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JV Hornets capture San Diego Classic championship; varsity nabs second

Published 1:20 pm Monday, July 6, 2026

SUBMITTED PHOTOs White River JV: coach Megan Turner, Alexa Hansen, Aislinn Howisey, Skylar Mitchell, Hudson Randall, Sydney Bush, Victoria Blakley, Audryna March, Hayley Hays, Evangeline Blakley, Addisyn Binder-Rene, Payton Wemhoff and assistant coach Georgia Lavinder.
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SUBMITTED PHOTOs

White River JV: coach Megan Turner, Alexa Hansen, Aislinn Howisey, Skylar Mitchell, Hudson Randall, Sydney Bush, Victoria Blakley, Audryna March, Hayley Hays, Evangeline Blakley, Addisyn Binder-Rene, Payton Wemhoff and assistant coach Georgia Lavinder.

SUBMITTED PHOTOs White River JV: coach Megan Turner, Alexa Hansen, Aislinn Howisey, Skylar Mitchell, Hudson Randall, Sydney Bush, Victoria Blakley, Audryna March, Hayley Hays, Evangeline Blakley, Addisyn Binder-Rene, Payton Wemhoff and assistant coach Georgia Lavinder.
White River varsity: Addison Martnez, Maggee Schmitz, Callie Rose, Kaijah Young, Jordan Taylor, Malia Froemke, Molly Neeley, Lily Banks, Myia Olson, Kaitlyn Hewlett, Gracie Banks. Kalese Turgeon and coach Chris Gibson.

Success stories stemming from tournament hoops in sunny Southern California are nothing new for the girls from White River High School.

Head coach Chris Gibson, assistant Megan Turner and a full complement of varsity and junior varsity players spent three days in San Diego, again cementing their reputation as a program to be reckoned with.

Over the course of their days at the San Diego Classic the pair of White River teams won nine of 10 games. The junior varsity squad, coached by Turner and Georgia Lavinder, captured championship honors in the JV Division by winning five straight games.

Gibson’s varsity squad won four in a row to reach the title tilt in the Varsity Division, then dropped the finale to place second.

How dominant were the Buckley girls? During their five victories the JV crew won by an average of 30 points per game. In the four games leading up to the finale the varsity crew won by an average of 41 points.

The Hornet varsity opened Classic play on Friday, June 26, with a 60-5 thrashing of the University City Centurians, a San Diego team. Saturday brought a 68-17 triumph over Next Level Hoops and a 70-29 victory over the Spartans from South Torrence High, a school from Los Angeles County.

White River began Sunday needing a win to advance to the championship game. That came with a 46-29 verdict against La Costa Canyon, a squad from Carlsbad, California. The finale was a closely-contested affair with a North High (Phoenix, Arizona) squad that took tourney honors with a 50-47 victory.

The JV squad opened play with a pair of June 26 victories, 40-24 over La Costa Canyon and 65-20 over the Canyon Hills Rattlers, a San Diego school.

Day 2 of the tournament brought two more victories, 53-22 over the Vista Murrieta Broncos (from California’s Riverside County) and 45-19 over Torrey Pines (another team from the San Diego area).

Sunday’s championship was a runaway for a White River crew that raced to a 45-13 decision over the Colfax Falcons, a team that traveled from just north of Sacramento.

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