The Irvine Valley College athletics department began recognizing its top athletes and students this past week with a number of awards.
The awards include the Orange Empire Conference Veteran of the Year, OEC Character Champions, Athletics Community Ambassadors, Andy Weekes Team of the Year, Coaches of the Year, Alumnus of the Year, Anna L. McFarlin, Sport-For-All Service Award, Exchange Club of Irvine Scholar-Athletes of the Year, Athletes of the Year and Scholar Team Award.
Jeff Strickland was the athletic department's Veteran of the Year and basketball players Kasey Smit and Zane Paddon were the school's OEC Character Champions honorees. More honors will be listed throughout this week and into next week on the Irvine Valley athletics website.
The Irvine Valley Scholar Team Award for 2017-18 went to the Laser baseball team.
The award was established in 2009-10.
IVC's baseball team had a 3.41 grade point average.
Other sports teams with GPA's over 3.00 included women's volleyball at 3.36, beach volleyball at 3.36, women's badminton at 3.24, men's volleyball at 3.24, men's golf at 3.21, women's basketball at 3.09, men's basketball at 3.02 and women's tennis at 3.01.
The program-wide grade point average for Irvine Valley teams was 3.05.
Irvine Valley also featured 96 scholar athletes this year.
IVC Scholar-Athlete awards are made to all student-athletes who use a season of eligibility and achieve a 3.0 or better GPA in at least 12 units. First-year student-athletes' (freshmen and transfers) GPAs are calculated on the Fall term grades, while returning student-athletes must achieve the GPA in the previous two full academic terms
The baseball team led the way with 23 players, including seven players that had a 3.75 grade point average or higher. Those players included Michael Hascup, Nick Janowicz, David Kotin, Wyatt McGinnis, Zack Stack and Matt Wong.
IVC's women's volleyball and beach volleyball team and the men's soccer team were next with 10 scholar athletes each. Renata Bath, Riley Mahan and Jade Parham each earned a 3.75 grade point average or higher for women's volleyball and beach volleyball and Julian Anaya and Sean Curtis each had a 3.75 GPA or better.
Women's badminton player Neeyati Ajmeera, men's basketball players Christopher Cox, Daniel Hernandez and Zane Paddon and women's basketball player Natasha Dillon each earned a 4.0 grade point average.
The full list of scholar athletes for Irvine Valley is below.
Badminton - Ajmeera Neeyati, Jessie Mei, Anne Olsen
Baseball - Dustin Angus, Noah Bradford, Eric Brunst, Chad Burchit, Paul Colignon, Colin Conroy, Justin Dunham, Colin Gardner, Ryan Gaynor, Michael Hascup, Vince Inman, Nick Janowicz, David Kotin, Brett Long, Wyatt McGinnis, Matt Montoya, Grant Rockefeller, David Rojas, Ryan Santa Cruz, Zack Stack, Beau Turner, Matt Wong
Men's Basketball - Christopher Cox, Daniel Hernandez, Jake Linsky, Zane Paddon, Parker Sims
Women's Basketball - Ryane Bradbury, Natasha Dillon, Mary Dishoian, Bryanna Espiritu, Jessica Quirarte, Kiara Warren
Men's Golf - Anton Li, Jinhon Park, Eric Watanabe
Women's Golf - Akie Sannomiya, Kylie Sok
Men's Soccer - Julian Anaya, Ben Chamberlin, Sean Curtis, Matthew Davis, Grant Joyce, Sergio Montes, Kendrick Nguyen, Eder Olivas, Alfonso Quezada-Osorno, Kristian Sabatino
Women's Soccer - Samantha Carter, Cassandra Fuentes, Savanna Hayes, Alana Ratcliffe, Emily Rodriguez
Men's Tennis - Jacob Holiday, Leszek Mirecki, Randy Murphy, Amir Safi, Michael Tao
Women's Tennis - Fiorella Dreux, Ariana Hedayati, Abigail Perez
Men's Volleyball - Dean Balagot, Josh Evers, Patrick Furlong, Miles Hamro, Austin McBain, Jonah Montes, Brennan To, Coco Touya, Trent Williams
Women's Volleyball & Beach Volleyball - Renata Bath, Diamond Brogan, Alma Entesari, Alison Kent, Gabi Lau, Riley Mahan, Jade Parham, Megan Ramseyer, Hannah Salaya, Alyssa Vortouni