Sports

In 20 years, Aptos record-setting running back Marcos Reyes wants people to remember three things about him: (1) he was a nice guy, (2) he was a leader and (3) he treated his guys well.

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.

Aptos High senior Max Meltzer, pictured during the 2017 Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Individual Golf Championships at DeLaveaga Golf Club in Santa Cruz, won the Central Coast Section Golf Championship on May 16 at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Montere

The Mariners were pumping their fists, dishing out hugs and taking photos with their outright Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship banner after downing Soquel, 63-54, in the league tournament final on Feb. 17.

To say Aptos High senior Hunter Matys was on top of his game at the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League boys track and field championships would probably a real understatement.

Soquel erased a double-digit first half deficit to snap Aptos’ 26-game regular season win streak against Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opponents with a stunning 52-42 upset on Friday night.

The Mariners were also hoping the Toreadores would take their foot off the pedal a bit after. That wasn’t the case either.

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 former head coach and general manager of the four-time Arena Football League-champion San Jose SaberCats, Arbet didn’t promise to break his foot off in his player’s “John Brown hind parts,” as Denzel Washington so eloquently said while playing Boone in the 2000 football flick. But the Seahawks’ heavyweight offseason hire does expect his players to be as close to perfect as possible.

REDWOOD CITY–The Aptos High girls’ basketball team has relied on its defense throughout the season.  That approach helped the Mariners bully the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League en route to regular season and tournament titles.  It helped them get the Central Coast Section championship game for...