Athletics Recap
2015 Spring Season
La Jolla Country Day’s athletic teams enjoyed an extremely competitive 2014-15 school year capturing 11 league, CIF, Southern Regional and State Championships in baseball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, football, softball, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s water polo. 22 members of the class of 2015 will go on to compete at the college level in baseball (6), basketball (2), cheerleading, crew, cross country (2), football (2), soccer (2), tennis (2), track and field (4), volleyball (3) and water polo. 96 Country Day students were 2-sport athletes and 46 students earned 3-sport athlete patches. 5 graduating seniors were recognized as Iron Torreys (3-sport athletes all 4 years of upper school): Amrita Assomull, Autumn Brown, Ben Coden, Grayson Lyman and Keaton Mertz. Two Country Day coaches reached significant milestones in 2014-15; men’s soccer coach, Jerry Fleischhacker, won his 300th game and women’s basketball coach, Terri Bamford, picked up her 400th victory.
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Country Day’s spring season teams played a huge role in the year’s success:
The baseball team finished with a 21-10 record and won the Coastal League Championship. This was the 3rd Coastal Championship under Coach John Edman, 4th in school history. The team advanced all the way to the CIF Division 1 semi-finals before being defeated by large school power, and eventual Division 1 champion, Poway High School. Alfonso Rivas ’15 and Dylan Robertson ‘15 were both selected 1st Team All-League and Rivas was honored as the Coastal League Pitcher of the Year. Keaton Weisz ’15, Brandon Nance ’16, David Wylie ’17 and Chris Bee ’15 were all named 2nd Team All-League. Rivas was selected 1st Team all-CIF and Robertson 2nd Team All-CIF. A highlight of the season was a 4-3 victory over highly regarded Santa Fe Christian in front of a huge Big Blue crowd at Petco Park.
The very young Lady Torrey softball team won the Pacific League with a 21-5 record. Samantha Moothart ’17 was honored as the Pacific League Player of the Year. Samantha Stanley ’18, Lauren Dvorak ’18 and Maya McCleod ’18 were also selected 1st Team All-Pacific League. Dvorak was also named to the All-CIF 2nd Team.
Both the men’s and women’s swim teams finished as runners-up in the large school Eastern League; the men finished behind Pt. Loma High School and the women behind University City High School. New school records were set by Matt Sturtevant ’15 (200 Free), Timothy Yen ’16 (200 IM, 100 Fly, 100 Breast), Riley Kennedy ’15 (Diving) and the 200 Free Relay Team which included: Yen, Sturtevant, Trent Sokol ’16 and Enzo Zegarra ’15. The men’s team finished 4th in the 18 team City Conference (finishing behind large enrollment schools Cathedral, La Jolla and Coronado) led by Yen who was the first two event conference champion in school history winning the 200 IM and 100 Fly. New school marks were set by members of the women’s team: McKenzie Kelly ’18 (200 Free, 100 Free, 500 Free and 100 Back) and Cassidy Eiler ’16 (Diving). Kelly won the City Conference 100 Free championship and finished with the CIF San Diego Section’s 2nd best time in the event. Both Yen and Kelly qualified for California’s first ever State Swim Meet; Yen in the 100 Fly and Kelly in the 100 Free.
The men’s tennis team finished as Coastal League Co-Champions; the 6th consecutive outright or shared league championship for Coach Joslyn Burkett’s ’01 program. The team went on to claim the CIF Division 1 Championship defeating perennial power, Coronado High School in the final. Adam Schiffman ’15, Max Mereles ’15, Ian Mottale ’18 and Michael Savides ’18 were all named 1st Team All-Coastal League. Schiffman and Mereles were honored as Honorable Mention All-CIF.
The men’s and women’s track and field teams finished their seasons as Coastal League runners-up. Six boys and five girls qualified for the CIF Championship meet: Brennan Goring ’17 (Long Jump), Julius Diehr ’15 (3200 m.), Tomás Miralles ’16 (800 m.), Grayson Lyman ’15 (800 m.), Eric Rundlett ’15 (110 m. IH), Darien Brown ’15 (100 m.), Natalia LaSpada ’15 (3200 m.), Veronica Chambers ’16 (300 m. LH), Cydney Collins ’15 (Shot Put and Discus), Lexi Watkins ’18 (1600 m.) and Ashley Xu ’15 (Pole Vault). New school records were set by Goring (LJ), Diehr (3200) and Miralles (800) as well as in the men’s distance medley relay (Diehr, Maralles, Lyman and Brown) and women’s distance medley relay (LaSpada, Watkins, Juju Dessert ’15 and Mariana Ecija ’16).
It was a rebuilding year for a young men’s lacrosse team that did not have a single senior on the varsity squad. Despite their youth, the team finished with a respectable 9-11 record and qualified for the Division 1 CIF playoffs, losing to large enrollment La Jolla High School in the first round. David Brewster ’17 was selected to the All-Coastal League 2nd Team.
The Lady Torrey lacrosse team finished its season with a 6-9 record and a berth in the CIF Division 2 playoffs, the first time the program has qualified for CIF playoffs in its short history. The girls were defeated in the first round by large school, Granite Hills. Emily Blodgett ’15 was named 1st Team All-Coastal League and Nicole Koman ’16 was selected 2nd Team.
The men’s golf team had a challenging season posting a 5-13 record and a 4th place finish in the Coastal League. A highlight for the season was Julian Davis ‘17 finishing as medalist (lowest score in the match) four times and being selected 2nd Team All-Coastal League.
