The Menlo School boys' tennis team opened the season with its third consecutive California Classic Open Division championship, hosted by Buchanan High in Clovis, over the weekend.

The Knights tore through the tournament, sweeping Palo Alto, Davis and Los Altos in the 16-team Open Division before defeating Santa Barbara 6-1 in the final.

"They all stood out,but Richard Pham and Gunther Matta really played exceptional all weekend," Menlo coach Bill Shine said.

The California Classic began more than 25 years ago with eight teams and now features more than 120 teams that play at 25 sites across the Central Valley. Brophy College Prep of Arizona joined the field this past weekend, making the first time that an out-of-state team participated.

Boys' lacrosse
Palo Alto improved to 2-0 on the season with a 10-8 nonleague victory over last year's MTAL champion, Carmel. The Vikings were led by Jonny Glazier with four goals and one assist, and Jordan Gans with three goals.

The game was closely fought throughout, and the outcome was uncertain till the final minute. Logan Mendenhall, Tully McAlister and Weston Preising also added goals for the Vikings.

In Atherton, Duncan McGinnis tallied four goals and added one assist but it wasn't enough as host Menlo-Atherton dropped a 10-6 nonleague decision to Novato. The Bears (3-2) also got three assists from Drew Uphoff and single goals from Nick Schlein and Cole Shaffer. McGinnis finished off a three-match week with 13 goals and four assists.

Girls' lacrosse
Emily Carlson scored six goals and Meredith Geagan-Breiner added three to pace the Menlo-Atherton girls' lacrosse team to a 14-7 nonleague triumph over visiting Bella Vista (Fair Oaks) on Saturday. After Bella Vista took a 1-0 lead, the Bears (1-0-1) answered with three straight goals by Peyton Smith, Heather Melendez and Carlson and M-A never trailed after that.

Swimming
The Palo Alto boys and girls swept team titles at the annual Palo Alto Spring Invitational on Saturday to open the season.

The boys scored 282 points to hold off SCVAL De Anza Division rivals Monta Vista (161) and Los Gatos (147.5) while the Paly girls (239) did the same as the Matadors finished second (175) and Wildcats third (154).

Both teams won with their depth as the Paly boys had one individual winners with diver Cameron Yem in addition to capturing all three relays -- the highlight coming in the 400 free relay where the Vikings clocked 3:20.65 with the team of Eren Kiris, Alex Francis, Andrew Cho and Winston Wang.

The Paly girls had individual wins from Haley Mortenson in the 200 free (2:02.73) and Molly Zebker in the 500 free (5:19.83), plus diver Serena Yee on the 1-meter (209.90 points).

Wrestling
A highly successful season was followed by a disappointing end for three seniors and one junior at the CIF State Championships this past weekend at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Out of 10 combined matches by the four local wrestlers, only Gunn senior Eric Cramer was victorious as he won twice before being eliminated.

Cramer won his opening match at 126 pounds, 4-2, over Daniel Williams of Hughson to reach the second round. There, Cramer posted a 7-6 decision over Adam Bracamonte of East Bakersfield. Cramer then dropped into the consolation bracket following a 10-2 loss to Artemio Flores of James Logan and finally was eliminated after a 6-5 loss to sophomore Josh Cortez of Temecula Valley.

Gunn senior Daniel Papp (120) and junior Sean Lydster (195) both started in the Round of 32, but neither lasted long. Papp was pinned by James Gomez of Woodcreek in 5:51 and then was eliminated in a 7-5 loss to Daniel Ruiz of Madera.

Lydster opened with a 6-2 loss to Tyler Macdonald of Newbury Park before being eliminated by Oscar Martinez of Centennial-Corona in overtime, 2-1.

Palo Alto senior Gary Hohbach competed at 152 pounds and suffered a 15-6 loss to Alexander Graves of San Marcos (San Diego) in the opening round. Hohbach then saw his prep career end following a pin by Vacaville's Zach Dawson in 1:36.

Cramer is headed to Stanford in the fall and hoping to continue his wrestling career there. Gunn coach Chris Horpel said Papp has been admitted to several schools with strong wrestling programs and most likely will join former Gunn CCS champ Stefan Weidemann at Cal Poly-SLO.

— Menlo School Athletics/Palo Alto Online Sports

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