Rio Mesa’s Young, Jones Win Honors

On the cover of Cal-Hi Sports magazine’s spring preview edition, Rio Mesa High shortstop Dmitri Young and sprinter Marion Jones are pictured, side by side, each pointing an index finger skyward.

A few weeks later, the pair have, indeed, been selected by the magazine as the No. 1 athletes in the state in their particular sports.

Young, who had so many four-for-four performances with a baseball bat in hand, completed a similar trick off the field. In a manner of speaking, Young has hit for the honors cycle: For the fourth time in as many years, Cal-Hi has named Young the state’s top player in his academic class.

Young, a senior shortstop who was selected fourth overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in the amateur baseball draft last week, was the freshman, sophomore and junior player of the year in his first three varsity seasons.

Young also has signed a letter of intent to play college baseball next season at Miami.

In four years at Rio Mesa, Young finished among the Southern Section career leaders in runs (137), hits (159), runs batted in (127), doubles (36) and home runs (29). He had a career batting average of .488.

“You can see why the scouts like him,” Cal-Hi’s Mark Tennis said. “With Dmitri, you have a player who has dominated at the high school level who projects to a great player in the future.”

Young (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) did nothing to hurt his chances of receiving Cal-Hi’s award as a senior when he homered, with Tennis in attendance, during his final high school at-bat in a Southern Section 4-A Division playoff game.

“He put up good numbers against good competition,” Tennis said. “He’s a legit player.”

Mitch Root of Chatsworth and Brian Vasey of Simi Valley were selected to Cal-Hi’s large-school first team.

Kevin Nykoluk of Simi Valley was named the magazine’s sophomore player of the year. Nykoluk batted .400, scored 39 runs and hit seven home runs.

Jones, 15, is the youngest girl to be named Cal-Hi’s state athlete of the year since swimmer Cynthia Woodhead of Riverside Poly took the honor as a freshman in 1979.

The Rio Mesa sophomore shattered the National High School Federation records in the 100 and 200 meters, running 11.17 and 22.87 seconds, respectively.

In the state high school championships at Cerritos College on June 1, Jones successfully defended her titles in the 100 and 200.

Jones is prolific on the basketball court as well. She averaged 24.5 points and 11 rebounds this season and is regarded as one of the top prospects in her class in the nation.

Mike Glaze contributed to this story.