High School Sports |

VOTE: Southern California Girls Athlete of the Week, September 16

Each week, publications from the Southern California News Group’s 11 properties (Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, Whittier Daily News and Pasadena-Star News) select the Athletes of the Week for their respective region.

Each athlete is then entered into the overall Southern California Athlete of the Week vote.

Click on the newspaper links below the athlete’s name to read about their performance from last week, and then vote for who you think deserves the top honor.

Readers are allowed to vote multiple times. Voting ends at midnight, but final totals aren’t always immediately reflected due to processing.

BOYS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK VOTING

The overall winner will be announced on Friday, September 16.

Voting poll at bottom of the page.

Makenzie McRae, Huntington Beach: McRae continue her strong start to the season by winning the Division 1 race for juniors at the Laguna Hills Invitational in 17 minutes, 22.8 seconds, the fastest girls time of the day. “She didn’t back down at the hills and continued to push herself the whole course,” Oilers coach Kareen Shackelford said of McRae, who earlier won at the Fastback Invitational.

Jenna Garner, South Pasadena: Garner is among the CIF Southern Section leaders in kills with 137 for the 14-1 Tigers, who are ranked No. 5 in Division 3. In a five-set thriller over Campbell Hall last week, Garner had 25 kills and 11 digs as the Tigers pulled out a victory with a 20-18 win in the fifth set. Garner also had 11 kills in a sweep of Camarillo.

Natalie Maahs, Wilson: Maahs finished third in the Girls Division 1 heat at the Laguna Hills Invitational. The junior finished the hilly 3-mile course with a time of 20 minutes, 2 seconds, improving her time by 47 seconds from last year over the same terrain. She led her team to a second-place finish. Wilson’s girls tied for first with 61 points to Trabuco Hills but lost the tiebreaker, which is decided by which team had the fastest sixth-place runner. Maahs finished second overall at last year’s Moore League Cross Country Finals.

Hailey Byron, Royal: Byron has been an instrumental piece to the Highlanders’ 13-3 start this season, most recently tallying 15 kills and six blocks in matches against Chaminade and Louisville. She earned all-tournament honors with a 25 kills and eight blocks in the Louisville Tournament.

Lyla Fedio, Redondo: Fedio kicked off the cross country season with a third-place time of 11 minutes, 39.3 seconds at the Saddleback Cup on Sept. 2 and last week she was first in the South Bay Twilight race with a time of 16:35.1. Redondo finished first as a team.

Denise Chen, Claremont: Chen captured the individual girls championship at the Palomares League Preview Meet at Claremont High School. She finished the race in a time of 18 minutes, 9.53 seconds, more than 29 seconds faster than the next finisher and also helped the Wolfpack to a second-place finish in the team standings. Chen is off to a strong start this season, having placed fifth at the Cool Breeze Invitational earlier this month.