Zhang thrives as 'the glue that holds the team together'

By Aien Du & Katharine Yao

Sonia Zhang stepped out of the pitching circle for the nal time after recording 302 strikeouts for the Mavericks.

Zhang is a dual threat pitcher and slugger, as exempli ed by her performance at SPC. In the Mavs rst round game against Greenhill, she hit a grand slam, and in the semi nals against Houston Christian, she threw an immaculate third inning, striking out all three Mustangs on the minimum of nine pitches.

Before she became a softball standout, Zhang played for the West U Wave, an A-team in the West U Little League. Her father was her coach, and her mother was her biggest supporter despite not understanding a thing about the game.

By the time Zhang was in middle school, the Maverick coaching sta began to notice her athleticism. Head softball coach Isis Amao remembers thinking that, even in seventh grade, Zhang was talented enough to play varsity.

“She has the softball IQ that every coach wants in a young player,” Amao said. “She’s the strongest player I’ve ever coached and probably one of the best the St. John’s softball program will ever see.”

For her club team, Proli c Fast Pitch 18U, she plays shortstop and third base and bats cleanup.

At St. John's, she noticed the lack of pitchers and took it upon herself to learn how to pitch. By her sophomore year she was the team’s ace and pitched half the games.

“If I could have had her at both shortstop and pitcher, I would have,” Amao said. “But it’s crazy because she doesn't pitch outside of school.”

Zhang’s prowess is displayed both inside and outside the pitching circle. She hit an astronomical .712 this season, raising her career varsity batting average to an outstanding .641.

Once she started playing in high school, it did not take long for Zhang to catch the eye of college scouts and recruiters. She received o ers from nine schools, including several in the Ivy League. At the beginning of her junior year, she was invited to a Zoom call with Princeton head coach Lisa Van Ackeren.

Within 24 hours of their rst online conversation, Zhang scheduled another call with Ackeren — this time to commit. Zhang is projected to play shortstop for the Princeton Tigers, who nished second in the Ivy prayer, making every game an opportunity to “glorify God’s goodness so everyone can see it, too.”

League this season.

In the dugout, Zhang’s teammates consider her an additional coach. She gives tips and constructive criticism to her teammates, functioning as “the glue that holds the team together,” said freshman out elder Ellie Rosenblatt.

Zhang nished her Maverick career as a 3-time All-SPC and South Zone honoree and team MVP.

She was also named the 2022 Vype Private School Hitter of the Year and won the 2023 Softball Grit award.

ISIS AMAO

“She’s good at holding people accountable,” Amao said. “She really is focused on getting the best out of the team.”

The Mavs nished in fourth place at SPC this year, losing to Houston Christian 11-10 in the semi nals and Kinkaid 9-6 in the third-place game.

“To be honest,” Zhang said, “it didn’t even feel like we lost because we knew we played our best.”

Zhang maintains her composure through

“She’s arguably the best athlete in the school right now, and she deserves so much more recognition,” Rosenblatt said. “So many people know about the basketball and football stars, but no one knows about Sonia.”

Zhang plays a sport that attracts little attention, with few students in the stands and fewer pep rallies. She said that softball deserves better.

Zhang ended her SJS athletic career at the Athletic Ceremony wearing an orange tiger-print shirt.

“I never dreamed that I would have the opportunity to play DI," Zhang said, “but here I am."

FASTER, FARTHER, HIGHER

A talented trio of track and field stars rewrite the SJS record book

By Elizabeth Hu

Three athletes, each in a different grade, broke a slew of records over the course of the track and field season. A senior distance runner, a sophomore who started throwing due to her hatred of running and a reluctant junior pole vaulter exemplify the diversity of skills that can make a successful athlete.

STOP RUNNING, START THROWING

Jackie Chapman might have never realized her passion for throwing had she not first experienced her hatred of running. Since she stopped running and started tossing heavy objects, she has become the top shot put and discus thrower in School history — and she is still improving. In an event that relies less on agility than strength, Chapman attributes her prowess to her buffness.

“I've always been a really big kid. By big, I mean super muscular — like She-Hulk,” said Chapman, who discovered her arm strength early on playing catch with her dad. “It became my party trick, showing how far I could throw a football."

Chapman first participated in track and field in middle school, where she tried following in her mother’s and sister Kacey’s (’23) footsteps as a hurdler. She quickly discovered that she hated running “with a white-hot passion.”

Driven by a desire to avoid anything running-related and buoyed by fond memories of

Bella Raises The Bar

For years, Bella Cantorna was the one root ing for her teammates. Whether they were winning a medal or celebrating a personal best, Cantorna was always cheering the loudest. But this year, the talented junior is the one receiving the ovations.

On March 3, Cantorna ran down the pole vaulting runway on Skip Lee Field, using her carbon fiber pole to launch herself over the bar. With a resounding scream, Cantor na landed on her back on the pit. Towering 12 feet above her, the bar remained un touched. She had soared right over it — setting a school record in the process.

“That day, everything clicked,” she said.

Cantorna started pole vaulting as a freshman — although whether she did so willingly is open for debate.

“I had to wrangle and cajole and practically tie her up and get her out there to try pole vault,” track and field coach Richie Mercado said. Cantorna had done the “Learning to Fly" full activity in sixth grade, which had gotten her started in pole vaulting.

Her skill and interest grew exponentially.

“It's an incredible event,” Cantorna. “I'm so happy I get to do it, and I'm very lucky to have all the support from my coaches.”

With every meet, Cantorna jumped higher, clearing 9 feet freshman year to 11’9” during preseason practices this year.

After her 12-foot jump in early March, she ended the month with a height of 12’6”, but this time, the record came with added suspense. At the apex of her vault, Cantorna hit the bar as she went over — hard enough that it bounced precariously, but the angle at which she hit the bar helped it remain on the standards that hold up the bar.

“She hit it just right,” Mercado said. “She did everything right.” When Cantorna looked up and saw the bar was still aloft, she let loose a guttural cry.

“I was just really excited.”

It Runs In The Family

Breaking a school record is hard, especially after suffering a pulled hamstring, but senior William Thames managed to do it twice.

For the first few meets of the season, “he was kind of testing how his hamstring felt,” Mercado said. After suffering the injury during stretching exercises, Thames returned to competitions too quickly and re-injured his hamstring.

The experience was “not super confidence-inducing."

Thames did not fully recover until the fourth meet of the season on March 23. He made up for lost time by breaking the school 800-meter record with a time of 1:54.66. Two days later, he competed in the meet finals, breaking his own record with a time of 1:54.50. An hour later, he arrived at prom just before the doors closed.

“I thought I was going to be a lot slower than that,” Thames said. “I definitely surprised myself.”

In addition to his individual records, Thames ran the 1200-meter leg of the distance medley relay, along with Marshall Dunahoe (400 meters), Danny Wasserman (800m) and Wilson Bailey (1600m), breaking a 25-year-old school record.

Coming off the track, Thames texted the previous record holder, Douglas Parsley ('20), with whom he had a friendly rivalry.

“At the beginning of the season, he didn't believe me when I told him I was going to break it,” Thames said, “so as soon as I broke it, I picked up my phone.” arm-wrestling matches in elementary school, Chapman tried throwing.

She was an immediate champion, remaining undefeated in discus throughout middle school. In sixth grade, she won the HJPC discus championship and placed second in shot put. As a freshman, she won discus at SPC.

She has broken the St. John’s discus record twice — first with a toss of 129’6” on March 9, which broke the previous record by almost three feet and then again on April 6 with a throw of 132’6,” a distance that placed her in the Top 100 of U.S. high school girls. On March 30, Chapman broke the School’s shot put record with a throw of 35’11.50,” breaking the 24-year-old record of 35’4”. At SPC, Chapman won both shot put and discus in the 4A Division.

When not at practice, Chapman works out at the gym and analyzes videos of discus world champions, including Cro atian Sandra Perković and American Valerie Allman. Her coach, Rick Still, is hopeful that Chapman will achieve her goal of participating in the Junior Olympics and possibly the Olympic Games.

While all those records look good on a résumé, they also alleviate pre-meet nerves. Having completed her goals for this year, Chapman is already looking ahead to the next track and field season.

“I wanted the school record for discus this year and shot put next year, but I have both now,” Chapman said. “Next year, I want the SPC record, and the year after that I want to be in the Top 10 in the U.S. That's my ultimate goal.”

Based on her current trajectory, those goals are not beyond her grasp — nor is college recruitment.

Chapman, who witnessed her sister Kacey go the academic route for her college application process, said that she is looking forward to going the DI athletic route.

“I don't know what the recruitment process is like, but it has to be less stressful than whatever she just went through.”

Mercado also coached the previous pole vault record-holder, Jill Ahrens (‘03), who vaulted 11’6” in 2003. After Cantorna broke the record, Mercado texted Ahrens that her 20-year-old mark had been eclipsed. For the veteran track coach, it was “a little bittersweet because I coached both of these people.” Ahrens was happy to hear that her record had finally been broken.

“People want records broken,” Mercado said. “Records are meant to be broken.”

Rivalries are nothing new to Thames. As a runner, he has always been following the legacy of his older siblings, Davis ('20) and Caroline ('22), both of whom ran track for the Mavs and now run at Rice University.

“I've always been chasing Davis,” Thames said. “I beat his 800-meter PR [personal record] at that race.” Davis is a standout runner, but that does not stop William from competing against his big brother. During the season, the brothers competed in the same distance for their respective schools.

“If he beat me last weekend, I had to beat him this weekend," Thames said.

William is also committed to Rice.

At SPC, Thames placed second in the 800-meter and the 1600-meter run and helped the 4x800 and 4x400 relay team place third and fourth, respectively. Despite all his accomplishments, Thames is not much of a goal-setter.

“Setting goals sets a limit,” he said. “Being open to whatever you can do is the best way to go about it.”