Dragons girls swim continues VVAL domination

The Dragons girls swim team once again displayed their league dominance, winning their fifth straight league matchup against Petaluma High School on April 6, with a score of 121-55.

The visiting Trojans were no match for their hosts, who were celebrating their senior night. This was the final home meet for the Dragons and eight total seniors were honored: Maya Suazo, Campbell Rolston, Erin Nicholson, Sierra Pine, Glorianna Ring, Audrey Powers, Emma Melendy and Greyson McCaw.

Repeating their success from the week before, the Dragons’ medley teams once again dominated their races. The medley relay team of Nicholson, Remy Harrison, Alegria Silvi and Pine finished with a 2:04.36, while the 200 (Ring, Kate Llodra, Nicholson, Harrison) and 400 (Ring, Llodra, Silvi, Pine) freestyle relay teams won their events in times of 1:54.28 and 4:15.24.

Ring won two individual events as well, posting a 2:21.24 in the 200 individual medley and a 1:02.22 in the fly. Pine also claimed two individual titles, swimming the 50 and 100 freestyle in times of 25.34 and 57.60 respectively.

The Dragons also claimed victories on behalf of Silvi in the 200 freestyle (2:10.64), Llodra in the 500 freestyle (6:30.41), Nicholson in the 100 backstroke (1:10.81) and Harrison in the 100 breaststroke (1:17.40).

Of the boys team, McCaw was out of town competing in an elite swim meet, Far Westerns for the Neptune Swimming while Tully Meyer swam in two events and bested his times in both events.

Baseball’s one crucial inning

The Dragons held with the Trojans for six innings of baseball last Wednesday afternoon, allowing just one run outside of the fifth inning. Unfortunately, the Trojans took advantage of a lead off walk and a couple errors to extend the inning and rally for five runs to power their 6-1 defeat of the Dragons.

Sonoma Valley (6-7, 3-1 VVAL) managed to collect seven hits against Petaluma pitcher Aaron Davainis, but six of those seven hits came with two outs and prevented them from generating any sort of offense. Davainis pitched an impressive seven innings for the Trojans, finishing with nine strikeouts and just the one earned run.

Petaluma (6-5, 4-0) accumulated all of their offense in the middle innings, scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth and their other run in the bottom of the fifth.

Although Boydell was relieved after surrendering three runs in the fourth inning, Waldrop stood to end the inning with little further damage had the Dragons’ defense not committed those errors. But the additional errors gave the Trojans enough of an opening to score three more runs off of Waldrop and extend their lead further out.

Either way, the Dragons lost on a lack of offensive firepower, as they could muster only nine baserunners across their seven innings at the plate. Six of their seven hits came with two outs, and Sonoma Valley couldn’t generate any offense from those baserunners. The game came down to who could create rallies, and Sonoma Valley couldn’t get the same momentum as Petaluma.

Apart from the disastrous fourth inning, the Dragons played a complete game of defense and pitching. Nick Sebastiani started the game for Sonoma Valley and pitched two scoreless innings before being relieved by Grant Boydell, and Christian Hernandez pitched a scoreless sixth inning.

Dragons track and field shines brightly

Despite competing in just a fraction of the events as their opponents, Sonoma Valley managed to pick up a few wins in its meet against Casa Grande and Napa on Tuesday.

Having fewer runners limited how many events the team could participate in, and it was especially apparent in the relays. The Dragons didn’t have enough runners to compete in any of the relays run by the Casa Grande Gauchos and Napa High Grizzlies, limited to just the individual races.

Siblings Siena and Lilianna Hoban each placed well for the girls, with the sophomore Siena winning the 800 and 1600 with times of 2:34 and 5:26. Lilianna, a senior, placed second in the 800 behind Siena with a 2:39, as well as second in the 100 hurdles with a personal best time of 21.10.

The boys struggled to place in any regard next to their counterparts from Casa Grande and Napa, as their only two runners were seniors Ty Giller and Daniel Rico. Giller finished in eighth place in the 800 with a time of 2:31.54, but didn’t compete in any other events.

Rico ran in the 100 and 800, placing last in each but finishing the 100 in a personal best 14.00 seconds. Rico also competed in the shot put, putting up another personal best 24’06 distance.