Sports

The reigning Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion, Aptos is only a couple wins away from once again capturing the league title. With all but one starter back from last year’s squad, Aptos was expected to cruise through the league. And while the Mariners are not taking any team during the final stretch of their league season for granted, they are eagerly awaiting for the real measuring stick of their skill: the Central Coast Section team playoffs.

GILROY—The Cabrillo College football team took a short road trip to Gilroy High School on Saturday but freshman Christian Rodriguez felt right...

The Seahawks knocked off the defending California Community College Athletic Association champion MiraCosta College, 3-0, on May 10 at West Valley College to become the first team from Northern California to win the state beach volleyball championship.

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.

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

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.

After two long weeks of losing, the Cabrillo College baseball team finally found the winning formula again.

Aptos High senior defensive lineman Josh Powell led like a captain from the start of the year. His leadership and play on...

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.