University’s scholar athletes were honored last week. (Photos courtesy University High School)
(Second in a series)
Scholar athletes in the Pacific Coast League, including those at University High, were honored in a virtual ceremony last week.
The program is held annually at an Irvine high school, but this year had to go to a virtual format because of the coronavirus pandemic.
OC Sports Zone is running recognition of the scholar athletes by each school, including University High. The comments by Uni Athletic Director Tom Shrake were included in the program.
To see pictures of the award winners, please click on the first photo
CLAIRE KAWATA: “Claire Kawata earned four varsity letters in basketball. She participated in CIF post season four times. She developed her love for basketball at OC Rhythm Basketball Club (two years) and SEYO basketball club (11 years). In basketball, her awards include team most improved player (2017-2018), all-tournament WYBT, all-league honorable nention (2017-2018), Norco all-tournament Award (2018-2019), team offensive player of the year (2018-2019), first team all-league (2018-2019), North South all-star team (2019), Norco all-tournament award (2019-2020), first team all-league (2019-2020), team MVP (2019-2020), and North South Orange County all-star team (2020). This year she was honored to serve as basketball captain. She holds the University girls basketball school record for most 3-pointers made in a career at 165 total made. Claire Kawata has a 3.65 GPA and will study Nursing at Point Loma Nazarene University this fall.”
ALEXIS KIM: “Alexis Kim earned four varsity letters as part of the University High School girls’ golf team and served as co-captain during her senior season. During her high school career, Kim helped University High School win four Pacific Coast League titles, two CIF Southern Section titles, and win the 2017 CIF State team championship. During her senior season, Alexis was named the Pacific Coast League MVP and won the individual league title. Alexis has been named a Scholastic Junior All-American by the American Junior Golf Association and a National Merit Finalist and scholarship recipient. She also loves to play viola as a member of her high school orchestra and the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra. Alexis plans to study biology at Brown University, where she will also continue her golf career as a member of the Brown women’s golf team.”
AVERY KLAUKE: “Avery Klauke has been a varsity cross country and track runner for her entire four years at University High School and was honored to be elected captain for both teams during her last two years. She earned MVP for cross country in her senior year. Avery was awarded most improved runner three years in a row for cross country and back-to-back all-league and CIF qualifier her final two years. She finished her cross country career as one of the top 15 fastest cross country runners in University High’s 50-year history. Outside of school, she enjoys hiking and long-distance running, including a third place age group finish at the 2017 Woodbridge Half Marathon. During the summers, Avery swims for the Turtle Rock Tidal Waves and has been a coach for the past three summers. Avery is finishing her senior year at University High School with a 4.4 GPA and is a Commended National Merit and California Scholarship Federation (CSF) scholar. She was chosen to attend the 2019 summer leadership experience for the United States Military Academy at West Point. She plans to attend UC Berkeley studying Applied Math/Statistics.”
HANNAH WOO: “Hannah Woo has been part of University High School’s girls’ tennis team for the past four years. Alongside this, she has maintained her commitment to various organizations such as volunteering at St. Joseph Hospital this past year, Discovery Science Cube the last two years, and Mariners Church the last eight years, each on a weekly basis. Off campus she spent her past year as the Irvine Talks President, where she helped organize interactive student art exhibits and delivered a talk about vulnerability and confrontation among an audience of nearly 600 people, which is now up on Youtube. On campus she spent her past four years as part of ASB, which has been her favorite experience. This year she has been serving as the ASB President, with the pandemic throwing her many curveballs. But being given the opportunity to adapt and continue to lead has only made her more grateful to have the position. With these past four years and her 3.97 GPA, she will be committing to UC Santa Barbara this fall, majoring in Psychology and Brain Sciences.”
BRIAN LOU: “Brian received varsity letters in swimming all four years of high school. He is a 10-time NISCA All-American and a seven-time CIF Southern Section Division 1 finalist. In 2019, he was named an OC Register all-county Swimmer. He holds the school record in three events and was named MVP during his sophomore and junior year. His 50 yard free time ranks second fastest all time in Orange County history, with his 50 meter free ranking 59th in the world for 18 unders in 2019. The last two years he has served as a team captain and led the team to a PCL championship victory in his junior year. He is a five time PCL champion, a CIF-SS Division 1 champion, as well as a USA Swimming Junior National Champion (relay). He had hoped to break multiple PCL and CIF records this season before it was abruptly cut short. He maintains a 4.6 weighted academic GPA and is a National Merit Scholar. He will be swimming for Princeton University in the fall.”
SIDNEY MILLER: “Sidney Miller earned four varsity letters in swimming. Sidney was a varsity team captain his junior year, and participated in CIF SS swim championships sophomore and junior year, and CIF state championships freshman year. Since third grade, Sidney has been a club swimmer year-round. His awards and achievements include: junior varsity MVP his freshman year, junior varsity league champion 100 butterfly and 200 IM freshman year, varsity league finalist 200 IM and 100 back sophomore year, Varsity league finalist 100 fly and 100 back junior year, and outstanding leadership Award junior year. Sidney has a 4.11 GPA, and will study Psychology and swim for the Yellowjackets at the University of Rochester this fall.”
WILL STENTA: “Will Stenta played all four years on University High School’s varsity basketball team. In his sophomore year, he earned defensive player of the year, Max Preps Player of the Year, as well as all-league honors. He was a team captain for his junior and senior seasons and helped the team make it to the CIF post season three of his four years on the team. After his senior season, he was awarded the coaches award and recognized by his teammates with the Hustle Award. Will also played one year of Uni baseball as a freshman and earned MVP honors on the JV team that season. Will started playing IYBL/So Cal Elite basketball in second grade and was a member of the OC Rain travel basketball club from 4th-12th grade. Outside of athletics, Will was an active member of the Uni CubeSat team that manages the payload for the Irvine STEM program that launches satellites into low Earth orbit. Will is graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 4.2 GPA and will study aerospace engineering and computer science at Case Western Reserve University in the fall.”
PAYA VATANSHENAS: “Paya Vatanshenas was a starter for the varsity volleyball team all four years. He participated in the CIF post season his freshman year. He developed his love for volleyball at Orange Coast Volleyball Club (four years), Balboa Bay Volleyball Club (one year), and Pinnacle Athletic Club (two years). He earned one gold medal, two bronze medals, and two fifth place finishes at Junior Nationals throughout his club volleyball career. In high school volleyball, he earned team’s most defensive player once and team MVP twice. He has also been the volleyball captain for his last two years of high school. Paya Vatanshenas has a 4.24 GPA and intends on studying Bioengineering and playing D1 volleyball at University of California San Diego this fall.
University’s top scholar athletes were Avery Klauke and Brian Lou, Shrake said.
University’s sportsmanship winners were Jackie Diaz (softball) and Caedon Ng (swimming).
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