The Top 10 Stories of 2012 as chosen by the La Canada Valley Sun

La Canada softball team rose to the occassion in repeating as CIF Southern Section Division V champions.

January 02, 2013|By Andrew Shortall, andrew.shortall@latimes.com

ARCHIVE PHOTO: La Canada's Lauren Cox, left, and… (Cheryl A. Guerrero/Staff…)

It was a year of repeat success, disappointing endings and surprising postseason performances for a number of La Canada Flintridge teams in 2012.

Several squads managed to add to the impressive resumes they carried into the year, while others came painfully close to adding to their legacies or experienced dramatic turnarounds or setbacks in 2012.

Here are the La Cañada Valley Sun’s top 10 stories of 2012.

1.) La Cañada High softball repeats as CIF Southern Section Division V champion.

All eyes were on the La Cañada High softball team coming into 2012 after its previous campaign ended with a championship.

Despite losing two key pieces after capturing their first crown since 1995, it seemed the Spartans had a good shot at repeating in Division V. When all was said and done, it came back down to La Cañada and Beaumont — the same team the Spartans knocked off for the title, 1-0, in 2011.

Hopes were the Spartans' returning senior leaders — pitcher Lauren Cox and catcher Catherine Horner — would lead them to a second-straight championship. While they did exactly that, La Cañada's entire lineup came through in the clutch for a 7-3 win over Beaumont in the championship bout on June 2.

Cox struck out 10 in notching a complete-game win and Horner scored three times and set the table for the offense with a two-for-three day at the plate. But the seniors received plenty of support from a lineup that racked up 11 hits with six players producing a base hit and four logging multi-hit games.

La Cañada’s Kelsey Drange continued her hot postseason at the dish, as she went three for four and drove in three runs in the Spartans’ win over the Cougars after she drove in the only run in their, 1-0, semifinal victory over Nipomo. Jessica Ogden (two for three, two runs batted in) and Annie Monroe (two for four, RBI) also came through in the clutch for La Cañada, which won its fourth straight Rio Hondo League title and went 26-4-1, 10-1-1 in league.

Prospects for 2013 remain bright for a team that returns a potent lineup which includes Drange, Ogden, Monroe, Selina Mohr, Aubri Thompson and Katy Lee.

2.) La Cañada High boys’ water polo reaches Division III title match after multiple coaching changes.

The Spartans players were not shy about what was important for the 2012 season — a championship or bust.

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