Local heads to Stanford

Newport Harbor High senior girls’ water polo player Catherine Carpenter has verbally commited to Stanford, she said Tuesday.

Carpenter is a key defender for the Sailors and one of two projected returning starters. She earned second-team All-Sunset League honors and was an All-CIF player as well last year, helping the Sailors win league and advance to the Division I title game.

“My dad played football [at Stanford],” Carpenter said. “It’s always been my goal to go there. I like the mix of athletics and academics they have there.”

Carpenter, who has a 4.1 grade-point average at Newport Harbor, said she’d like to major in international relations or political science at Stanford. Last year, Coach John Tanner’s Cardinal advanced to the national title game.

In terms of high school polo, Carpenter said she thinks Newport Harbor can also make a run this year. Carpenter has been playing some at set offense, following the graduation of Kaleigh Gilchrist, now at USC.

“It’s been different for me to have to step up offensively,” she said. “At Junior Olympics, I think we did a lot better than people thought [finishing ninth]. That’ll be a theme for us this year. I think we’ll surprise a lot of people.”

— Matt Szabo

Peters hits mark

Newport Harbor High product Kasey Peters, a senior quarterback at Rocky Mountain College in Montana, surpassed 10,000 career passing yards in the Battlin’ Bears’ 48-38 Frontier Conference home football win Saturday over Montana Tech.

Peters who led the NAIA in passing yards per game last season, threw for 268 yards Saturday, giving him 10,038 for his three-season career at the school. He becomes only the third quarterback in Frontier Conference history to surpass 10,000 yards.

In six games this season, Peters is 134 for 216 passing for 1,727 yards. He has thrown 16 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.

— Barry Faulkner