Sports

BELMONT — Ceiba College Prep sophomore Nellie Rubio-Pintor earned a berth to the CIF State Cross Country Championships after a strong outing at the Central Coast Section Championships on Nov. 16. Rubio-Pintor placed seventh in 20 minutes, 25.88 seconds in the Division V girls’ 2.95...

The Seahawks (1-5, 0-1) lost three fumbles and threw an interception in the first half and the Mustangs (6-0, 2-0) turned all four takeaways into scores to take a 33-2 lead.

Aptos’ starting quintet of Josh Sousa-Jimenez, Angel Morales, Levis Slay, Adam Candelario and Mennie have taken pride in that. They’re not the biggest, they’re not the fastest and they most certainly do not have an overwhelming amount of experience — only one played a full varsity season before this fall. But they’ve done their job to the best of their ability over, and over, and over again.

The coaches from the MBL-P recently honored Gio Gonzalez for his overpowering tosses, naming him the league’s Pitcher of the Year.

Watsonville High received the No. 8 seed and will play at top-seeded Los Gatos High when the brutal division starts up on Saturday at 3 p.m.

APTOS — The No. 2-seeded Aptos Mariners came up short of their first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship since the 2009-10 season on Saturday evening, falling to the red-hot Soquel Knights, 58-43, in the league tournament final at Cabrillo Colle

Aptos, Monte Vista Christian, St. Francis keep top 3 spots of rankings.

E.J. Kelly hit four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, and Jake Taylor recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in St. Francis’ 66-31 season-opening win over Pacific Point Christian on Wednesday in Watsonville.

One of the breakout stars of last spring, the Aptos High shortstop will return for her second varsity softball season as a well-known commodity.