This Week in Athletics
October 10, 2025
Cross Country 
Cate cross country returned to action at the Twilight Invitational at Lake Casitas on Wednesday evening. Varsity boys took to the starting line, missing two of their top five runners. That didn’t affect the remaining seven, as they all stepped up and ran the race plan to perfection, with the top five runners finishing in the top thirteen. Miles Williams led the way, finishing 4th, Bruce Li 5th, Jackson Muller 8th, Ian Sheshunoff 9th, and Ethan Qui 13th. Their effort paid off in defeating Thacher for the team title by just two points!
Varsity girls ran a competitive race, finishing 3rd overall. Junior Sophie Blank led the way with her second-place finish. Sophomore Aggie McTigue was in the top ten, finishing seventh. Mimi Powers, Rosita Powers, and Sofi Ridgway finished in the top twenty.
The Rams run again on Saturday at the Dos Pueblos Invitational.
Girls Volleyball
Girls volleyball continues their fine season with three sweeps of Grace Bretheren, Thacher, and Villanova Prep. The team is looking to continue this winning streak into their last regular season match is Tuesday, October 14th. This is their senior night against St Bonaventure. It’s time for revenge after defeat last time out to St. Bonaventure. Cate is currently 9-5 overall and 5-2 in the league play.
Football
Its been an injury hit few weeks for the Cate football as they battled against Orcutt Academy and Faith Baptist. Against Orcutt Academy Spartans, backup Quarterback Sam Lambiotte made a fast start to his first start in a Ram uniform, scoring two touchdown passes of 62 and 20 yards. Both passes were caught by senior Chase Meyer. Tied at 22 a piece at the break, the Spartans got their offense rolling to take a 42-22 lead. The Rams offense got into gear with several big runs from senior Barron Crayton. Ultimately, the Rams lost 54-48. After the game Head Coach Ben Soto praised the team’s resolve. “We have had to overcome a ton of injuries, and people will say we are too young, but today we kept on fighting to stay in the game and battle back time and time again. I am proud of the fight we showed to take this game right down to the final whistle. Sam was fantastic in his first start, and I am hopeful we can build on the positives we had today.” With the visit of #3 ranked Faith Baptist the team suffered a heavy 41 – 6 defeat. The Rams look to bounce back against Thacher on Saturday.
Girls Tennis
Tennis continues their strong season with wins over Laguna Blanca (17-1), Thacher (15-3), Arroyo Grande (7-2), Providence (15-3), and Villanova Prep (17-1). The team sits 12-1 overall and 6-0 in the league. Against Laguna, Sophomore standouts Ivy Huang and Jade Wang continued their unbeaten streaks in league play this season, dropping just 9 games across 6 sets of singles play. While facing Thacher, the doubles combo of Lisa Hasebe and Elly Edwards was unstoppable as they went 6-0, 6-0, and 6-2 against the Toads. In this impressive run, Coach Thorpe says notes the importance of the squad depth, “We’ve been dealing with some sickness and injury this last week, but the girls have rallied around each other and done an excellent job of filling gaps in the lineup. It’s great to be able to call on doubles players to play some singles and also for some eager JV players to have the opportunity to play at the next level. This is a team that seems ready to handle whatever gets thrown at it, which increases my confidence in our prospects for this year’s CIF Playoffs. It’s pretty rare for any team to make it through that part of the season without something going awry, so it’s great to know we have a host of role-players we can count on to step up when called upon.”
The Rams play Laguna Blanca on Thursday at 3:30pm to kick off Family Weekend with a chance to claim their 3rd undefeated league title in a row.
Boys Water Polo
Cate boys’ water polo created school history with a first ever win over perennial champions Malibu High School. After two one-goal battles last season, this was a game both teams circled on their calendars. Tied after the first and second quarters, we were able to capture momentum and grind out a gritty second-half victory. A physically strong, smart, and fundamentally sound defense allowed us to pull ahead in the third quarter. Junior Andrew Sheshunoff was incredible in the cage, racking up nine saves, no goals outside of five meters, and held the Sharks to no scores on man-up situations in the second half. Andrew’s consistent performances throughout the week led him to winning “Cate Athlete of the Week.”
The team continued this momentum into their next league game against Foothill Tech High School. Sophomore Fletcher Prince led the offense with 3 goals and 2 assists on the day. It was a convincing road win for the Rams with the result ending 14-4.
The busy stretch of games continue for the team as they headed to the Buena Ventura Tournament to play four games over the weekend. First up was Royal High School, where the Rams edged the scoring 6-5 with senior Seb Brine capitalizing on several key counterattack opportunities. In game two, the rams winning run came to an end against Canyon Crest High School in a 15-1 defeat. Day two of the tournament, the Rams came up against East Redlands High School. Redlands did a great job of putting Cate on their heels early and the Rams were in foul trouble early. The game finished Redlands 13, Cate 12. Cate bounced back with a convincing 10-8 win over Cabrillo and finishing in 7th overall at the tournament.
On Thursday evening, the Rams headed to Malibu with the league title on the line. The Rams battled to an incredible 11-5 victory on the road, sealing the league title!
Stay tuned for more from Cate Athletics and as always follow along on Instagram at @Cate_Athletics. Tune in to see livestream and highlights on Hudl!
Go Rams!