Kaur Misses State Golf; Valley Makes D-3 Football Playoffs

Gurman Kaur’s 2014 high school golf season has gone from record-breaking to disappointing.

The disappointment came at the end when the Franklin junior shot an 82 Monday, ten strokes over par, at the CIF/NCGA NorCal Regional Championships played at the Club at Crazy Horse Ranch in Salinas.

Kaur was four strokes out of advancing to the CIF State Championships next Tuesday at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga.

Her biggest success this fall came Oct. 20 in the final Delta League tournament of the season. Kaur set a course record at WildHawk Golf Club firing a ten-under-par 62.

Two golfers from the Sac-Joaquin Section did well enough to qualify for the State match: East Union’s Brooke Riley and Courtney Vogel of Woodland Christian.

Riley fired a one-under-par 71, despite driving the ball into water on number one. She finished in a two-way tie for third.

Vogel shot a 78 to finish ninth at the NorCals.

In the team totals St. Francis of Mountain View took first place with a score of 401, seven strokes better than Dougherty Valley.

Oak Ridge, the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters’ team champion, placed seventh with a 447, followed by Turlock at 483 and Davis with a 487.

Valley Makes Division III Playoffs

It’s an accomplishment for any football team to qualify for the playoffs. But in the case of the Valley Vikings, making the Section’s Division III post-season is huge.

They are in the playoffs for the first time since 2000. That year they defeated Jesuit, 35-28 in overtime, in the first round before falling to Nevada Union. 36-7.

With a 6-4 record in 2014 that’s enough wins to make the post-season, despite going just 3-4 in the Metro League. To get there the Vikings had to win its final two games, 32-13 over Johnson and 48-19 over Florin.

What really helped Valley this season was a forfeit win picked up at the expense of El Camino. Valley actually lost that non-league game, 36-12 on Sept. 12, but El Camino had an ineligible player and thus the forfeit.

The Vikings took their other two non-conference games, defeating Natomas, 44-43, in Week One and Galt, 28-23, in Week Three.

But, their biggest challenge is coming up Friday night when the Vikings travel to Inderkum to take on the number-one seeded Tigers.

College Basketball Season Opens Friday

The hardcourts at colleges around the country will jump to life this weekend as the basketball season tips off.

Several Elk Grove-area players dot some of those collegiate rosters.

Former Sheldon forward Ryan Manning, after a year at the Air Force Academy Prep School, is a freshman on the Falcon roster.  A teammate of his at Air Force is Lake Lutes, the former Jesuit star. 

At San Diego State, another Mountain West Conference school, are several familiar names. Manning’s high school teammates D’Erryl Williams and Dakarai Allen are playing for Steve Fisher, coach of the Aztecs. A freshman with the Aztecs is Malik Pope of Laguna Creek High School and former Jesuit guard Parker U’u.

At Chico State, Mike Rosaroso is entering his senior year. The former Franklin point guard is joined this season by another ex-Wildcat, forward Marvin Timothy, who is a freshman at Chico this season.

Cody Demps, formerly of Pleasant Grove High School, is entering his junior year at Sacramento State.

Newman’s Move At Larson’s Expense Lands Him In Top Four

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Championship will be determined Sunday when the final race of the 2014 season will be run at Homestead Speedway in Miami. Four drivers are now left to determine the season championship, known as “The Chase” in NASCAR circles.

One of them is Ryan Newman, who qualified for the final four at the expense, literally, of Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson. On the final lap of last weekend’s race in Phoenix, Newman’s car sideswiped Larson’s Target No. 42 into the wall so that he could finish 11^th, a position that earned him the points necessary to get into the final part of “The Chase.” 

Kyle Larson

In a statement Monday, Larson told USA Today, “It’s a little upsetting he pushed me into the wall, but I completely understand the situation he was in, and can’t fault him for being aggressive there. I think a lot of drivers out here would have done something similar if they were in that position.”

Newman countered that he owed Larson for a similar maneuver the 22-year-old Sprint Cup rookie did to him a couple years ago in a truck race at Eldora Speedway.

“From my standpoint, I call it even,” Newman told USA Today.

He continued with compliments towards Larson, who may be named NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year: “That kid is a hell of a driver and he’s going to have tremendous success here.”

If Newman does end up the highest finisher amongst the four finalists–the others being Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick – he’ll the first NASCAR season champion ever to have never won a race.