Kiala Haas of the San Marcos girls cross country team and Bishop Diego football’s Misa Paiau were honored as the Athletes of the Week at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.
Haas led San Marcos to a spot in the CIF-SS Division 3 cross country finals at Mt. San Antonio College. She was the Royals’ first finisher in the team’s heat race, taking ninth place. That helped the team place third behind South Torrance and Santa Margarita to qualify for the finals.
San Marcos will run in the CIF-SS Finals at Mt. SAC on Saturday.
Paiau excelled on both sides of the ball in Bishop Diego’s 31-21 victory over previously undefeated El Modena in the CIF-SS Division 3 quarterfinals.
On offense, he rushed for 114 yards on 10 carries. As an outside linebacker on defense, he intercepted a pass and blocked at El Modena field goal with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter.
Bishop Diego (9-3) advances to a semifinal game at Upland High on Friday night. Upland (8-4) upset top-seeded West Ranch in the quarterfinals in overtime.
The other candidates for the Athlete of the Week award were Phoebe Wolfe Lyons (Dos Pueblos girls cross country, Kendall Thorne (Cate girls cross country, Seb Sutch (Cate boys cross country), Andreas Dybdahl (Santa Barbara High boys cross country) and Eamon Gordon (Dos Pueblos boys cross country).
The Athletes of the Week are voted on by members of the local sports media. Coaches are encouraged to nominate deserving athletes. Nominations should be sent to sports@noozhawk.com by Sunday at 10 a.m.
The award is sponsored by the local law firm of Maho-Prentice.
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