Nipomo's Kacie Slover and St. Joseph's Angel Ortiz voted Athletes of the Week

Joe Bailey, Santa Maria Times, Calif.
·3 min read

Jun. 22—Nipomo's Kacie Slover and St. Joseph's Angel Ortiz both helped their teams to CIF Central Section championships.

Clearly, those titles are the main rewards for their efforts. Yet, they get a bonus: Both have been voted Athletes of the Week.

Slover, the junior guard for the Titans, helped her Nipomo team win the CIF Central Section Division 2 title on June 10. She has been voted the female Athlete of the Week.

Ortiz, St. Joseph's senior point guard, is the male Athlete of the Week after helping St. Joseph capture the CIF Central Section Open Division championship on June 11.

Slover ran away in the female Athlete of the Week contest, racking up 1,542 total votes. She finished in front of two athletes who tied for second place. St. Joseph basketball standout Maggie Perez, a sophomore, received 795 total votes. Cheyanne Cordova, one of the top players on Lompoc High's softball team, also finished with 795 total votes for a second-place tie.

Orcutt Academy basketball player Chyanna Medina-Tell finished in fourth place and Alex Paquet, a Righetti basketball senior, was fifth.

The male Athlete of the Week vote was much closer than the girls. Ortiz finished with 852 total votes across all three sites: santamariatimes.com, lompocrecord.com and syvnews.com.

Brayan Nuñez, the starting catcher on the Santa Maria baseball team, was second with 764 total votes.

Nipomo basketball's Rudy Garibay was third with 300 total votes and Lompoc sprinter Sheldon Canley Jr. was fourth with 256 total votes. Arroyo Grande baseball player Carson Gomes was fifth with 177 total votes.

Slover earned her nomination after helping the Titans win the CIF-CS Division 2 title with a win at Paso Robles on June 10. Slover scored 14 points in the 44-39 win over Paso Robles. She had 20 points in the 50-48 win over top-seeded Ridgeview on June 8.

Perez earned her nod after she came up big for the Knights, scoring 10 points in a win over Fresno Roosevelt to capture the CIF Central Section Division 3 championship on June 10.

Cordova helped Lompoc make the CIF Southern Section Division 6 semifinals. She went 2-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs in a quarterfinal win over Rio Hondo Prep on June 8. Medina-Tell scored 25 points against Bakersfield Christian to help Orcutt Academy claim the CIF Central Section Division 4 title on June 10. Paquet scored 16 points for Righetti in the CIF Central Section Division 1 title game against Bakersfield, also on June 10.

Ortiz was nominated after scoring 14 points on 12 shots with three rebounds and four assists in the Knights' 70-64 win over Fresno San Joaquin Memorial to win the CIF Central Section Open Division title on June 11.

Nuñez helped power the Saints baseball team to the championship game as he hit a grand slam to power the Saints to a 13-2 win over Visalia Golden West in the quarterfinals on June 12.

Garibay had a big hand in helping Nipomo's boys basketball team make a Central Section final, scoring 16 points in a win 77-75 win over Fresno Hoover and knocking down four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points in the 56-55 loss to Bakersfield Christian in the title game.

Gomes went 4-for-4 with a run and two RBIs with a homer in the quarterfinal win over Sanger on Friday.