Wednesday, May 30, 2012

PACO 2011 CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS JUNE 3

Submitted by Kim Nguyen


PALO ALTO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA's SINFONIA TO PRESENT
PACO 2011 CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS JUNE 3

Come see young talent from the San Francisco Peninsula shine as the winners of the 2011 PACO Concerto Competition are showcased in this signature event.  Ranging in age from nine to sixteen years old, their music will move you, their enthusiasm will inspire you, and their collective performances are sure to leave you feeling uplifted. The program will include solo concerto performance of Bruch, Beethoven, Viotti, Saint-Saens, Mozart  and also chamber music repertory performed by small ensembles of Sinfonia members. The concert, to be conducted by PACO Music Director Benjamin Simon, will take place on Sunday, June 3 at 3:00 p.m. at Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University Campus.   Admission is free.  For more information call 650-856-3848 or visit http://www.pacomusic.org/.

PALO ALTO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 46th SEASON FINAL CONCERT JUNE 2



Submitted by Kim Nguyen

From the glorious, golden Baroque to our edgy modern existence, our program illustrates the beauties of classical music’s past and our future-in-the-making. Ascending superstar Ariana Kim makes her PACO debut in J.S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in E major, and we present the world premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek’s Window Watchers. In between, we celebrate Giacchino Rossini’s leap-year birthday with his lovely String Sonata No. 2, and celebrate our amazing viola section with the luscious Nachtstück by the romantic Max von Weinzierl.  In addition, several movements from the great chamber music masterpieces will be performed by our most advanced players. The concert, conducted by PACO Music Director Benjamin Simon, will take place on Saturday, June 2 at 8:00 p.m. at Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto, CA.  Admission is free.  For more information call 650-856-3848 or visit http://www.pacomusic.org/.


Sports Update May


Submitted by Miriam Rotman

A wonderful week for Gunn spring sports in baseball, swimming, wrestling  and track, culminated in a the first ever CCS championship for the girls swimming team and a National Title in wrestling!
With two CCS team titles in swimming and basketball  along with a second place finish by cross country, it’s safe to say that this is the year of the Lady Titan in sports at Gunn High School.

Swimming - Gunn girls, for the first time in CCS history, beat all other squads scoring 266 points to defeat defending champion Mitty (242) and third-place Palo Alto (173). "We knew coming in that our stars were ready to shine," said Hernandez. "We knew our 200 free and 400 free relays were untouchable." The Titans won both those relays and got two individual wins from senior Rachael Acker to achieve a goal that was conceived last year after Gunn finished fourth for the second straight season.
“I can’t say enough about this group of seniors,” said a shivering Mark Hernandez who was thrown in the pool in the traditional championship rite. “Everybody came through and I’m so proud of them.”
While Hernandez was shivering, his heart was full of warmth. “These girls really showed the way and have set an example for future Titans to follow.”  "At CCS last year, we thought we could win it this year," Hernandez said. "We were bringing back just about everybody and we felt really confident.""This senior class is the best class Gunn has ever had," Hernandez said. Acker and fellow seniors Julia Ama, Christine Prior, Casey Lincoln and Maggie McKenna scored 186 of their team's 266 points and did it impressively. Gunn held only a 12-point lead over Mitty prior to the final race but Acker, Ama, Lincoln and Jenna Campbell (Fr.) splashed to a CCS record of 3:23.06 to win. Their winning time just missed the national public school record of 3:22.85 by Hershey (Pa.) last year.
Acker won the 50 free in 22.78 after breaking her school record in the prelims with a 22.64. She also won the 100 in 48.98, another school mark, and led off the winning 200 free relay team that clocked a school-record 1:34.87. Lincoln added a second place in the 500 free (4:53.20) after setting a school record of 4:52.24 in the prelims. Campbell finished third in the 200 free in 1:51.16 after setting a school mark of 1:50.93 in the prelims. McKenna added more Gunn points in the 100 breast with a school record of 1:06.17 for fifth while Ama teamed with Acker to score 68 points in just the 50 and 100 freestyles.
While the veterans led the way, there were key contributions from the next generation of Titan greats. Bethke and fellow sophomore Fiona Hon, along with Campbell teamed with McKenna for a fifth place finish in the 200 Medley Relay. Campbell scored huge points with a third place finish in the 200 Free and joined senior Christine Prior in picking up important points in the 500 Free. Hon picked up points in the 100 Backstroke and Nia Gardner (Fr.) scored in the 100 Backstroke and joined with Bethke to add depth in the 50 Free.
"This is real exciting," Hernandez said of his first CCS title. Pictures on Gunn titans online site.

Cadence Lee - The 2012 U.S. FILA Cadet World Team was determined at the Body Bar FILA Cadet Nationals on Saturday. Champions in the 10 FILA weight classes qualify for the U.S. team at the 2012 FILA Junior World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, Sept. 4-9. Amongst those claiming the World Team berths at their weights  was Cadence Lee (So). of Dave Schultz WC-Titans at 49 kg/108 lbs. Cadence pinned all 6 opponents on her way to a 1st place finish, earning her a spot on the World Cadet Team!

Baseball - the baseball team had to wait until the final day of the regular season to clinch their title, but it was worth it. To achieve an undisputed El Camino Division Championship, Gunn won a 4-3 nail biter against the visiting Cupertino Pioneers on Senior Day.  The Titans won league with a record of 11-4, and 19-8 overall.  Cupertino fell to 3-11 in league, and 8-15 overall. Undefeated senior right hander Ryan Gorman pitched his fifth complete game win of the season, pushing his record to 8-0 overall.  Despite the extremely warm afternoon, Gorman allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, on 5 Pioneer hits, on a total of 109 pitches. 
Offensively, Junior Kevin Sharp had 2 singles, one RBI, and scored once.  For the third time this season, senior Jake Verhulp led off the game with a triple and scored.  Fellow senior Graham Fisher added an RBI double, stole second, and scored on an error.
Following the game, Gunn Head Coach John Harney said “I am extremely pleased that we won the El Camino Division title outright, especially with this great group of kids.”
Said Gunn coach John Harney: "I am extremely pleased that we won the El Camino Division title outright, especially with this great group of kids."
On Wednesday the team will be playing Pioneer High School in San Jose. Good Luck!!

Track and Field  - At the track and field competitions, held at Santa Clara High, in the triple jump, Asaf Rotman (Sr.) leaped to a season best 43 feet to qualify for CCS in third place and Eric Price (Jr) qualified in 4th place (42-11). Amongst the girls, Gunn's top qualifiers included Stephanie Do in the 300 hurdles (fifth in 48.73) and long jump (fifth at 16-4), Moira Saxena in the high jump (tie for third at 5-0) and Adrianna Noronha in the discus (fourth at 101-11).

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Gunn Student Achievements

Submitted by Miriam Rotman
Spectacular Achievements by Gunn Students -

Languages - French - 100 Gunn students scored in the upper 80th percentile of the National French Exam. Several Gunn students achieved honors: Emily Aiken, Vicky Sun, Angela Chen, Angeliki Ionnidis, Emma Marriott, Demetri Nicolaou, Angela Chen, Nabil Hamade, Devyani Bhadkamkar, and Varun Bhadkamkar. In the National German Exam, 15 Gunn students won gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 9 bronze medals. The National Spanish Exam garnered Gunn students 50 gold medals, 70 silver and 47 bronze.

Music Program - Gunn’s Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra both received Unanimous Superior ratings at the California Music Education Association’s Orchestra Festival May 4. All Gunn’s instrumental music ensembles (bands, orchestras and jazz) received the highest honors at CMEA Festivals this year. Gunn remains one of the few California schools to achieve this honor.

National History Day competition - 14 Gunn students placed or won their categories in the Santa Clara countycompetition and advanced to the California State History Finals competition held in Riverside in March - Jessica Sheng, Emily S. Wang, Gavin Baker, Anna Dang, Aaron Miner, Erica Watkins, Olivia Zunino, Annie Hamburgen, Francesca Macrae, Tahra Knudsen, Maya Rotman, Anton Oyung, Jack Jaffe, and Lukas Dorward. Emily S. Wang won the award for “Best in County and advanced to the National Competition.

Oracle - Gunn’s newspaper, The Oracle, earned first place for General Excellence in the Peninsula Press Club’s journalism contest. Winning awards for their reporting were Cooper Aspegren, Jean Wang, Amrita Moitra, Ashley Ngu and Wendy Qiu.

Gunn Robotics - The Gunn Robotics Team got six straight wins at the FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis, but narrowly missed the Elimination rounds. Gunn won the National animation award for the second year running. Way to go!!

English - Juniors Roya Huang and Amy Creasey won the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) awards for superior writing. A total of 1,107 juniors were nominated nationwide to participate in the 2012 program, and 274 were chosen as outstanding writers.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Help Needed for the Gunn Volunteer Luncheon


Submitted by Anne Lum, annelum@gmail.com
The Volunteer Recognition lunch (HSA) will be held in the gym on May 24th.   

This luncheon honors all parents/staff/and community members who have volunteered their time to assist students or the Gunn community above and beyond their normal assignments. The lunch/ceremony will begin around 12:45 am and we are in need of many volunteers from 9AM-3PM. 

Please click this link to sign up for the Luncheon.

Sports Update - May 6

Submitted by Miriam Rotman 

Sarah Robinson – Currently the under 17 Women’s soccer championship is being held in Guatemala City. And why is this being reported you may ask? We can proudly report that Gunn has a representative playing for the US in these championships. Sarah Robinson, was chosen to lead the mid-field on this team even though she is a year younger than the rest of the team. In the first second game the US beat Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 with Sarah scoring a goal and declared the MVP of the game by the commentators. Way to go Sarah!!


Track and Field - Gunn track competed against the top track teams in the SCVAL league championships and the frosh/soph boys were able to pull off a very close victory over Lynbrook High to place first in league. The JV girls finished 2nd in league scoring 121 points. The varsity girls took third and just missed outscoring Paly by 7 points. The varsity boys finished fifth overall. A select group of athletes qualified for CCS and will compete at the SCVAL Qualifier Meet at Santa Clara High School on Friday, May 11th. Junior Ebba Nord will compete in the 100 meters. Sean Lydster(So.) who had 2 personal bests at the SCVAL championships will race in the 4x100, 100, 200, and 4 x 400. Michelle Carson (Fr.) will represent Gunn in the 400 and Senior and team captain Kieran Gallagher will run in the 800 meters and 4 x 400 as well. In the longer events Daniel Krigel (Sr ) will run the mile and Catherine Kim (Fr.)will compete in the 2 mile after qualifying in both the mile and 2 mile. Peter Chen will run the 3200 meter race. In the more technical events, lady titans Liana Vitousek, Anna Jaafe, Stephanie Do, and Elsa Chu will all represent Gunn in the 100 meter high hurdles. In the 300 meter intermediate hurdles Stephanie Do and Liana Vitousek qualified as well. Kirsten Baird and Moira Saxena both cleared 5 feet in the high jump to earn spots in the Qualifier meet and in the long jump Stephanie Do, Erica Johnston and Sarah Klem will try to move on to CCS as well. The lady titans also had success in the triple jump with Stephanie Do and Sarah Klem qualifying. In the shot put the lady titans did well with Adriana Noronha, Fallon Miller both moving on in the Shot put and Noronha also qualified in the discuss as well with her teammate Cat Yu. Noronha stand a good chance of making it to the CCS trials once again as she did as Frosh last year. On the boys side Jim Norton qualified in the shot put. On the boys side Wyatt Eberspacher had a huge personal record and qualified alongside his teammates Alex Barthelemy (who also qualified in the intermediate hurdles), and Joe Suh in the 110 high hurdles . Eric Price and Asaf Rotman both qualified in the long jump and triple jump and will also continue with Shang Yip as well. Eric Price, has had an outstanding season and has a good shot of making it to CCS finals.


Swimming - Given a 54-point ldeficit after the diving finals earlier in the week, the challenge for the Gunn girls swim team heading into the SCVAL De Anza Division Championships on Friday proved to be insurmountable. The girl's managed to beat Paly in the swimming portion of the meet it wasn't enough as Paly scored 508 points and won its 10th straight league title. Gunn closed with 499 in the closest league competition ever between the rivals. Gunn outscored Paly in swimming, 491-446, but couldn't win the title despite Gunn winning two of three relays and going 1-2-3 in the 500 free. Gunn outscored Paly in the final four events, 189-114, and it still wasn't enough. Gunn senior Rachael Acker did all she could to help the Titans finally get that elusive league-meet title. She won the 50 free in 23.40 after going 23.34 in the prelims, took the 100 free in a season-best 50.70, led off the 200 free relay that won in a meet record of 1:36.40 and led off the winning 400 free relay that clocked a season-best 3:29.65. Other Gunn standouts included Julia Ama, Christine Prior, Gabrielle Bethke, Casey Lincoln and freshman Jenna Campbell, who won the 500 free in 4:59.26. Maggie McKenna added a victory in the 100 breast for Gunn, her 1:06.85 time making her No. 2 in school history. "We swam valiantly, and had two great days of swimming," said Gunn coach Mark Hernandez. "Unfortunately, as I feared on Wednesday, we just couldn't climb all the way out of the hole we were in after the diving portion. "Palo Alto swam very well, and did just enough to hold on to their lead. Still, we're proud to be able to say that our swim team scored 45 more points than theirs; in a meet like this, that's no mean feat. We got back to work this morning, and we're going to do everything we can to make it a memorable CCS on Friday and Saturday." Gunn's Tommy Tai was only fifth in the 100 breast, but set a school record with his 1:00.69.


Basketball camp - The Gunn basketball camp will take place on June 11-14 from 1-5pm and be instructed by varsity head coach Michael Ferolino, assistant coaches, and current players. Campers will learn basic fundamental skills such as passing, dribbling, shooting, footwork, guard and post play. Campers will also compete in daily skills competition and 5 on 5 full court games. The camp is limited to 30 campers and is geared for grades 4-9. For more information please contact Coach Ferolino .

PALO ALTO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA's SINFONIA TO PRESENT PACO 2011 CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS JUNE 3

PALO ALTO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA's SINFONIA TO PRESENT PACO 2011 CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS JUNE 3 Come see young talent from the San Francisco Peninsula shine as the winners of the 2011 PACO Concerto Competition are showcased in this signature event. Ranging in age from nine to sixteen years old, their music will move you, their enthusiasm will inspire you, and their collective performances are sure to leave you feeling uplifted. The program will include a solo concerto performance of Bruch, Beethoven, Viotti, Saint-Saens, and Mozart, and also chamber music repertory performed by small ensembles of Sinfonia members. The concert, to be conducted by PACO Music Director Benjamin Simon, will take place on Sunday, June 3 at 3:00 p.m. at Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University Campus. Admission is free. For more information call 650-856-3848 or visit http://www.pacomusic.org/.

PALO ALTO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA's 46th SEASON

Submitted by Kim Nguyen FINAL CONCERT JUNE 2 From the glorious, golden Baroque to our edgy modern existence, our program illustrates the beauties of classical music’s past and our future-in-the-making. Ascending superstar Ariana Kim makes her PACO debut in J.S. Bach’sViolin Concerto in E major, and we present the world premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek’s Window Watchers. In between, we celebrate Giacchino Rossini’s leap-year birthday with his lovely String Sonata No. 2, and celebrate our amazing viola section with the luscious Nachtstück by the romantic Max von Weinzierl. In addition, several movements from the great chamber music masterpieces will be performed by our most advanced players. The concert, conducted by PACO Music Director Benjamin Simon, will take place on Saturday, June 2 at 8:00 p.m. at Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto, CA. Admission is free. For more information call 650-856-3848 or visit http://www.pacomusic.org/.