By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
When Nico Weiler transferred from Stuttgart, Germany to attend high school in Los Gatos, no one knew that he would quickly vault himself to the top of the Central Coast Section track and field scene.
After this weekend's Top 8 Track and Field Classic in Los Gatos, the entire section knows about Weiler now.
Weiler set a new personal best in the pole vault by going 16-8 - the second highest in the state and third highest in the nation this year - and out-dueled St. Francis' Casey Roche to win the event. Roche's previous best of 17-5 is a section record, but last year's third-place finisher at the state meet failed to clear the 16-foot mark.
Weiler missed on all three of his attempts to clear the 17-foot, one-quarter-inch mark.
In other action at the 28th annual edition of the meet, North Monterey County's Reggie Topps captured three events, taking the 100 meters in 10.94, the 200 meters in 22.30 and the long jump at 22-5.
Los Altos' Eric Hersey easily won the 100 meter hurdles in 14.39 and the 300 meter hurdles in 38.25, while Oak Grove's Sebastian Sam won the 800 in 1:53.79.
On the girl's side, defending state champion Tori Anthony of Castilleja set a new meet record in the girls pole vault with a mark of 13-8 before coming up short on all three attempts to set the national record of 14-1.
Two freshmen made their marks at the meet, with Leigh's Jordan Diaz capturing the 1,600-meter run in a time of 5:03.4. Meanwhile, Pinewood's Angela Gradiska won the 100 meters in 12.36, edging Milpitas' Eileen Nguyen by one-hundredth of a second, before taking fourth in the 200, behind Valley Christian's Dahyls Marshall, who won in a time of 24.85.
Baseball
Trying to keep a winning streak alive in baseball is a tough enough task.
Add on the pressure of trying to secure your coach's 500th career win and you've got the assignment that the Serra High baseball team was faced with on Friday.
But the Padres were more than up to the task, defeating St. Francis 5-0 behind a five-hit shutout by Ryan Allgrove for their ninth-consecutive win to give 21-year coach Pete Jensen his 500th victory in front of Serra's home crowd.
Jensen, with a career mark of 500-163-5, has captured 11 West Catholic Athletic League championships and three Central Coast Section titles.
Friday's win also carried the sweet satisfaction of revenge for the Padres (7-2 WCAL, 17-4 overall), who had lost 3-1 to St. Francis (3-6, 14-8) last month, while staying within a game of front-runners Bellarmine Prep and Valley Christian.
Serra is scheduled to play both of the first-place teams within a week.
Softball
Soquel High got off to a perfect start in the opening two games of the Watsonville Tournament as Tanya Mutz pitched a perfect game while her team outscored their two opponents by a combined score of 20-0 on Saturday.
After Lauren Colfer helped the Knights (18-3) shutdown Monte Vista Christian 12-0 in the first game of the day, which was called after three innings on a mercy rule, Mutz struck out 12 of the 15 batters she faced as the Knights beat King City 8-0 in their second game of the day, which was called after five innings.
Mutz also aided her cause at the plate, going 2-for-4 and belting a three-run home run. Megan Susoy went 3-for-4 and Krista Haux went 2-for-3 with three runs scored.
