MHS wins Golden West tourney

Monache boys water polo strung together five-straight victories to be crowned the champions of the twoday Golden West High School tournament on Saturday.

The Marauders cruised through Friday’s games against Dinuba and Mt. Whitney, which gave some of the younger and inexperienced players a lot of playing time. However, Saturday was a different story.

Facing Garces Memorial at 9 a.m., Monache was down 8-4 at half but worked their way back. The team tied the game

up 10-10 with around 20 seconds left in the fourth and ended up stopping their final attempt. Playing in sudden victory, Monache stopped Garces again on their first attempt in overtime and MHS Nick Taylor scored a great backhand to seal the deal on the Marauders’ first possession to win 11-10.

Against Bullard, Monache had one of their better games from start to finish and won 15-7. Facing El Diamante in the championship, Monache won 12-11.

Taylor led the team in scoring with 24 goals throughout the tournament followed by Garrett Keller with 12 and Oliver Camarena with 10. Leading the team in assists was Danan Weisenberger with 11. Ian Azevedo had 10 assists while JT Lee had eight and Xavier Palacios had six.

In blocks Brock Fleischman led with 40 followed by Palacios with six and Lee with four. Weisenberger, Palacios and Lee had eight steals apiece.

“We had a great weekend and worked really hard,” said MHS head coach Evan Thomas. “Our goal going into the tournament was to win the whole thing and the boys completed our goal in great fashion. I saw my team more focused and disciplined than I’ve ever seen them and that’s a great thing for us heading into league.”