8 local athletes named spring season MVPs

Spring sports awards were recently handed out for the Diablo and East Bay athletic leagues and eight local high school athletes were named most valuable players in their sport and two juniors were repeat winners.

Lefthander Kyle Harrison of De La Salle was named EBAL MVP for the second year and the junior will have a chance to make it three in a row next season. Northgate’s Miks Ramanis is in the same position as the Bronco junior repeated his DAL Foothill Division volleyball MVP award from last spring.

Also getting MVP recognition in DAL were four Clayton Valley Charter High athletes—freshman Henry Sanchez (Valley Division golf), junior Joey Soberon (Foothill baseball pitcher), senior Torin Neal (lacrosse) and senior Levi Hanson (Valley volleyball). Rounding out the local MVPs were a pair from Northgate, junior Katie Hicks (Valley softball) and senior James Madden (lacrosse).

Harrison once again led the Spartans to the top of the rankings as DLS racked up its fourth successive North Coast Section championship (and sixth in past eight years). The lefty was 10-0 on the mound this year for his 29-1 team that finished in the top five of all national high school rankings. A year ago, he was 9-1.

He was recently named Northern California player of the year. He has made a verbal commitment to UCLA. He walked 27 batters against 103 strikeouts with 10 K’s each in playoff wins over Monte Vista and Heritage. Harrison also had two six, no-hit inning efforts against Amador Valley and California.

Northgate volleyball coach Leanne De Bella says of her star player, “Miks loves volleyball to his core and you can see this in his dedication and passion for the sport. Every move that he makes is intentional and precise; he strives to be the best through repetition of his movements and by getting as many touches on the ball as he can.”

Ramanis led the Broncos with 226 kills for the season, 362 attempts at kills and over 104 perfect passes. The Broncos have finished second in NCS D-II playoffs the past two years.

Neal concluded a successful high school career leading the Ugly Eagles to their first league championship since 2012. The senior attackman garnered all-league honors all four years. Neal also was named one of 10 Bay Area players for all-America honors. He finished this season with 81 goals (school single-season scoring record) and 24 assists for 105 points (another school record). He also was credited with 86 ground balls and 51 caused turnovers.

Local schools all-league honorees in Diablo Athletic League plus Carondelet and De La Salle (East Bay Athletic League):

Baseball

DAL Foothill MVP Pitcher – Joey Soberon (Clayton Valley Charter). First Team- Eddie Curley, Cooper Gardner, Jack Murphy (CVC), Luke Saunders, Cooper Bridwell (Northgate). Second Team – Brandon Cuneo, Telly Hill, Chase Garves (CVC), Jonathan Gazdar (NG). Honorable Mention – Luke Mingham (CVC), Eric Prough (NG). Gold Glove- Ryan Pierce (CVC), Danny Shaffer (NG).

Valley First Team – Jonathan Miller, Ryan Murphy (Concord). Second Team – LJ Majarucon (Con), Antonio Vasquez, Nico Campos (Ygnacio Valley).

EBAL MVP Pitcher- Kyle Harrison. First Team- Chris Santiago, Charles McAdoo, Vince Bianchina. Second Team – Blake Burke, Jared Amigh, Nick Fursari. Honorable Mention- Cole Silva.

Competitive Cheer

DAL Darian Siu, Sofia Moreno (Con), Savannah Sprague, Mylie Gardner, Abby Weeks (CVC), Kassandra Salazar (YV).

EBAL Second Team – Czijay Oliveros; Honorable Mention – Vanessa Rea.

Boys Golf

DAL Foothill First Team – Ryan Gay (NG). Second Team – Jack Vanderbeek. Valley MVP – Henry Sanchez (CVC). First Team – John Scott Senz, AJ Tomasini (Con). Second Team – Shane Nelson (CVC). Honorable Mention – Ryan Willsie (Con), Gabe Ptak (YV), Liam Mason (CVC).

EBAL First Team – Jack Gardner, Justin Hopkins. Second Team – Mitchell Hoey, Joey Hayden.

Lacrosse

DAL Boys MVP – Torin Neal (CVC), Jason Madden (NG). First Team – Rylan Lochhead (NG), Gunner Oakley, Casey Barnes, Connor Lawson (CVC). Second Team – Lucas Calica (CVC). Honorable Mention – Connor Barnes, Jack Garner, Corrie Broadwell, Maci Sekander (CVC).

EBAL Boys First Team – Trenton Wheeler, Gabe Vesneski. Second Team – Shane Grimes.

DAL Girls First Team – Madison Malakoff, Aubrey Stynes (NG). Second Team – Samantha Romero (CVC), Paige Davis (NG). Honorable Mention – Madison Stynes (NG), Brenda Rivas (YV), Kennedy Murphy, Aliyah Sarna (CVC).

EBAL Girls First Team – Ellen Jurgens. Second Team – Gabi Riva, Charlotte Prendergast, Grace Sherwood.

Softball

DAL Foothill MVP Pitcher – Katie Hicks (NG). First Team – Haley Randall, Olivia Lee (NG), Jordan Woolery (CVC), Marina Delalluma (Con). Second Team – Camille Lohse, Makenzie Stange (Con), Jordyn Williams, Delaney Urban (CVC). Honorable Mention – Allison Harvey, Nadia Gomez, Grace Zodikoff (NG), Jackie Alday, Emma Postlethwaite (CVC), Lexi San Filippo, Amber Desena (Con). Valley First Team – Melissa Becerra (Mt. Diablo), Angela Garcia (YV). Second Team – My’Ari Randall (MD), Maribel Carabez (YV). Honorable Mention – Kat Cottrell, Kim Chavez, Shaunda Moreno, Diana Frayle, Destiny Gonzales, Giselle Cabrera (MD), Miho Hirasaki (YV).

EBAL First Team – Jesse Juino. Second Team – Gabriella Williams, Alexandria Schwenger. Honorable Mention – Ella Romero.

Swimming & Diving

DAL Boys First Team – Zach Ledesma, Adrian Dulay, Andrew Rodriguez, Kai Welsh (NG), Niklas Weigelt, Anthony Vizental, John Parker, Cal Brown (CVC).

EBAL Boys Second Team – Ryan Iannaccone, Joey Grywcznski Sean Iritani, Ryan Dicks.

DAL Girls First Team – Maile Andresen, Caraline Levy, Victoria Stahl, Alyssa Lund (NG).

EBAL Girls First Team – Courtney Klausen, Jessica Davis, Emma Sullivan, Sarah Hamilton, Christy Neufeld. Second Team – Kate Cilley.

Boys Tennis

DAL Foothill Second Team Singles – Noah Zakaria (NG). Honorable Mention – Jakob Taylor (NG). Valley First Team Singles – Vitally Gusenkov, Jeremy Jusuf (CVC). Second Team – Ethan Husainali, William Gusman (Con), Brian Thai (MD). Honorable Mention – Miguel Pacheo (MD), Daniel Nihtianov (CVC), Giovanni Gomez Garcia (Con).

Track & Field

DAL Boys First Team – Cameron Reynolds, Justin Lowe, Gabriel Merritt, Christian Seeley, Melvin Brown (CVC), William Sornberger, Christo Malinov, Simon Lee, John Hagedorn, Austin Kresley (NG). Second Team – Andrew McGallian, Daylon Hicks, Izzak Garcia (CVC). Honorable Mention – Hanson Yu (NG), Nicholas Muller (CVC).

EBAL Boys First Team – Armando Nevarez, Michael Okoye. Second Team – Connor Livingston. Honorable Mention – Zachery Armstrong, Amir Wallace.

DAL Girls First Team – Rayna Stanziano, Airiana Dargan (Con), Amy Christensen, Eliza Cashman, Eden Broussard (NG). Second Team – Mia Murphy, Grace Corringan, Gabriella Anderson (NG). Honorable Mention – Piper Kunesh (YV), Sydney Speer (CVC), Magdalena Soltero (Con).

EBAL Girls First Team – Kelly Kern, Aryel Coats, Jayme Blackard, Journee Harvey, Brooke Phillips. Second Team – Savannah Doran. Honorable Mention – Amaya Berkeley.

Boys Volleyball

DAL Foothill MVP – Miks Ramanis (NG). First Team – Grant McCargar (NG). Second Team – Brendan Walker, Nicolas Whitacre (NG). Honorable Mention – Jason Rupert (NG). Valley MVP – Levi Hansen. First Team – Michael Nelson (CVC), Mark Gonzalez (Con). Second Team – Van Berry (Con), Matt Gabler (CVC). Honorable Mention – Ken Guan (CVC), James Pangilinan (Con), Mark Catapusan (YV).

EBAL Second Team – Erik Lopez Diaz, Mariano Dias.