With Cain and Kohli, Wildcats’ future has arrived

The future has arrived for the Los Gatos High School girls track and field program. 

With freshman Isabella Cain and sophomore Madison Kohli leading the charge, the Wildcats are poised to run fast times and set school records. Cain and Kohli were part of the 4×100- and 4×400-meter relay teams that earned berths in the CIF State Championships May 30-31 in Clovis. 

The 4×400 squad of Cain, Kohli, Kaylee Cross and Elise Greenstreet won the Central Coast Section Championship before finishing a respectable 13th out of 32 teams at State. They ran a personal-record (PR) and school record time of 3 minutes, 51.74 seconds to win the CCS title and followed that up with a 3:51.83 at State.

Meanwhile, the 4×100 team of Cain, Kohli, Bridget Moore and Emma Arbitaylo placed third at CCS in a PR of 47.81 seconds, but leveled off a bit at State with a mark of 48.92 seconds. Kohli took third in the 400-meter run at CCS in a PR of 55.35 seconds—lowering the mark on her own school record—before posting a time of 55.91 seconds to place 18th out of 30 runners at State. 

Nicole Steiner capped one of the most decorated careers in LGHS history. The three-sport standout finished as the CCS runner-up in the shot put before taking 10th place at State. Steiner, who starred all four years in basketball and volleyball and three years in track and field, threw the shot put 41 feet, 1 inch at CCS, good enough for second place. 

She did even better in the State Preliminaries with a mark of 42-1, which gave her the seventh best qualifying mark heading into the finals. However, Steiner was limited to a throw of 38-9 ¼ and finished in 10th place. Aydon Stefanopoulos was the only athlete to qualify for State from the LGHS boys team. 

The senior standout covered the 1600 meters in 4:06.68—just 6/100ths of a second off his PR—resulting in a fourth-place finish. 

Baseball 

In the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs, limiting mistakes and capitalizing on opportunities are key to advancing.

The No. 3 seed Wildcats simply didn’t execute well enough in either area in a 4-2 loss to No. 2 seed Valley Christian in the semifinals at Excite Ballpark on May 28. 

However, the news wasn’t all bad for Los Gatos. By virtue of reaching the Division I semifinals, the Wildcats earned an automatic CIF NorCal berth. They received the No. 7 seed in Division I and play at No. 2 seed Franklin of Elk Grove on June 3. 

Even though the Wildcats enter the contest as underdogs—Franklin boasts a No. 13 state ranking and Los Gatos was No. 65 according to Max Preps—it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility for Los Gatos to pull off the upset. 

With the 1-2 pitching punch of Ethan Williams and Matt Ludeman, along with leadoff hitter Beau Musser, the Wildcats are a threat to topple anyone remaining in the NorCal field. Williams led the team to a 3-0 win over Bellarmine in the Division I opener, tossing a complete-game, four-hitter. 

Ludeman started and pitched 4 ⅔ innings against Valley Christian, allowing four runs—but zero earned—while striking out 10. Los Gatos collected just five hits, struck out 11 times and ran themselves out of potential run-scoring opportunities, none more important than in the top of the sixth inning. 

In the top of the sixth the Wildcats trailed 4-0 but rallied, scoring a run on Will Temple’s flare single. Jayden Thomas was at the plate when Valley Chrsitian uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Brayden Smith to score to make it 4-2. Temple advanced to second on the play and then to third on a groundout. However, moments later Temple was out at home plate after trying to score on a wild pitch, ending the Wildcats’ best opportunity to stage a comeback.