Prep highlights for May 15

Defending champions Daly Meinert of Clovis North in singles and the doubles team of Nick Jaramishian and Lincoln Hoppe of Bullard reached the semifinals of the Central Section Individual Boys Tennis Championships.

The top-seeded Meinert, who beat opened with a 6-0, 6-0 over Redwood’s No. 16 Adam Miller and them beat Bakersfield Christian’s No. 9 Jack Han 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals Friday, will face Central Valley Christian’s fourth-seeded Bailey Gong in the semifinals, which are scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Clovis West. The other singles semifinal pits East Bakersfield’s No. 2 Kaleb Johnson, last season’s section runner-up, against Bullard’s No. 3 Viran Batth.

Jaramishian and Hoppe beat No. 16 Anthony Abreu and Elijah Smith of Immanuel 6-0, 6-1 in the first round, then edged the No. 8 Travis Bakker and Sawyer Fischer of Immanuel 6-4, 6-4 in the quarters. They will meet Clovis North’s No. 13 Sam Funnel and Carson Esralian in the semis after the Broncos duo upset No. 4 Andre Paradise and Edward Ramirez of Stockdale 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the first round and Sanger’s No. 5 Connor Bennett and Bradley Cornelius 7-6, 5-7, 7-5 in the second.

The other semi, scheduled for 9 a.m., is an all-Clovis West affair with No. 2 Addison Weil and Sean Lindenau taking on No. 3 Robbie Ellis and Jacob Huls.

The finals in singles and doubles are set for noon.

Porterville’s Kyle Grissom swam All-American times while winning the 50 free (20.59 seconds) and the 100 fly (49.02) during the preliminaries of the Central Section Division I swimming finals at Bakersfield College.

Bullard’s Erik Overstreet clocked a consideration All-America time of 4:34.23 in the 500 free and also won the 200 free in 1:41.87.

Other double individual winners during preliminaries were Buchanan’s Stephanie Bartel (200 free in 1:53.38 and 100 back in 58.40) and Clovis West’s Skyler Elkington (50 free in 24.24 and 100 fly in 57.22).

Clovis West will put its streaks of 18 straight girls and 16 consecutive boys titles on the line when the finals launch at 10 a.m. Saturday at Bakersfield College.

The Division II finals begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fresno High.

Tulare Western had a pair of girls double winners in the D-II preliminaries, with Khloe McCarthy capturing the 200 free (1:55.69) and 500 free (5:07.96), and Mallory Korenwinder taking the 200 individual medley (2:07.66) and 100 back (1:03.81).

Other double winners included Hanford West’s Dagmar Gudmundsson (50 free in 24.91 and 100 free in 55.88) on the girls side and El Diamante’s Callen Bruening (200 IM in 2:00.27 and 100 back in 53.76) on the boys.

▪ D-I: Grant Gambrel hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Connor Loeprich pitched a three-hitter as No. 1 Buchanan beat No. 9 Covis North in the quarterfinals of the Division I playoffs. The Bears will host No. 4 Tulare Western in Wednesday’s semifinals after Daniel Martinho scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning in a 5-4 comeback against No. 5 Madera. On the other side, Zack Whitaker pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts as No. 3 Clovis beat No. 6 Clovis West 2-0 to advance to face No. Centennial, which beat No. 7 Bullard 6-1.

▪ D-II: Jensen Brotherson pitched a three-hitter with six strikeouts, and helped his cause by going 3 for 4 with a run as fourth-seeded Hanford downed No. 12 North 5-0. The Bullpups will host No. 9 Sunnyside in Wednesday’s semifinals. The other side of the bracket features No. 10 Mt. Whitney at No. 3 Redwood after the Pioneers upset No. 2 El Diamante 5-3 and the Rangers ousted No. 6 Hanford West 10-2.

▪ D-III: Kerman, playing up one division after winning the Division IV championship last season, was not able to continue another championship run. Instead, the top-seeded Lions fell 2-1 to No. 8 Independence in the quarterfinals. Evan Sagariballa, Kerman’s ace who won last year’s championship, gave up a run in the first and another in the third. And the Lions mustered only one hit and one run against Independence pitcher Kevin Larsen.

▪ D-IV: Eighth-seeded Dos Palos took advantage of two errors, two walks and two wild pitches to score three times in the fifth inning, while Dominic DeFrancisco scattered seven hits over 62/3 to earn the win in the Broncos’ 4-3 upset of No. 1 Exeter in D-IV. Dos Palos advances to face No. 4 Firebaugh, which beat No. 5 Immanuel 5-4 behind two home runs from Jason Allen.

▪ D-V: Despite receiving the third-worst seed in the division, No. 13 Liberty-Madera Ranchos already has won twice in the playoffs and is two wins from capturing a section title. Liberty bounced out Shafter with a 13-1 win in the quarterfinals behind a 14-hit performance. Liberty’s Michael Barber batted 3 for 5 with two runs and four RBIs, Ethan Cookson went 3 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs, and Michael Sassano finished 3 for 5 with three runs and two RBIs. Liberty, which defeated No. 4 Woodlake in the first round, will next face top-seeded Cesar Chavez in the semis. Chavez was an 8-1 winner over No. 8 Arvin.

▪ D-VI: Victor Ramos singled, doubled and drove in five runs to power No. 5 Parlier over No. 4 Lindsay. The Panthers will face No. 1 Farmersville, a 5-3 winner over No. 8 Kennedy, in the semis. No. 3 Orosi downed No. 6 Orange Cove 9-8 on the other side of the bracket as Vince Cammaquin was 2 for 3 with four runs.

▪ Julissa Ponce hit a bases-loaded triple to highlight a four-run first inning, and Gianna Mancha struck out 13 batters to lead second-seeded Central over No. 7 Clovis West 6-2 in a D-I quarterfinal postponed from Thursday because of rain. The Grizzlies will host No. 6 Hanford West in Tuesday’s semifinals, while the other side of the bracket sees No. 5 Bullard travel to top-seeded Clovis after Chiwa Garcia’s bases-loaded, two-out single scored the winning run in the top of the 10th during the Knights’ 8-7 win over No. 4 and defending champion Centennial.

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Prep highlights for May 15."