Athletes of the Week: Alex Valente and Shannon Cleary

Dos Pueblos' Alex Valente
Dos Pueblos’ Alex Valente
Dos Pueblos' Shannon Cleary
Dos Pueblos’ Shannon Cleary

Dos Pueblos swimmers Alex Valente and Shannon Cleary were recognized for their performances during the Channel League swimming championships and were named the Athletes of the Week at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon.

Valente and Cleary each won two individual events, swam on winning relay teams and set meet records.

Cleary won the 50 and 100 freestyle in CIF automatic times. Her victory in the 100 was by three one-hundredths of a second and her time of 51.90 was a personal best and meet record. She also swam on a 200 free relay team that set a school record and she was the anchor leg on the winning 400 relay quartet that set a CIF automatic time (3:34.98).

Valente broke his meet records and swam CIF automatic qualifying times in winning the 100 butterfly (48.34) and 100 backstroke (50.79). He also was part of record-setting 200 medley (1:34.09) and 400 free (3:07.30) relay teams. Both times were meet records
Cleary and Valente will be competing at the CIF Division 1 prelims and finals in Riverside on Thursday and Saturday.

Cleary and Valente faced some tough competition for the final award of the 2013-14 school year.

The male honorable mention candidates include Grant Amerson (Channel League golf champion from DP), Noeh Martinez (SBCC baseball), the SBCC pitching staff, Federico Sarboraria (DP swimming), Kent Perera (San Marcos golf), Esteban Alfaro (San Marcos track), Zach Allen (Cate swimming), BJ Murillo (Bishop Diego track), Felix Mory (SBCC golf).

Female athletes receiving honorable mention accolades were Natasha Feshbach (Santa Barbara High track and field), Erica Schroeder (San Marcos track), Sophia Soriano (Cate swimming), Olivia Smith (San Marcos swimming).