Cuesta Women Roll
By Michael Elliot
Girls, girls, girls — are carrying the banner for winter sports here in SLO County, and proudly so. The Cal Poly Women’s Basketball Team recently exacted revenge on Cal State Northridge as the Lady ‘Stangs rid themselves of last year’s lingering Big West Conference Tournament Championship loss to the Matadors by taking a 63-54 victory at home.
Cal Poly’s diminutive 5-year senior point guard, Ariana Elegado, torched the nets for 22 points. This was a vital game for the Mustangs, especially coming off a recent loss to 16-1, Long Beach State, as the win enabled them to push their conference record to 3-1 early on.
Two positive notes from the Long Beach game came in the form of identical freshmen twins, Dynn and Lynn Leaupepe. Poly coach Faith Mimnaugh had been substituting one sister for the other in earlier games but at times had the two forwards on the court at the same time against Long Beach and it was evident that they fed off of each other and infused energy into the lineup.
Dynn totaled a career-high 27 points and 11 boards and Lynn was solid on both ends of the court, as well. And how cool is the name Leaupepe!! It deserves two exclamation points.
Exit the Poly campus heading towards Morro Bay and you will come to Cuesta College, whose women hoopsters are riding a high. The Cougars’ Saturday night mauling of Santa Barbara ran its overall record to an impressive 17-5 and furthered their conference record to 3-1. Morro Bay High grad, Jerrica Crosby, and former Mission Prep star, Kaylee Williams, led the Cougars with 17 and 16 points respectively. Local. Nice!
Not to be outdone, and she wasn’t, was Arroyo Grande’s Ashlyn Herlihy. “Ash” popped in 25 for the A.G. Eagles in a victory over Pioneer Valley to run their PAC- 8 record to a pristine 5-0 and their overall record to 14-2. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the multi-talented Herlihy were to stay local after her prep career and allow us to witness her prodigious talents firsthand? You there Ashlyn??
Seattle grunge — well, for 3-1/2 quarters anyway. The Seattle Seahawks booked a return trip to the Super Bowl with an improbable, stunning, shocking, unbelievable, running-out-of-adjectives victory over the Green Bay Packers Sunday.
The Seahawks laid a stinker through those first 52-1/2 minutes, until someone plugged QB Russell Wilson and runningback Marshawn Lynch into their amps and they became electrified! Rallying from 12 points down in the waning minutes and grasping victory from certain defeat is what champions are all about. They surely had Nirvana, er, karma on their side (Ouch!).
Patriot’s Act Ho-hum. The New England Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. Their romp over the Indy Colts has coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady back for a return engagement. It’s the pair’s sixth overall Super Bowl, if you are counting. Ho-hum’s aside, this Super Bowl matchup is rife with intrigue and storylines my friends. The tilt in Arizona will be a compelling matchup of wits, strengths and weaknesses — Sheriff Brady vs. Russell “The Kid” Wilson. Antagonistic Richard Sherman vs. Gronk. Blasé Belichick, game planning against hyper-enthusiastic, Pete Carroll. And the winner is…
And finally — THE Ohio State Buckeyes are collegiate football champs! The No. 4 seed rolled the No. 1 ranked Crimson Tide from Alabama and then trucked the No 2 seed Ducks of Oregon for the title. This beast of a team was reminiscent of John Wayne toilet paper: they didn’t take poop off anyone!
Okay, let’s review. We’ve referenced music and thrown in a poop joke. So it’s only fitting to sign off with this Stephen Stills/Neil Young song title, “Long May You Run!”
