Monica Jimenez

School: Cypress High

Sport: Softball

Position: Pitcher

Class: Junior

No Cypress player batted over .300 this season, and the Centurions didn’t score many runs. But with Jimenez pitching in the playoffs, Cypress needed only a single run per game anyway. Jimenez didn’t allow a run in five playoff games--a stretch of 37 scoreless innings--and led Cypress to the Southern Section Division 5-A championship, the Centurions’ first softball title since 1987. Jimenez completed her streak with 1-0 victories over Kennedy in the semifinals last Tuesday and Simi Valley in the title game Saturday. Jimenez, a right-hander who finished with a 23-4 record, struck out 12 Simi Valley batters to give her 237 strikeouts this season. She lowered her earned-run average to 0.17 (five earned runs in 202 innings).

Other top performers:

* Kristy Kierulff, the Esperanza high jumper who won the State title with a mark of 5 feet 10 inches, which broke her own freshman Orange County record by 1 1/2 inches.

* Shelley Taylor, the Edison runner who won the State title in the 1,600 meters, finishing in 4 minutes 48.52 seconds, the nation’s fastest time by a high school runner this season.

* Alison Ward, who allowed five hits in eight innings and retired 19 of the last 20 batters in Woodbridge’s 2-1 victory over Saugus in the Southern Section 3-A championship game.