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Softball Lady Dragons fall to Analy, Conner runs Sonoma’s 3rd-best 2-mile

 

So far it’s been a Sonoma County League season of one-sided decisions among the seven SCL teams, and the Sonoma Valley High School varsity softball girls have been on both ends of the feast-and-famine final scores.

After routing Healdsburg in the SCL opener, the young Lady Dragons – with only one senior, Mia Stornetta, on the roster – were pounded by perennial power Petaluma, then bounced back by overwhelming El Molino last Tuesday in Forestville.

But on Thursday, the Sonoma girls hosted defending champion Analy and were dealt a 9-1 defeat, with Stornetta and sophomore Juliana Gutierrez getting the only two hits.

The Lady Dragons travel to Petaluma today to play longtime SCL rival Casa Grande, before returning to host league foe Windsor at 4 p.m. this Thursday, April 21, at the high school field.

 

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On the heels of Sonoma’s boys’ and girls’ track teams’ SCL dual-meet losses to deep and solid Casa Grande squads last Wednesday at Schantz Track, junior two-miler Alex Conner was the only Dragon to qualify for, and compete in, Friday’s annual Woody Wilson Invitational at the University of California, Davis.

Not only did Conner compete at the Woody Wilson, but he excelled.

Racing against 37 runners in the boys’ 3,200 meters, Conner captured an impressive 11th-place finish with not only a personal-best time of 9 minutes, 37.41 seconds, but the third-best time on Sonoma’s all-time top-10 boys’ list in the event, and just under three seconds off John Litzenberg’s school record set in 1988.

Conner’s time is also the second fastest in the Redwood Empire this year, as well as the 48th best all-time in the Empire, and puts him currently in the top-10 of the North Coast Section.

 

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In the SCL dual-losses to visting Casa Grande last Wednesday – with more than half of the Sonoma athletes setting season-best marks or personal-records (PR) – the Lady Dragons were paced by sophomore Sara Summers’ 100- and 300-meter hurdles first-places in 17.94 and 53.8 seconds, respectively, and triple-jump third at 29 feet, 10-1/2 inches; senior Caitlyn Silky’s pole-vault first at 8-6 and high-jump third at 4-2; freshman Kirsten Hodgson’s 800 first in 2 minutes, 34.32 seconds (PR) and 1,600 second in 5:56.0; the second-place 400 relay team of senior Emma McGee, sophomore Ali Romano, and frosh Maren Peterson and Ellen Angeloni in 54.4; the second-place 1,600 relay team of McGee, Summers, Hodgson and junior Elli Hernandez in 4:39.4; Romano’s 100 second in 13.3; sophomore Serena Spry’s 3,200 second in 14:01.3; and senior Jenna Wirick’s shot-put and discus thirds at 25-0 (PR) and 77-3, respectively.

Pacing the Dragon boys were Conner’s 3,200 first-place in 9:48.6 1,600 second in 4:39.1; senior Raymond Mellinger’s shot-put first at 45-2 (PR); senior Danny Maggioncalda’s 400 first in 55.4 and 200 second in 24.8 (PR); the second-place 1,600 relay team of Maggioncalda, senior Devin McAllister, junior Steven Wedell and sophomore Chris Tose in 3:56.1; Tose’s 800 second in 2:13.6; junior Josh Heiser’s discus second at 121-4 (PR); sophomore Greg Maggioncalda’s 300-hurdles second in 45.6 and 110-hurdles and high-jump thirds at 17.2 (PR) and 5-0, respectively; McAllister’s 800 third in 2:14.5; and senior Omar Paz’s shot-put and discus thirds at 41-4 (PR) and 116-0, respectively.

Sonoma’s track teams will compete in the Vallejo event this Saturday, April 23, before hitting the SCL road for tri-meets against Analy and host Healdsburg on Wednesday, April 27.