Sports

The Aptos Mariners — battered and bruised by the end of the night — did their best Rocky Balboa impression, swinging away at the “big piece of meat” over and over again, but there was no fairy tale ending for the group of scrappy underdogs.

Gabby Giuffre and Abby Pardue shot a combined 10-of-15 from 3-point land to lead the Aptos Mariners past the Soquel Knights, 66-54, to their 22nd consecutive Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League victory on Friday night

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.

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.

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.

Aptos, ranked 35th in the state by maxpreps.com as of Thursday afternoon, isn’t the only team around the area that is determined to accomplish some history this winter.

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.

Alex Austen, senior, Aptos: At 6-foot-5 and 311 pounds, Austen wowed with his athleticism on the football field and in the throwing circle. During the fall, Austen helped the Aptos football team finish second in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division by clearing the way in the trenches. He was named the league’s co-Offensive Lineman of the Year, and also earned an All-MBL-G First Team spot. In the spring, he won the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title in the shot put and also earned a spot in the Central Coast Section finals in the event.

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.

APTOS—A late turnover for the Aptos High football team led to a heart-breaking defeat in last week’s home opener against Campolindo High. For senior running back Caden Prichard, the Mariners’ 30-22 loss left a bad taste in their mouths.  “I don’t think we played a great...