KING CITY — King City High School cross country team celebrated a season of accomplishment with an awards night and banquet Nov. 19 at the St. John’s Church Hall.
The banquet featured burgers and hot dogs prepared by the Knights of Columbus, assorted main dishes and desserts. After dinner, King City head coach Paul Cavanaugh introduced each runner from the Mustang, Lady Mustang and JV teams. Each runner was presented with an athletic certificate for completing the season.
Before the start of the awards presentation, Coach Cavanaugh gave out the first-ever Scholar/Athlete Award for the runner with the highest grade point average (GPA). The winner of the new award was Sam Rivera, who currently has a 4.3 GPA.
“We think it is important to acknowledge our top student/athlete,” Cavanaugh said. “This is the first time we present an award for academics and we will continue to so every season.”
Long-time head cross country coach David Daines spoke to the capacity crowd about the success of the program this season and the hard work of Coach Cavanaugh and his assistants, Oscar Valdez and Orlando Zendejas.
“We have three coaches on campus and that makes a difference,” Daines said. “They work to keep up the tradition of a good cross country program here in King City.”
Special team awards were presented in the varsity girls and JV girls teams to: Wendy Macias-Garcia (Outstanding JV Runner); Jocelyn Garcia (Varsity Runner of the Year); Maria Rocha (Varsity Most Improved); Daniella Bedolla (Varsity Coaches Award); Meleny Lopez (Varsity Most Inspirational); and Daisy Huerta (Varsity Coaches Award).
JV boys and frosh-soph boys special team awards were presented to: Oscar Delgado (Outstanding Frosh-Soph Runner); Julio Martinez (Outstanding JV Runner); Francisco Vega (Most Improved JV Runner); and Josh Riley (Frosh-Soph Coaches Award).
Varsity boys team awards were presented to: Mario Avila (Most Inspirational Runner); Ricky Diaz (Most Potential); Peter Avila (Coaches Award); Daniel Correa (Most Improved); Fausto Medina (Coaches Award); and Esteban Deniz (Runner of the Year).
The Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Mission Division Champion Mustangs had Deniz and Mario Avila receive All-League patches and the pair also were All-CCS runners in Division IV.
