Swimmers ruled the day at the Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable luncheon held Monday at Giavanni's Pizza in Orcutt.

At the luncheon, honoring swimming, baseball, boys and Hancock tennis, Righetti boys swimmer Vincent Martel was named the Male Athlete of the Week, while St. Joseph swimmer Erica Brannon earned Female Athlete of the Week honors.

Martel won the 50 freestyle, 100 free and anchored the 200 relay medley last Thursday against Nipomo.

“I want to thank my coach and my teammates for all of their support,” said Martel as he accepted his award.

Brannon, who was unable to attend the luncheon, took the 200 individual medley and the 50 free - both in CIF qualifying times last Thursday against Cabrillo.

Lompoc

After a week's absence, athletic director Jesse Davis returned to talk about the Braves.

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He started with two girls swimmers, Kimly Hoang and Andrea Caballero. Hoang swims the 100 backstroke and the 200 IM.

“Coach says she's getting better and better in all her strokes,” Davis explained. He mentioned that the sophomore Caballero is a sprinter who ‘s 50 freestyle in the last meet was very close to a CIF consideration time.

“The two are tied for points on the teams so they are doing an outstanding job.”

Davis presented freshman Ryan Bower from the baseball team. Bower pitched five innings against Santa Maria and allowed one earned run and also had the game-winning hit against Cabrillo last week.

Robert Rodriguez from the tennis team is the number two singles player.

“Coach says he is one of the most improved players on the team,” Davis said.

Cabrillo

Baseball coach Jonathan Osborne opened with thanks to the roundtable.

“We really enjoy being able to come out here for lunch and talk about our athletes,” he said.

Osborne introduced junior outfielder Thomas Lee, junior infielder Justin Ellenbrook, sophomore infielder Patrick Somers and one more guest.

“I also brought one of my long, long, long, longtime assistant coaches,” Osborne said. “He has been almost as long in the valley as my Dad or Jesse Davis - Bill Weber.”

The Conquistadores have played a lot of baseball recently.

“We lost a nine-inning game to St. Joseph 9-5, we lost in the bottom of the seventh to Lompoc 8-7 and Friday we beat Santa Ynez 11-9 in eight innings,” Osborne explained. “The LPL is very close...and it will be all the way to the end.

“I hope we can get a few more victories so we can fight for a league championship.”

St. Joseph

Assistant athletic director John Osborne talked about the boys tennis team that is currently 15-1 and 9-1 in the Los Padres League, tied with Santa Ynez.

He introduced Rafael Ferreira, who is 21-6 at the number two singles position and Jake Eszes, 28-2 at number one.

Osborne presented four players from his baseball team, junior infielder and pitcher Gavin Kelly, junior first baseman Luke Reccord, junior catcher Paul Rodriguez and sophomore infielder Jason Buchanan.

After surviving Santa Maria earlier in the week, the Knights lost to Templeton, for their first set-back in league play.

“My grandson could of probably thrown harder than the guy that they had out there and he shuts us out 5-0,” Osborne said. “It just goes to show you that you don't have to throw hard - you just have to throw strikes.”

Swim coach Jennifer Best is proud of the progress the team has made in recent years.

“This is my third year coaching at St. Joe's and it's been really great to watch the team grow,” she said. “The swimmers I brought today are members who will return next year.”

Best introduced junior Ethan Brown and sophomore Ryan Jansen from the boys team.

“He came to St. Joseph as a freshman and was one of the little guys who could barely swim and this year he is one of our fastest guys,” Best said about Brown, who won two events at Lompoc.

Jansen was a double event winner at Lompoc as well and, “he's still dropping his times.”

Two girls team members were presented by Best, sophomore Christine Teixeira, “I count on her for the butterfly and breaststroke,” and freshman Alyssa Gagnon, “one of our top three breaststrokers on the varsity.”

Righetti

Athletic director Eric Albright was present to talk about swimming and baseball.

In addition to introducing Martel, Albright presented Martel's teammates Eric Tucker, Josh Grall, Julie Hendrick and Melissa Best.

“We are looking for good things this week and moving into CIF from these guys and girls,” Albright said.

After the final meet against Nipomo, the Warriors will swim in the PAC 7 prelims this weekend at Sinsheimer in San Luis Obispo.

Baseball was represented Matt Miller and Dillan Quigley.

“We haven't lost a game in over a week,” quipped Albright, “but we had a bye last week.”

The young squad is in a close race and faces a three game series against first place Paso Robles.

Pioneer Valley

Baseball coach Mike Glenn said the Panthers have the bye in the PAC 7 this week.

“So the varsity going to play the JVs five times this week so we can get five wins,” Glenn joked.

Glenn introduced two players from his team Bryan Leus and Jordan “Cul-de-sac” Markstone.

“He said we needed to turn our season around, so he did his head in a cul-de-sac so we can turn it around,” Glenn explained why Markstone shaved the top portion of his head.

Tennis coach Alex Martinez said the Panthers were still looking for their first victory, but was looking forward to their match against Paso Robles, where he expects the Panthers to do well.

Martinez introduced two doubles players senior Ryan Abayon and sophomore Gerald Pimentel.

Bob Nelson, the swim coach presented sophomores Joaquin Osuna and Daniel Goldsbary.

“Daniel comes in with a swimming background and has continued to make improvements, Nelson said.

About Osuna, Nelson explained, “We made him into a swimmer. When he came in he couldn't get across the pool last year, but this year he is our fastest freestyler.”

Nelson also said that the pool at Pioneer Valley will be done soon.

“It looks like we will get into it a week after the season ends,” he said. He also mentioned that Righetti's pool was underway.

“It's very exciting to see pools built in the community.”

Valley Christian

Athletic director Pete Fortier presented two players from his baseball team junior Alfredo Paniagua and freshman Joel Gerald.

“We had a two-game winning streak then we had a setback the other day and lost because of one bad inning,” Fortier said. “We are currently tied for second and we're playing the number one team when we travel to North County.”

The game at North County Christian is this afternoon.

Allan Hancock

Director of Tennis Operations David Dantzer spoke for men's coach Jeff Spalinger, who was present.

“We had a tough season - it's been a building year with mostly freshmen on the team,” Dantzer said.

He talked about Jose Angulo and Rob Hansen who played into the second round of the Western State Conference finals in Santa Barbara and Hansen and partner Trey Lewis who made it to the second round in doubles.

“We were very happy with the way they played,” Dantzer explained.

Women's coach Ginny Barnett introduced Elysha McLain and Francesca Sanchez.

“Elysha is our one returning starter from last year,” Barnett said about her number one singles player. “She didn't have a great season as far as putting up the ‘Ws', but her improvement the last two years has been incredible.”

About Sanchez and her doubles partner Isabelle Ugeux Barnett said, “They play doubles the way it's supposed to be played - very aggressive, up at the net, lots of movement.”

The officials at the league tournament in Ventura even complimented Barnett on the way they played.

April 22, 2008