VOTE: Southern California Girls Athlete of the Week, March 18

Each week, publications from the Southern California News Group’s 11 properties (Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, Whittier Daily News and Pasadena-Star News) select the Athletes of the Week for their respective region.

Each athlete is then entered into the overall Southern California Athlete of the Week vote.

Click on the newspaper links below the athlete’s name to read about their performance from last week, and then vote for who you think deserves the top honor.

Readers are allowed to vote multiple times. Voting ends at midnight, but final totals aren’t always immediately reflected due to processing.

BOYS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK VOTING

The overall winner will be announced on Friday, March 18.

Voting poll at bottom of the page.

Juju Watkins, Sierra Canyon: Watkins tallied 23 points, 19 rebounds, six assists and six blocks in 24 minutes to anchor the Sierra Canyon girls basketball team to its second straight CIF State Open Division title with a 85-61 win over Archbishop Mitty at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento Saturday night. Watkins was 9 of 20 from the field, including two NBA-range 3-pointers, and also had a game-high three steals. Watkins was one rebound short of tying the Open Division state record for rebounds in a game (20).

Zharia Taylor, Long Beach Poly: Taylor had a sensational day at the Redondo Nike Track Festival on Saturday, March 12. She cleared 5 feet, 9 inches in the high jump, which broke the meet record and is the top mark in the state this season. Taylor is a key member of the Poly team, which was No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 preseason rankings. Taylor won the 2021 CIF-SS Division 1 high jump title when with a mark of 5-6.

Brooklyn Carreon, Whittier Christian: The Utah-bound pitcher was dominant again in the prestigious Dave Kops tournament in Arizona. Carreon threw a five-inning perfect game with five strikeouts in an 8-0 victory over Desert Christian. She also threw a two-hitter and drove in two runs in a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Canyon. The Heralds finished fourth in the tournament.

Ashley Sawai, North Torrance: Sawai was dominant as the Saxons went undefeated in the Bishop Gorman Tournament in Las Vegas. The junior pitched 17 innings and allowed just six hits, two unearned runs and struck out 24. At the plate, she had four hits and drove in four runs.

Katlyn Gifford, Ramona: Gifford, a first baseman, belted her eighth home run of the season and knocked in four runs as the Rams rallied for a 7-5 win over Arlington in a River Valley League game. Gifford knotted the score with an RBI single in the second inning and gave Ramona a 6-3 lead with a three-run blast in the fourth inning. She was intentionally walked in her other two trips to the plate. Gifford homered four times against Norte Vista earlier this season, which tied a state record according to Calhisports.com. She is batting .587 with 36 RBIS in 14 games.

Ava Houlahan, Laguna Beach: The Princeton-bound attacker tallied 11 goals, seven assists and eight steals in four matches to help lead the Breakers to an eighth consecutive title at the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup and a 42nd consecutive victory overall. Houlahan capped the tournament by scoring the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime in a 10-9 victory against Newport Harbor in the final.