Editor’s Note: Sports Recap is The Paly Voice’s weekly recap of all-things-sports at Paly. Sports Recap may pull information from a variety of sources, including — but not limited to — The Paly Voice, The Campanile and The Viking Magazine.

Baseball

Record for the Week: (2-1)
Overall Record: (25-6-1); League: (13-1-1)

After defeating the Wilcox Chargers in the first round of the SCVAL playoffs, the Vikings suffered a disappointing 2-1 series loss against the Los Altos Eagles (21-8-0) in the finals last week.

The Vikings opened up the series with a 6-2 victory over the Eagles at Palo Alto High School, but followed the win with a 2-4 at Los Altos High School. In the decisive game three, senior Jack Witte scored a late run in the bottom of the sixth inning, but it wasn’t enough to cover the two run advantage that the Eagles had built, and the Vikings lost 2-1. The Vikings, who needed a win in the last game to reclaim the title, will instead have to share the crown with the Eagles.

The Vikings look to bounce back this week in the CCS playoffs, as the first-seeded Vikings will host the 16th-seeded Evergreen Valley Cougars (11-14-0) at 4 p.m., this Wednesday to open up their tournament play.

Girls’ Lacrosse

Record for the Week: (0-1)
Overall Record (excluding forfeits): (13-7); Record (with forfeits): (7-13)

The Lady Vikings ended their emotional season last Wednesday with a 20-9 loss in the SCVAL De Anza Division semifinals to the St. Francis Lancers (15-4-0), at St. Francis High School. Read Palo Alto Online’s recap of the game.

Earlier in the season, the Vikings were forced to forfeit six wins due to an ineligible player, which proved costly to their season record. Then, on the day of the game against the Lancers, the Vikings suffered more disheartening news that a former teammate and Paly student, Emily Benatar, had passed away.

The Vikings, however, kept their composure on the field despite all of the happenings off of it, ending their regular seaon with a five-game winning streak to storm into the SCVAL playoffs.

Boys’ Lacrosse

Record for the Week: (1-1)
Overall Record: (13-7-0); League: (8-4-0)

The Vikings’ varsity lacrosse team ended its season this week, splitting its two games in the SCVAL Playoffs. The first was a 18-5 romp over the Carlmont Scots (8-8-0), last Monday at Paly. Sophomore Jordan Gans notched four goals and two assists against the Scots, while senior midfielder Kris Hoglund continued his solid play with two goals and three assists in the game.

Then, the Vikings were elimated from the playoffs by the Menlo-Atherton Bears (18-4-0) in the semifinals, after a 12-9 loss to the Bears last Wednesday at Menlo-Atherton High School. Despite being double-teamed throughout the match, Hoglund had two goals and three assists in what was most likely his last lacrosse game as a Viking.

The Vikings ended their season third in the SCVAL De Anza Division regular season standings, one and a half games behind the Bears.

Swimming

A week after both of Paly’s swimming teams placed first in the SCVAL De Anza Division Finals, the Vikings ended their season strong as the girls placed third place and the boys placed second place in the Central Coast Section championships last week at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara.

Senior Jasmine Tosky led the girls team, as she took home two first place finshes in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 butterfly with times of 1:43.26 and 52.36, respectively. Additionally, Tosky’s 200 freestyle time broke a CCS record.

The boys fell to the Bellarmine Bells, who successfully captured their 28th straight CCS title, by a score of 218-389.5. Senior Byron Sanborn finished second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 55.74 and second in the 100 Intermediate Medley with a time of 1:49.44. Sophomore Andrew Liang broke two school records to place second in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, with times of 20.92 and 48.15, respectively.

Track and Field (week of April 30)

Boys’ Record: (6-0)
Girls’ Record: (4-2)

The Paly track and field teams delivered a satisfying outing at the SCVAL De Anza Division Championships, last week at Los Altos High School, with the boys taking home first place and the girls capturing second.

For the boys, junior E.J. Floreal exceeded expectations again, recording a meet record time of 10.70 seconds in the 100 meter race and breaking a school record with a 21.16 second time in the 200 meter race. To add to his already impressive resume, he also led the 400 meter relay team to victory with a meet record 42.42 seconds. Currently, Floreal sits atop the state in the 100 meter with a time of 10.52 seconds, which he ran earlier this season against the Saratoga Falcons, and second in California in the 200 meter with a time of 21.16 seconds, just .04 seconds behind the first place time.

The girls fell short to the Mountain View Spartans 79-149, but the Vikings did pull out first place times in the 400 meter relay race (49.50 seconds), and in the long jump, with sophomore Pippa Raffel landing a 17 feet 10 1/2 distance.

Golf

Season Record: (10-2)

The Paly golf team, coming off a disappointing finish in the SCVAL Tournament, ended its season last Wednesday at the CCS Regional Tournament. The Vikings shot 390 but missed qualifying for the CCS Championship by four strokes. Sophomore Sam Niethammer led the team with a one-over-par 72, good enough to advance as an individual. Niethammer will play in the CCS Championship Tuesday.