These athletes have a lot in common

This week’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Athletes of the Week have a lot in common.

Not only did both freshmen set records in track & field events last week, but Westmont’s Elysia Hodges and Santa Barbara City College’s Tristan Lake are local products from San Marcos High School.

The Athletes of the Week were awarded at Monday’s press luncheon, which also featured a Phil Womble Ethics Award recipient, a Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a collection of coaches’ reports.

Setting records is something Hodges has been proficient at since becoming a Warrior not too long ago. Westmont head coach Russell Smelley had an idea as Elysia’s parents Glenn and Shawn were in the audience.

“As they’re continuing with this Human Genome Project, I need to get their genome diagnosed because of the determination that they have given Elysia. Elysia has set eight school records, including four relays and four individual events.”

For details on the athletes of the week, follow this link.

Hodges’ performance capped off a week that started with the first ever Sam Adams Multi-Events hosted by Westmont. A number of stadium records were set at the newly renovated Westmont Track with world-class athletes such as Ashton Eaton, Sharon Day and Allison Felix present. Eaton even matched a world record for a 400-meter sprint in a decathlon.

Monday’s Phil Womble Ethics Award recipient and Scholar-Athlete of the Year don’t compete in the same sport or share the same grade, but they both hail from Cate School.

Junior Joshua Yaro was given the Womble Award, given to student-athletes that exhibit strong leadership skills and actively participate in community service.

“Josh is amazing in every sense of the word,” said Cate Athletic Director Wade Ransom.

Yaro, a Santa Barbara County champion in the high jump, was a key component of Cate’s past two CIF Championships in boys soccer. Yaro comes to Cate from Ghana and was recently given a $5,000 grant to develop water-purifying systems for small villages back home this summer.

Cate senior Annie Weis was given the Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. The three-sport varsity athlete will be attending University of Pennslyvania next year.

“She’s an amazing soccer player, she’s an even better student than she is a soccer player, and an even more impressive young woman than she is a student,” said Weis’ soccer coach and teacher Lisa Holmes. “She’s the whole package.”

It’s a big week ahead for the prep volleyball and track & field teams. Santa Barbara High is hosting the Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions on Friday and Saturday. Carpinteria High will also be a busy place on Saturday with the running of the Russell Cup.

“This Saturday is the 93rd annual Russell Cup, which is the premier small-school track meet I think in the state,” said Carpinteria track coach Van Latham. “We’re gonna have over 40 schools there, close to 1200 athletes, and looking for an outstanding meet that day.”

The Warriors boys track team, represented at the luncheon by Andrew Sova and Alberto Santamaria, are 3-1 in league dual meets after defeating Oak Park last week for the first time since 2003. On the girls side, senior Sally Lam is looking to qualify for CIF in the pole vault for a second straight season.

The Tournament of Champions brings some of the best high school volleyball teams the country has to offer to Santa Barbara.

Dons assistant John Gannon was happy to announce that the Dons are recent champions in their own right.

“I’m happy to announce that we’ve won CIF… the All-Academic Award,” Gannon said. “So we’re CIF champs right now but we have a lot of volleyball ahead of us.”

Gannon brought Ryan Worley and Channing Peake.

San Marcos will also be competing at the TOC. Royals head coach Roger Kuntz brought three sophomores that are playing large roles on the team: Shane Hauschild, Baker Johnson and Christian Widmer. All three are over six-feet tall and already starting.

UCSB head baseball coach Andrew Checketts touted two players from a series win over the weekend against Cal State Northridge. Brett Vertigan carried the Gauchos at the plate while freshman Andrew Vasquez turned in another promising start on Friday.

The Gauchos (4-2 Big West) host Cal Poly on Tuesday, then travel to Long Beach State for a three-game conference series.

In softball, Dos Pueblos’ Hannah Harris and San Marcos’ Kristen Berlo squared off in the pitcher’s circle in two Channel League games. While the first-place Chargers picked up two more league wins, Berlo and Harris put on a strikeout clinic, ringing up a combined 43 batters in two games.

Berlo was present on Monday, joined by head coach Jeff Swann and Hannah Johnson.

Freshmen Kai Uyesaka and Veronika Gulvin represented the Chargers.

Dos Pueblos and San Marcos also met on the baseball field in two games last week. After losing 5-1 to the Chargers on Tuesday, the Royals came back to win 11-3 on Thursday at Scott O’Leary Field.

San Marcos head coach Michael Sandford took a moment to remember the legendary Dos Pueblos coach, who he is reminded of every time he plays at the Chargers’ field.

“It’s always bittersweet to beat DP in that park for that reason,” Sandford said.

Dons assistant baseball coach George Rempe brought four players to the luncheon. His collection of two-sport athletes – Jason Jimenez, Zach Torres, Connor McManigal and Michael Day – are all juniors and can be regularly found in the starting lineup.

Royals track and field coach Marylin Hangtin brought sophomore Ashley Carney and seniors Cole Erickson and Davey McBride.

“It’s going to be hard to lose these two, they’ve been great examples,” said Hantgin, who helped develop athletes of the week Hodges and Lake during their time with the Royals.

Dos Pueblos’ track team joined San Marcos at the weekend’s Arcadia Invitational. Head coach Leslie Roth brought her youthful girls sprint medley relay team: Emma Redick, Elaine McClure, Addi Zerrenner and Neima Poindexter.

Ryan Nomura’s turn at the podium included praise of Ian Craddock and Alex Warner, leaders of Carpinteria’s boys golf team.

SBCC head volleyball coach Armen Zakaria brought two players, Matt Winslow and Jordan Dyer. Winslow was an honorable mention as Athlete of the Week for leading the Vaqueros with 30 kills in a four-set WSC victory over No. 2 El Camino College. Winslow is a big reason the Vaqueros have won four straight.