College Update: Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy’s Kirsten Vose continues to win at USC

The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.

Kirsten Vose (Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, 2015) USC women’s swimming freshman: For much of her high school career, all the multiple-time All-Area Girls’ Swimmer of the Year did was win.

That tradition of excellence has carried over into the collegiate ranks for the La Crescenta resident.

Vose won two competitions at the Trojans’ final event of 2015 – the Texas Invitational in Austin.

Vose set her personal-best time of 2 minutes, 09.68 seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke preliminaries in the morning before coming back in the evening to clinch the event in 2:07.46 on Dec. 5.

The day before, Vose did something similar when she swam to a mark of 59.59 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke prelims before just lowering that time to another personal-best of 59.58 in the finals to win the race and edge out fellow Trojan Riley Scott (59.83).

Vose is one of two area standouts on the USC women’s squad as she’s joined by freshman diver Maddi Witt of Flintridge Prep.

Witt had her own breakout effort Nov. 15 when she won the three-meter platform dive at the Trojan Diving Invitational at USC with a score of 521.35. Witt just clipped her old high school rival, Annika Lenz of UCLA and Pasadena Poly, who tallied a score of 503.45.

USC is back in action Jan. 12 in nonconference action at the University of Wisconsin.

Christopher Longo (St. Francis High, 2011) UCLA football senior: A wonderful college football career ended for the long snapper on Saturday.

Longo’s 39th consecutive game took place in Santa Clara as UCLA took on underdog Nebraska in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levi’s Stadium.

Unfortunately for Longo and the Bruins, they surrendered 30 straight points and lost to the Cornhuskers, 37-29.

The defeat dropped UCLA’s record to 8-5 and ended the Bruins’ two-game bowl winning streak.

In the contest, special teams played a key role as kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn converted three of three extra-point attempts. Fairbairn, who won the Lou Groza award (given to the nation’s top kicker), did however miss his only field goal attempt, a 46-yard try with 5:49 left in the game and UCLA trailing, 37-29.

For the season, Fairbairn converted all 47 extra-point attempts and 20 of 24 field-goal tries.

Kory Hamane (Flintridge Prep, 2012) Occidental College men’s basketball senior: It’s been a good start to the final collegiate season for the former Prep League Most Valuable Player and CIF Southern Section Division V-AA champion.

Hamane has started all nine games this year for the Tigers at guard and is the team’s fifth-leading scorer, averaging a career-high 8.4 points per contest. Along with his scoring, Hamane is averaging 2.2 assists, 2.1 rebounds and a steal per contest.

Hamane has scored in double digits three times this season, including when he tallied a season-high 14 points in the Tigers’ 68-50 victory at West Coast Baptist of Lancaster on Nov. 17.

As for his accuracy, Hamane has been deadly, as the senior is shooting 48.9% from the field and 50% from behind the three-point arc.

Occidental has dropped two straight contests, but is 6-3 this season. The Tigers will open Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday at Redlands.

Emilia Borkowski (Crescenta Valley High, 2012) Cal State Fullerton women’s tennis junior: The former Falcons standout is on a break as the Titans don’t resume the season until mid-January.

So far this season, Borkowski has found more success in doubles play than in singles action.

The La Crescenta resident has teamed up with sophomore Danielle Pham to go 6-2.

Pham and Borkowski won their first five doubles sets of the season between Oct. 9-15 before dropping two of the last three sets.

On the singles side, Borkowski is 3-4, but hasn’t notched a win since a 6-1, 6-4 victory over UC Santa Barbara’s Kyla Jarrar on Oct. 26.

The Titans have finished the invitational portion of play and will enter Big West Conference team action Jan. 20 at home versus UC San Diego.

Ella Stepanian (Crescenta Valley High, 2015) Pasadena City College women’s basketball freshman: While it’s been an up-and-down year for the Lancers, who are ranked 13th in the latest CCCWBCA state poll, the former All-Area standout has been a steady contributor.

The forward is her team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 12.2 points per game along with five rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.2 steals per contest. Stepanian has started in 13 of her team’s 14 games this season and is averaging 21.3 minutes per contest.

Stepanian helped the Lancers finish third in the three-game-long Desert Tournament at Mt. San Jacinto College that concluded Dec. 19.

Pasadena finished 2-1 and demolished College of the Desert, 78-31, in the third-place game Dec. 19.

In that contest, Stepanian led all scorers with 19 points and added six assists, four rebounds and two steals.

For her efforts, Stepanian was selected to the all-tournament team after shooting a combined 57% from the field as she connected on 20 of 35 shots in scoring 48 points.

This season, the Lancers are 9-7 after dropping two straight and will begin South Coast Conference play Jan. 6 at Long Beach City College.