Although the diving team only has nine members, it has been doing very well this season, according to diving coach Aaron Pollock. The diving team competes in one of 12 events at a regular swimming and diving meet.

The team consists of two seniors, two juniors and five sophomores. Though the team may seem small in comparison to other sports’ teams, it is actually larger than most school’s diving teams. “Because we have a large team, we often outscore our opponents in the diving event,” Pollock said.

Due to Gunn’s pool renovations, the team has been practicing at the Palo Alto High School (Paly) pool. They recently competed against Paly in a meet in which sophomore Max Lipscomb took first place in junior varsity (JV) boys, and Russell Welton placed first in varsity boys. Sophomore Samantha Macario took fourth in JV girls and sophomore Anna Von Clemm took fourth in varsity girls.

“Some new divers joined this season and they learned really quickly,” junior Talia Mahony said. Macario is one of the new divers. “I started diving because I wanted a break from volleyball, and other divers told me the sport was fun and laid-back,” she said. “Also being able to sit in the hot tub between dives was very appealing.”

Macario said she likes diving because she gets to meet different people from different grades that she might not have met otherwise.

Last year the team sent two boys and three girls to the league finals and the team hopes to as well this season. “All of the divers have shown improvement, but both senior Marc [Mallari] and Talia qualified for the Central Coast Section (CCS) meet last year,” Pollock said. “ Junior Russell Welton also has a chance this year.”

With a current record of 3-6, the boys’ varsity golf team is faring a little worse than they were last season, according to coach Chris Redfield. “We are not doing quite as well as a team this year but the players are improving individually.” Redfield said. “All the members have gotten better. They have had one more year to practice.”

The team has six members and two alternates. “We only lost one senior who graduated last year,” Redfield said. “We have six returning players and one freshman on the team.”

The team practices at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course where it have their home games as well. The team usually practices two to three times after school and have one to two matches on the other remaining days.

The team has won matches against Fremont, Cupertino and Homestead so far. “I think that we need to just get out and practice some more,” junior Michael Chun said. “We would like to go to state and not just play at county level but that does not look possible this year.”

The team remains positive and hopes to better next season. “A lot of the members are juniors so they will be seniors next year so they will have more experience,” Chun said. “We will only lose one senior, Martin Trainer, who is one of our best players.”

The team has three more league matches until the league championship. “Our goal this year is to do really well in the league championship and hopefully make it to CCS,” Trainer said. Competition will be tough since the team is up against rivals such as Los Altos High and Paly, who, according to Redfield, are the best in the league.

This season, the gymnastics team is under the leadership of new head coach Liliana Petronelli, varsity team captain junior Claire Reyes and junior varsity (JV) team captain senior Alicia Michelson.

Petronelli, who grew up in Germany, brings 20 years of private coaching experience with her to replace former coaches Ericka and Allen Fusilero. “I’ve been coaching [the team] since February, since the old coach Ericka became pregnant,” she said. “I was interested in coaching at Gunn because I’d never coached high school gymnastics before.” According to varsity member Aja Hartman, Petronelli has been a welcomed addition to the team. “Before, we had another team [for Twisters Gym] practicing at the same time, but now we have our own coach,” she said. However, Reyes thinks that decreasing the number of coaches has hurt the team’s focus. “People get distracted easily,” she said.

Besides the addition of a new head coach, the gymnastics team has experienced other changes. “The gym is fixed up now, because they had some remodeling done,” Hartman said. “There’s also a lot of incoming freshmen, so JV [and varsity have] gotten a lot bigger. Before, there were only four people on varsity and we had to drag some people from JV to get a couple more points. We still don’t have enough varsity [members] but there are some great JV [members] that are moving up and can help.” According to Reyes, the team has faced a lack of qualified varsity members for the past few years. Five team members need to contribute scores to each event to form an official team, according to Petronelli.

Petronelli’s goal this season is to have everyone on JV and varsity compete in at least two events before May. “We hope to win [Central Coast Section (CCS)] because it would be a great accomplishment,” sophomore ]varsity member Asuka Ishihara said. Last year, the team placed second in CCS. Michelson also wants to get the team to bond more. “In the last two years, we had no captains and people just showed up to practices and meets, so I want to make it more of a team sport,” she said.

The Titans’ next meet is against Saint Francis and Gilroy at Twisters Gym on Thursday at 6:15 p.m.

With about a third of their season behind them, the varsity lacrosse team sports a record of 2-5. Senior varsity offensive player Danielle Steinman is optimistic and feels that the team can still go far. “I think our team has a lot of potential,” she said. “Lately we have started playing a lot harder, and everyone is showing a lot of improvement. I think we are going to finish strong this season.”

Senior center Ari Parikh agrees. “We are finally understanding how to work and play as a team, which was a bit challenging for us in the beginning of the season,” she said. “I think by the end of our season, we will have exceeded our expectations.”

Last season, the team finished the season with one of their best records in Gunn history at 15-6. Steinman says that the number of experienced seniors made a great difference in the team’s game dynamic last year. Coach Peter Carolan agrees, but believes that in spite of a less experienced team, they are capable of achieving excellence.

“Every team, every year, is bound to have a different character and attitude,” he said. “Last year’s team was cemented by some impressive senior leadership. Skill-wise this year’s team is just as strong if not stronger, however, the personality of the team will not reach its full potential until we are mentally as strong as last year’s group.”

In addition to players’ personal improvements, new strategies implemented to improve the team’s game this year have included new ways of warming up and different positioning on the field. “I think a lot of the things Pete [Carolan] is having us do are really helping,” Steinman said. “For example, he has moved some of our defensive players to the attack side of the field to utilize their talents.”

Both Parikh and Steinman say that their main goal is to see the team dynamic built up more. “My goals for this season are play hard and strong as a team,” Parikh said. “Yes, we are going to make a bunch of mistakes along the way, but as long as we work together I know we can become one of the top teams, if not the best, in our league.”