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Updated: December 27, 2024 @ 12:01 am
With this tandem of quarterback Vanden Dugger and running back Radley Geiss leading the way, the Dana Hills football team set records with an 8-0 start and the first 10-win season in school history before being eliminated in the CIF-SS Division 6 semifinals on Nov. 22.
With this tandem of quarterback Vanden Dugger and running back Radley Geiss leading the way, the Dana Hills football team set records with an 8-0 start and the first 10-win season in school history before being eliminated in the CIF-SS Division 6 semifinals on Nov. 22.
It was an eventful calendar year for sports in Dana Point, filled with championships, record-breaking performances and singular achievements.
We present some of the Top Moments in Dana Point sports that made headlines in 2024:
NOONAN STOCKPILES MULTIPLE STATE TITLES: It was, quite simply and impressively, The Year of Evan Noonan in long-distance running. As a Dana Hills junior in the spring, Noonan dominated in the track and field season, winning his second consecutive CIF-SS Division titles in the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters. Then he won the 3,200 at the CIF-SS Masters Meet to advance to the 104th CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, where he won his first state title in the 3,200 meters with a personal-best clocking of 8:43.12. He was Orange County’s only first-place finisher in an individual event at the state championships.
As a senior in the fall, Noonan picked up where he left off, winning his third consecutive state title at the 2024 CIF State Cross Country Championships in Fresno. He conquered the elite Division III field on the 5,000-meter course with a time of 14 minutes, 43.7 seconds, more than eight seconds ahead of the runner-up. Earlier in the month, he also won the league and his third consecutive CIF-SS Division 3 titles, validating his selection as the national Gatorade Player of the Year.
DRAMATIC DOLPHINS GO 10-3, ADVANCE TO CIF SEMIFINALS: Dana Hills showed a flair for the dramatic in the 2024 football season en route to the first 10-win season in Dolphins football history before falling one win shy of the CIF-SS Division 6 title game. Quarterback Vanden Dugger and running back Radley Geiss fueled the high-powered offense all season as the Dolphins rocketed to an unprecedented 8-0 start.
Back-to-back losses in the final two games of the regular season denied the Dolphins a share of the title in the inaugural Foxtrot League, but the playoffs brought out the best in Tony Henney’s team. In its playoff opener on Nov. 8, Dana Hills rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final eight minutes to stun Barstow, 45-41 – a victory secured on a goal-line stand and game-saving tackle in the final seconds by Dolphins cornerback Maksim Brown, who knocked the Barstow quarterback out of bounds at the 2-yard line on 4th-and-goal. The next week, the Dolphins defeated host San Dimas, 38-35, on a field goal as time expired.
Dana Hills’ season ended on Nov. 22 in the CIF-SS Division 6 semifinals at Citrus College when Glendora High turned the tables on the Dolphins, 25-21, with a fourth-quarter rally and game-winning touchdown pass with 15-seconds left, but it didn’t tarnish an unforgettable season.
HAUGH’S HOT HAND POWERS BOYS BASKETBALL: Led by sharpshooting guard Collin Haugh, Orange County’s leading scorer for the second straight season, the Dana Hills boys basketball team rolled to a 24-5 record in 2023-24, the Dolphins’ best record since 2009, before being eliminated by Linfield Christian, 64-62, in a CIF-SS 2AA playoff game.
Haugh led all county scorers with a 26.2-point scoring average as a junior, topping his 23.7-point average as a sophomore, while shooting 47 percent from 3-point range to help the Dolphins win back-to-back Sea View League championships, their first league titles in nine years. Haugh suffered a torn knee ligament before his senior season that prevented him from playing this season.
GIRLS BASKETBALL ENJOYS BEST SEASON IN HISTORY: The Dana Hills girls basketball team went 9-0 to win the Sea View League title and rolled to a 27-6 overall record, reaching the CIF-SS Division 3A semifinals and securing its first state tournament berth. The Dolphins lost to eventual champion JSerra, 65-55, in the CIF semifinals.
The star of the breakout season was freshman guard Kayla Rice, who was named Sea View League MVP after averaging 20.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 1.5 assists a game. Rice transferred to JSerra over the summer, but several other key players (including captain Lola Bellon and sisters Brooklyn and Regan Akason) returned this season.
BASEBALL TEAM RALLIES TO EARN SHARE OF TITLE: It’s not how you start that matters most; it’s how you finish, as Tom Faris’ baseball team has demonstrated dramatically in the past two seasons. In the spring of 2023, the Dolphins needed a three-game sweep against Trabuco Hills in the season’s final series to grab the last CIF-SS playoff berth, and they pulled it off. In the spring of 2024, it was deja vu all over again, as the Dolphins swept a regular season-ending three-game series against Capistrano Valley – by 3-2, 4-2 and 4-2 scores – and got help elsewhere to earn a share of the South Coast League title with Tesoro and Trabuco Hills (all 7-5) and an automatic CIF-SS playoff spot despite a 11-15 overall record.
It was the eighth league championship in program history and its first since 2021. The Dolphins lost their playoff opener to El Modena.
DP NATIVE TILLY WINS WSL LONGBOARD WORLD TITLE: Dana Point native Rachael Tilly won the 2024 WSL World Longboard Championship in El Salvador in October. It was the second world title for Tilly, who grew up around Dana Point and San Clemente, attending Palisades Elementary in Capistrano Beach, Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente and then San Clemente High. She now lives in Australia.
HOMETOWN DREAM: HOMETOWN TEAM: Former Dana Hills High pitching ace Hans Crouse returned to the majors in June with the Los Angeles Angels, his hometown team, the same team he grew up cheering for while going to games with his grandparents as a youngster. Crouse, 25, was practicing with the Salt Lake Bees, the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, when he got the news he was being recalled.
Crouse had spent the previous three years in the minors, and hadn’t made a major league appearance since pitching for the Phillies in 2021, before being called up by the Angels and making his first appearance on June 22 against the vaunted Dodgers. He pitched a scoreless 1-2-3 inning, striking out Will Smith and Freddie Freeman and retiring Shohei Ohtani on a grounder. In 25 relief appearances for the 2024 Angels, the 2017 Dana Hills grad was 4-3 with 2.84 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 251/3 innings.
COMMUNITY RALLIES BEHIND DP YOUTH BASEBALL: A month after a May 13 fire engulfed Dana Point Youth Baseball’s storage shed and destroyed $35,000 worth of equipment, the community rallied behind the team with a fund-raising campaign. The gofundme.com campaign raised nearly $30,000 for the nonprofit organization to replace the pitching and fielding machines, baseballs, umpire gear and scoreboard controllers, and local organizations including San Clemente and Laguna Niguel Little Leagues loaned equipment so the DPYB teams could continue to practice and play games with minimal distraction.
The City of Dana Point also stepped up to the plate and donated a new shed for the DPYB, as well as three scoreboard controllers. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department suspect arson was the cause of the fire.
BOYS WRESTLERS ADVANCE TO STATE: Dana Hills junior Bobby Baeder (157 pounds) and freshman Kavi Garvey (120 pounds) earned bronze medals at the CIF-SS Wrestling Championships, as well as podium finishes at the CIF Masters meet, to qualify for the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield on Feb. 22-24. Garvey was third at the Masters meet, and Baeder advanced to the championship semifinals before being eliminated. At the state championships, Garvey won his first match,11-0, before losing in the quarterfinals. Baeder lost both ofhis matches.
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