SBART Press Luncheon: Ava Carter and Blaise Snow Honored as Athletes of the Week

League play is wrapping up and the post season has arrived for many spring sports bringing excitement and anticipation to Harry’s Cafe for the weekly SBART press luncheon.

Among a crowded room of standout athletes Blaise Snow of Santa Barbara High track & field and Ava Carter of San Marcos track and field shined the brightest and were honored as athletes of the week.

Snow was a member of Santa Barbara’s first-place 4×800 relay team that broke the program record with a time of 7:45.47 at the prestigious Mt. Sac Invitational. That time is second best in California and fourth nationally this season. Snow also finished in third place in the 800 meter race with a time of 1:54.34.

“Blaise had a tough year last year, he had a lot of growing issues. We all know as coaches as athletes develop it is not necessarily a clear path and it’s a lot of adversity that we all have to deal with, especially some of these kids, he handled like a champ, never complained and kept moving forward,” said Blaises’ father and Santa Barbara High distance coach Rusty Snow. “He kept training with Andreas in his quest to win the state championship in the mile last year. Here we are fast forwarding one more year and Blaise is back on track. He is one of the best in California in the mile at 4 minutes, 14 seconds.”

On the girls side Ava Carter continues to add milestones to her spectacular career at San Marcos with first-place finishes in the 400-meter and 200-meter at the County Championships. 

“She has been the leader of our sprint group since she stepped on the track,,” said San Marcos High track and field coach Marilyn Hantgin. “She is going to be missed greatly. She is hopefully going to go far in CIF coming up after Channel league finals on Thursday. She is headed off to Boston College to run and be a student. I am excited for the next stage of her life.”

Freshman Softball Phenoms

Dos Pueblos High coach Mike Gerken brough two outstanding freshmen to Monday’s press luncheon.  Brookly Hendricks and Zella Cassidy were both elevated to varsity and have provided instant impact.

“The thing about having a successful softball program is that you have to have some quality freshmen come in every year,” Gerken said. This year we’ve got two very high quality freshmen. They have started just about every game for us.”

Cassidy is the starting shortstop for Dos Pueblos and has been solid in the field and at the plate. She is a multisport athlete, who also excels at tennis. 

Hendricks is also a multi-sport athlete who starred at Dos Pueblos in flag football and soccer at the varsity level. On the softball field she is the starting right fielder and is 3-for-4 on throwing out runners at the plate. She has also hit three triples this season.

Dos Pueblos softball is 13-9 overall and 10-3 in Channel League play.

Boys’ Volleyball Playoffs Set to Begin

The CIF-SS boys’ volleyball playoff brackets have been released and several local teams have advanced to postseason play.

Channel League champion San Marcos (32-3) will host a strong El Segundo team on Thursday at the Thunderhut in its Division 2 opener..

Dos Pueblos (24-8) will travel to Upland, which went undefeated in Baseline league play this season and had a 19-4 overall record

Santa Barbara will host Canyon of Anaheim, which is the second place team out of the Crestview league.

In Division 4 Laguna Blanca will host Bolsa Grande in a first round match, The Owls went undefeated in the Tri-Valley League and are 24-5 overall.

In Division 5 Bishop Diego will travel to Flintridge Prep on Thursday. Cate will host Beacon Hill in a Division 6 wildcard match on Wednesday.