The end of the high school sports season is fast approaching. The season season leaps into playoff mode soon as both Banning and Beaumont High Schools will compete in their respective league tournaments on Thursday.
Baseball and softball conclude their respective seasons next week.
Mountain Pass and Mountain Valley League tournaments will be held on Thursday at various locations in track and field, swimming, boys tennis and golf.
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Here is a recap:
Boy’s golf
Find out what's happening in Banning-Beaumontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A youth movement led Beaumont High School to its second straight Mountain Pass League title in boy’s golf.
The Cougars, with just two seniors in its lineup, put together an undefeated run through the MPL and completed the regular season with an impressive 18-2 record.
The Cougars will be at Diamond Valley Golf Club in Hemet for the MPL finals on Thursday.
“After winning last year with most upper classmen, this year has been very rewarding due to the fact that after the two seniors we have, we played with freshman and sophomores,” Beaumont Coach Cork Cloud said.
Beaumont completed the MPL season with a perfect 10-0 mark.
“The young kids really did a great job and came a long way,” Coach ??? said.
In addition to the league wins the Cougars also recorded solid non-league wins over the likes of Desert Valley League schools Cathedral City and Palm Springs.
Two seniors, however, managed to anchor the Cougars. Greg Kantzalis led the team with a 37.8 average carded a season low -1 35 against West Valley. Austin Crenshaw shot a 40.2 average. Sophomore Damian Quintanilla turned in a strong 45 stroke average.
The Cougars posted a 216-240 win over Hemet and a 228-230 win over West Valley, both of which helped secure the league title.
Track and field
Banning opened the Mountain Valley League with a pair of promising wins. But rains wrecked its home track and that slowed the Broncos the rest of the season.
Banning settled for a third place finish in both the boys and girls standings. On Thursday the Broncos will try to finish strong at the MVL finals at Redlands Citrus Valley High School.
“The season started out great,” Banning coach Eje Ash said. “We had not had both girls and boys’ teams win a league meet in over six years. It has been and exciting season so far looking forward to seeing some of the athletes moves on.”
It was a big year for Beaumont’s track program. The boys team was shared the MPL title with Hemet and San Jacinto and the girls team won it outright.
“On the whole, the team did great and next week (league finals) will be the test for them going into CIF,” Beaumont track coach Jessica Cadman said. “Overall I am very pleased with our team’s effort this year.”
Beaumont will complete the regular season at the Mountain Pass League finals on Thursday at San Jacinto High School.
The Cougars were especially dominant in the throwing events. Caleb Wood broke the school record in the discus at the Inland Empire Championships with a throw of 164’5. And shot putter set a new school record with a throw of 39’10.
Swimming
Beaumont swim coach Adonnia Bradbury says her teams don’t have an official lock on the Mountain Pass League titles yet.
But it may just be a matter of time. Beaumont, undefeated in the MPL this season, will likely dominate the boy’s finals on Thursday at Tahquitz High School in Hemet. The girl’s team suffered one loss.
Bradbury credits a tough schedule for the team success this year.
“This year we scheduled harder teams for preseason to prepare for league and CIF,” Bradbury said. “The boy’s team has grown tremendously this year and is much faster than last year.”
The girl’s team took a tough loss from Woodcrest Christian.
“Though we lost many fast girls the last two years, our girl’s team has been working hard to improve their personal best times all season,” Bradbury said. “Several are going to CIF in individual events and relays.”
Bradbury said the hope is to eventually persuade swimmers to train and compete year round.
“The swim program can only get better based on the training and dedication to this sport,” she said. “Some swimmers are planning to swim year round on our club team to maintain training and be faster for next season. If a majority of the team continuously trains off season, they will definitely be a power house for future years to come.”
Boys’ tennis
Beaumont was aiming at a Mountain Pass League title this season.
But a tough team from Hemet prevented that. Still, the Cougars’ second place finish is nothing to be down about. The Cougars (14-4, 8-2) qualified for the playoffs for the 19th straight season, something most teams cannot say.
The Cougars completed the regular season Friday with a 15-3 win over Citrus Hill and the No. 10 CIF Div. 5 ranking. Beaumont will compete in the MPL finals on Thursday at San Jacinto High School.
Along the way the Cougars posted first ever wins over Yucaipa, Indio and Palm Springs and got strong play all season long from the likes of last year’s Co-MVP Andrew Khong and his singles teammate Jake Jones.
