3 SLO County high school teams won titles this fall — and 1 is a state champion
San Luis Obispo High School’s boys cross country team are state champions, and two other local schools recorded regional CIF-Central Section titles.
The Tigers won the Division 2 varsity state championship over the weekend in a race that took place Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno on a 3.1-mile track.
“After doing some research, we discovered that we are the only school in the county to win a state championship in cross country,” SLO High Athletic Director Marci Beddall told The Tribune in an email. “We also won a state championship in Division 3 in 2003.”
The Tigers recorded a first-place average team time of 15:58, beating out 22 other schools.
SLO High individual result times were the following:
▪ Milo Skapinsky — 15:45.9
▪ Luke Holland — 15:47
▪ Lewis Westwood — 15:57.3
▪ Quinn White — 16:06.4
▪ Weston Greenelsh — 16:13.6
▪ Luke Reiss — 16:44.1
▪ Graham Keeling — 16:53.1
“We are incredibly proud of our boys cross country team, not only because they won the championship, but the way in which they persevered in order to achieve it,” Beddall said.
Beddall said the Tigers were upset by Sanger High School for the Central Section championship just one week prior. And then during the state championship race, they were in fifth place after Mile 2 with “ostensibly no hope of winning,” Beddall said.
“The fact that our boys came off of a devastating loss and continued to fight despite being in fifth place is truly indicative of what amazing young men they are, not just incredible athletes,” Beddall said.
Adam Basch and Nancy Steinmaus served as co-head coaches, and Jimmie Johnson and Jennifer Rubio were the Tigers’ assistants.
Basch told The Tribune: “The team did an incredible job of training together as much as possible during the COVID season of 2020-21. This year they did everything right, including putting in a solid block of summer training, eating well, resting, and focusing on the daily workouts and early season races in the proper manner.”
Basch added: “Finishing second at the CIF-Central Section championships may have been a blessing in disguise and given them a bit of extra motivation to show the field what they were capable of on Saturday. ... The result will hopefully inspire others to train hard for their athletic endeavors, and set a high bar for the future. We want to be competitive at the state level every year.”
Steinmaus said even though some Tigers weren’t feeling great on race day, they persevered.
“Our team remained poised, determined, and had laser beam focus to continue to pass racer after racer right up to the finish line,” she said. “They were undaunted by other racers.”
Atascadero water polo wins CIF title
Atascadero High’s boys water polo team won a CIF-Central Section Division 3 title, beating Golden West of Visalia by a score of 11-5 on Nov. 13.
The Greyhounds then lost 22-15 in the first round of state playoffs to the eventual state champions, Gunn High, of Palo Alto.
“This is the first time in school water polo history that we won the CIF title,” said Coach Jon Conrad.
Conrad said that up until about five years ago, the school was in the CIF-Southern Section, facing stiff competition to advance.
This year, Atascadero (21-13 overall) was led by a group of core seniors, who made up six of the team’s seven starters.
“My one junior (Ben Strohl) led us in goal-scoring,” Conrad said. “He had an incredible season, scoring in every single game he played. And he actually broke the scoring record in our high school.”
Other standouts included goalie Curran Hoxie, who Conrad said “was the backbone of everything.”
“He had like ice in his veins and stayed solid throughout,” Conrad said. “He was huge for us. If we didn’t have Curran back there, we would not have been as successful.”
Caleb Newby had five goals in the CIF-Central Section title game, and captain Casey Jones had three goals in the championship win and drew a lot of kickouts.
A kickout is when an opposing player gets kicked out for a 20-second stretch due to a violation, giving the team a one-man-up situation, Conrad said.
“Casey drew a lot of kickouts throughout the season, which allowed us to get crucial goals that we needed,” Conrad said. “Without his play, it would have been a much bigger challenge for us.”
Conrad said another accomplishment was beating Righetti High for the first time in an least 25 years, which the Greyhounds did twice.
Morro Bay football moves on to state
Acknowledging that they were largely counted out among local football teams as having a chance to advance in playoffs, Morro Bay made the most of its opportunity in Division 6.
After two close games to open the CIF-Central Section playoffs, the Pirates won another thriller, beating No. 1 Taft on the road 35-33 on Friday.
Before that, Morro Bay beat East Bakersfield 36-33 and also topped Pioneer Valley 29-26.
The Pirates (7-6) were led by quarterback Nicky Johnson, who threw four touchdowns, and running back Dylan Turner, who snagged two balls for scores and ran for a touchdown to send the Pirates on to the Division 7-AA state playoff.
Shawn Shaffer made the game-winning tackle on a last-ditch two-point conversation by Taft.
The Pirates host Loara (10-6) of Anaheim on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve talked a lot about them creating a legacy,” said Morro Bay Head Coach Jake Goossen-Brown. “The team leadership has been outstanding, from Dylan Turner to Christian Merrill, to Phoenix Popp to Pablo Araujo to Jhosua Gomez on the offensive line. We’ve had a really good senior leadership. And they’ve worked really hard for three years to do this.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 3:46 PM.
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