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

Brian Raghunathan, Serra boys’ swimming. The junior saw a massive improvement over 2025 as he broke a 40-year-old Serra record when he placed second at the Central Coast Section championships in the 200-yard individual medley — a race that features 50 yards of each stroke: back, breast, fly and free. As a sophomore, Raghunathan was ninth in a time of 1:54.04. He shaved nearly four seconds off that time, posting a 1:50.56. That bettered the previous time of 1:50.97 set by Ray Looze in 1986. Looze is currently in his 21st season as head coach for swimming and diving at University of Indiana.

Olivia Eastburn, Mercy softball. It’s a tall order to single out one batter from a Mercy-Burlingame lineup batting .418 on the season. Eastburn’s performance in the Bears’ 16-5 win last Wednesday at South City jumps off the page, though. With Mercy clinching no less than a share of the PAL Lake Division championship, Eastburn went 4 for 5 with seven RBIs, recorded a single, a double, a home run and then a triple to hit for the cycle. The freshman then joined Mercy’s 24-hit performance in a 21-0 win over Jefferson to clinch the PAL Lake title outright, going 3 for 4 with three doubles and two RBIs. Through three games last week, Eastburn was 9 for 13 with 11 RBIs and upped her season average to .538.

Henry Hauser, Menlo School boys’ track and field. The junior participated in four events at the West Bay Athletic League championships and came away with four titles. He won the 800 in a time of 1:55.87, which is the 12th-fastest time in CCS this season. He also owns the second-fastest time, clocking a 1:52.33 early in the season. He was also part of three relay wins. He teamed with Maxwell Johnson, Amay Srinivasan and Tres Onyejekwe to set a new school record in the 4x400 relay in a time of 3:27.08. He was also a member of the winning 4x800 and 4x1,600 relay teams.

Darrin O’Brien, Aragon boys’ tennis. The Dons’ No. 3 singles player clinched the match-winning point in their 5-2 win over Mountain View in the CCS team tournament opener Wednesday. His Mountain View opponent broke his serve in the final game of the first set to win 6-4. O’Brien came roaring back in the second set, getting an early break on his way to a 6-2 second-set win and set up a third-set super tiebreaker. And O’Brien dominated, using a booming serve, adept net play and solid baseline game to win the set 10-4 and clinch the winning fourth team point.

Clara Young, Woodside girls’ swimming. The sophomore proved the star of San Mateo County swimming Saturday at the CCS Swimming & Diving Championships in San Jose. Three CCS titles were won by county swimmers, and Young brought home two of them. In the girls’ 50-yard free, she took first place in 22.87 seconds, this after setting a Woodside program record in the prelims in 22.86. Then in the 100 free, she set another program record with a first-place swim of 49.77.

Michael Powell, Menlo-Atherton boys’ swimming. The junior topped the podium in the boys’ 500 free at the CCS Swimming & Diving Championships in San Jose in thrilling fashion. In the day’s longest event, Mills junior Dylan Yang took second place with a time of 4:25.69, making for a bang-bang finish as Powell hammered to a first-place finish in 4:25.07.

Kai Kung, Paxton Holden and Tristan Castro, Half Moon Bay baseball. The Cougars are riding a streak of 26 shutout innings, thanks largely to three straight complete-game shutout performances. Castro started the streak May 2, with five shutout innings of relief in HMB’s 5-1 win over Scotts Valley. Then, last week, Kung fired a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 home win over Aragon. Holden backed that up by earning his first varsity win, finishing off the sweep with a five-hit shutout in a 6-0 win at Aragon. Castro then brought the run full-circle, recording a five-hit shutout in a 3-0 home win over Santa Cruz, totaling 46 strikes on a hyper-efficient 68 pitches.

Brooke Arce, Burlingame softball. The Panthers are in the midst of a five-game winning streak, all in PAL Ocean Division action, boosting them to within a half game of first-place Menlo-Atherton heading into the final week of the regular season. Arce has gone 9 for 18 over the streak, and capped a 4-for-13 week last week with a three-run home run in a 14-3 victory over Sequoia. She also pitched in all three games, totaling six shutout innings of relief.

Cruz Torres, Woodside baseball. The senior had only two hits in a two-game series sweep of South City, but his lone hit in Game 1 Tuesday proved to be huge. After the Warriors rallied to send the game into extra innings, they seemed to have all the momentum after scoring three runs in the top of the 10th to a take a 9-6 lead. But Woodside had a rally of its own, scoring three times in the bottom of the inning to tie the score before loading the bases with two outs and Torres at the plate. On a full count, Torres launched a walk-off grand slam to give the Wildcats a 13-9 win. Torres also had a double in Thursday’s 4-3 win over South City.