Page 11 - Reedley Exponent 5-23-19 E-edition

B3 | Thursday, May 23, 2019 www.reedleyexponent.com
RHS, Immanuel athletic
awards programs May 23
Staff Report
Reedley High School and Immanuel High School have their athletic awards programs scheduled for Thursday, May 23, at the respective high schools.
The evening begins with the Eagles' Fourth Annual Athletic Awards Night at 6 p.m. in the high school gym. In addition to spring sports honoring their top athletes, the school's Male and Fe-
male Athletes of the Year will be announced.
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, Reedley High will host its annual Athletics Scholarship and Awards program at the high school's Performing Arts Theatre.
All of the schools' ath- letic programs will be hon- ored, including the spring sports, and the Male and Female Athletes of the Year will be announced at the end of the evening.
Kirk Kawagoe / Photo Contributed
Immanuel High pitcher JT Friesen fired a pitch to the plate against Santa Maria on May 8. The senior righthander posted an 8-3 record with a miniscule 1.00 earned run average on his way to getting voted as the Central Sequoia League's Pitcher of the Year.
Four Eagles on all-CSL baseball
Friesen voted league
Pitcher of the Year
By Jon Earnest
jon@midvalleypublishing.com
Immanuel High's co-champion base- ball squad placed four players on the all-Central Sequoia League first team for 2019, highlighted by league Pitcher of the Year JT Friesen.
In addition, the Eagles' Roman Ro- sales, Trace Pires and Derek Wood re- ceived first team all-league recognition in a vote of league coaches. Josh Franco shared Coach of the Year honors with his former high school coach, John Hollett Jr. of Selma, after the Bears and Imman- uel tied for the league championship.
Senior Friesen posted an 8-3 record with a 1.00 earned run average in 2019. He started 10 of 17 games he pitched in, and threw eight complete games. Friesen struck out 75 and walked just 22 in 77 1/3 innings of work, and at the plate batted .326 with 30 hits, 19 runs batted in and a team-high seven doubles.
See EAGLES on page B4
Kirk Kawagoe / Photo Contributed
Senior Roman Rosales hit .431 on the season with a team-leading 36 runs batted in and nine triples to earn all-CSL first team honors. Rosales also posted an 8-1 pitching record.
Kirk Kawagoe / Photo Contributed
Junior infielder Trace Pires posted a .369 bat- ting average with 38 hits and 23 RBI while batting in numerous spots in the lineup on his way to a first team all-CSL selection.
Photos Contributed
ABOVE: Former players, coaches and friends attended a reunion May 18 at Reedley College for former longtime volleyball coach Shirley Gustafson, second from left in the front row.
TOP: Bottom row (from left), former player Jennifer Craw-Uresti, Shirley Gustafson and former player Tarah Evans-Cords. Top row (l-r) former assistant and interim RC volleyball coach Nobi Kitaoka, former player Holly Hodge-Swartz and Duane Gustafson.
Gustafson honored at RC volleyball reunion
Two fifths for Hall at section track
Staff Report
More than 50 people — in- cluding many former players and friends along with family — attended a special Reedley College volleyball reunion honoring longtime coach Shirley Gustafson on May 18 at the college cafeteria.
Gustafson, who posted a 302-108 record with eight conference titles during her 21 years as coach from 1974 to 1995, was inducted into the Reedley College athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. She was the first woman's coach
inducted into the school's exclusive class honoring athletic prowess.
Reedley College's best sea- son under Gustafson was in 1995, when the Tigers went 20-3 and and ultimately fin- ished fourth in state. She later was inducted into the California Coaches Hall of Fame.
In addition to many former players from Tiger teams un- der Gustafson, longtime as- sistant coach Nobi Kitaoka attended. Kitaoka temporar- ily served as interim coach at the school this year.
IHS junior places in long, triple jumps
Staff Report
Immanuel High junior Carissa Hall turned in fifth place finishes in the girls long jump and triple jump — falling just short of quali- fying for state — at the May 18 Central Section track and field championships at Bu- chanan High Veterans Sta-
dium in Clovis.
Hall posted marks of 17
feet, 6 1/2 inches in the long jump and 36 feet, 5 1/2 inch- es in the triple jump under rainy conditions. She was less than eight inches from qualifying for state in the long jump and 8 1/2 inches from the number three fin- isher in the triple jump.
Hall set personal records this season in the long jump (17-11 at the Central Sequoia League championships on May 1) and triple jump (37-
1 1/4 at the Exeter Invita- tional on March 22). She also ran legs on the Eagles' 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams, both of which posted the 23rd fastest times in the section in 2019.
Immanuel had one other girls competitor compete in the section meet. Sophomore Paige Howard placed 10th with a time of 60.70 seconds. A week earlier, she turned in her personal best time of 59.70 seconds — 18th best in the section — to qualify for
the May 18 meet.
The Eagles' Braxton Phi-
pott was the lone boys sec- tion qualifier, finishing 12th in the discus with a best throw of 146-5. The junior's career best throw came at the Central Valley Christian Invitational on March 9 at 154-9.
Parlier High's Shane Ibardolasa qualified for the section meet in the 800 meter run, and finished 12th with a
See TRACK on page B4
Warkentin helps FPU baseball finish season on high note
Staff Report
Reedley's Michael Warkentin had a big final series, helping the Fresno Pacific University baseball team sweep a season-ending home series against Academy of Art earlier this month.
The Sunbirds (21-24, 17-15 PacWest Conference) defeated the Urban Knights bya3-2scoreonMay6,sweptaMay7 doubleheader by scores of 8-7, and 14-10 and then held on for an 8-7 win on May 8. The first 8-7 win was in walkoff fash- ion as Warkentin scored the tying run on Jared Aguilar's decisive two-run single in the bottom of the ninth.
The redshirt sophomore from Reed- ley High went 3-for-4 with a triple, stolen base, three runs batted in and two runs scored. He was 1-for-4 with two runs scored in the game one win. Warkentin also went 2-for-4 with two RBI in the se- ries-opening win while Fellow Reedley product Adam Aleman was 1-for-3 with
Colleges
a double in that game.
For the season, Warkentin led FPU
with a .348 batting average, 40 hits in- cluding two triples. 16 runs and 12 RBI. He stolen five bases in seven attempts and registered a .978 fielding percent- age on defense.
Aleman finished the season with a .275 average in 35 games, collecting 30 hits including five doubles while scoring 13 runs and driving in nine. His fielding percentage was .966.
Two other Immanuel products, pitcher Carson Schellenberg and pitcher/infielder Andrue Lackey, also saw action for FPU during the sea- son. Despite and 0-4 record and 5.79 earned run average, Schellenberg led the team with six saves and struck out 14 while walking 18. Lackey had a 1-0 pitching record in limited appearances and also batted .286 at the plate with a
double in six games.
Velarde named male Senior of the Year for Sunbirds
Soccer standout Anthony Velarde from Reedley and basketball player Bree Alvarez from Lemoore have been selected as Fresno Pacific Uni- versity's Senior of the Year award winners.
The awards were announced on April 23 at the university's Flight Night, which is the university's annual athlet- ics awards banquet. Velarde was not present at the ceremony, as he's cur- rently playing professional soccer for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the United Soccer League.
Velarde was an NCAA Division II 1st Team All-American after leading the nation in assists, becoming the first Sunbird player in any team sport to lead the NCAA in a statistical cat- egory. He led the NCAA West Region in
See COLLEGES on page B4
Fresno Pacific University / Photo Contributed
Redshirt sophomore Michael Warkentin from Reedley led Fresno Pacific Universitythisseasonwitha.348battingaverage includingtwotriples, 16 runs scored and 12 runs batted in.