Page 15 - Mid Valley Times 7-18-19 E-edition

Sanger Stars
win NorCal
tournament
Stars 14U team takes championship in B-bracket
Thursday, July 18, 2019
File photo /Mid Valley Times
The Dinuba Aqua Emps had 60 swimmers qualify for the Division III Time Trials in Porterville. Twenty five swimmers representing Dinuba will be competing in the CVRSL All-Star finals. Pictured above is an Aqua Emp swimmer from a previous swim meet.
Regional swimmers move on to nals
By Mike Nemeth
Mid Valley Times
The Sanger Stars hadn’t lost a game or let their op- ponents score a run in their first three games in the Na- tional Softball Association’s Northern California State Championship.
But the championship July 7 in Elk Grove was dif- ferent. The original pool of 16 teams in the 14-and-under category had been whittled to just one, the Kerman Prodi- gies. And they wanted the win as much as the Stars.
The Stars in the fourth inning had gone up 4-2. But the Prodigies battled back, pulling out a 5-4 lead in the next inning.
Layla Torres pitched for Sanger. Torres, who will be a freshman this fall at Sanger High, explained the scenario with teammates Leah Estra- da and Janiece Gallardo, both of whom played on Erica Pennington’s varsity Apache team last year.
The pressure on Tor- res was acknowledged by the group. “My teammates helped me,” she said.
“We had a talk,” Gallardo said. “We had to get those runs back. We just had to calm everyone down.”
Juan Estrada, one of the Stars’ coaches, said, “At our last at-bat, we were down.”
But this wasn’t a team interested in giving up. The Stars have a history that dates back about two dozen
seasons, and they come from Sanger where the spirit of competitiveness is intense — regardless of what sport is involved.
Leah Estrada explained the rest. “Layla hit the tying run,” she said. “Janiece hit the winning run.”
And Estrada’s pop fly enabled Arianna Gallardo, Janiece’s little sister in the first at bat in the final inning, to cross home plate, scoring the tying run. Final score was 6-5 Stars.
Vanessa Gallardo, Janiece and Arianna’s mom, said the game was intense, especially toward the end. But she said, “When we had the last at bat, I knew we could do it.”
The lineup was that strong, she said.
Janiece said she slammed the winning run home, send- ing the ball in between short- stop and third.
“They had no chance at it,” Juan Estrada said.
After that, the girls did what the Apache boys base- ball team had vowed to do if they had beaten Bullard in one of their final final games this past season — dog pile on home plate. Jesus Gallar- do, another coach, pulled out his cell phone and pulled up footage of the girls reacting to the win.
They didn’t mess around — or maybe they did — jumping, screaming and then piling up.
See STARS on page B10
By George M. Villagrana
Mid Valley Times
Swimmers competing in the Central Valley Recreational League All-Stars will be heading to the mountains as Sierra High School in Tollhouse will be the location for the finals hosted by the Sierra Silver Fins.
Dinuba, who participated in the Divi- sion III Time Trials in Porterville on July 13, will be one of 20 teams competing.
The Aqua Emps had two individual winners led by Kathryne Forbes and Mi- chael Vassylenko. Forbes won the girls 11- 12 100 yard individual medley in 1 minute, 16.66 seconds and the 50 butterfly in 31.71. She was second in the 50 free in 28.65. Vassylenko won the 15-18 50-yard breast- stroke in a time of 32.86.
The girls 6 and under 100 free relay team of Kaydence Tristan, Mylah Argu- mendo, Charlotte Avila and Stella Janbergs finished 2nd in a time of 1:49.59. The 8 and under 100 free relay team of Mariela Ar- reguin, Avah Argumendo, Olivyah Kizirian
and Viviana Salinas also took 2nd as they were timed in 1:15.18. The same relay team also finished third in the 100 MR in 1:35.15.
Nicholas Vassylenko also was 2nd in the 11-12 50 backstroke as he posted a time of 35.91. Later in the meet, he was 3rd in the 100 IM in 1:18.74.
Nikolas Smoljian took 2nd in the boys 8 and under 25 fly in 22.00. Kizirian placed 3rd in the 25 free in 17.80 while Jade Gibson was 3rd in the girls 9-10 25 back in 19.72.
Fowler Sea Dragons
Maya Garcia won the 18 and under 100 free with a time of 1 minute, 01.27 seconds to pace Fowler at the Division II Time Tri- als in Tulare.
The Sea Dragons had several swim- mers take second place. Sophia Rubalca- ba was timed in 33.04 in the 13-14 50 back and in the boys 15-18 50 fly, Aaron Butts, had a time of 26.67. In the 9-10 25 breast, Brooklyn Medeiros, was timed in 20.09 and Addison Hammond had a time of 39.15 in the 11-12 50 breast.
The boys 15-18 medley relay team of Zachary Mimura, Butts, Kai Cayetano and Ever Loya took 2nd in 2:06.83. They also placed 3rd in the 200 free in 147.27.
The girls 9-10 100 free relay team of Kaysie Wong, Medeiros, Citali Alvarez and Bella Hatch took 3rd in 1:07.96 as did the boys 13-14 200 FR of Jacob Shepard, Keenan Dick, Indervir Grewal and Jad Dick as they had a time of 1:58.05. Other swimmers who were 3rd included Kayla Kandarian, 25 back, 20.39 and 25 fly, 19.47; Z. Mimura, 50 back, 35.10 and the 9-10 100 MR team of Cheyenne Gunlund, Medeiros, Kandarian and Kaysie Wong, 1:22.01.
Reedley Marlins
Sparked by the boys 13-14 age group, the Reedley Marlins did very well in Tu- lare. The 200 free relay team of Matthew Sakata, Zachary Tristan, Roman Ramos and Sebastian Preheim won the event in 1:43.22. Ramos (1:06.46), Sakata (1:07.79) and Tristan (1:13.81) also led a 1-2-3 sweep
SeeSWIMMERSonpage B10
Sunbirds' Guard Nate Kendrick, an Immanuel High graduate, was one of four Fresno Pacific University men's basketball players named to the Academic All-PacWest Team.
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Contributed
The PacWest announced its Academic All-Conference honors on July 8, as a school record 104 Fresno Pacific student-athletes earned recognition for their academic perfor- mance during the 2018-19 season.
“It’s encouraging to see the fruit of our coaches spending countless hours seeking and recruiting students that are committed to their academic success while competing as a colle- giate athlete,” said Aaron Henderson, director of athletics at the university. “We are extreme- ly proud of our student-athletes, coaches and staff for continuing to strive to be excellent in everything they do. We appreciate the faculty and academic support on our campus, as well, as this truly is a team effort.”
Each of Fresno Pacific’s 11 PacWest-spon-
sored sports were represented on the Academ- ic All-PacWest Team, with women’s track and field leading the department with 21 honorees. Behind three Academic All-PacWest selec- tions, the women’s tennis team achieved the highest team grade point average from FPU with a 3.47.
PacWest Academic All-Conference honors were awarded to 1,553 student-athletes across 15 sports that compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0. Student-athletes who are eligible for participation with their respective teams are eligible to receive the honor.
Here are Fresno Pacific’s honorees (Mid Valley Times-area athletes connections in pa-
See FPUonpageB2
1-800-538-3328 | myEECU.org
Local Fresno Pacific athletes make Academic All-PacWest team
Eleven area athletes among record number of Sunbirds to be honored
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