have been a ma jor point of debate in the sport of football since college football instituted the BCS, which ranked teams via computer and was the sole determinant of which two teams competed for a national champi

PENINSULAPANORAMA.com pvsports.com localnews@pvppanorama.com

Big Yellow Ball At Rest Until Spring

Softball

• The Palos Verdes Peninsula Girls’ Softball League finished its Fall Ball season last weekend at Cornerstone School.

The fall and winter tournament sea son is underway until the Opening Day of the girls’ 2023 spring softball season begins in Feburary.

Peninsula teams have already racked up a tournament victory with the PV Peacocks taking the 10U North Torrance Turkey Tournament champi onship last weekend.

Destroying Dolphins battle in 12U Fall Ball action at Cornerstone School last week.

onship at the end of the season. The BCS was done away with following the 2013 season, and it was replaced by a fourteam playoff whose participants were determined by humans.

Many of the complaints that were seen during the BCS era are now being uttered about the CalPreps rankings. Among them, the idea that playing a tough schedule and losing is more at tractive to the computer than playing an easier schedule and winning.

For example, San Juan Hills went 3-7 in the regular season. They played a tough early season schedule and started 0-7, but they went 3-0 in their relatively easy league, automatically qualifying them for the playoffs.

The CalPreps rankings placed them as the top seed in Division 6, a relatively high ranking for a team with that type of record. The computer clearly rewarded San Juan Hills for playing, albeit losing, to highly ranked opponents early in the season. This irked many teams that were ranked lower by the computer, many of whom had better records.

San Juan Hills lost in the second round to Orange.

In addition, complaints have arisen that the computer rankings encourage teams to blow opponents out. According to CalPreps, the maximum blowout mar gin that is taken into consideration is 30 points, meaning it is not advantageous to add on after this point is reached.

However, the debate continues whether it is within the bounds of highschool sportsmanship to encourage blowouts due to the fact that a computer takes it into consideration. At the end of the day, giving up two touchdowns in garbage time could drastically change where a team is ranked by the computer.

However, only the truly top teams in each division will be able to survive the gauntlet that a four-game playoff pro vides. The 14 teams that hoist CIF South ern Section Championships Thanksgiv ing weekend will have rightfully earned their crown.

Nonetheless, the debate regarding how to seed teams and create divisions will undoubtedly carry on through the offseason and into the next year.

Just

Warming Up . . . The Fall Ball season gives players and teams an opportunity to practice and compete before the real season begins in spring.

PV Peacocks Strut Their Stuff . . . The 10U PV Peacocks opened the winter tournament season with a first-place finish at the North Torrance Turkey Tournament last week. The team includes Cate Boyd, Kara Cobo, Rosie DeWein, Brooklyn Farrokh-Siar, Danika Farrokh-Siar, Brooklynn Hill, Natalie Knickerbocker, Mila Lee , Penny Lutkenhouse , Reese McCauley, Brooklyn Quesada , Abbey Surachi and Ava Yoon. Manager Sean Lutkenhouse. Coaches Marcus Boyd , Matt Cobo, Larry Lee, Robbie Surachi and Josh Yoon.

More Trophies . . . The 10U PV Peacocks and other Peninsula teams will compete in various tournaments the next few weekends before the end of the year.

Playoff Battle For Royalty Underway

AYSO

• Undefeated teams enter the playoffs looking to cap the fall season with a King or Queen of the Hill championship.

The girls’ 9U Lavender Lightning dominated the regular season scoring 49 goals while allowing a Region low four goals total. The boys’ 12U Glad bach lead the Region with 53 goals scored total.

Check out the next edition of Pan orama as we close out the year with full coverage of the long-held King & Queen of the Hill tournament.

Peninsula Soccer Teams

Thunderbirds Are Go . . . The Thunderbirds got three wins in a row including a 2-1 win over Chillin’ Qilins to move into second place in the boys’ 14U Division.

Playoff Time . . . The Lady Bugs and Lavender Legends look to play in the girls’ 14U Division finals.

New Season Begins . . . Inter Miami and Los Verdes battle to a 2-2 tie in boys’ 10U play at Malaga Cove Fields.

Final Battles To Be King .

The Chillin’ Qilins got a 4-2 win over the Werewolves in boys’ 14U Division play at Highridge Park last week.

Mavericks Flag Football Finishes Season

Flag Football

• The PV Football & Cheer season finished with final flag foot ball games at Palos Verdes High last week.

The Blue Mavericks overcame the tough Red Mavericks team to finish the 8-9 division season undefeated. The Mavericks Orange defeated the Maver icks Purple to win the 12-14 final game.

Orange Takes The Win . . . The

Orange Mavericks defeated the firstplace Purple team to win the 12-14 Division championship game.

Tough To Stop . . . The Mavericks Purple team had a great season and finished the regular season in first place in the 12-14 Division.

Blue Ribbon Season . . . The Mavericks Blue finished the season undefeated after getting by a tough Mavericks Red team in the 8-9 Division final game.

Mavericks Red Take It Down To The Wire . . . The Mavericks Red complete a long pass for a touchdown during the 8-9 championship game.

PVIS Leads With Course Record

Cross Country

• Schools from all over the South Bay and the Peninsula competed at the annual Palos Verdes Intermediate Cross Country In vitational last week.

Sixth grader Noah Lengeek set a course record to lead the PVIS while Ridgecrest 7th grader Audrey Chang easily won the girls’ 7th/8th Grade race to lead the Raiders.

PVIS Cross Country Invitational

6th Grade Boys Top 65

2 Felman, Aidan Parras 10:57.03 2

3 Banuelos, Evan Parras 10:59.03 3

4 Cruise, Dylan Parras 11:14.04 4

5 Jones, Donovan PVIS 11:24.52 5

6 Haley, Gamble MBMS 11:44.25 6

7 Taubman, Keaton MBMS 11:46.58 7

8 Bryan, William Adams 11:47.69 8

9 Hanley, Matthew Parras 12:00.05 9

10 Chow, Ethan Adams 12:05.28 10

11 Tallardy, Bodie HV 12:06.89

12 Luis, Owen Parras 12:23.14 11

13 Rasser, Ryan Parras 12:23.56 12

14 Wigdahl, Noah RIS 12:29.37 13

15 Lapen, William Adams 12:34.25 14

16 Karp, Daniel MBMS 12:41.35 15

17 Werhane, Owen MBMS 12:44.47 16

18 Hirsch, Jackson HV 12:57.51

19 Yun, Nick RIS 13:16.44 17

20 Obeng-Aikins, Malise St Cath 13:16.89

21 Barrett, Luca PVIS 13:19.63 18

22 Yip, Carter PVIS 13:29.88 19

23 Kim, Noah SJF 13:32.09 20

24 Shaughnessy, Dylan MBMS 13:35.92 21

25 Allen, Beau MBMS 13:37.13 22

26 Karapetyan, Davit PVIS 13:47.67 23

27 Trombley, Mateo Adams 13:49.47 24

28 Stillittano, Dylan Adams 13:53.33 25

29 Saxena, Conner MBMS 14:08.39 26

30 Wang, Stanley PVIS 14:17.03 27

31 Kao, Ethan PVIS 14:18.77 28

32 Watten, Jackson PVIS 14:19.71

33 Hanna, Max SJF 14:23.61 29

34 Han, Derek PVIS 14:25.35

35 Chou, Reid RIS 14:25.70 30

36 Tompkison, James St Cath 14:26.00

37 Diehl, Denver SJF 14:28.95 31 38 Hua, Dylan RIS 14:40.32 32 39 Purser, Will MBMS 14:43.17 40 Dingle, Liam Parras 14:45.29 33 41 Coleman, James Adams 14:49.82 34 42 Harrison, Beckett MBMS 14:50.58 43 Uhe, Nathan Adams 14:54.87 35 44 Weideman, Hunter SJF 14:56.33 36 45 Liebenberg, Logan Adams 15:02.86 46 So, James RIS 15:10.97 37 47 Miyahara, Bryce Adams 15:17.94 48 Yang, Ethan PVIS 15:18.79 49 Fujita, Kai Parras 15:22.50 50 Broqn, Benny Parras 15:26.51 51 Mallary, Samuel Parras 15:51.09 52 Jung, Ethnan RIS 16:01.49 38 53 Martinez, Alexander Parras 16:01.79 54 Segal, Mark PVIS 16:45.95 55 Veera, Amin SJS 17:01.69 39 56 DeBoer, Jason Adams 17:02.58 57 Esmail, Ayaan Adams 17:09.78 58 Borge, Riley Adams 17:12.00 59 Romero, Emmanuel Adams 17:15.07 60 Jackson, Santana Adams 17:20.10 61 Ngyuen, Toma Parras 17:26.34 62 Tanaka, Hiromu Parras 17:32.01 63 Ryan, Logan SJS 17:34.85 40 64 Vann, Jaxton MBMS 17:42.78 65 De La Cruz, Andrew SJS 20:17.65 41

Welcome To The Hill . .

6th Grade Girls Top 30

15 Spalding, Lily Parras 14:00.58 15 16 Rodrigues, Riley MBMS 14:00.90 16 17 Gormley, Paige PVIS 14:03.74 17

18 Mayer, Macailagh MBMS 14:16.07 18

19 Brusseau, Jess PVIS 14:17.59 19

20 Dyer, Gwen PVIS 14:29.72 20

21 Ngo, Melisande HVMS 14:31.40 21

22 Kuppinger, Sadie HVMS 14:33.44 22

23 Price, Leila Adams 14:35.15 23

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24 Bentley, Ava Adams 14:37.80 24

9

13

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25 Bucler, Dylan Adams 14:38.10 25

26 Hirsch, Chloe HVMS 14:44.33 26

27 Kumprey, Evie Parras 14:45.62 27

28 Filart, Avery Adams 14:51.47 28

29 Chang, Amy PVIS 14:51.84

30 Antunes, Juliana Adams 14:56.62

In

The Lead For Good

. Parents

1 Kim, Audrey MBMS 11:51.05 1 2 Partridge, Finley Adams 12:01.49 2 3 Galbraith, Brooke Parras 12:05.81 3 4 Schulz, Carmela PVIS 12:06.29 4 5 Waldman, Gemma MBMS 12:28.98 5 6 Pope, Kallen PVIS 12:44.82 6 7 Treger, Ashley MBMS 13:07.05 7

Here To Support . . . Fans of runners and teams align themselves up Agony Hill to cheer for their favorite runners.

7th/8th Grade Boys Top 65

1 Sanchez, Matteo 7 Adams 11:54.77 1

2 Takeda, Yuto 8 PVIS 12:02.73 2

3 Joe, Aidan 7 RIS 12:04.05 3

4 Chu, Michael 8 PVIS 12:13.48 4

5 Sheriff, Cooper 8 PVIS 12:34.66 5

6 Short, Luca 7 HVMS 12:43.79 6

7 Collatos, Kai 7 PVIS 12:45.45 7

8 Sabia, AJ 7 RIS 12:47.51 8

9 Hong, Dainiel 8 PVIS 12:49.02 9

10 Montoya, Mario 7 Adams 12:52.16 10

11 Stever, Dane 8 MBMS 12:55.95 11

12 Stenerson, Henry 8 Parras 12:56.36 12

13 Klein, Alex 8 RIS 13:00.73 13

14 Grohman, Keegan7 PVIS 13:01.96 14

15 Schoenfeld, Kai 7 PVIS 13:02.35 15

16 Nulman, Lucas 8 PVIS 13:04.66

17 Jones, Kenny 7 PVIS 13:04.97

18 Koch, Aiden 8 PVIS 13:06.60

19 Cistone, Killian 8 MBMS 13:13.10 16

20 Graham, Kyle 8 MBMS 13:17.75 17

21 Mendoza, Leonidas8 Parras 13:24.80 18

22 Tseng, Arthur 8 RIS 13:28.07 19

23 Holdsworth, Grant7 SJF 13:29.08

24 Chen, Goodwin 7 RIS 13:31.13 20

25 O’Neill, Liam 7 RIS 13:31.47 21

26 Hartigan, Caleb 8 Chad 13:35.83 22

27 Matsumura, Justin7 RIS 13:45.37 23

28 Hauenstein, Max 8 Parras 13:51.55 24 29 Hickey, Colin 8 PVIS 13:54.43 30 Matsumura, Cody7 RIS 13:56.62 31 Ortiz, Nicholas 8 St Cath 13:59.42 25 32 Brand, Daniel 7 PVIS 14:02.49 33 Vo, Kyle 7 Adams 14:02.90 26 34 Brown, Beckham 7 PVIS 14:13.86 35 Yap, Matthew 8 MBMS 14:17.58 27 36 Hortsman, Specner8 MBMS 14:19.55 28 37 Reyes, Antonio 7 PVIS 14:21.28 38 Kimble, Theo 8 HVMS 14:21.59 29 39 Yoon, Alexander 8 RIS 14:32.98 40 Finnucan, Alex 8 SJF 14:36.20 41 Matsumoto, Troy 7 RIS 14:46.24 42 Torreto, Anthony 7 Adams 14:46.94 30 43 Stewart, Austin 8 Parras 14:50.40 31 44 Eden, Gavin 8 MBMS 14:52.77 32 45 Nguyen, Jacob Lee7 Adams 14:53.11 33 46 Lopez, Siempre 8 RIS 14:57.16 47 Forney, Elijah 7 MBMS 15:05.56 34 48 Westerland, Aiden 8 Parras 15:06.20 35 49 Nurre, Dallas 7 MBMS 15:09.10 50 Ward, Jake 7 RIS 15:10.01 51 Nagdev, Kai 7 PVIS 15:12.46 52 Diaz, Mateo 8 St Cath 15:12.78 36 53 Calder, Elliot 8 Adams 15:14.98 37 54 Voight, Ben 7 HVMS 15:15.60 38 55 Traught, Bryson 7 HVMS 15:15.88 39 56 Kellerman, Aiden 7 Adams 15:17.33 40 57 Ploplys, Akaash 8 Adams 15:19.05 58 Masellis, Michael 8 PVIS 15:20.54 59 Heise, Kadin 8 MBMS 15:23.03 60 Lin, Kingston 7 Chadw 15:23.96 41 61 Austin, Chase 7 MBMS 15:25.33 62 Tsurui, Takaya 7 Parras 15:25.61 42 63 Voight, Jack 7 HVMS 15:29.45 43 64 Ikeda, Milo 7 Parras 15:29.72 44 65 Huynh, Vincent 7 Adams 15:33.71

7th/8th Grade Girls Top 65

1 Chang, Audrey 7 RIS 13:10.98 1

2 Kumprey, Mayella 7 Parras 13:24.77 2

3 Sherry, Anne 8 PVIS 13:29.57 3

4 Wilson, Sadie 8 MBMS 13:29.83 4

5 Denaro, Mirae 8 RIS 13:51.23 5

6 Brown, Christina 7 Adams 13:51.77 6

7 Lee, Jenna 7 RIS 14:00.24 7

8 Crawmer, Jane 8 MBMS 14:25.54 8

9 Rebbeck, Sophie 7 Parras 14:33.27 9

10 McCall, Ella 7 HVMS 14:39.26 10

11 Park, Lauren 8 Chadw 14:42.58 11

12 Danon, Reese 8 PVIS 14:43.18 12

13 Siravuri, Sahana 7 RIS 14:48.42 13

14 Espiritu, Isabelle 8 St Cath 14:57.93

15 Sheehey, Erin 8 Parras 15:03.37 14

16 Prasanth, Sanjana 6 Adams 15:18.78 15

17 Werhane, Audrey 8 MBMS 15:20.87 16

18 Maloney, Katie 8 MBMS 15:24.42 17

19 Cusato, Alexis 7 HVMS 15:31.59 18

20 Wen, Amy 8 RIS 15:33.79 19

21 Fukuda, Momoka 8 RIS 15:36.15 20

22 Dawson, Bliss 7 MBMS 15:38.37 21

23 Brown, Kaitlyn 7 HVMS 15:42.61 22

24 Russell, Annmarie7 PVIS 15:45.65 23

25 Jorczak, Natalie 8 PVIS 15:51.73 24

26 Kuba, Karen 7 PVIS 15:53.61 25

27 Crespo, Elisa 7 PVIS 16:04.98 26

28 Licon, Sophia 8 Adams 16:10.24 27

29 Nojima, Keira 8 HVMS 16:12.27 28

30 Gregory, Makayla 7 PVIS 16:21.75 29

31 Rayner, Talia 7 PVIS 16:29.98

32 Scull, Alexandria 8 Adams 16:31.29 30

33 Abukurah, Talia 7 PVIS 16:32.51

34 Anel, Mia 8 RIS 16:33.98 31

35 Campbell, Claire 7 PVIS 16:37.68

36 Finnucan, Ava 8 SJF 16:46.49

37 Lee, Hailey 7 RIS 16:50.46

38 Robertson, Makayla7 RIS 16:54.61

39 Tatman, Maegan 8 Chadw 16:56.18 32

40 Lindsay, Salila 7 HVMS 17:00.69 33

41 Chan-Mott, Ashley 8 Chadw 17:03.31 34

42 Belden, Josephine 7 HVMS 17:03.59 35

43 Brand, Isabella 7 PVIS 17:05.94

44 Suzuki, Risa 7 RIS 17:06.46

45 Barba, Chloe 7 Adams 17:14.92 36

46 Iglesias, Penny 8 Parras 17:24.36 37

47 Haidar, Eliana 7 Adams 17:26.38 38

48 Zhang, Sophie 8 Chadw 17:27.64 39

49 Elias, Hailey 7 Adams 17:38.88 40

50 Chan, Ella 8 Adams 17:42.21

51 Netus, Chloe 7 PVIS 17:47.30

52 Pettigrew, Logan 7 HVMS 17:47.63 41

53 Fujinaga, Lauren 7 RIS 17:53.69

54 Rasser, Ella 8 Parras 18:00.49 42

55 Boval, Sophie 7 Chadw 18:04.94 43

56 Shang, Kara 7 PVIS 18:09.61

57 Jassy, Colette 7 PVIS 18:11.88

58 Sheu, Courtney 7 MBMS 18:45.12 44

59 Turbude, Laura 8 SJF 18:46.02

60 Ueda, Trinity 7 RIS 18:52.10

61 Gardner, Ellie 7 HVMS 18:53.16

62 Fowler, Maegan 8 SJF 18:53.71

63 Borge, Abigail 8 Adams 19:04.34

64 DeGuzman, Pene 8 Adams 19:05.23

65 Cabral, Sofia 8 PVIS 19:16.77