Lauren Gregg of Santa Cruz took the bronze medal in the women’s Pro/Open enduro and Kiran MacKinnon of Santa Cruz placed fifth in the Pro men’s division at the USA Mountain Bike Downhill National Championships at Mammoth Mountain over the weekend.
MacKinnon, who works and rides for Santa Cruz Bicycles, finished the course in 3 minutes, 26.3 seconds and tallied 143.95 points Saturday. World champion Aaron Gwin of Wildomar won the national title with a time of 3:15.6 and 127.91 points.
Gregg finished in 40:28.4 on Sunday, trailing winner Kelli Emmett (39:24.5) of Michigan and Porsha Murdock (39:42.1) of Bend, Ore. In the men’s Pro/Open enduro race, Evan Turpen of Aptos took sixth.
Little League baseball
Aptos 7, Hollister American 6 >> Morgan Schaefer ended a stellar night at the bat with a two-run home run in the top of the fifth to score what would be the winning run for undefeated Aptos in the Section 5 Majors semifinals at Pajaro Valley Little League.
Schaefer also hit a home run in the first inning, and hit a double and a single to go 4-for-4 on the night. Aptos also got home runs from Tyler Brackett and Jack Spinelli.
Brackett started the game and Max Mendoza threw eight strikeouts in the final four innings to take the win.
It was the closest game Aptos has played in the Section 5 tournament, but the team had claw its way past Captiola-Soquel for the right to represent District 39. Aptos manager Peter Gaeckle said those games helped Aptos on Monday.
“That worked out for us pretty well coming into this game,” he said. “We weren’t nervous at all.”
Aptos will play in the championship Wednesday at 6 p.m. against the winner of Tuesday’s game between Hollister American and Los Altos. If Aptos loses that game, it will have a second chance to clinch the title Thursday.
Los Altos 10, Watsonville American 2 >> Watsonville American suffered its first loss of the Section 5 11s tournament being held at the Lake Barryessa and North Valley Little League parks.
The team will play an elimination semifinal game Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against the winner between Willow Glen and Hollister. The winner of Tuesday’s game advances to play Los Altos in the championship and would have to beat Los Altos on Wednesday and Thursday to take the title.
Pony 14 baseball
Santa Cruz 12, Rodeo 2 >> Santa Cruz didn’t leave any doubt that it deserved at least one more game in the Super Regional Tournament at Shoreline Field in Mountain View, winning its losers bracket game in five innings due to the 10-run rule.
Santa Cruz starting pitcher Bryce Clark struck out six in three innings and Sören Burns didn’t allow a run in relief.
Vinny Prograce hit a double and a triple, scoring two runs. Clark tripled twice, Shane Burns doubled, Angelo Segretto had a pair of singles and Luca Tolaio, Cody Medina and Brady Chavez each added hits.
Santa Cruz next plays Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in another win-or-go-home tilt against either Toro or Bel Passi.
Running
Hall wins Jungle 10k >> Dan Hall of Capitola won the 10-kilometer race of the Jungle Run in Los Gatos on Sunday. His time for the 6.2-mile course was 42:13, just one second faster than runner-up Gabe Baranovsky of Los Gatos.
Soquel’s Gary Sapia placed 10th overall in the half marathon in 1:29:58, while Felton’s Steven Occhipinti (1:32:49) placed 13th. Santa Cruz’s Claire Fliesler (1:49:03) placed 15th among females to pace the county women in the half marathon. Christina Schjelderup (46:02), 33, won her age group and was the top local woman in the 10k, taking 14th.
