Page 9 - Sanger Herald 6-7-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Mohamed Saleh and Stephanie Herring won top honors for their contributions over the years to Sanger High sports.
* PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2018
Herring and Saleh named Apache athletes of the year
Herald staff
Stephanie Herring played softball, basketball and volleyball, collecting nearly a dozen athletic letters from Sanger High as an Apache during her four years.
Mohamed Saleh ran track and cross country, developing a reputation for pushing himself for a better time with each subsequent year, collecting eight letters and qualifying for the state track meet.
The pair were named athletes of the year Monday evening at the Night of the Champions Awards Banquet in the school’s multipurpose room. The honor is bestowed on the best of the best, said Brian Penner, the school’s athletic director.
“This was one for the books,” Penner said of the past year. “Due to the hard work and commitment of our student athletes.”
Penner also heaped praise upon their parents.
The past year was a big one. Girls water polo, girls golf, boys tennis, boys volleyball, boys basketball, softball, baseball and both boys and girls swim teams made headlines and nabbed wins. Don’t forget football, track or cross country. And Apache competitive cheer placed amongst the top in the state in its inaugural year.
To those who watch these athletes play, train and continually strive to be the best, it's no surprise they succeeded. Apaches are tough.
Scholar champions were
Talie Cloud and Ethan Teran.
Dave Dodson presented the sportsmanship awards, named after him, to Thalia Williams and Hector Sanchez.
Scholar athletes included Juan DeSantiago, Madalyn Berry, David Ayala, Mary Jolly, Anika Schneider, Andrew Andrade, Ethan Teran, Danessa Castro, Viviana Montes, Kacy Maine, Natalie Boust, Cu-Nisha Mitchell, Shee Her, Talie Cloud, Jude Groft, Cleo Yang, Gabriel Acosta, Matthew Castillo, Brent Pinney, Ashley Mata, Alan Lor, Joy Xiong, Isaiah Rodriguez, Taylor Roth, Jennifer Zarate, Grace Ochs, John Pena, Julian Saldana, Rachel Pimentel, Chinenye Agina, Seth Maxwell, Jake Harrell,
Brennan Taylor, Kelly Yang and Stephanie Herring.
Character awards went to Zaylynn Mangrum, Nicole Vang, Emily Hartsell, Julian Saldana, Alan Lor, Gabriel Acosta, Cu-Nisha Mitchell, Jennella Sanders, Chianne Garza, Stephanie Herring, Mary Jolly, Hannah Steagall, John Pena, Hector Sanchez, Danny Jackson III, Maria Lopez, Hardi Palma, Kayla Grunberg, Antonia Perez, Brianah Stafford, Brent Pinney, Blake Wolf, Isaiah Rodriguez, Thalia Williams and Trever Jones.
Many were honored in their individual sports for achievements over the past school year, many winning County Metro Athletic Conference first team distinction. Others received MVP rankings.
Agina jumps for the record books
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Chinenye Agina said she woke up about 9 a.m. June 1, the day of the preliminary competition of the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship in track and field.
“I kinda laid around, ate a good breakfast,” she said. Maybe she also checked out something on Netflix.
No worries.
Agina, a senior at Sanger
High and one of three Apaches who qualified for the event, no longer had classes. She assembled with hundreds of the best from across the state at Buchanan High School in Clovis to compete and deliver the absolute best performances in everything from the 100 meters to pole vault.
Competition for her event began at 3 p.m.
She was joined at the state meet by her little brother, sophomore Kosi Agina, and fellow senior Mohamed Saleh. The younger Agina qualified in the triple jump, Saleh in the 800 meter.
Chin Agina’s event was high jump. It was a role she had become quite familiar with, having competed the two previous years. And she wanted to win. The calm she exhibited that first day was learned, a state of mind arrived at by experience.
The high jump is physically challenging, and the athletes competing against Agina were the best of the best and very talented. But the stage brought its own difficulties and challenges. Hundreds, and eventually, even thousands of spectators filled the stands. Coaches watched. Past athletes attended. Jordan Hasay, who finished as the third woman at the Boston Marathon in 2017 in 2 hours 23 minutes, was spotted. She’s from Mission Prep in San Luis Obispo, class of 2008, and an Oregon alum.
Nerve wracking.
The accompanying tension affected several of Agina’s fellow competitors
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Chinenye Agina pulled off a first for Sanger High by medaling at the state track meet three years in a row. She got firth.
officials about Saleh’s race, the 800 meter.
Saleh had run a personal record 1:54.61 minutes at the CIF qualifier May 9 at Sanger’s Dodson Field, named for the previously mentioned legend.
“He’s real rested, real sharp,” Marzolf said. “(We’re) hoping for the best.”
The top 12 would advance to finals June 2. Saleh wanted to be in that top group.
Marzolf said Saleh was shooting for 1:54 minutes. “He’ll have to PR by a good second,” he said. “Which he’s ready to do.”
Saleh ran a 1:56.50 minutes, still faster than 99.9 percent of the California population. But not enough to place him in the top dozen for another shot. Saleh’s time put him in 18th place, still making him the top Central Valley runner. Junior Sebastian Medina of Clovis East was 20th with 1:56.70 minutes, and senior Nathan Burd of Lemoore was 28th with 2:00.32 minutes.
Senior Jason Gomez of Westmount in Campbell placed first with 1:52.73 minutes. He retained the top spot June 2 in the finals but this time ran a personal record 1:50.21 minutes. The top 10 racers all got personal records that day. Tenth place, Tanner Anderson of Carlmount, got 1:53.04 minutes.
“I felt good the whole way,” Saleh said Monday, just before the Night of Champions Awards Banquet. “It was all fast people in there. No one was (lagging behind).”
Saleh said he’s pleased with his performance over the past four years. He said his time as a freshman in the 800 meters was 2:05 minutes and he improved about 2 seconds each year.
“It’s all about hard work,” he said.
Saleh said he hopes to attend Fresno Pacific University.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
who failed in their three tries to reach the qualifying height that first day and make it to finals. A couple stumbled. A couple made mistakes they wouldn’t likely make in regular regional competition.
The key, according to a piece on the psychology of high jump in engaged- brains online, is building up a state of mind. “The real challenge is the mental strength that is needed to master the technique,” the article says. “World class athletes, and Olympic competitors are in tip top shape and have superb form due to intensive training, but can be defeated by their mental process when competing.”
Agina had no trouble making her way to the second day of competition. She cleared her qualifying heights in her initial tries, sailing gracefully over the bar and onto the trampoline-sized pad.
And afterward, talking to about the experience during the preliminaries with Anthony Galaviz
from the Fresno Bee and myself, she showed no visible stress. Although, she did say this regarding the finals the next day, “Tomorrow is going to be crazy.”
And it was. It had to be. California is a big stage.
Agina jumped 5 feet 5 inches that first day. She’d checked in at 1:45 p.m., well before her competition began. “I only had to jump twice,” she said.
During a break in the conversation, Dave Dodson, Sanger track and field advisor and hometown legend, walked up in the covered interviewing area and congratulated Agina. “Good job,” he said.
“I feel kind of at ease,” Agina said after he left. “I’m going to get cryotherapy.” She explained what that was — a process involving extreme cold to treat muscle pain.
Agina wanted to jump 5 feet 9 inches again, same as last year — or better. She wasn’t bothered by the thought of winning it all.
In the preliminaries, Agina was among five to get 5 feet 5 inches. In the finals, she reached a season record 5 feet 8 inches, just shy of her goal. Senior Abigail Burke of Poly High in Riverside got first with 5 feet 10 inches, and sophomore Rachel Glenn of Wilson High in Long Beach got second with the same height.
Agina is credited with fifth place. And she’s headed to Azusa Pacific University next year where she’ll continue to compete.
This is her third year receiving a medal at the event, an accomplishment that Brian Penner, Sanger High athletic director, said no other Apache has achieved. Agina got a sixth in 2016 and a third in 2017.
Her brother Kosi didn’t spend the morning of June 1 sleeping in.
“I went to school,” he said, soon after arriving at the Buchanan track. “Just got in jump mode.”
Kosi definitely got into jump mode. He cleared 47 feet 10.75 inches that
first day to lay claim to a personal record and a third place and qualify for the finals June 2. Senior C.J. Stevenson of Great Oak High in Temecula got first with 49 feet 11.75 inches, and junior DeAndra McDaniel of Natomas High in Sacramento got a personal record 48 feet 10 inches.
Senior Jared Whitt of Clovis North was the next highest central San Joaquin Valley competitor with an eighth-place finish at 46 feet 8.25 inches.
The next day, Kosi didn’t quite pull off a repeat performance, jumping 46 feet 9 inches for sixth place. Stevenson claimed first again with the same exact distance, McDaniel dropped to fourth with 47 feet 9.25 inches and Whitt roared back to third with a personal record 48 feet 7 inches.
Sometime after the high jump and before the triple jump that first day, Sean Marzolf, Sanger’s distance coach, stood talking with a group of coaches and CIF