Aotw 5/21
Athlete of the Week Jordan Long Beach Poly Long Beach State St. Anthony Wilson

The 562.org’s Athletes of the Week

Congrats to the honorees in this week’s supersized Athletes of the Week.

HIGH SCHOOL

Joey Vega, Wilson Softball

Wilson pitcher Joey Vega battled through a leg injury last week to help lead Wilson to its first postseason win in seven years. Vega pitched a complete game and yielded just two runs, and he had a hard-hit ball to left field that scored teammate Ava Tract for the walkoff win.

Jesse Simon, Poly Baseball

Poly hadn’t advanced to the second round of the playoffs since 2006 but got there last week thanks to a surprising complete game performance from pitcher Jesse Simon, who scattered two hits in a shutout win. Simon also pitched three innings in Poly’s wild-card win earlier in the week, leading his coaches to expect he’d just go a few innings in the first round. Simon also had an RBI hit to represent one of Poly’s two runs in the win.

Alex Seguine, Wilson Baseball

Wilson has had a two-year playoff win drought, mostly because the Bruins struggled to score enough runs to win against teams from out of the area. That wasn’t the case in last week’s 6-0 victory, thanks in part to Alex Seguine, who was 3-4 with two RBI and a run against Katella. Seguine helped spark the Bruins’ six-run first inning.

Ariyonna Augustine, Poly Track

Long Beach’s most recent golden girl on the track continued to pile up the first-place medals at last weekend’s CIF Southern Section track and field championships. Augustine, an LSU signee, won the CIF championship in the 100 and 200 meter sprints, and also anchored Poly’s championship 4×100 relay squad. She is the defending state champion in the sprints.

Asjah Atkinson, St. Anthony Track

Saints freshman Asjah Atkinson made history for the purple and white last weekend, winning the individual CIF-SS Division 4 title in both hurdles races, qualifying for this week’s Masters meet in both events. Atkinson was St. Anthony’s first individual track CIF champion since 1998 and first girls’ athlete in almost 30 years.

Rachel Glenn, Wilson Track

The Bruins’ super sophomore Rachel Glenn didn’t have the CIF-SS championships she was hoping for, as she didn’t run her best race in the 400. But Glenn was the star she was expected to be in the high jump, taking the CIF championship after easily clearing 5-7 on her first attempt. Glenn has California’s best jump so far this season.

A’Lena Chaney, Jordan Track

The Panthers got one of the biggest surprises of the day on Saturday from Chaney, who was the ninth and final qualifier for the CIF-SS finals in the long jump. Chaney turned in a career day to finish third in the event, picking up not only a bronze medal for her school but also a spot in this Saturday’s CIF-SS Masters Meet.

COLLEGE

Clayton Andrews, Long Beach State Baseball

Clayton Andrews threw six no-hit innings at Hawai’i on Saturday before allowing a single in the 7th. He helped lead the Dirtbags to an 8-0 shutout win and had more hits at the plate (2) than he allowed to the Rainbow Warriors (1). Statistically he has been the Big West’s best two-way player this season.

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
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