Led by De Anza Middle College 11th grader Giselle Kaneda and senior competitor Mina Yamazaki, the Cupertino-based Japan Karate-do Ryobu-kai’s Eishinkan Dojo Karate Team came away with 13 medals at the 2015 North American Cup, Junior International Cup and U.S. Open Karate Championships over the course of four days in Las Vegas, Nev.
The competition was composed of kumite (sparring), kata (technical forms), team kumite and team kate, and featured several thousand competitors from nearly 40 countries.
Kaneda, a seven-time U.S. Team member, captured four medals, including a silver and three bronzes.
Competing in the 16-year-old, -55 kilogram, advanced female kumite division, Kaneda reached the finals against Canada’s Vicky Carriere and was winning 5-4 with three seconds left in the match but had to settle for the silver medal when she sustained a round house kick at the buzzer that lifted her opponent to a stunning 6-5 win.
A day earlier, Carriere had also defeated Kaneda on a late kick in the 16-17 age group, -48 kilogram female kumite division, resulting in a bronze medal for the Cupertino standout.
Kaneda also picked up bronzes in the 16-17, female kata division, and the 16-year-old advanced female kata division.
Yamazaki, a fifth-degree black belt, claimed a pair of silver medals in the senior women’s division, losing in both the finals of the senior women’s individual kata to World bronze medalist Sakura Kokumai of Hawaii.
Yamazaki earned a gold medal along with Jordan Valle and Tanya Baez in the senior team kata division, and added a bronze in the senior +68 kilogram female kumite division.
Trinav Chaudhuri, a Garden Gate elementary school fifth grader, copped a bronze medal in the 10-11 male kata division with a shocking upset of Seattle’s Matthew Hillier, the United State’s No. 2-ranked 11-year-old karate competitor.
Kei Matsumoto, a Peterson Middle School sixth grader, also claimed a bronze in the kata division.
Aaron Kaneda garnered a pair of medals for the locals, including a silver in the elite 14-15 male, -52 kilogram kumite division, where he lost 6-3 in the finals to a member of the Chile National Team.
Registering the local team’s final medal was Alameda Encinal Junior High eight grader Claudia Lee, who bagged a bronze medal in the advanced 12-13, +40 kilogram female kumite division.
Gottlieb is an All-American
Bridget Gottlieb, a 2014 graduate of Monta Vista High School, just completed a successful freshman year competing in cross country and track at Johns Hopkins University. Gottlieb won a spot as a National Academic All-American on an NCAA championship cross country team last fall. She backed that up by winning All-American honors in the 10,000 meters outdoors and the 5,000 meters indoors.
Homestead grads are playing on
Eleven graduating senior athletes from Homestead High School signed their National Letters of Intent at the end of the 2014-15 school year to continue their sports careers at the collegiate level, including three members each from the Mustang soccer and volleyball programs.
Continuing their soccer careers will be Maylis Basturk (John Hopkins University), Jared Johnson (Cal State East Bay) and Sophia Stavoli (Sonoma State). Their planned majors include public health and survival for Basturk, business for Johnson and psychology for Stavoli.
Volleyball standouts moving up to the next level include Katherine Barker (University of Portland in Oregon, majoring in biology), Maria Balus (Lafayette University in Pennsylvania, biology) and Connor Bunka (Western University in Ontario, Canada, food science and nutrition).
Track stars Hannah Allen and Eleni Reynolds will be attending Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and Columbia University, respectively. Allen plans to major in molecular biology and Reynolds in environmental engineering.
Also signing their letters of intent were softball all-leaguer Noah Yakir (Cal Poly, kinesiology), water polo standout Katherine Richards (Santa Clara University, economics) and swimming star Hayley Bergman (MIT, undeclared).
Seaman excels for St. Francis
After concentrating on only cross country and gymnastics in her freshman and sophomore seasons at St. Francis High School, Melissa Seaman decided to give track and field a whirl this past year as a junior–much to the delight of the St. Francis coaching staff.
Seaman, of Cupertino, was named the Most Valuable Performer for the St. Francis girls track team after capturing three individual championships at the West Catholic Athletic League track and field championships, which sparked the Lancers to the team title.
The Lancer standout claimed firsts in the 300-meter hurdles, triple jump and long jump, in addition to combining with three teammates to win the 4×400 meter relay. She also took a second in the 100 hurdles and a fifth in the 800. Her 17-2.5 effort in the long jump was a personal record.
At the Central Coast Section championships, she went on to post PR’s in the 100 hurdles (15.33) and the 300 hurdles (44.86), the latter mark qualifying her for the state championships.
In all, Seaman has qualified for four state finals during her career at St. Francis–twice in cross country, once in indoor track and field and once in outdoor track and field.
In addition to leading St. Francis to the WCAL track and field crown, Seaman was also a part of WCAL championship efforts in cross country and gymnastics, and a CCS championship in gymnastics. The gymnastics title was St. Francis’ 16th in a row, a CCS record.
As successful as she has been at St. Francis and in spite of her diminutive size–5-foot-3, 115 pounds–Seaman has also been a three-time winner in the women’s 20 and under division of the Eppie’s Great Race in Sacramento, a triathlon event where competitors run, bike and kayak.
And her brilliance extends beyond sports and into the classroom, where she has a 4.35 grade point average. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the newly elected ASB president at St. Francis after having served as the junior class officer and president of the school’s International Club this past year.
