Author Archives: Michelle Gardner

Local college golfers saluted

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Bradley Shigezawa (Photo by Jack Hancock)

There may not be a better conference in the country when it comes to golf than the SCIAC. Several players were among the PING All-America teams announced this week.

Junior Brad Shigezawa of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps leads the group. He was the low medalist at the NCAA Division III championships last month.

Here’s the entire list so you can see how our locals stack up:

 First Team

  • Cory Howard, LaGrange; Brian Jaeger, Christopher Newport; Alex Kolquist, Gustavus Adolphus; Anthony Maccaglia, Oglethorpe; Noah Ratner, Guilford; Brad Shigezawa, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps; Casey Vangsness, Saint John’s; Mike Wesko, Methodist

Second Team

  • Alex Andrews, Wittenberg; Andrew Bateman, Methodist; Bobby Holden, Redlands; Stefan Johnson, Illinois Wesleyan; Alex Kapraun, St. Thomas; Mikey McGinn, California Lutheran; Eric Quinn, Oglethorpe; Oliver Rudnicki, Whitworth

Third Team

  • Ian Bangor, Carnegie Mellon; Chris Blyth, St. John Fisher; Cameron Button, Southwestern; James Charles, Southwestern; Johnathan Chen, Emory; Anthony DiLisio, Skidmore; John Dukes, UT Tyler; Bobby Ehrhardt, Wesley; Ben Fister, Transylvania; Dennis Granath, Saint John’s; Josh Grisa, UW-Stout; Buddy Hallman, UT Tyler; Wes Hillen, Millikin; Clay Hinton, Transylvania; Onni Hurri, Averett; Hayden Jones, Oglethorpe; Jantzen Latham, Transylvania; Drew Lynch, Saint John’s; John McCord, Redlands; Tyler McMorrow, Gustavus Adolphus; Nick Palladino, Rochester; Andrew Peter, Luther; Joe Radulski, St. John Fisher; Andrew Thompson, Guilford; Jeff Wells, Methodist; Jack Whelan, St. Lawrence; Oliver White, Allegheny; Kenny Wienckowski, Illinois Wesleyan; Alex Wunderlich, Emory; Derek Zachman, La Verne

Citrus football players sign

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Sophomores Isaiah Kepley and Donnie Fields both signed NCAA DI scholarship offers earlier this week.

Citrus College football players Donnie Fields and Isaiah Kepley are the latest Owls to sign scholarship offers, with Fields headed to NCAA DI BCS Old Dominion and Kepley going to NCAA DI FCS school Southeastern Louisiana.

Fields (Arcadia HS) was a two-year starter for the Owls’ defensive line. He recorded 35 tackles, three sacks, 4.5 tackles for a loss, three fumble recoveries, three passes deflected and an interception.

Old Dominion begins its first season in BCS play in 2013, joining Conference USA.

Kepley (Victor Valley HS) was also a two year starter for the Owls, starting at wide receiver and serving as it’s primary place kicker. He hauled in 51 passes for a team-high 752 yards and eight touchdowns, just two away from the single-season record.

He has 73 career receptions (3rd all-time), 954 yards receiving (4th all-time), and 10 receiving touchdowns (2nd all-time). Kepley also has 142 career points which is the new program record for most points. Kepley also broke the record for longest field goal in a game against Long Beach City when he booted a 52-yarder.

Former UCR star back in SoCal

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Former UC Riverside baseball standout James Simmons is back in Southern California, for the moment.

Simmons, drafted by the Oakland A’s in the first round in 2007, arrived in San Bernardino on Monday. He is playing with the A’s California League affiliate – Stockton Ports, which was in town for a three-game series against the Inland Empire 66ers.

Simmons, 26, is 3-1 with a 1.93 ERA in five starts. He had struggled at Triple-A Sacramento with an 0-2 record and 7.16 ERA in 12 relief appearances. The organization preferred using him as a reliever but he wanted to start and the best opportunity for him to do that was in Stockton.

He is not scheduled to pitch in the series which wraps up Wednesday in San Bernardino.

Look who’s streaking, the top 10 win streaks by local college teams

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They always say its harder to stay at the top than get to the top. Well a bunch of area teams have learned to deal with the pressure that comes with repeating and have established nice traditions.

So today’s top 10 is top active streaks. The length of the win streak isn’t necessarily the most important factor. Quality of competition in that sports in that conference was an even bigger factor.

10. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s swimming 5 straight SCIAC titles

Much like on the women’s side, CMS has so much depth it’s hard for other teams to really challenge.

9. San Bernardino Valley men’s cross country 17 straight Foothill Conference titles

The Wolverines could easily be ranked higher than this but competition in the conference isn’t quite up to snuff. Of course the fact that SBVC is so good is one reason the rest of the conference looks so bad. More on this team later.

 8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s swimming 10 straight SCIAC titles

The Athenas have maintained their stranglehold on the top spot with superior depth. Other teams may have more individual winners but CMS tends to have a couple of those, as well as place multiple swimmers in each event. That doesn’t look like it will change any
time soon.

6. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s tennis 8 straight SCIACs The Stags  have repeatedly finished at the top of a conference that also has high-caliber programs in Redlands, Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lutheran. This year the Stags (30-4) were national runner-up, and may well have won a title had it not been for the suspension of its No. 1 player before nationals.

5. Cal State San Bernardino volleyball 7 straight CCAAs.

The Coyotes have established a dynasty under head coach Kim Cherniss with seven straight and 10 in the last 12 years. This year’s might be the most unlikely because the team had graduated 7 players from the previous team and was relying primarily freshman. If another school didn’t wrestle the crown from the Coyotes this year, it might not happen for awhile. They went 24-9 overall, 19-3 in CCAA play to win by three matches. More on this team to come.

4. San Bernardino Valley men’s cross country 7 SoCals

The Wolverines are a dominant force, led by coach Wes Ashford. During this streak SBVC also went on to win five straight state championships from 2006 to 2010. SoCal is more competitive than NorCal, so win the region and you have a good shot to win it all.

3. University of La Verne men’s golf 7 straight SCIAC titles

The Leopards can change players and change coaches but have remained the best team in what is arguably the top conference in the country in Division III. How good is it? Well La  Verne may have gotten the AQ, but three others were given at-large berths to nationals. That’s three of seven given for the entire country.

2. University of Redlands softball 9 straight SCIACs

The Bulldogs (36-12, 22-6) retained their title again this year, despite losing All-American outfielder Amanda Lievanos to an injury before the season even started. Coach Laurie Nevarez also had a lineup, primarily of underclassmen and overcame a huge challenge from nationally ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps as well as SCIAC newcomer Chapman, which had been a national title contender even when competing as an independent.

1. Cal State San Bernardino volleyball 13 straight appearances in regional final

Winning a conference title is one thing, but doing better than that and making it all the way to the step before the Elite Eight is even more admirable, especially given the level of competition in the West region. This program is by far the premier program in the Inland Empire in any sport. A footnote here . . . The first win by the Coyotes next year will be the 500th in the tenure of Cherniss.

McIntosh_CSUSB_VB

 

Two locals get promotions

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Travis Taijeron

Two athletes that made their names with stellar college careers locally recently earned promotions to Double-A teams with their respective organizations.

Cal Poly Pomona graduate Travis Taijeron was promoted from the New York Mets High-A affiliate in Port St. Lucie (Fla.) of the Florida State League to Binghamton (N.Y.) of the Eastern League.

He hit .303 with 20 doubles, nine home runs and 27 RBI in 55 games and earned league Offensive Player of the Week honors twice to warrant the promotion.

In his second game with the Double-A team on Sunday, Taijeron, an 18th round pick in 2011, slugged a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to snap a 2-2 tie and give Binghamton a 5-2 win over Altoona (Penn.).

Meanwhile pitcher Aaron Brooks, out of Cajon High School and Cal State San Bernardino, climbed another rung on the Kansas City Royals organization ladder.

Brooks, an eighth round pick in 2011, started the season at High-A Wilmington (Del.) of the Carolina League where he went 2-3 with a 4.47 ERA but he was 2-0 with a 2.34 ERA in his last two starts.

He got his first start in Double A on Saturday, leading Northwest Arkansas (Texas League) to a 6-3 win over Arkansas. He went six innings, giving up eight hits and three runs while striking out two.

Aaron Brooks

Local college players await draft

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http://depts.valleycollege.edu/~/media/Images/SBCCD/SBVCDepts/Athletics/Baseball/Players/2013/Miller_Ryan2.JPG

The Major League baseball draft gets underway today so there will lots of excitement on the part of high school, community college and four-year college players throughout the country. It was a bit of a down year on the local college front so there likely won’t be many names called from those teams.

It looks like the first local college player to go will be catcher Ryan Miller (Tahquitz HS) of San Bernardino Valley Coillege.

The baseball draft is the most up-in-the-air of all the major sports so you never know. But Wolverines coach Bill Mierzwik said he has heard that his star player could go anywhere from the third to the 10th round. Good catchers are hard to find and he ranks highly in all the departments scouts covet, finishing with three errors and a fielding percentage of .990. He hit .301 with 33 RBI but whether he’ll hit enough at the next level seems to be the question.

Mierzwik also said the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox have been the teams with the most interest. But again, you never know.

Mierzwik also said outfielder-pitcher Brandon Kinser (Pacific HS) could also get called. He is leaning toward attending Brigham Young but likely would sign if he gets called early enough.

There are some locals at major four-year schools that will probably go first. Among those is junior right-handed pitcher Scott Frazier (Upland HS) who plays at Pepperdine. Among the others is catcher Jacob Romanski (Norco HS/Chaffey College) of San Diego State.

Frazier was 5-5 with a 4.06 ERA in 13 starts for the Waves. He had 83 strikeouts in 89 innings. Meanwhile Romanski his .303 and had a stellar fielding percentage of .989.

Ayala grad at Cal State L.A. honored

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overhead

Ayala High School graduate Christie Lau of Cal State Los Aneles has been selected to the Capital One Academic All-America NCAA Division II Women’s At Large Team.

Lau, who played at Cal Poly Pomona as a freshman and transferred after the Broncos dropped their program. earned second-team All-America honors in voting done by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. To be eligible, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.3 grade point average and be a starter or key reserve.

The women’s At Large program includes the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo.

The kinesiology/exercise science major, was one of 12 tennis players to earn All-America honors and one of only two from the West Region. Hawaii Pacific’s Celina Goetti earned third-team honors. Lau was the only West Region student-athlete to earn first or second-team honors and one of only four West Region student-athletes to be named on any of the three teams.

A total of 45 student-athletes were honored, 15 each on first, second and third teams.

Lau finished the year ranked 30th in the nation. She was 19-6 overall in singles, including a 13-5 mark at No. 1 singles. She was Cal State L.A.’s No. 1 player for the past three seasons and ended her Cal State L.A. career with 60 singles wins and a program-record 52 doubles victories.

Chaffey baseball players decide

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A handful of sophomores from the Chaffey College baseball team have made decisions on four-year schools.

Two of those will be playing in the CCAA so they’ll be back locally when their teams play at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino. Pitcher Diego Ibarra has signed with Chico State while pitcher Ricky Plascencia is headed to Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Infielder Ryan Goodman is headed to NAIA Concordia-Irvine, while pitcher Tylier Campbell will join Division III Lewis & Clark.

Catcher Chris Joranco will join the long line of Panther players competing at NAIA Sterling (Kan.).

Coach Jeff Harlow has had 85 players advance to four-year schools in his 10 years.

Citrus honors student-athletes

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From left to right: Kerry Carter, Coach Chris Victor, Coach Tim Tracey, Jasmine Williams, Coach Ron Ponciano, and Rodney Mathews at the 50th Annual Citrus College Achievement Awards Ceremony. Photo By: Andrew Vasquez

Sophomores Kerry Carter, Rodney Mathews, and Jasmine Williams have been named the 2012-2013 Citrus College Athletes of the Year. In addition six other Citrus College student-athletes were recognized for their work in the classroom.

Carter has spent three seasons with Citrus, red-shirting the 2010-2011 season, before stepping onto the floor for the first time during the 2011-2012 campaign. For his career, Carter averaged 16.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. He is the career leader in program history in points per game average. In the fall, Carter will be attending NCAA DI St. Mary’s College in Moraga, CA where he will be attending and playing for the Gaels on an athletic scholarship.

Mathews  (Damien High School) was a two-year starter, totaling a career-high 94 solo tackles and 158 total tackles. Mathews is second in program history with nine career interceptions and third in program history with 14 pass break-ups in his two seasons on the gridiron for Citrus. He is headed to Fresno State.

In her two seasons on the pitch, Williams meanwhile left her mark all over for the Owls. Williams is the single season record holder for points, goals, and assists in a season and holds the career records in all three categories as well. She is heading to Cal State San Bernardino in the fall.

In addition to the three Athletes of the Year, six other current and/or former Owls were recognized for their academic accomplishments on campus. James Ayotte (golf), Audriana Arceneaux (soccer), Julie Gongwer (swimming), Blake James (baseball), Bre Lockett (softball), and Alyssa Lozano (soccer/softball) were all recognized as Distinguished Students for their job in the classroom.

 

ABCA/Rawlings Division III All-West Baseball Region

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Players from all four local SCIAC schools made the cut, impressive  considering the size and quality of the West Region. A total of 21 players from the SCIAC were selected.

FIRST TEAM

DH Philip Windham, East Texas Baptistl; C Josh Rapacz, George Fox (Ore.); 1B Nick Boggan, Cal Lutheran; 2B Tim Wilson, Linfield (Ore.); 3B Nicho Della Valle, Cal Lutheran; SS Trevor Koons, Cal Lutheran; SS Christian Muscarello, Trinity (Tex.); OF Pat Hirschberg, Trinity (Tex.); OF Jake Wylie, Linfield (Ore.); OF Nick Gentili, Pomona-Pitzer; UT Jake Peterson, Cal Lutheran; RHP Chris Haddelandm Linfield (Ore.); LHP Ryan Lucero, Trinity (Tex).; Rellief RHP Aaron Roth, Cal Lutheran; Relief LHP Sean Kistler, Texas Lutheran.

SECOND TEAM

DH Johnathan Brooks, Occidental; C Stephen Zavala, Whittier; 1B Derek Dixon, George Fox (Ore.); 2B Jason Henning, Redlands; 3B Kevin Francke, Trinity (Tex.); SS Jordan Dresner, Redlands; OF Erik Munzer, Pomona-Pitzer; OF Nick Fisher, Linfield (Ore.); OF Kramer Lindell, Linfield (Ore.); OF Timothy Williams, George Fox (Ore.); UT Jake Bruml, Pomona-Pitzer; UT Scott, Hong, Occidental; Relief RHP Derek Miller, Texas-Tyler; RHP Zack Speer, Trinity (Tex.); RHP Matt Delegato, Pacific (Ore.); RHP Aaron Thomasson, Linfield (Ore.); RHP Kevin Knight, La Verne; RHP Jeff Spillane, Texas Lutheran.

THIRD TEAM

C Chase Caldez, Schriener (Tex.); 1B Chris Whitehead, Schreiner (Tex.); 1B Trevor Keele, Dallas; 2B Marcus Uechi, Hardin-Simmons (Tex.); 2B Garrett Smith, Cal Lutheran; 3B Julian Barzili, Whittier; SS Logan Allen, Occidental; SS Scott Witte, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps; OF Collin Radack, Hendrix (Tex.); OF Tyler Pfeffer, Whitworth (Wash.); OF Tyler Bates, East Texas Baptist; OF Alex Scheiwe, Redlands; UT Carlton Brown, Howard Payne (Tex.); LHP Scott Peters, Cal Lutheran; Relief RHP Tyler Brunnemann, Hardin-Simmons (Tex.); Relief RHP Taber watson, Chapman; RHP Curt Copeland, LeTourneau (Tex.).