Sports

By Mikayla Chew

 Last year, on May 14th, Lincoln baseball team won their first ever California Interscholastic Federation San Francisco City Championship since 2005, against Lowell High School with an overall record, including pre-season and league games, of 17-16, with a season league record of 10-5 (win-loss). They then advanced to compete in States, finishing off in fourth place in Division Five. Now, they are ready to defend that same city championship title. 

They start training six days a week at various locations from Lincoln’s side field to West Diamond 1 by Saint Ignatius High School. 

Head Coach James Burke has been coaching baseball for Lincoln for six years. He explains his new approach towards this new season is geared more towards defense rather than offense. 

The varsity Lincoln baseball season officially begins March 18th against Balboa High School at the West Diamond One field. 

The Lincoln baseball team this year is a senior heavy team but they have significantly fewer players. Senior Nick Chiu shares that there is a constant flow of minor injuries, such as sprained pinkies or bruises, but they are trying to persevere and move towards their goal of defending the championship title as a team with the help of the coaching staff. 

Head Coach James Burke explains that, although their team is significantly short of players due to players’ injuries, he continues to remain positive and “keep a good attitude and energy throughout the game.”  

The varsity baseball team also has many helping hands with five assistant coaches, one of the “main” ones being Alejandro “Vlad” Hernandez. Hernandez has been assisting Lincoln baseball for seven years. 

Besides the coaching being a supportive staff for the team, Xavier Malizia, team captain of the baseball team has offered encouragement for the last two years. 

“I would say it is really [about] breaking down the game into smaller pieces, and motivating to get a small victory that’s attainable rather than [focusing on] the whole game,” Malizia states. 

Both varsity and JV baseball have been co-ed for the last three years starting with Lola Snopkowski, a junior who also participates in the San Francisco Bay Sox team. 

The San Francisco Bay Sox, founded in 2015 was an organization overseen by the Recreation and Parks department that provided an inclusive environment for girls to play baseball without gender obstacles. 

Both Burke and Hernandez have coached with SF Bay Sox teams with Snopkowski as well as Khole Tsai on the Lincoln JV baseball team. 

“This [Lincoln] team has really welcomed me and allowed me to become part of the team,” Snopkowski shares. 

Other than winning another championship title, many players have their own goals. 

Chiu says, “My only goal for this year is to have one last fun run with the players I grew up with. Win or lose the championship, it’s been one heck of a ride with everyone.” 

Since the team is senior heavy, most of them hope that their last season will be their best season before continuing into college and other activities. 

Malizia shares, “I want to leave everything I can on the field and do the best I could for the team.” 

Their recent record from preseason games is 5-0. There’s still a long way to go, but they are hopeful about what lies ahead for the season. 

By Kenny Lin

Last year, the Lincoln track and field team achieved second place at the All-City final—the closest they had gotten in a long time—just a couple of points behind Lowell. One boys relay team and three individuals, two girls and one boy, qualified for the state championship. However, with most of their fastest students graduating last year, the track team needs to rebuild its strength. 

To prepare, Head Coach Liam Baker said, “[Training is] just finding the workouts that did not work and finding the workouts that did work and just eliminating or adding to those.”

Additionally, the track team is facing a challenge. With 56 students and only two coaches—sometimes only one due to scheduling conflicts—there are not enough coaches to support all 56 students with different training needs and support, making it overwhelming for the coaches.

Despite the lack of support, track students train every day after school for 90 minutes, doing a wide range of training for all their diverse events. Baker has long jumpers work short and plyometric drills to increase strength and abilities, while short and long sprinters do interval work with two to three hard workouts a week.

All students who join the track and field are accepted with no tryouts required, and training begins in February each year. 

Senior Corinna Guan said, “I think anybody could join. I feel like in some sports, there's a specific skill you need, but in track, since it's so diverse, you can be a sprinter, you can be a mid-distance sprinter, you can be a long-distance runner, you can be a pole vaulter. You will definitely find a spot for you, even if one event doesn't suit you. I'm sure another will.”

Training will then prepare runners ready to compete in a multi-meet, a competition where athletes compete in multiple, diverse track events over one or two days. Events include relay races, sprints, distance running, jumps, and many more.

The first multi-meet happened on March 19th at Lincoln High School, and the rest will be away against other San Francisco high schools like Lowell, Washington, and Balboa. The season will then build up to competing in All-City trials and finals, where the track team and any individual will see if they qualify for state championships. Posters are hung around the school and in some classrooms for when and where track and field events will take place.

Senior Cayden Xu notes that track was a great experience. "You get to know people, build community," Xu said. “It’s a fun sport to play for people who want to get into something.”

By Kevin Hu

On February 26th, Lincoln’s varsity boys basketball team defeated the Lowell Cardinals in a 63-58 thriller to claim the AAA League CIF San Francisco City Section title.

Coming into playoffs, Lincoln boasted a record of ten wins and two losses in league games, good enough for the one seed, while Lowell stood behind with eight wins and four losses, good enough for the two seed.

Lincoln and Lowell crossed paths once prior to meeting in the SFS title game during the regular season. The encounter ended in a 23 point blowout loss for the Mustangs, in what Coach Carl Jacobs considers “one of the worst loss of [his] career.”

However, on the night of the 26th, the Mustangs rallied behind point guard Fred Davis’s 21 points and small forward Maximo Haas’s 12 fourth quarter points to narrowly edge out the Cardinals in a nail-biting two possession game.

With Lincoln’s win over Lowell, Lincoln claims its 5th straight section title in a row, the third school to do so behind Lowell in 1935 to 1939 and Mission in 2014 to 2018.

Both Lincoln and Lowell will advance to the CIF NorCal regional playoffs.

Coming into the playoffs on the girls varsity side, Lincoln secured the fourth seed after going six and four on league games. Meanwhile, Lowell was the third seed, going eight and two in league games.

Guard Mikayla Chew felt something “in between excitement and nervousness.” Chew says, “I felt we had the chance to beat them. I try to have a positive mindset.”

The Mustangs quickly fell behind in the first quarter, scoring just 5 points to the Cardinals’ 15. By halftime, the points deficit snowballed to 13 points and never recovered from there.

In the end, the Mustangs fell short 34-55 in the semifinals of the SFS playoffs to the Lowell Cardinals. 

To seniors like guard-forward Kaylee Fabian, the loss probably marks the last time the players will lace up for another high school basketball game. “The loss hurts a lot,” explains Fabian. “The team meant a lot to me, and it’s my last season.”

By Lola Snopkowski

Lincoln girls soccer went 12-4 overall and 8-2 in league, placing third in the regular season, and sending them to the semifinals against Balboa. 

The Mustangs started slowly, falling behind 1-0 in the first half despite a few scoring chances. 

Halftime was a very pivotal moment for the team, with Junior Kailah O’Doherty stating, “We came together as a team, we gotta win this, we gotta put our whole heart into it.”

Lincoln then scored one goal off a penalty kick by Katy Alvarez, tying the score 1-1. Then Balboa's goalie blocked a shot by O’Doherty, allowing Mkenna Reeves to get the ball and score, putting the Mustangs ahead 2-1. 

For the remainder of the game, the Mustangs were focused on keeping it simple and holding their lead by keeping the ball on their side.

They succeeded in taking down Balboa, sending them to the city championship against their biggest rival, Lowell.

Their only two league losses were against Lowell. The first 3-1 and the second 4-0. Lowell had the upper hand throughout both games, with Junior Kailah O’Doherty stating, “They dominated us by a mile.”

Despite their previous losses, Lincoln came to Negoesco Stadium on February 28th with confidence and determination to overcome their losses. 

Head Coach David McPherson states, “We knew we could hang with them if we just played our best.” O’Doherty adds, “We were the underdogs in the game, and we just wanted to prove everyone wrong.”

The first half was mainly dominated by Lowell, but Lincoln held strong, not allowing any goals and keeping the score tied 0-0. 

Then, in the second half, Lincoln prevailed, dominating play and creating multiple opportunities to take the lead, but failed to score.

Both teams held strong, not allowing any goals to be scored in the remainder of the second half. This led to a golden goal, also known as sudden death, which is a 15-minute overtime in which the first team to score wins. 

Again, both teams played strongly, not allowing either to score. Lincoln came close near the end of the 15 minutes but just missed their shot, hitting the pole at the top of the goal and losing their chance to take the lead. As a result, each team sent five players to represent their team in a best of five penalty shootout. Their entire season rested on the backs of these ten players.

It was Lincoln's O’Doherty, Alvarez, Reeves, and Zoe Campbell against Lowell’s Kelilah Spirn, Clodagh McIntyre, Simone Becker, Kimaaya Mehta, and Sarah Cuadra.

Lowell's goalie made a clutch save against O’Doherty’s shot, putting Lowell ahead 1-0. The only chance for Lincoln to win would be for Lowell to miss a shot or for an incredible save by the Lincoln goalie. Neither happened, allowing Lowell to win 5-4 and take the CIF city championship title. Lowell's bench and stands stormed the field in excitement. 

This win sent Lowell to states in which they ended up winning the Division V state championship, taking down Shasta Charter Academy, Oakland Tech, Ripon Christian, and Coastal Academy.

It was a bittersweet moment for the Lincoln Mustangs because, despite playing so hard, they fell short to their biggest rivals on the biggest stage, the Lowell Cardinals. 

However, they learned a lot and were very proud of the way they played and their season as a whole, O’Doherty stating, “We have so much to be proud of, especially from my freshman year till now. We’ve grown exponentially.”

O’Doherty also described an important factor of their success as a team: “I think being able to have a community and being able to trust who you are on the field with can completely change the way your team plays and the chemistry on the field.”