Half Moon Bay High's Logan Marshall, Aragon's Candy Zhang, Burlingame's Leah Goldman, Carlmont's Elliott Surovell, Woodside's Alicia Grima and Menlo-Atherton's George Baier were among those who joined an elite group during the course of the year.
Those six student-athletes can call themselves a Central Coast Section individual champion.
Others, including Gunn's Rachael Acker and Palo Alto's EJ Floral, each multiple individual champions, can add a team title to their end-of-the-year newsletter.
From basketball to wrestling, the 22 high schools within the reach of Peninsula Patch were well represented when it came time to compete for Central Coast Section championships in 2012.
The CCS is a wide-ranging area that encompasses everything north to Daly City through King City to the south, from Half Moon Bay to the western most shores of the San Francisco Bay, and even inches into Milpitas.
Patch.com's peninsula team includes 13 separate sites featuring local news for Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame-Hillsborough, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park-Atherton and Palo Alto.
Sacred Heart Prep, which rests comfortably on the north side of Valparaiso in Atherton, earns special recognition after securing five team championships this calendar year.
Gunn High, east of 280, and Menlo School, which shares Valparaiso with SH Prep, were the only other schools in the peninsula region with multiple team titles.
The Gators claimed titles in boys basketball, boys water polo, girls water polo, girls volleyball and football. Gunn won titles in girls basketball and girls swimming. Menlo gained the upper hand in boys tennis and girls soccer.
Eight additional schools claimed a CCS title. Carlmont won the boys' cross country trophy in Division I, Crystal Springs Uplands in Hillsborough took home the boys' cross country title in Division V, Menlo-Atherton (I) and Woodside Priory (V) in Portola Valley reign supreme in girls' volleyball, Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto won the girls' basketball title in Division V, the San Mateo boys soccer team and the Aragon girls soccer team each shared a CCS title and Palo Alto was crowned champion in boys track and field.
In addition, 12 schools earned runner-up status in the CCS, including Half Moon Bay, Menlo School, Menlo-Atherton, Terra Nova and Palo Alto with two each. Aragon, Woodside Priory, Crystal Springs Uplands, Gunn, Carlmont, Serra and El Camino were also a runner-up once.
Acker won a pair of swimming titles (50 free, 100 free) and Floral won twice in track and field (100, 200) as their respective school also won the team title.
Marshall is a cross country champion, Zhang is a badminton titlist, while Goldman (100 back) and Grima (200 IM) won in swimming. Surovell (400) and Baier (1,600) won their titles in track and field.
Gunn added a pair of swimming relay titles, one a CCS-record setting effort, Palo Alto produced two track and field relay titles and Burlingame also won a swimming relay.
Other individual winners included Terra Nova wrestlers Sierra Dockery and Alana O'Neill, Gunn wrestler Cadence Lee, Menlo-Atherton wrestlers Kendra Wiley and Andre Delagnes, Serra wrestler Tim Glauninger, South San Francisco badminton doubles partners Hoi Ki Leung and Nga Pui Leung, Gunn badminton doubles partners Martin Hung and Angela Lin, Menlo School golfer Andrew Buchanan, Gunn golfer Anna Zhou, Sacred Heart Prep swimmers Tom Kremer and Ally Howe, Palo Alto swimmer Jasmine Tosky and Serra shot putter Jonathan Beering.
Numerous others finished among the top three in individual CCS events.
Some of the highlights include Tosky's CCS record in the 200 free and Howe's CCS mark in the 100 back. Tosky is currently swimming for USC.
Aragon's girls soccer team was seeded sixth entering the CCS tournament last winter and advanced to the title match on penalty kicks. The Lady Dons and Mitty finished tied following two extra overtime periods and were declared co-champions. The San Mateo boys soccer team did the same thing with Willow Glen to earn a share of the championship.
Perhaps the most impressive run through the CCS was Zhang's performance in badminton. She outscored her opponents by a 120-25 margin in winning four consecutive matches en route to her victory. She allowed more than four points in a set once in a dominating effort.
Congratulations to everyone who competed in a high school sport this year. It was yet another exciting year.
