After finishing second in the state in both hurdling events last year, Rancho Cucamonga’s Jordie Munford has been nowhere to be found. Turns out she was nursing a hamstring injury suffered in late February, just weeks after signing with Oregon.
Munford finally made her 2013 debut over the weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays, finishing fourth in the 300 hurdles, an event in which she finished second in the state not only last year, but in 2010 as well.
The picture above from staff photographer Gabe Acosta, that includes Rialto’s Birttany Neely (right) and Moreno Valley Rancho Verde’s Tierra Fuqua shows a bit of the physical nature of Friday’s Best of the Best All-Star Girls Basketball Game on Friday at Rialto High, a game won by the North, 71-59.
As it turned out, the Etiwanda and Santa Ana Mater Dei boys basketball teams each ended the season with a championship. Perhaps it’s only fitting that the teams’ star players share Southern California’s top individual award.
After leading the team to the school’s first CIF title in eight years, Etiwanda’s Jordan McLaughlin (right) was named the CIF-SS Division 1AA co-Player of the Year along with Mater Dei’s Stanley Johnson on Monday.
Etiwanda defeated Mater Dei in the CIF-SS championship game only to lose two weeks later in the CIF State tournament semifinals to a Mater Dei team on the way to its third straight state title. Etiwanda’s Dave Kleckner was granted sole possession of the CIF-SS Coach of the Year award after leading the No. 6 seed to the first championship since current NBA players Darren Collison and Jeff Pendergraph helped the Eagles to the 2005 CIF title.
Etiwanda boys wasn’t the only county program with top honors in its division, Division 5A girls champion Mesa Grande Academy got Coach of the year and co-Players of the Year in its division.
ALL-CIF BOYS BASKETBALL TEAMS
DIVISION 1AA
Co-Players of the Year – Jordan McLaughlin, Etiwanda (11); Stanley Johnson, Mater Dei (11)
Coach of the Year – Dave Kleckner, Etiwanda
First Team
Roschon Prince, 12, Long Beach Poly
Brandon Randolph, 12, Inglewood
Evan Zellar, 12, Mission Viejo
Jordan Bell, 12, Long Beach Poly
Sheldon Blackwell, 12, Etiwanda
Jordan Strawberry, 12, Mater Dei
Peyton Banks, 12, Orange Lutheran
Sedrick Barefield, 10, Corona Centennial
Redlands East Valley’s Ryan England drives in the winning run on this play, a squeeze bunt with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning in a 4-3 victory over Yucaipa at the County Clash on Saturday at San Manuel Stadium.
It was one of several key bunts on the day for the first County Clash of the year. But more on that later.
CIF-SS Division 6 champion Citrus Valley was not surprisingly, the dominant team in Division 6 as the all CIF-SS girls soccer teams were released. Junior forward Loren Landrus was the player of the year and other Citrus Valley all-CIF players are: juniors Taylor De Jongh, Breann Demers, and Ariel Vinson. Citrus Valley is the only San Bernardino County girls soccer team with more than two all-CIF players. Granite Hills (Division 3) and University Prep (Division 7) were the only other teams that had two players honored. Here is the complete list:
DIVISION 1
Player of the Year: Abbi Williams, Sr. Defense – Chaminade
Coach of the Year: Mike Evans – Chaminade
Turns out the actual CIF championship was just the beginning for the Ontario boys soccer team. The hardware keeps rolling in for the lone local team to win a title as Loyola Marymount-bound forward Adrien Perez was named the All-CIF Player of the Year in Division 4 and Vince Mangione Coach of the Year.
Carter, which went undefeated this season until losing the CIF-SS Division 6 championship game, landed three players on the all-CIF team. Alta Loma, Ontario Christian and Ontario all had a pair of players on the all-CIF team.
DIVISION 1
Player of the Year: Gage Zerboni, Sr. Forward – San Clemente
Coach of the Year: Mike Pronier – San Clemente
Winning the first league championship in school history doesn’t entirely encapsulate the depth of the Kaiser girls basketball team’s accomplishment. The Cats ended defending CIF champion Summit’s 63-game win streak in the Sunkist League. In fact, Summit had never lost a league game until this season.
Accordingly, it’s not surprising that Kaiser team swept the All-Sunkist League awards. It’s hard to say enough about the feats Kaiser pulled off in 2012-13, but this list is a start.
MVP – Aliyah Dodson, Kaiser
Coach of the Year – Denise Sinohui, Kaiser
FIRST TEAM
Jasmine Soto (Kaiser)
Paige Harder (Kaiser)
Jordyn Buffum (Kaiser)
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2012-13 All-Sunkist League boys soccer
MVP: Omar Montes, Fontana
First Team
Juan C. Carbajal, Fontana
Anthony Flores, Fontana
Hector Alba, Fontana
Rafael Suares, Fontana
Paulo Fonseca, Fontana
Humberto Smith, Summit
George Garcia, Summit
Alberto Carranza, Summit
Roberto Saul Sandoval, Summit
Alexis Nolasco, Bloomington
William Chi, Bloomington
Juan Ramirez, Bloomington
Carlos Cardenas, Bloomington
Eduardo Rodela, Colton
Luis Lopez, Colton
Rey Coscuera, Colton
Alexis Morgan, Kaiser
Adrian Magana, Kaiser
Joseph Fernandez, Grand Terrace
I knew Mesa Grande Academy’s marquee athletic team for some time has been their girls basketball team. But unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to cover the Cardinals. In fact, I had covered a Mesa Grande softball game and written a Mesa Grande cross country feature before my first Mesa Grande girls basketball team.
I came away from my first Mesa Grande girls basketball game, Wednesday’s 45-24 win over San Diego Ocean View Christian in the State Division V first round, as very impressed.
Mesa Grande has an extremely talented ball handler in Michaela Garcia. They don’t have a ton of size. But they do have other players who are pretty decent at handling the ball, and most importantly, they have players who play great team defense and rebound. On offense, they tend to be very patient but have players who can finish around the basket.
I have no idea if 5th-seeded Mesa Grande (28-3, winners of 21 straight) can beat its next opponent, No. 4 Sun Valley Village Christian, a road game on Saturday night. Just from talking to coach Bob Walker in recent years, I had respect for how he runs his program, but after watching the Cardinals on Wednesday, I have respect for how they play the game.
Video above is of Bloomington’s Derrick Jones winning a state title.
They were both 1 vs. 2 matchups, and according to the rankings, they were both upsets.
No. 2-ranked Derrick Jones of Bloomington, a junior, pinned No. 1 senior Sean Medley of Wasco in 47 seconds to win the 220-pound state title on Saturday in Bakersfield. It was the first-ever matchup between the two. Jones said he wanted to win the “Champion of Champions” award, as voted on by other state champions. But that award went to Isaiah Martinez of Lemoore, the 160-pound champion.
It marked the third straight year San Bernardino County produced a state champion.
Before that, No. 2 Peter Santos of Oakmont, a senior, edged out No. 1 junior Corey Griego of Sultana 4-3 to win the 170-pound title. It was the third meeting of the year between them, with the first two being split. They had also met “five or six times” total, including preseason tournaments.
Griego’s teammate, 182-pounder Matt Williams, took fifth in his weight class.
The other two wrestlers from the county who made it to Day 2, Chino Hills’ Garrick Gurney and Los Osos’ Jon Solano, lost their first matches and were eliminated.
