By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
Once Archbishop Mitty High's baseball team had knocked out regular season champion Serra, the Western Catholic Athletic League's baseball tournament was anyone's to win.
Valley Christian wasn't about to let that opportunity slip away, although they very nearly did just that in Thursday night's tournament final.
After allowing a tying run to score in the top of the seventh inning, ace pitcher Kevin Miller rebounded in the bottom half of the inning to drive in Daniel Hall from second with a one-out single for a 4-3 victory over Mitty.
Valley Christian, led by Miller on the mound, had defeated Bellarmine in Wednesday's semifinal. While Mitty stunned Serra, the No. 1 ranked team in the state, 8-0 in the other semifinal game.
The Warriors (29-4) were denied the regular season title thanks to a late slump, losing two of its final three games, including a 14-1 defeat at the hands of Serra that gave the Padres the title.
Mitty, which finished fifth in the league and features a freshman and two sophomores in its starting lineup, ended the season at 19-13. But Mitty could never solve Valley Christian, dropping all four games against the Warriors this year.
Swimming
Monterey High swept both the boys and girls Monterey Bay League swimming titles, the ninth straight title for the boys and eighth straight for the girls.
Nick Im claimed two individual wins was part of two relay team wins as Monterey erased a 36-point deficit after the diving competition to hold off Seaside, 306-250.
It was the third straight runner-up finish for the Seaside program.
The Monterey girls easily outdistanced Seaside by 175 points en route to their title.
North Monterey County's Grant Hashimoto, the only swimmer for the Condors who actually trains with the Seaside team during the year, qualified for the upcoming Central Coast Section meet in two separate events, the 100 free and 200 free events.
Track & Field
North Monterey County captured its fifth-straight Monterey Bay League title in both the boys and girls divisions at league meet in Watsonville last week.
University of Utah-bound Reggie Topps claimed wins in four events, defending his MBL titles in the long jump and 100 meters. Topps added a win in the 200 and ran the final leg on the winning 1,600 relay team.
North County held off Seaside by just 59 points, but only led by 16 late into the meet.
The Central Coast Section trials begin this Saturday at San Jose City College.
In the girls division, North County claimed points in all 16 events and rolled to a relatively easy 182-113 win over second place Monte Vista.
Monterey sprinter Lakesha Adams won two events, defending her title in the 400 and capturing the 200 meter races.
Teammate Anastasia Jones, a CCS finalist last year in the 300 hurdles, breezed to a win in the 300 hurdles and won the 100 hurdles as well.
