PHS girls tennis clinch share of EYL title
The Porterville High girls tennis team clinched a share of the East Yosemite League title on Wednesday when it rolled to an 8-1 win over Tulare Union.
PHS won 5 of 6 singles matches to clinch the victory and a share of the EYL crown. Elle Mauck won 6-3, 6-0, Bailee Cook won 7-5, 6-2 and Rylee Jones won 6-2, 6-1 in singles for PHS.
Ruhani Deswal also moved up from No. 6 to No. 5 in singles and won 3-6, 6-1, (10-7). Camille Martin filled in at No. 6 singles and won 6-3, 3-6, (10-6) for PHS.
Porterville swept the doubles as Sierra Weisenberger and Mauck won 8-1, Cook and Jones won 8-5 and Zahra Rayani and Aracely Perez won 8-4.
CROSS COUNTRY
MHS BOYS, GIRLS FALL TO TW
Without three of its top seven runners quarantined due to COVID-19 protocols, the Monache boys cross country team lost to Tulare Western 16-46 on Wednesday at Veterans Park. Among those out for Monache was No. 1 runner Ian Queenan.
Western is the favorite to win the Division III Valley title. Western’s Carter Mendez finished first on Wednesday, covering the three-mile course in 16:09.
Monte Moore was the top runner for Monache, finishing fifth in 16:35. Salvador Martinez edged out two Western runners for eighth in 17:07.
Anthony Estrada was 12th in 17:29, Angel Tapia was 18th (20:25) and Carson Ishida was 19th in 21:22 for Monache.
Western won the girls race 20-41. The bright spot for Monache came when Jackie Castro Western’s Carly Herrera won the race in 19:30. Western took third, fourth and fifth while Monache freshman Samantha Martinez ran a solid time of 21:41 to place sixth.
Eilene Molina was 10th in 22:24, Nicole Torres was 11th in 23:59, Evelyn Molina was 12th in 25:18, Giselle Ramos was 13th in 28:16, and Tiffany Garcia was 14th in 28:18 for Monache. “This is the best team in the league and the D3 favorites and we were outworked by them this season,” Monache coach Seth Ishida said. “They are doing things right and we need to be more consistent in our training. I was really happy to see Jackie compete.”
The individual EYL title will come down to Castro and Herrera. Castro won the first meeting while Herrera won the second meeting on Wednesday. “This is going to be a battle,” Ishida said.
About the rest of the EYL season and the race for the league title against Western, Ishida said, “We need to bounce back and win every meet and try to edge them at the end when we host the EYL Championship meet back here at Veterans Park.”
The Monache frosh-soph boys were able to pull out a win by one point while Western beat Monache’s froshsoph girls 15-47.