AOTW
Athlete of the Week Long Beach Poly Long Beach State Millikan

The562.org’s Athletes Of The Week

Welcome back to another edition of the562.org’s Athletes of the Week.

HIGH SCHOOL

Nolan Brown, Long Beach Poly Baseball

Long Beach Poly didn’t beat any of the three other Moore League playoff baseball teams last season, and wanted to change that this year. Their power-packed lineup pulled off an 11-10 extra-innings win over Lakewood last week, and senior Nolan Brown went 2/4 with an RBI and two runs, including a walkoff score on a passed ball in the bottom of the ninth.

Anja Oca, Long Beach Poly Swimming

The Klaus Barth Rock & Roll Invitational has a nearly 60-year history in the city of Long Beach, so setting a meet record there is a special thing. Long Beach Poly senior Anja Oca, a University of Tampa signee, won the 100 yard breaststroke (1:05.00) and the 100 yard butterfly (55.25). The win in the fly shattered the 13-year old meet record by 1.25 seconds.

COLLEGE

Jacob Hughey, Dirtbags Baseball

It was a disappointing weekend for the Dirtbags as they dropped a series at Fresno State, but Millikan alum and Dirtbags sophomore Jacob Hughey had a record-setting performance on Thursday. In a game the Dirtbags won 24-10, Hughey had six hits, tying the program record for most in a game. It was only Hughey’s fourth career start in the batting order. He was 6/7 with six runs and five RBI.

Cielo Meza, Long Beach State Softball

It is shaping up to be one hell of a season for 49ers sophomore ace Cielo Meza, who had a record-setting weekend of her own. Meza threw 17 strikeouts in a 6-0 win over Hawaii, setting a new program record for most Ks in one outing. Meza came back the next day and threw her second no-hitter of the season in an 8-0 win over the Rainbow Wahine.

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
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