It seems to have become a tradition on college signing days at San Marcos that each group of student athletes moving to the next level includes future Westmont College Warriors.
In the Spring signing group of nine presented at the San Marcos Greek Theater on Wednesday, three announced they were continuing their careers at Westmont.
Justin Hess and Makenzie Fauver will compete in track & field while goal-scoring standout Leonel Olivo joins the men’s soccer team.
“I’ve had so many kids there, so many great athletes over the years,“ said San Marcos track & field coach Marilyn Hantgin, who attended Wednesday’s signing ceremony. “I’m so happy they get to have that experience.”
The destinations for the other six signees were all over the country. Jaran Depew signed with Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine for swimming; Kyle Foley is headed to Hunter College in New York for volleyball; Zoey Ziskind is bound for Harvard and will compete in sailing; Caden Hodina signed with Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., for baseball; Jordan Lind signed with Claremont McKenna College for men’s water polo; and Alexi Stapf is going to play water polo at Caltech.
Stapf, who carries a weighted GPA of 4.98, said he applied to Caltech even though he knew the chances of getting in were slim. He said of the 16,000 applications that the renowned school receives, only 400 are accepted.
So, receiving the notice of acceptance was like winning a higher-education lottery for Stapf.
Ziskind said she’s been committed to Harvard for more than a year.
She’ll join a Crimson sailing program that is ranked No. 1 in the Open Division of intercollegiate sailing and No. 6 among women’s teams.
“I really like the coaches and the team,” she said.
Ziskind, who has been sailing since age 7, is a member of the San Marcos sailing team that last weekend qualified for the Interscholastic Sailing Association Baker National Team Championships in Lake Minnetonka, Minn., May 20-21.
“We were kind of underdogs going into (the qualifying regatta in Santa Barbara), so it’s super exciting that we get to go.”
Hodina, a third baseman and pitcher on San Marcos’ three-time champion baseball team, is headed to a Lewis & Clark program that is bound for the NCAA Division 3 Tournament after winning the Northwest Conference Tournament title and first conference regular-season title since 1987.
“The coach is a great guy and he really reached out to me,” said Hodina. “I got a good connection with him and the pitching coach, so I thought it was a perfect fit.”
He’ll join former San Marcos teammate Joaquin Sandoval at the school.
Olivo, whose goal scoring led San Marcos to a third straight Channel League boys soccer title, said it’s nice to be able to stay in Santa Barbara and play college soccer.
He said he’s looking forward to Westmont’s move to NCAA Division 2 in the fall
“I feel really excited, I like playing against good players. It’s going to be fun.
“I felt really comfortable with the guys on the team and it made we want to play really hard for them.”
Westmont has a tradition of recruiting student athletes from the area high schools.
Hess, whose strong events are the 200 and 400, follows siblings Connor and Sydney into the track program. Fauver, the top hurdler in the area, joins a long list of standout San Marcos female track & field athletes to compete for the Warriors.
“(Coach) Russell Smelley is an amazing guy at Westmont, so when kids go up there they just feel that passion and the love he has for the sport. He’s so inspiring,” said Hantgin.
Hess had a choice of playing soccer for the Warriors.
“In the end, I chose track,” he said. “I’m not sure what it was, it was kind of a gut feeling. But it definitely was not an easy decision. But I’m super excited.”