Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• How high can she fly this time? Santa Margarita junior Kaitlyn Merritt, the state leader in the girls pole vault at 13 feet, 9 inches, defends her title in the Orange County Championships on Saturday at Mission Viejo High. Merritt won the event at the county championships last year with a meet-record 13-4.
• Garrett Corcoran is focused on one event at the Orange County Championships. The Villa Park senior, who has the state’s best time of the season in the 1,600 meters and is No. 2 in the 800 and 3,200, is entered only in the 1,600.
• Admission to the Orange County Championships is $8 for adults, $5 for students without an ASB card and $3 for students with an ASB card, and $2 for children 10 and younger. Parking is free but can be limited in the Mission Viejo lot.
• Mater Dei’s Stanley Johnson added CalHiSports’ state boys basketball player of the year award to the stack he took home this season. He was the Register’s county player of the year for the second season in a row, and he has been selected to several All-America teams. Johnson is the best county player of the past two years — is he the best ever?
• The opinion here is that Johnson is the best high school player in county history, and one has to separate “best player” from “best prospect” although Johnson might be both. What makes Johnson the best player is that county basketball has never before had a player who could excel as Johnson can at multiple positions, can score so expertly in every way a player can, and who also is the shutdown defensive player that Johnson has been.
• Johnson is the best prospect, too. He is the most polished, most college-ready player the county has produced. And we looked back at Tom Lewis, Wayne Carlander, Chris Burgess, Rich Branning, Cherokee Parks, Miles Simon, Mark Wulfemeyer …
• When the CIF-Southern Section emails to league representatives on May 20 its suggested playoff groupings for the next two school years, we likely will see the South Coast and Sunset football leagues in divisions in which they are the only county leagues.
• The South Coast might be in a division that includes the Big VIII League that currently has Centennial of Corona and Norco in it, and the Citrus Belt League (Eisenhower of Rialto, Redlands East Valley, etc.). The Sunset League could be in a division that also has the Bay League (Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach, Redondo Union of Redondo Beach, etc.) and/or the teams now in the Foothill League (Hart of Newhall, Valencia of Valencia, etc.).
• Boys volleyball teams have to finish with overall records of .500 or better to be eligible for postseason at-large berths. So today’s Newport Harbor at Edison match in the Sunset League is a huge one. Both teams are sub-.500 and battling with Los Alamitos for second and third behind the league leader, Huntington Beach. Only the top three finishers in the Sunset get guaranteed playoff berths.
• The CIF-Southern Section’s website, cifss.org, has a link by which tickets can be purchased in advance for the CIF-SS Championships and Masters Meet in track and field. The section championships meet is May 24 and the Masters is May 30, both at Cerritos College. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children and for students for either meet.
• The new outdoor pool at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach has been getting positive reviews from swimmers (to read more, visit the swimming section at ocvarsity.com). Belmont Plaza’s indoor pool was the site of the CIF-SS swimming championships for many years. This year, the CIF-SS swimming and diving finals will be held at Riverside City College on May 12-17.
• Baseball coaches prefer to not use their Friday starting pitcher in a Wednesday game. But Fountain Valley coach Deric Yanagisawa had Friday starter Scott Schultz pitch in the seventh inning Wednesday to preserve the Barons’ 9-7 win over Huntington Beach. It was an important game; Fountain Valley’s win placed the Barons in a tie with Huntington Beach for first place.
• “Scott would normally throw a light bullpen session Wednesdays,” Yanagisawa said. “This game could be a big moment shifter for the rest of league.” Schultz is 8-0 and got his second save Wednesday.
• Rancho Alamitos pitcher Alex Llort pitched his third consecutive complete-game shutout Tuesday in a 6-0 win over Los Amigos in a Garden Grove League game. Llort has 28 straight scoreless innings.
• New CIF-SS baseball and softball polls will be released Monday. Polling did not occur this week.
• Former CIF-SS commissioner Jim Staunton has his Champions for Character Golf Tournament on June 17 at Rio Hondo Golf Club. Early registration for a foursome is $550 until Wednesday. Go to cifss.org for information.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
