Merced girls golf wraps up first conference championship in program history.

The Merced High girls golf team became the first in school history to win a Central California Conference championship. The Bears did it in style, going undefeated in conference play.

Merced put the finishing touches on the perfect season by winning the CCC’s end of the year tournament on Monday at the Merced Golf & Country Club.

The Bears finished with a team score of 548. El Capitan finished second with a 577 and Atwater third with a score of 616.

“The thing that is neat about this group is that four of them started together as freshmen when we lost to everyone and finished second to last,” Merced coach John Kane said. “They slowly got better.”

The Bears had a couple additions to the nucleus of Phoebe Arista, Kaitlyn Neely, Zoe Robertson and Quinn Robertson since that team 3 years ago. Lauren Palumbo came along and then last year Aubreanne Aponte transferred from El Capitan.

Aponte led the way for the Bears at Monday’s tournament with a round of 99. Arista shot a 102 and Neely a 109 as the Bears won by 29 shots.

Merced has been successful because of its depth.

“Certain times we’ve played and our top three players have provided the separation we needed and our four, five and six just had to hold on,” Kane said. “A couple times our four, five and six players have been the difference. It’s just been like that where somebody made up for it somewhere.”

Merced went a perfect 12-0 during the dual matches and won both 18-hole CCC tournaments.

El Capitan finished second. The Gauchos were led by Lauren Gudgel, who turned in low medalist honors with a round of 95. Atwater finished third as Aiden Perry shot a 111.

Merced, El Capitan and Atwater will all represent the CCC at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III Tournament at Rancho Del Rey in Atwater.

Livingston’s Winton named MVP

Livingston senior Annie Winton was named the Valley Foothill League MVP after helping lead the Wolves to a win at the VFL year-end tournament on Monday. The Wolves also went 10-0 in VFL dual matches.

Winton shot a tournament-best 92 and the Wolves finished with a team score of 402.

Naiyana French (100) Abril Fuentes (101) and Ale Sicairos (109) all turned in strong scores for Livingston.

Winton has been named an league MVP three times durign her high school career. The Wolves will compete at the Division V Tournament on Monday at Micke Grove Golf Course in Stockton.

El Capitan girls win tennis championship

The Gauchos became the first girls tennis team to win a league championship since the school opened in 2013. El Capitan defeated Livingston 9-0 on Tuesday to finish with a 13-1 record in the CCC.

The Gauchos have been led by Jenasis Yarell, who has gone undefeated in CCC matches for the past three years. Riddhi Parikh, Anna Gueorguieva, Karen Godinez, Paula Almeda and Serrena Malhi rounded out the singles players for the Gauchos.

El Capitan will start the Division III team tennis playoffs on Oct. 31.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 2:11 PM.