Honor roll: The week’s best performances by San Mateo County high school athletes

Brooke Arce, Burlingame softball. After pitching in back-to-back no-hitters to close out the regular season, Arce kept rolling in Saturday’s CCS Division II playoff opener. The Panthers cruised to a 10-0 mercy-rule win over Mercy-Burlingame, with the sophomore right-hander firing a two-hit shutout, facing just two over the minimum while striking out six. The stellar pitching performance is only half the story, though, as Arce went 2 for 3 with a triple, a home run and three RBIs, improving her season average to .506.

Mark O’Grady, Burlingame baseball. As Burlingame manager Shawn Scott heads into the home stretch of his retirement season, O’Grady delivered a gem the 16th year coach can hang his hat on. The junior has pitched in relief for most of the season, but in a shrewd coaching move, O’Grady’s third start of the year came in the Central Coast Section Division II playoff opener. The right-hander delivered on the mound in the Panthers’ 2-0 win over Leigh-San Jose, and also flexed on defense on a crucial bunt play. With runners on first and second and no outs in the second inning, he peeling off a do-or-die throw to third base to cut down the lead runner. He went on to induce a double-play grounder to escape the inning unscathed, and ultimately recorded a five-hit shutout to send Burlingame to the Division II semifinals.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Nueva boys’ track and field. The Daily Journal Boys’ Cross Country Runner of the Year at the start of his senior year, Fitzpatrick continues to prove the elite distance runner in the area. The Nueva great claimed the CCS championship in the boys’ 3,200 meters with a time of 9 minutes, 20.86 seconds, marking his first CCS title in track and field, and the second of his varsity running career after nabbing the CCS Division V boys’ cross country crown in the fall.

Kai Kung, Half Moon Bay baseball. The Cougars scored one run in the first inning of their CCS Division V opener against Homestead-Cupertino, and Kung and the HMB bullpen did the rest. The senior left-hander fired 6 1/3 shutout innings to earn the victory in a 1-0 win, improving his record to 11-1 on the year. He did get a wild hair up his nose in the final frame after notching his seventh strikeout of the day for the first out of the inning, issuing a four-pitch walk then hitting a batter. That’s when he handed the ball to closer Riley Jackson, and the junior right-hander picked off the lead runner before throwing just one pitch to induce a fly ball to center to earn the save.

Allison Yue, Notre Dame-Belmont girls’ track and field. Contending with a crosswind in pole vault pit all afternoon, Yue turned the setting into a solo act as she cleared a height a half foot higher than anyone else. The senior turned in a personal record of 11 feet, 8 inches to claim the CCS girls’ pole vault championship, and, despite the windy conditions, still managed to execute the second-best vault in CCS this season.

Mia DeMartini, Hillsdale softball. DeMartini recorded the first four-hit game of her career in her fourth varsity game as a freshman in 2023. She saved her second four-hit showing for the CCS Division II playoff opener of senior year. A career .403 hitter, DeMartini fronted Hillsdale’s 12-2 walk-off mercy-rule win Saturday against Wilcox, going 4 for 5 with a double, a home run and five RBIs, and finished the day in style, producing the walk-off knock in the sixth with an RBI single to plate junior Ania Aleshi with the game-winning run.

Case Jacobson, St. Francis; Maxime Morelle, Sacred Heart Prep; Yianni Fitzgerald, San Mateo, boys’ track and field. The trio of San Mateo County throwers finished 1-2-3 in boys’ shot put, with Jacobson, a Woodside native, taking the championship with a final throw of 62 feet, 7 3/4 inches; Morelle placing second at 60-1 1/4; and Fitzgerald placing third at 57-3 1/2. Jacobson also reached the podium in boys’ discus in third place with a throw of 157-11; and Fitzgerald placed too, taking fifth at 155-7.

Mercedes Coller and Malianna Liongitau, St. Francis softball. The defending CCS Open Division champions started their quest for a repeat, as the Lancers opened the postseason with a thrilling 1-0 extra-inning win over Salinas. No. 1-seed St. Francis rode a pitching gem from the Pacifica native Coller, as the sophomore turned in the longest outing of her two-year varsity career with nine shutout innings of work, including a career-high 13 strikeouts. When she walked off the mound after the top of the ninth, though, Coller was still deadlocked in a scoreless tie. Then the San Mateo kid Liongitau led off the bottom of the frame connecting for a solo home run, her seventh of the year, to cap a 3-for-3 day with the walk-off blast.

Kaitlyn Schuh, San Mateo girls’ track and field. In 2025, Schuh took second place in the CCS girls’ high jump. Then she started getting serious about the sport. Her dedication paid off in spades Saturday in Gilroy, as the junior went high flying to a jump of 5 feet, 6 inches, to claim her first CCS championship.

Brianna Lopiccolo, Capuchino softball. The last time Lopiccolo was batting over .400 was early during her freshman season in 2024, when she opened her varsity career going 1 for 2 in her first three plate appearances. As a junior this season, the benchmark was looking unlikely as she got off to a slow start, batting .194 through her first 11 games. Then she caught fire, going on a nine-game hitting streak, ultimately taking a reinvigorated .394 average into the postseason. Then, in the Lady Mustangs’ 12-0 mercy-rule win over Santa Teresa in the CCS Division III playoff opener, she not only caught a one-hit shutout from junior pitcher Lily Thomas, Lopiccolo went 2 for 3 with a double and a home run to push her average to .405.

Evan Chopra, Menlo-Atherton boys’ track and field. The junior started the year trying to strike a balance between middle-distance and long-distance events, but settled on the former heading into the postseason. The tack served him well, as he qualified for both the boys’ 800 and 1,600 meters in the CCS prelims, recording the second-best time in each. Come championship Saturday, he honed his focus even more, dropping the 1,600 to focus on the shorter of the two races. And what an 800 he turned in, dashing to a time of 1 minute, 51.42 seconds to claim the CCS title with the section’s fastest time this season, leaving him just shy of the all-time top 10 as the 11th fastest to run the event in CCS history.