PACIFIC COAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE / MAY 22, 2017
Men's honors go to G-House's Holdgrafer, SBVC's Orteg.
The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference has selected Grossmont College baseball pitcher Tim Holdgrafer and San Bernardino Valley track & field distance runner Luis Ortega as Men's Athletes of the Week for May 15-21
Holdgrafer, a sophomore right-handed pitcher from La Jolla High School and a bounce-back transfer from St. Mary's College of California, threw seven innings of three-hit ball as the Griffins swatted aside Long Beach City College 16-2 to sweep the teams' best-of-3 sectional playoff series 2 games to 0. He and his G-House teammates will take a 10-game win streak into this weekend's CCCAA State Championship Final Four at Fresno City College. The Griffins haven't lost since April 20, when they fell to second-place Palomar 4-2.
Holdgrafer allowed one run against the Vikings, striking out nine and walking one, as he and Donovan McCrystal combined to pitch a six-hitter. Holdgrafer advanced to 9-0 with one save and a 2.45 earned run average for the PCAC champion Griffins.
Holdgrafer pitched for Saint Mary's College of California last season, logging 10 appearances and a 4.50 ERA on the Division I level.
Ortega, a sophomore out of Jurupa Hills High School in Fontana, placed second in the 10,000 meters in the CCCAA State Track & Field finals on Saturday at American River College in Sacramento.
Ortega ran 32:11.84 in placing a close second to Orange Coast's Danny Dominguez, who won with a 32:10.89.
Honorable mention was awarded to San Diego Mesa track & field athletes Tyler Arroyo, Cooper Bibbs and Qwayjon Walker.
Arroyo, a freshman from Westview High School, cleared 2.06 meters (6 feet, 9.01 inches) to finish third behind College of San Mateo's Jack Phillips, the winner, and City College of San Francisco' Rudy Morgan, the second-place finisher, in the high jump at the state championships. Phillips and Morgan both went 6-11. Arroyo, who had a 7-foot, 1-inch jump during the season, couldn't win an Athlete of the Week award for a second time after taking AOTW honors on March 27.
Bibbs, a freshman out of Oceanside High School, placed third in the 100 meters in the state finals, running 10.69 in finishing behind Kelly Brown (10.43) and Ryan Hall (10.45), both from state team champion College of the Sequoias. Bibbs also placed fourth in the 200 meters at 21.36 and anchored the Olympians' 4x100 relay team to a fifth-place finish.
Walker, a sophomore out of Western High School in Las Vegas, placed fifth in the javelin at the state meet, getting out 50.11 meters (164 feet, 4.8 inches).