Prep notebook: Remaining SLO County winter athletes chase titles
Overall, it hasn’t been a great postseason for SLO County prep sports. Of the 16 girls and boys teams to qualify for the playoffs, only three teams made it past the quarterfinals in soccer, basketball and water polo.
The Arroyo Grande girls water polo team had its shot to repeat as Division 3 champions Saturday, but were overpowered by Martin Luther King leaving just two teams that have a chance to win a CIF-Southern Section division title this week.
Mission Prep Girls Basketball
Mission Prep has used defense, and a little bit of inspiration from the Mighty Ducks, during its impressive run through the Division 5AA bracket. The Royals haven’t allowed an opponent to score more than 25 points in each of their four wins. Mission Prep (21-8) beat Oxford Academy 39-24 to set up a game against Flintridge Prep (19-4) in the finals.
Mission Prep, playing in its fourth-straight road game, will again make the long drive south for the 2 p.m. game at Godinez High School in Santa Ana.
San Luis Obispo Girls Soccer
This team’s run is reaching magical status. After an undefeated regular season, the San Luis Obispo girls have kept their winning streak alive by pulling out a few late tricks in the playoffs. In the second round of the Division 3 playoffs, the Tigers beat Claremont in a penalty kick shootout and followed that up with an overtime win over San Marcos to make it to the semifinals. Yorba Linda, SLO’s opponent Tuesday, is coming off a 4-3 overtime win of its own against West Torrance.
San Luis Obispo (25-0-1) plays at home against Yorba Linda (16-4-3) on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Wrestling
Let’s not forget about the individuals having great runs in the postseason. Nipomo girls wrestler Alexis “Crush” Garcia won two matches at the CIF-State Wrestling Championships and three SLO County boys wrestlers also qualified for the Championships on Friday and Saturday by getting through the brackets at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Tournament last weekend.
Paso Robles High’s Blake Irysh (285 pounds), Atascadero’s Tannen Soojian (182 pounds) and Isaiah Rocha (132 pounds) will all participate in the CIF-State Boys Wrestling Championships on Friday and Saturday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Remaining SLO County winter athletes chase titles."