Sports

Marea Zlatunich could have had a very different high school experience. Now a league, section and state champion runner for the Aptos High Mariners, Zlatunich didn’t show up to the first day of cross country practice during her freshman year. “I honestly didn’t want to do cross country,” Zlatunich said. “I did it as an eighth grader and I wanted to quit after the first day, but my family didn’t let me.” But when her friend, Annika Niles, begged her to come out for the second day of practice because “she didn’t have any friends on the team,” Zlatunich reluctantly obliged. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of her young life.

The Aptos football team was on the ropes throughout the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game. But whenever the Mariners needed a play — big or small — someone answered.

Capitola-Soquel All-Star pitcher Dylan Hull recorded a complete game shutout on Saturday in a 7-0 win against the Aptos Little League All-Stars in the District 39 11s championship at Franich Park.

No. 2 Aptos will play top-seeded Monterey for the Central Coast Section Division III championship at Palo Alto High.

Alex Austen, a senior offensive lineman for the Aptos High football team, stands at a towering 6-foot-5-inches and 311 pounds. Standing next to his fellow lineman, the starting left tackle makes them all look like members of the freshman squad. Six-foot-2, 283-pound senior tackle Joseph Gutierrez-Lee might as well be 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds.

SALINAS—As the gusty Salinas Valley winds began to pick up, so did the howls from Lobos fans sitting in the stands, cheering for their Monterey Peninsula College football team as it got into victory formation to close out the season.  The Lobos defeated Cabrillo College,...

Kelly Taylor scored five goals, including the game-winner with 1:48 left to play, to lift the Aptos High Mariners girl's water polo team to a 10-9 win over the Christopher High Cougars on Thursday in Monterey Bay League Gabilan division play on the road.

Cabrillo College men’s basketball coach Tony Marcopulos is entering his 20th season with the program and he is facing one of his biggest challenges yet. It’s the first time in more than a decade he’ll be taking on such an inexperienced group that’ll feature just...

APTOS—Aptos High senior Dante Aranda, whose moniker on the football field is “The Bus”, is known for delivering big hits and going full speed whenever the ball is in his hand.     The 5 foot, 10 inch, 235-pound fullback/nose guard was all over the field for...

Aptos High had four players recognized for first team honors at last week’s Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League coaches’ all-league voting meeting.