Sports Briefs: San Domenico boys fall in BCL semis
After battling back and forth during the regular season, No. 3 seed San Domenico fell 63-49 to No. 2 Lick-Wilmerding in Thursday’s BCL boys basketball semifinals at Kezar Pavilion. Ika Jokhadze finished with 15 points for the Panthers (17-10), while Stephen Song had 13 points, and Oskar Valiauga had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The two teams split their regular-season series, with each game decided by less than 10 points. Likc-Wilmerding faces top-seeded University for the BCL title on Saturday, while San Domenico looks ahead to Sunday’s North Coast Section tournament seeding.
Prep wrestling
Novato’s Elias Asprer and Redwood’s Ayaan Naseer are staring across the 113-pound bracket from each other, with the possibility of a semifinal showdown Saturday in the inaugural North Coast Section Redwood Empire Championships, hosted by Novato High. A quarterfinal win Saturday would assure Asprer and Naseer of a spot in next weekend’s NCS Championships, as the top six boys and top five girls from the Redwood Empire meet advance.
No. 8 seed Asprer, who advanced to the quarterfinals with a pin over Maria Carrillo’s Cole Powell, faces top-seeded Roman Frye of Windsor in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The Giants’ Naseer, seeded fourth, faces No. 5 Leonardo Munoz Olaes of American Canyon in Saturday’s quarterfinals, after a first-round pin of Casa Grande’s Jacob Baglietto on Friday.
Redwood’s Hayden Schepps and San Marin’s Quinn Peterson advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals in the 157-pound bracket, keeping alive the possibility of a MCAL championship rematch should they meet in the finals. No. 7 seed Peterson pinned Tam’s Dylan C. Hayes in Friday’s action, while No. 4 seed Schepps pinned Montgomery’s Jim Philavong.
Novato’s Jiriah Vannasy (120), the seventh seed, pinned Redwood’s Solomon Strasburg in the first period Friday to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals against second-seeded Waylon Shaw of Fortuna.
No. 4 seed Redwood’s Rex Kohner (106) rolled to Saturday’s quarterfinals, when he will square off against fifth-seeded Peter Christos of Analy. Kohner, the MCAL champion, scored a technical fall win over San Marin’s Orion Smith in his only match of the day Friday. Smith later lost to Casa Grande’s Patrick Howard in the consolation round.
No. 6 seed Laszlo Chaffee (175) of Terra Linda pinned Tam’s Damian Puente on Friday to advance to the quarterfinals. Punete went 1-1 Friday and remains in medal contention. Tam’s Colin O’Harahay (126) remains in medal contention after going 1-1 on Friday.
No. 3 seed Dylan Morton (132) of Redwood scored a first-round pin of Sonoma Valley’s Calvin Hofstetter to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals against No. 6 seed Carlos Alvarez of Ukiah. Tam’s Cole Mapp (165), seeded sixth, reached the quarterfinals after pinning Windsor’s Finn Bean. Tam’s Dylan G. Hayes (215), the fourth seed, got a first-period pin of Maria Carrillo’s Ryan Taylor to reach Saturday’s quarterfinals.
In the girls tournament, No. 7 seed Sienna Horger of Tam pinned No. 11 Charlotte McKay in the 105-pound opening round Friday.
Basketball
The Branson School and Bulls boys basketball head coach Demetrius Roquemore are hosting a Middle School Basketball Skills Clinic, Feb. 18-19, from 10 a.m. to noon. The clinic is open to boys and girls in grades 6-8. and focuses on foundational skill development, confidence-building, and basketball IQ. It’s led by Branson basketball coaches and players and is designed as a community resource for middle school athletes looking to grow their game. For more information, or to register, visit www.bransonsummer.org.
Youth sports
San Domenico boys basketball coach Tyler Gaffaney is launching “Bring Back Play”, a grass-roots push to keep pickup games and unstructured play a part of children’s lives. Gaffaney aims to launch Free Play Fridays in San Anselmo and Free Play Sundays in Novato in the Spring, hoping to offer unstructured activities for children in grades 4-8. Children who sign up at www.bringbackplay.org arrive for a 3-hour session of free play where they “run the show.”
Running
The Tamalpa Couples Relay is returning on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, at 9 a.m. Held 40 consecutive years (save one) from 1980, the race was paused during the pandemic and is now finally coming back.
The Couples Relay was originally organized by The Good Sport running store in then new Larkspur Landing (now Marin Country Mart). In the race’s unique format, women ran two miles then tagged off to their male partners. Some of the region’s most prominent runners won, including all-time fastest Dipsea Race performers Ron Elijah and Peggy Smyth, Marin County Athletic League 2-mile record holders Rod Berry and Robyn MacSwain (now married), and New Zealand Olympian Heather Thomson.
Later, Tamalpa Runners took over the race. The venue shifted to Novato’s Vintage Oaks shopping center, migrated back to Larkspur (including a couple of years running through the new SMART train tunnel) and is now back at Vintage Oaks. The 2026 course is a flat out-and-back on the traffic-free path bordering the SMART tracks on the east edge of the shopping center.
There are multiple categories; open, two females, two males, married, parent/grandparent with child/grandchild, youth, high school, and middle school. Prizes are based on combined ages, and most teams end up going home with an award. To learn more and register, visit http://www.tamalparunners.org/couplesrelays.
Reporting scores
Coaches are encouraged to report scores, stats and game details via email to sports@marinij.com or to @marinij_sports on Twitter following games. Anything that comes in after the deadline for print – around 8 p.m. typically – will be included the following day.