Sage Hill School has celebrated many athletic successes on our fields and in the gym. We have another group of very talented and hard-working student-athletes who have trained in a sport outside of school for countless hours. Please join Physical Education Department Chair Merja Connolly-Freund in congratulating the following student-athletes for reaching their own goals and furthering their potential in Sage Hill School Independent Sports throughout the year.

 

Senior Fencer Geoffrey Loss set goals for himself in September and met them all earning a spot on the Junior National Team. In the 2010-11 season he traveled internationally to Moscow, Germany and London finishing as the top US fencer at that tournament. He then competed in Poland, France and last month he traveled to Jordan placing an amazing 9th place at the Cadet World Championships. Our female fencer Alex Kain has also represented Sage Hill School well in the Women’s fencing arena. She won the So Cal Scholastic League Foil in the fall and continued to place well throughout the year. We celebrate two other nationally ranked students athletes, Leo Kim and Joy Chang in the sport of archery. Both rank in the top ten nationally for their respective divisions. Joy also has earned a coaching certificate and works with young children.

 

The Interscholastic Equestrian team earned two All School Awards: Freshman Division High Point School and Western Novice Division High Point School. Individual Awards went to Euan Rugg for Overall High Point Individual Reserve Champion, Kristina Hermanson for Overall Novice High Point Western Reserve and Sasha Swerdlow for JV Jumping over Fences. Congratulations to team members Sasha Swerdlow, Lauren Palley, Charlotte Gadbois, Allie Fudge, Kristina Hermanson, Laura Gregg, Anya Manolakas, Emma Overly, Euan Rugg and Heather Zadra.

 

Equestrian jumper Jocelyn Neff has been moving up the Grand Prix level (1.50 meter height) to compete against professionals, along with trying to qualify to compete at an International level. She will compete in Leipzig, Germany at the Youngster Cup Final and she will also try to qualify for the second year for the North American Young Rider Championships. Jocelyn’s biggest awards from this school year are Prix de States 2010 team silver medal winning two style of riding awards: one at the Pennsylvania National Horseshow and the other at the National Horseshow. Charlotte Gadbois, Madison Jabara, Liana Korber, Kristina Hermanson and Arya Nakhjavani also are training and competing year round in their individual equestrian event. Charlotte Gadbois is training for her first Grand Prix event this summer. Kristina Hermanson will travel to the Pinto World Championships in Tulsa this June. Also a special good luck to Lauren Palley who will compete for the equestrian team in college next year at SMU and Heather Zadra, who will compete at Mount Holyoke.

 

The sailing team was represented on the water by Nick Ramming, Domenic Re, Jeff Tedmori and Freshman James Mather this year. The Ramming-Tedmori team finished 9th in the Pacific Coast Championships out of 20 boats. It is a great finish and I also applaud the team for doing so well with a very small roster. Max Weinberg, Grace Guan and Erica Comp also trained with the team this year. We need to recruit some new members for this long standing club to grow.

 

Another sport on the water is crew. Varsity Women’s rower Katie Rosoff has been her boat captain and a leader for the Newport Aquatics Center program. Novice Men’s Rower Samir Durrani and Novice Women’s rower Kiana Jodiery have been competing for the Newport Aquatics Center as well. On the ice, hockey players Grayson Kang and Kendall Culbertson are playing year round and spending many hours on the ice. Kendall playing in the Under 18-Tier I division was one of four players selected from Orange County Hockey to play in an All Star game in Topeka, Kansas in May. Michael Schidlovsky and Lex Chilcoff also played in the fall hockey season. Brooks Westervelt helped organize a Sage Hill surf team this year. Team member, Dean Hyland earned two first place awards out of five long board competitions. Congratulations to Sage Hill surf team members: Mattias Russo Larsson, Brooks Westervelt (Captain), Oliver Thomson, David Swerdlow, Ryan Sung, Sloane Friedmann, Harrison Ray and Euan Rugg.

 

Level 8 Gymnasts Noosha Deravi and Lauren Staahl have continued to train and compete at a very high level. Lauren traveled to Arizona and Florida for competition this season. Noosha is taking some time off but we acknowledge her accomplishments and wish her well. Our fearless diver Harry Lubowe moved up a division this year, scored an All American qualifying score in his club season and qualified for AAU Nationals held July 23-25. He also competes on our Sage Hill Swim and Dive team and is the Academy League Champion. This week he has a great chance to qualify for the CIF Masters meet. Synchronized Swimmer Emma Lacombe is training to go to club Nationals. Paige Buckland and Channelle Diaz are members of the Pacific Coast Magic competitive cheer team. Both of their teams finished second in their individual team divisions. Ultimate Frisbee player Kim Brown plays on the Junior National level in her sport. And finally, both Kristen Tsubota and Anya Garbuzov are figure skating in the United States Figure Skating Association. Kristen is training for the preliminary field moves test in June and Anya is currently at the Freestyle 4 level and hopes to complete all the USFSA levels by her senior year.

 

We are very proud of what these Sage Hill student athletes continue to achieve in their independent sport, while contributing in the classrooms and in our community here at school. Please continue to send Mrs. Connolly personal training updates so the Physical Education department can support and acknowledge all athletic successes at Sage Hill School.