Student wins local water polo award

Junior Colin Mulcahy received the Boys Water Polo Player of the Year Award from the San Jose Mercury News on Thursday, December 17.

The annual award is given to the best boys water polo player in the area as decided by the San Jose Mercury News. Colin was also the CCS Division I MVP.

“I was pretty stoked to get it because it’s something I’ve always wanted since I started playing high school polo,” Colin said.

Colin began playing water polo when he was 12 years old and currently is part of the varsity boys water polo team and the Stanford Club water polo team. He hopes to play for Stanford, UCSB, UC Berkeley or UCLA.

“[I like] the camaraderie and the community of the sport,” Colin said. “It’s also one of the toughest sports, so it’s really rewarding.”

Boys swim team hires new coaches

Boys varsity swimming coach Ed Samuels will not be coaching the swim team this year. Samuels will be replaced by Cindy McColl and her son Connor McColl, ‘05.

Cindy McColl played water polo for Stanford and coached the LAHS girls swim team and girls water polo club team from 1989 to 1998.

“I enjoyed coaching the girls and have always wanted to come back,” Cindy McColl said. “I am really looking forward to coaching this season. It will be a little weird coaching boys since I always coached girls at the high school level.”

Connor McColl played water polo and swam for LAHS. He currently attends Stanford, is president of the mens club water polo team and is an assistant coach at Palo Alto High School.

Wrestling improves in CCS rankings

The varsity wrestling team has improved in CCS rankings. The team is ranked 39th in CCS, and over half of the varsity team is individually ranked this year. Last year, only a few members were ranked.

Wrestlers become ranked in CCS by doing well at tournaments, defeating other ranked players or being ranked the previous year.

This year, many wrestlers are ranked in their respective weight classes. Junior Max Wiederholt is ranked 19th, junior Wesley Oribello is ranked 20th, senior Joey Buckley is ranked 7th and senior Doug Tomlinson is ranked 13th.

Rankings do not actually affect who competes in CCS but rather project how well wrestlers will perform in tournaments. They can also affect seedings for CCS.

The team is currently 4-0.

The wrestling team will compete in a league tournament on Monday, February 15. If the team places fifth or higher, it will advance to CCS.