Local schools among CIF academic award winners

The CIF Southern Section has announced the winners of its Academic Awards program.

Cumulative grade-point average was the criteria used to judge the entries for 26 team sports. Teams had to have a minimum of five student-athletes with a minimum GPA of 3.0 (4.0 scale).

Schools were divided into two enrollment classifications — 1,500 and above and 1,499 and below. The team with the highest GPA in each enrollment category received their sport’s award, a banner to honor their accomplishments in the classroom.

Six new banners will be coming to the area, as that many local small-school athletic programs finished on top academically.

Sage Hill finished first in baseball (3.76), football (3.66), boys’ lacrosse (3.75) and girls’ lacrosse (3.82) for schools with less than 1,500 students. In the same grouping, the Ocean View boys’ golf team (3.91) and Costa Mesa boys’ wrestling (3.55) also finished first for their sports.

Schools also had the ability to make selections for their individual male and female student-athlete of the year. The chosen student-athletes must be seniors who have maintained at least a 3.5 nonweighted GPA over the past three years. That standard was in addition to earning a varsity letter in a sport and partaking in extracurricular activities.

“We are very proud to honor and recognize our Academic Awards champions,” section commissioner of athletics Rob Wigod said in a statement. “Their outstanding achievements in the classroom, while also devoting countless hours to their athletic teams, truly exemplify and represent the concept of the student-athlete at the highest level.”

Corona del Mar had Nicholas Rottler (baseball) and Megan Fisk (volleyball) as its honorees. Don Grable, the athletic director at CdM, said that he was proud to say that all 24 of the school’s varsity programs carried a nonweighted GPA over 3.0 this school year.

Costa Mesa recognized Cory Richards (football and volleyball) and Malia Tufuga (volleyball and water polo).

Nathan Santy (soccer and golf) and Alyson Nguyen (volleyball) earned individual awards for Ocean View.

Sage Hill’s individual academic award recipients were Matthew Strok (tennis) and Karina Grover (tennis), while Brethren Christian’s were Derek Reiser (cross-country, basketball and track and field) and Shirlyn Rhee (cross-country and track and field).

The total number of teams honored for each school is as follows: Sage Hill 25, Corona del Mar 24, Costa Mesa 20, Ocean View 19, Estancia 13, Brethren Christian 12, Fountain Valley 6.

::

Support our sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.

For more sports stories, visit latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/sports or follow us on Twitter @DailyPilotSport.