Where graduating Santa Cruz County student-athletes will play sports in college

Quick Take

In his final roundup of the 2023-24 academic year, Thomas Frey looks at where Santa Cruz County stars across the high school sports landscape will be continuing their careers at the next level.

The 2023-24 high school year has come to a close, and so many of the area’s top athletes will continue playing sports in college.

If you know someone not on this list, please email thomas@lookoutlocal.com the name of the athlete, their sport and the college they are headed to so they can be added into this story.

This will be my last column of the 2023-24 school year. It was a great year, with so many teams going deep into the state playoffs or even bringing home a state title. If you have a story idea, please email thomas@lookoutlocal.com and news@lookoutlocal.com (with high school sports in the subject line).

BASEBALL

Baseball season just came to a close and Jorden Espinoza of Aptos High School headlines the players on the diamond headed to college. The hard-throwing pitcher is headed to Texas Tech University of the Big 12 Conference. In 55⅓ innings this season, Espinoza struck out 106 batters with a 2.91 earned run average. Next season, every team the left-hander will face will have future professional ballplayers.

Aptos teammate Dylan Hocum will continue his athletic career at New York’s Skidmore College.

After narrowly finishing in second place in the Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division, St. Francis High School is sending three of its players to college. Junior Ibarra is headed to play Division I baseball at San Jose State University. In the batter’s box he had a .432 batting average, and on the mound he went 3-0 with a 1.56 earned run average. In 18 innings, he struck out 25 batters.

Trey Silva will play baseball at Menlo College after dominating on the mound for the Sharks. Silva went 8-1 with a 2.59 earned run average this season. He also came up clutch with the bat in his hands, recording 21 RBIs.

Micah Cervantes hit .445 for St. Francis and will be attending California State University East Bay. In 92 at-bats, Cervantes had 41 hits, 10 of which were for extra bases.

Watsonville High School is sending three of its leaders to play at the next level. Brody Legions will play at Division I Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after leading the Wildcatz in hitting. The future Mustang hit .318 with 11 RBIs for the ‘Catz.

Pitcher Aiden Rodriguez will play baseball at Gavilan College. The workhorse pitched 48 innings and finished the season with 60 strikeouts and a 2.33 earned run average.

Josh Ybarra will be playing at Monterey Peninsula College or Cabrillo College after hitting .300 with seven RBIs this past season.

John Clinkenbeard of San Lorenzo Valley High School will also be playing Division I baseball at the University of San Francisco. The 6-foot-1 senior did it all for the Cougars. He hit .273 with the bat in his hands and had a 3.85 earned run average while pitching.

Kaden Smith of Santa Cruz High School will play Division I baseball at UC San Diego. The catcher helped the Cardinals reach the Central Coast Section championship with a big RBI double in the semifinals.

SOFTBALL

In softball, Mileena Carbajal led Aptos High School as a pitcher while contributing as a hitter. The future Indiana Institute of Technology student-athlete struck out 80 batters over 59⅓ innings with a 1.65 earned run average. The senior also hit .270 and drove in 14 runs.

Aaliyah Gomez of St. Francis High School will be playing at South Dakota State University.

Alyssa Struthers of San Lorenzo Valley High School will play her softball at Concordia University. According to statistics inputted to mbaypreps.com, Struthers had a team-leading seven doubles, two triples and a pair of home runs.

Neveah Martinez of Soquel High School is headed to play at California State University Monterey Bay.

CROSS-COUNTRY and TRACK & FIELD

Ashlyn Boothby of Scotts Valley High School will continue her athletic career at Stanford University. Boothby qualified for the Central Coast Section championships and finished sixth in the 800-meter race. Overall she won 11 events this season across five meets.

Rachel Hoops and Ella Shoemaker of Aptos High will both run in college. Shoemaker will run at California State University San Marcos and Hoops at California State University Monterey Bay. Shoemakers reached the CCS championships in the 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles and the 4×100 relay squad. Hoops reached the CCS championships in the 1,600 meters.

Giancarlo Mendo of Watsonville High will run at Hartnell College. The distance runner reached the CCS championships in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters. Mendo also reached the CCS championships in cross country back in the fall.

Bryan Noble of Soquel High is headed to UC Santa Barbara. Noble won 21 times this year and competed in 15 events. He went to the CCS championships in the 400 meters, the 4×100 relay, high jump, pole vault and long jump.

FOOTBALL

Soquel High’s Jordan McCord looks to put a move on a pair of Monterey High defenders. Credit: John Hefti / Lookout Santa Cruz

After leading Soquel High School to the first California Interscholastic Federation state championship in school history, Jordan McCord will move on to play football at the University of Arizona, which will be in the Big 12 Conference in 2024. The lockdown defender shut down an entire side of the opposing squad’s passing game and intercepted two passes. As a wide receiver, McCord dominated by hauling in 46 receptions for 724 yards and 13 touchdowns. He ended his career with 38 career receiving touchdowns.

Lawrence Ingram IV and Tony Perez-Colimote of Aptos High will both continue playing on the gridiron collegiately. Ingram will play at Chapman University after rushing for 632 yards and seven touchdowns. Perez-Colimote will play on the line at City College of San Francisco. He helped pave the way this season for a running game that rushed for 2,867 yards and 33 touchdowns while averaging 6.8 yards per carry.

Markel Parker of St. Francis High will play football at Simpson University. Parker did a little bit of everything for the Sharks. As a tight end, he caught five passes for 36 yards while blocking in the run game. On the defensive line, he wrapped up opposing ball carriers for 30 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.

Harbor High’s Aiden Higgins will continue playing football at Santa Barbara City College. The 6-foot-2 tight end helped the Pirates win five games by catching the football and by blocking in the run game.

VOLLEYBALL

Gwen Grisby of Harbor High School will play beach volleyball at California State University Bakersfield. Grigsby won her third straight Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League crown in beach volleyball last month. She also dominated indoor volleyball as a libero. She helped the Pirates win crowns in the league and the section before making a run to the second round of the state playoffs.

Summer Pederson of Santa Cruz High School will continue playing indoor volleyball at Concordia University in Irvine. The libero had 134 digs this season as the Cardinals went to the second round of the CCS playoffs.

Division I Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is adding Sadie Jeffrey of Santa Cruz High School to its beach volleyball program. Jeffrey won league titles in both indoor and beach during her career. She comes from an athletic family, as her mom competed in gymnastics at UC Santa Barbara, her dad played basketball at the Air Force Academy and her grandfather played football at Iowa State University.

WRESTLING

Janie Houser of Aptos High will wrestle at Menlo College. In the 125-pound division at the CIF state championships, Houser finished in the round of 16, falling to an opponent who finished No. 4 in the state.

Danica Kelley of Scotts Valley High will also wrestle at Menlo College. The Falcon won every match decisively and won the state crown in the 135-pound division.

Logan Hede of San Lorenzo Valley High will wrestle at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He came back from an injury that nearly made him miss his entire junior season. Wrestling at 165 pounds, Hede finished eighth at the Central Coast Section finals.

BASKETBALL

Monte Vista Christian School is sending men’s player Vid Levak to Simpson University in Redding, while Makayla Rader of the women’s squad will play at College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York.

Levak distributed the ball as a point guard with ease, dishing out 3.1 assists per game. He did all the little things well by averaging 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per contest.

Rader also did a little bit of everything for the Mustangs, who went to the second round of the CCS playoffs.

SOCCER

Ava Root of Harbor High will be playing college soccer at California Lutheran University. The senior dished the ball effectively and finished with five assists as the Pirates finished with a record of 9-6-3

Monte Vista Christian, which finished 10-7-3, is sending Julie Reliand to the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Texas and Alexa Malaspina to the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Reiland led the Mustangs with nine goals while Malaspina made 107 saves as goaltender.

Santa Cruz High School is sending two of its players to college. Sienna Parker will continue her career at Emerson College in Massachusetts. The defender helped the Cardinals shut out opponents in five matches.

Teammate Clara Willet will play at Division I University of San Francisco. In her four-year career, Willet helped contribute to 37 Cardinals victories.

Sonja Hulphers of Harbor High will be taking her talents to England. She will attend Northumbria University and will play soccer with the i2i International Soccer Academy in Newcastle. Great with the ball, Hulphers was second on the team with six goals while leading the Pirates with 10 assists.

WATER POLO

The Soquel High water polo team went to the CCS final and the CIF NorCal Regional playoffs after winning the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League with a perfect 8-0 record. Three stars from that squad will be playing Division I water polo.

Leah Murphy led the team with 77 goals and will be going to UC Berkeley. In her four-year career, she tallied up 203 goals and 129 steals.

Summer Stelck is headed to compete in the Big Ten Conference for Indiana University. Stelck led the team in assists with 55 and scored 52 goals. She finished her career with 334 points. She is also one of the best defenders in the state with 333 career steals.

Kayla Matthies will join her sister Kelsey Matthies on the UC Santa Barbara water polo team. Kayla is a master at every phase of the game. As a senior, she scored 43 goals, dished out 44 assists and recorded 82 steals.