COMPETITION IN FULL SWING New Coaching Staff Adds Momentum

COMPETITION IN FULL SWING New Coaching Staff Adds Momentum

By Ryan Barnett ’19, Sports Information and Operations Director

The 2018-19 season was the best ever for Menlo Athletics. Judging from this fall’s successes, the pandemic didn’t still that momentum. Several new head coaches are a central part of the story. Menlo capped the fall with 19 studentathletes named GSAC and NAIA Scholar Athletes. New head coach Freddy Delgado took women’s soccer to their best conference showing since 2015 with a thirdplace finish after making it to conference semifinals for only the second time in program history. Men’s soccer qualified for post-season play for the sixth consecutive season, only falling in an overtime thriller in the conference quarterfinals.

Under new cross country and track and field head coach Kevin Mangan, cross country was led all season by freshman phenom Emmanuel De Leon ’26, who qualified for nationals where he threw down the best time at a national meet in Menlo program history. De Leon was also named the conference Freshman of the Year—the first Oak in program history to do so.

In its inaugural season, Menlo tennis sent players all the way to the Fall ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, where the Oaks were represented by singles players Saar Rogovski and Valentina Urelli Rinaldi, and doubles pair Urelli Rinaldi and Andrea Vlasceanu.

Both men’s and women’s golf finished in the top three in all but one of their fall tournaments, and women’s golf ranked 17th in the country! Women’s volleyball finished with five more wins than a season ago.

New softball head coach Skylynne Ellazar and new baseball head coach Alex Hoover are looking forward to fielding their first teams this spring.

Athletics Director Keith Spataro predicted the best-ever season for the Oaks before the first game was played last August. Given the success of competitive play this fall, he’s doubling down on his prediction. We’re all looking forward to it!