Sports

APTOS—The mission couldn’t have been any clearer for Aptos senior Caden Prichard who was set to battle Salinas for just the second time in his career. The ace running back helped lift the Mariners past the Cowboys, 44-41, in a thriller that went down to...

Aptos freshman forward Natalia Ackerman (35) shoots the ball through a pair of Soquel defenders during the second half of their SCCAL tournament championship game on Feb. 18 at Cabrillo College in Aptos. Photo by Tony Nunez

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.

Aptos High dedicated its baseball diamond to brothers Paul and Robert Bailey on Tuesday before the Mariners’ Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League game against Soquel 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.

Aptos High was ousted from the Central Coast Section baseball playoffs in heartbreaking fashion following a walk-off 7-6 loss in nine innings to top seed Menlo School in the Division III semifinals at Santa Clara University on May 26. James Riley, a freshman, finished with...

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

Grieves, a 2009 Aptos graduate, has been hired as the new girls basketball coach, he confirmed with this newspaper on Monday evening. Grieves spent the last three seasons with the school’s boys junior varsity team, and is well acquainted with the talent-rich squad he will inherit for the upcoming 2018-19 winter season. His junior varsity team often scrimmaged with the girls varsity team over the years, and his family is ingrained in the Aptos youth basketball scene.

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.

Sophomore shortstop Shea Garcia capped a 10-run explosion with a monster grand slam over the centerfield fence, and Aptos High cruised to a 10-6 victory over San Lorenzo Valley High on Friday to clinch its first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title since 2011. “It took us some time,” said Aptos head coach Phil Rojas, “but it’s rewarding now.” Early on, it looked like the Mariners (13-9, 11-1) would have to wait until next season to end their league title drought.