Miraleste Junior Is Walt Disney Finalist

Diane Wright says her life is filled with a lot of “late nights and early mornings.”

Too much partying, perhaps? Hardly.

Wright, a Miraleste High junior, is a model student who manages to find time to participate in three interscholastic sports and two on-campus clubs, in addition to maintaining a B average.

Wright’s willingness to devote her time to worthwhile endeavors has not gone unnoticed. She is one of 10 finalists for state honors in the Walt Disney World National Dreamers and Doers program, which recognizes students for their involvement in school activity programs and demonstration of the “four C’s”--curiosity, confidence, courage and constancy.

News of the honor came as a surprise to the modest teen-ager.

“I had no idea,” she said. “Actually I’m really surprised that they would pick me.”

It’s not so surprising when you examine her schedule.

A typical day for Wright begins at 6 in the morning with a swimming workout. From there, it’s on to classes at Miraleste and another swimming workout after school. Home by 4:30 p.m., she tackles schoolwork and club activities before heading to volleyball practice, which runs from 6:30 to 9.

She currently competes on the Miraleste swimming team; her events are the 50- and 100-meter freestyle races. Last fall, she earned All-Camino Real League second-team honors as an outside hitter for the volleyball team, and during the winter she played on the junior varsity soccer team.

“I’d love to play volleyball in college,” she said.

Wright also serves as co-president of the Miraleste environmental club and secretary of the girls service club.

The student selected California “Dreamer and Doer” will attend an all expenses-paid educational event Aug. 14-16 at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. Fla., and serve as state spokesperson for the values of activity programs. The winner and runner-up will be announced May 2.

How’s this for a murderers’ row:

Antone Williamson, Eric Gonzalez and Jason Kendall, the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters for Torrance’s baseball team, have batted 20 for 34 (.588) with three home runs, two doubles and 21 runs batted in in their last four games combined.

After Wednesday’s 5-3 Pioneer League victory over South Torrance, Williamson is batting .534 with 23 RBIs and a 15-game hitting streak, Kendall is batting .500 with 40 RBIs and a 25-game hitting streak dating back to last season and Gonzalez is batting .469 with 28 RBIs.

Gonzalez, who set a school record with 41 RBIs last season, was especially hot last week. He batted six for nine (.667) with three home runs, including a grand slam, and 13 RBIs in three games.

Williamson, who was closing in on the Southern Section career record of 147 hits set by Redondo’s Scott Davison from 1985-88, now has two other players to chase. Entering this week, Dmitri Young of Rio Mesa High in Oxnard had 150 hits, Jakob Jensen of Highland Hall in Northridge had 148 and Williamson had 141.

Jensen’s team, Highland Hall, beat South Bay Lutheran of Inglewood, 23-6, in a Westside League game Tuesday to set a Southern Section record with its 36th consecutive league victory. St. Bernard held the previous record with 35 consecutive Camino Real League victories from 1986-89.

Four former South Bay prep standouts were drafted by NFL teams. San Diego State offensive lineman Nick Subis (West Torrance) went in the sixth round to Denver, USC center Mark Tucker (Banning) went in the seventh round to Atlanta, Nevada wide receiver Treamelle Taylor (Hawthorne) went in the ninth round to Tampa Bay and UCLA linebacker Rocen Keeton (Serra) went in the 11th round to the New York Jets.

So far, El Segundo’s baseball team has faced few challenges in the San Fernando Valley League. The Eagles opened league play by winning their first four games by a cumulative score of 70-16.

Outside of league, though, El Segundo is getting its share of competitive games. La Serna, ranked second in the Southern Section 3-A Division, defeated the third-ranked Eagles, 4-1, Saturday in the fifth-place final of the Palos Verdes-Redondo Tournament.

El Segundo will be tested again at 7:30 Saturday night when it meets Gahr of Cerritos, ranked fourth in the 4-A Division, in the championship game of the El Segundo Tournament at Recreation Park.

Gahr lost to Lakewood, 4-0, Saturday in the championship game of the Palos Verdes-Redondo Tournament.

Richard Sturm, the top pitcher for Westchester, was kicked off the team last week for missing several practices, Coach Ron Kasparian said. Sturm, a sophomore, had a 2-1 record and 2.98 earned-run average.

The Comets lost to University, 9-3, Tuesday to fall to 8-12 overall and 7-5 in Coastal Conference play.

Notes

The Morningside girls’ 400-meter relay team recorded a national season-best time of 46.71 seconds to place first Saturday at the Mt. San Antonio Relays in Walnut. The relay consisted of LaShawn Stringer, Sanoma Nickson, Tah-he Gibson and anchor Santeshia Arnold. Morningside also won the 800 (1:37.81) and 1,600 (3:49.20) relays. . . . Other South Bay winners at Mt. SAC were Torrance’s Kim Blankinship in the high jump (5-4) and St. Bernard freshman Kamara Mayberry in the 800 (2:13.45).

Eight South Bay athletes will be honored for academic excellence by the Southern Section at an awards program April 30 at Anaheim Stadium during the Angels’ game against the Cleveland Indians. The students must be seniors with a minimum grade-point average of 3.5 in college-prep courses for the past three years, in addition to lettering in at least one varsity sport and participating in an extracurricular activity. The honorees: Amanda Parks of Chadwick (3.73 GPA), Wendy Smith of Leuzinger (3.57), Sandra Lynn Ozolins of West Torrance (3.90), Brian Lui of Chadwick (3.92), Dion Gordon of Inglewood (3.84), Son Phung of Leuzinger (4.00), Jerry Pirozzi of Mary Star (3.61) and David C. Kim of West Torrance (3.96).

South Bay’s Baseball Top 10 Selected by Times Sportswriters Through Tuesday’s Games

Rank, School, League Record 1 El Segundo (San Fernando) 17-3 2 Banning (Pacific) 14-4 3 Rolling Hills (Ocean) 11-4-1 4 Torrance (Pioneer) 14-4 5 Narbonne (Southern) 14-6 6 San Pedro (Pacific) 12-4 7 St. Bernard (Mission) 10-7-1 8 West Torrance (Pioneer) 11-7 9 South Torrance (Pioneer) 10-7 10 Palos Verdes (Ocean) 9-7-1