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Mike Molieri has been named the new head coach of the Menlo-Atherton boys’ basketball team. Molieri has been a member of the Bears’ staff for the past two years.
Prior to arriving at M-A, Molieri spent three years as a varsity assistant at Riordan. The Crusaders won West Catholic Athletic League and Central Coast Section championships during his tenure. Before that, he was an assistant varsity coach and the head frosh-soph coach at Jefferson High for eight years.
During his eight years at Jefferson, his teams won two Peninsula Athletic League frosh-soph titles, three PAL varsity titles, and the PAL Tournament twice.
Molieri also has been a special education teacher at Menlo-Atherton since 2003.
Baseball
Palo Alto picked a great time to flex its offensive muscles as it heads into an important two-game series with Los Altos this week to decide the SCVAL De Anza Division regular-season title.
On Saturday in a nonleague game at conference-leading Carmel, the Vikings ripped five home runs during a 14-4 victory.
Four of the homers came in a 10-run fourth inning. The first round-tripper was a big one as senior Ozzie Braff ripped a grand slam. That was followed by a solo homer by junior Sean Harvey. Two batters later, junior Isaac Feldstein hit another solo shot and four batters later it was Jack Witte hitting a three-run homer.
Senior B.J. Boyd hit a two-run homer in the second inning to help the Vikings (19-3-1) win for the ninth time in their past 10 games. Paly outscored three opponents, 36-8, in three victories last week.
Boys’ lacrosse
There’s still a logjam in the SCVAL De Anza Division with the top four teams all within three games of each other.
Sacred Heart Prep (8-1) remains in first with matches remaining against Mountain View, Burlingame and Menlo-Atherton.
Palo Alto (5-2) is in second with matches left against host Menlo-Atherton (Tuesday, 4 p.m.), Menlo School, Burlingame and Los Gatos (twice).
Menlo-Atherton (6-3) has Palo Alto, Los Gatos and Sacred Heart Prep left on its schedule while Menlo School (5-4) still has host Palo Alto (Thursday, 7 p.m.), Los Gatos and Mountain View.
Sacred Heart can wrap up the league’s No. 1 playoff seed by winning out and Paly can do the same with the No. 2 seed. Tuesday’s match with M-A is crucial for both teams.
Track and field
Menlo-Atherton produced more standout efforts at the annual CCS Top 8 meet last Friday at San Jose City College.
Senior Michael Hester ran a career-best 1:56.96 while taking third in the 800 meters. He also finished sixth in the 1600 in 4:24.08 and ran a leg on the Bears’ 1600 relay team that clocked 3:25.14 for second place behind Bellarmine’s CCS-leading 3:22.08.
Menlo-Atherton’s Di’jonn Williams ran a season-best 50.05 while taking fourth in the boys’ 400, and teammate George Baier was eighth in the 800 with a season best of 1:58.98 in addition to running on the 4×400 relay.
The Palo Alto boys’ 400 relay team continued to sizzle with a second-place time of 42.75 while chasing Bellarmine to a 42.04 time, No. 2 in the CCS this season.
Palo Alto also got a fourth place in the boys’ 800 from Nikolai Solgaard, a season best of 1:57.07, while Grant Shorin finished sixth in the triple jump at 41-9 1/2.
Nico Robinson of Sacred Heart Prep was sixth in the 110 high hurdles in 15.41 in addition to taking sixth in the 300 intermediate hurdles (41.21) and fifth in the long jump (21-3 1/2).
Kirsten Baird of Gunn was fifth in the girls’ high jump at 5-2, the Palo Alto girls’ 400 relay was seventh in 49.94 and the M-A girls’ 1600 relay was sixth in 4:05.16.
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports
