Sports

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.

Nikki Hiltz made her first-ever trip to Boston to compete at the Boston Athletic Association Invitational Mile on April 13 and did what she’s been doing throughout her prestigious running career.

Top-seeded Aptos won its second Central Coast Section Division III crown in the last three years, and the Mariners made it look easy with a 58-37 redemption win over No. 2 South San Francisco on Feb. 23 at Palo Alto High.

Aptos edged the Capitola-Soquel, 5-4, on Saturday at Scotts Valley to finish up its undefeated run to the District 39 Little League All-Stars Majors championship.

The Mariners, who return nine seniors on a team of 14, still pride themselves on passing — they set a season goal of passing a 2.0 — and they’re not afraid to hit the deck for digs. Hewitt leads a scrappy group of back row players that have set the tone early in the season. Sophomore Cam Dueck and freshman Peyton Dueck have both spent time at libero and will be called upon to continuously keep the team in games while the offense comes along.

Aptos head coach Randy Blankenship said he’ll try to take “a couple of weeks” off to soak in the Mariners’ historic 2018 season, which featured a win in the Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game and Santa Cruz County’s first California Interscholastic Federation NorCal bowl game berth.

APTOS—The high school football season unofficially kicked off this past weekend with the Santa Cruz County Jamboree at Cabrillo College. St. Francis, Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high schools along with four other schools within the county scrimmaged for the first time this season at...

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

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.

Abby Pardue has scored in double figures in only two of 18 games this season.