20 years ago: May 25, 1991 - Manteca High’s Rick Asbell took second place in Friday’s Sac-Joaquin Section shot-put final with a heave of 56-9. That allowed him to advance to the state meet for the second straight year. The meet will be held at Cerritos College next week. The East Union High 4x400 relay team shattered the school record with a time of 3:19.5 for sixth place, not good enough to advance. The team consisted of John Brooks, DelShaun Williams, Larry Martinez and LaShawn Daniels.

Ceres High beat Manteca High’s softball team for the first time in three tries  yesterday. Unfortunately, the 9-1 loss eliminated the Lady Buffs from the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs. MHS was held to just five hits in the game, with 11 Lady Buffs going down on strikes. Gina Miranda scored the only MHS run in the third inning after leading off with a double. She later scored on Gina Ramsey’s base hit.

Visiting Del Oro High of Loomis swept two games from East Union High to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II baseball championship here Saturday afternoon. The Golden Eagles pounded the Lancers 23-2 in the first game, then after scoring four times in the first inning, Del Oro held on to win 7-5 in the championship game. The Lancers issued 10 walks in the two games, including eight in the final game along with committing 13 errors. While EU’s highlights were few, senior right fielder Eric Simoni gave the home fans something to cheer about when he blasted a three-run homer in the sixth inning of the title game.

Babe Ruth 16-18 Baseball teams from Manteca divided their season-opening double-headers Sunday. The Manteca Athletic Bingo Boosters Blue, composed of East Union High athletes, opened with a 6-5 victory before being edged out 6-5 by Reeve Associates of Tracy on the EUHS diamond. Chuck Barajas had a triple and Kevin Smith collected a double in the opening game win. Winning pitcher Mike Craig fanned 12 batters while giving up four hits and two walks. In the nightcap loss, Brian Beebe led the Blue with three hits. The M.A.B.B. Green followed suit by clipping Westurf of Modesto 11-10 and then was beaten 9-5 on the Manteca diamond. The Green is made up of Manteca High athletes. In the opener, Green came back from a seven-run deficit to beat Westurf. Robert Nascimento scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh on Brian Berger’s single. Jason Pitts led the Green with three hits and drove in a pair of runs. In the second game, Westurf jumped off to an 8-1 lead and then held off Green for the victory. Dain Cilley had three hits for Green.

Sue Nunes and Rick Asbell shared the All-around Senior Athlete award at the Manteca High Spring Sports Social Tuesday night. Nunes, who played girls tennis, basketball and softball all four of her prep years, also was named a CIF Scholar-athlete with a 3.79 GPA. Asbell, who will be going to the University of California at Berkeley on a football scholarship, was also named the Most Valuable track athlete. Other MVP’s were softball: Gina Miranda; baseball: Paul Gutierrez; golf: Mark Dorland; tennis: Mark Hinojosa: and swimming: Julie Gaynor and James Harvey.

The East Union High Spring Sports Social Tuesday night saw the following Most Valuable Players named: baseball - Mark Kackley and Eric Simoni; golf - Steve Franz and Eric Reyes; softball - Karina Ward; tennis - James Vu; track - Eric Scammel, Griffin Cheek, Larry Martinez, Kristen Nelson, Alicia Lyon and Kim Alferez; and swimming - Eric Wohle and Dana Maddex.

10 years ago: June 2, 2001 - East Union High’s Amy Haapanen became the first female Lancer to compete in the shot put at the California Interscholastic Federation State Track Meet held at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium on Friday. Even though she set a personal best and school-record toss of 41-7.5 to qualify for the state at last week’s Sac-Joaquin Sectional meet, the best she could do at Hughes was a 39-11.25 throw. It was not enough to advance her to the finals.

Two of Manteca High’s top swimmers will join the University of the Pacific’s swim teams next season. Evan Gainer will be a walk-on for the men’s team and Sarah Houck will swim on the Tiger women’s team. They were named the Bulletin’s All-City co-MVP’s.

East Union High’s junior Ryan Harris has been named the Manteca Bulletin’s All-City softball MVP. Other Lady Lancers chosen to the team included pitcher Brittney Tachara, Ashley Anderson, Jaime Anderson, Amanda Vickers, Annie Richards and Mary Norton. From Manteca High, Sara Cross and Becci Harnden were selected. Sierra High players on the elite team were Chyanne Jacomini, Vanessa Portillo and Amanda Tucker. The only seniors on the youthful team are Portillo, Harnden and Norton. The Lancers won their fourth straight Valley Oak League championship.

Sierra’s summer league baseball team took a doubleheader from Tracy last Sunday. The first game saw the locals take a 5-4 decision. Matt Berezay and David Alexander collected two hits apiece. Sierra also grabbed the second game, this one by a score of 5-3. Berezay and Brian Park combined to pitch a two-hitter. Noah Gigli led the Sierra batters with two hits, including a two-run triple in the fifth inning.

Sierra High’s boys and girls swim teams were given special awards as follows: Most Valuable Swimmers were Clayton Basepayne and Stacy Brock.

Manteca High’s Charlie Larson and Ron Tilton and Sierra High’s Lorelyn Pascual were named the Most Valuable Players on the Manteca Bulletin’s All-City Track and Field team.

Chris Thompson and Justin Cornell of Sierra High were named the co-MVP’s on the Manteca Bulletin’s All-City Tennis team.

East Union High’s Josiah McDaniel was chosen as the Manteca Bulletin’s MVP on its All-City Golf team.

Matt Berezay, a Sierra High junior, was named the MVP of the Manteca Bulletin’s All-City baseball team. Other players named to the team included Robert Breedlove, Ryan Teicheira, Matt Miller and Mike Loomis from Sierra High; Kyle Raymond, Chris Dietrich, Cameron Dodd, Adrian Anaya and Chris Adams from East Union High; and Justin Beckmann and Andy Aldrich from Manteca High.