Katie Kim and Gabbi Ilardi have raised the bar for their respective fall sports programs.
Kim repeats as the Manteca Bulletin All-Area Girls Tennis Player of the Year after successfully defending her Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Individual Tournament singles title, solidifying herself as the most accomplished in Manteca High history.
Meanwhile, Ilardi is a three-time All-Area Girls Golf Player of the Year following a third straight SJS Division V Tournament championship. Fellow Ripon High seniors Julio Pelaez and Annie Wild earned top honors for cross country, as they were the only runners from the area to qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships.
Manteca’s Blake Nichelson and Ripon Christian’s Jordan Vander Veen are the Bulletin’s football and girls volleyball MVPs.
Kim dominated from start to finish in her splendid senior season, going 19-0 while dropping eight games. She shut out every opponent on her way to the Valley Oak League Tournament final, finally losing a game to Central Catholic’s Mianna Robinson. Kim still won the match handily 6-1, 6-0 and was only getting started.
She coasted to the SJS Division II Tournament final at Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville, setting up a rematch with Clarissa Sutami of Vista del Lago. In 2021, Sutami was the No. 1 seed but upset by Kim in a three-set thriller.
The second go-around wasn’t as close, with Kim prevailing, 6-2, 6-3.
She also got to experience success with her team, leading the Buffaloes to their seventh Valley Oak League championship under longtime coach MaryAnn Tolbert. They reached the quarterfinal round of the SJS Division II team tournament.
As a freshman, Kim was part of Manteca’s SJS Division III championship team. She also placed second in the SJS Division II Individual Tournament for doubles.
Kim is just the third athlete in school history to win an individual Section tennis title and first to do it back-to-back. Ranata Scholll and Lynn Henderson captured the first two in 1982 and 1983, respectively.
All-Area Girls Tennis Team: Chloe Marquis, Manteca, Sr.; Emma Ngo, Manteca, So.; Shreya Raman, Manteca, Fr.; Madilynn Romero, Lathrop, Jr.; Tanya Sharma, Sierra, Sr.
Gabbi Ilardi, Ripon, Sr.
Headed for Eastern Washington University, Ilardi is going out as a three-time Manteca Bulletin All-Area Player of the Year, three-time All-Valley Foothill League North Division MVP and three-time SJS Division V Tournament champion.
She began her final postseason run for Ripon with low-medalist honors in the VFL North Tournament, carding a 74 at Swenson Park Golf Course. A week later, back at Swenson Park, she went even lower with an impressive 3-under 71 to secure her third SJS crown, edging out Bear River’s Theresa Shaw by two strokes.
Unfortunately for Ilardi, she again came up short of a berth to the NorCal Regional despite a terrific showing in the SJS Masters Championships at The Reserve at Spanos Park. Her 1-over-73 score was three strokes shy of making a playoff for the fourth and final individual NorCal bid.
All-Area Girls Golf Team: Emily Camara, Manteca, Fr.; Jessica Ingalls, East Union, Fr.; Katie Martin, Ripon, Sr.; Aaliyah Martinez, Ripon, Jr.; Sara Sardar, Lathrop, Sr.; Ashley Trinidad, East Union, Sr.
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
Julio Pelaez, Ripon, Sr.
Perhaps no other fall-sports athlete in the area made as big of an improvement from last year as Pelaez.
He had a solid start to his senior campaign, placing second in the Bret Harte Frogtown Individual varsity small-school division. It wasn’t until the final month that he began to hit his stride, however.
In the Trans-Valley League Finals, he clocked the third-best time of 17 minutes, 34.3 seconds, a big improvement in both place and time from his previous races at River Bluff Regional Park.
Pelaez then returned to Frogtown for the SJS Sub-Section meet, setting a personal record (16:17.2) while taking 11th in Division IV. The following week, he punched his ticket to state with a surprising ninth-place finish (17:13.4) in the Section Championships in Folsom.
At the state meet, he placed 93rd out of 201 Division IV runners, finishing in 17:07.4.
All-Area Boys Cross Country Team: Brady Alves, Sierra, So.; Tristan Anderson, Ripon, Sr.; Devin Fitzpatrick, Ripon, Jr.; Christian Gonzalez, Sierra, Fr.; Valente Hernandez, Ripon, Jr.; Nathan Puck, Lathrop, Jr.
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Annie Wild, Ripon, Sr.
Wild punctuated an impressive two-year run with a 20th-place finish in the CIF State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.
It was her third appearance at state after helping the Indians win the SJS Division IV title in 2019. The past two years, she reached state as an individual. Wild completed the 5,000-meter course in 18:37.2, which is more than 30 seconds faster than her previous run at state.
Wild also set a new personal record in the SJS Championships at the Willow Hills Reservoir course in Folsom, taking second in Division IV with a time of 19:40.1. She was also third at the Sub-Section meet and, for a second straight year, won all three TVL races en route to repeating as league champion.
Overall, Wild had 10 top-three finishes in 14 meets. She earned first-place medals in the Bret Harte Frogtown Invitational and Thunder Cross Country Classic, was runner-up in the Tom Laythe and Flat SAC invitationals and third in Stanislaus State’s Kim Duyst Twilight Invitational.
All-Area Girls Cross Country Team: Marissa Gonzalez, Sierra, Sr.; Mallory Govia, Ripon, So.; Jordyn Hegarty, Manteca, So.; Taimane Lowery, Lathrop, Sr.; Linda Medrano, East Union, Jr.; Jenna Skavdahl, Ripon, So.
