Best of Winter and Spring 2022-23 South Placer Sports

The 2022-23 sports season brought us a plethora of moments and memories that will be remembered for years and decades to come. With the 2022-23 athletic season in the books for South Placer area high school and college teams, we wanted to look back at some of the best moments from the winter and spring sports seasons and highlight various athletes and teams who performed at the highest level. The winter sports season brought us multiple impressive basketball teams from the local area. On the boys' side, the Whitney High boys' basketball team won the Division II Sac-Joaquin Section championship and made it to the NorCal semifinals. Valley Christian Academy won its first section title in boys basketball. Both the Wildcats and the Lions were also section champions on the girls' side with Whitney High winning its first section title in program history and Valley Christian Academy picking up its sixth section championship in the last decade. The Granite Bay High boys' basketball team also had a great run as the Grizzlies, led by senior guard Yaqub Mir, made it to the section title game and upset the 16-seed in the first round of NorCal playoffs. In soccer, the Del Oro High girls' team won its fourth section championship in program history and made it to the NorCal semifinals. The West Park High girls' team played in their first section title game in school history while the Whitney High boys' team competed for a section championship for the second consecutive year despite falling to Davis High. In wrestling, multiple athletes competed at the California Interscholastic Federation State Tournament, including Del Oro's Kaiya Maggini, Whitney's Alex Maday and Rocklin's Gemma Templeman on the girls' side. For the boys, 10 area wrestlers competed: Siraj Sidhu, Issac Herrera, Jagger French, Kainoa Acia, Logan Banks and Chino Igarashi of Del Oro High, Levi Bussey and Benjamin Quilpa of Granite Bay High, Kaden Obien of West Park High and Anthony Berg of Whitney High. Following a great winter season was an incredible spring season that featured two local section champions in baseball with Granite Bay High claiming the Division II crown and Oakmont High winning the Division IV pennant. Whitney High competed for the Division I crown but came up short against Franklin High. The Oakmont Vikings won two NorCal playoff games and competed for a NorCal title. In softball, Whitney High won the Division II title over Vacaville High. Woodcreek High won its first boys' volleyball section title in program history while Whitney High competed for its fifth title but came up short against Jesuit High. Granite Bay High won its fifth section title in boys' tennis while the duo of Yoshan and Roshan Murugesh placed second in Division I doubles competition. The Grizzlies made it to the state championship as a team in boys' golf and came in sixth while Luke Price and Josh Leiker qualified as individuals for Rocklin High. The Whitney High track and field team had seven individuals compete at the state championships: Katie Kopec, Juliana Roberson, Isabel Soto, Grace Scott, Addison Ewers, Ava Kopec and Ashanti Elie who was a state champion in the high jump. Rocklin High also had three athletes compete: Devin Pereira, Grace Sloan and Gigi Kirchner, who came in second in the 100-meter hurdles. Ten local swimmers competed in the finals at the state championships, including nine from Granite Bay High and Chloe Eyrich for Del Oro High. The Grizzlies swimmers included Landon Nava, Seth Bousfield, Noah Carver, Brody Chandler, Chloe Coad, Brooke Beauvais, Brooke Chandler, Maddie Myers and Kingsley Rosevold. Sierra College also had success as their men's swim and dive team won the state title for the second straight season while the women finished second. The Wolverines made the state championship in baseball and came third while softball also made it to state. The men's golf team placed third at the state championship with a team score of 724. Women's basketball made it to the state quarterfinals.