ANAHEIM Santa Margarita swimmer Grant Shoults and El Toro soccer player/track athlete Kaiya McCullough were selected Orange County’s male and female athletes of the year at the annual O.C. Athletic Directors Association awards dinner Tuesday at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Stanford-bound Shoults, The Register’s two-time male swimmer of the year, capped his candidacy by setting national high school records in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle at the CIF-SS Division 1 finals last month in Riverside.
Shoults also led the county in the 100-yard butterfly.
He is the first swimming-focused male athlete to capture the award and the first swimming-focused athlete to claim the honor since Olympic gold medalist and world-record setter Janet Evans took the prize for El Dorado in 1989.
Shoults’ next meet is the U.S. Olympic Trials, June 26-July 3, in Omaha, Neb. Last summer, he raced for the U.S. at the world junior championships in Singapore.
The UCLA-bound McCullough played soccer for El Toro and also competed in the 100 meters, relays and long jump in track and field. She also is a member of the 18-and-under U.S. women’s soccer team and part of a strong recruiting class for the Bruins.
The 2015 winners were Sam Darnold of San Clemente, now playing quarterback at USC, and Mater Dei basketball player Katie Lou Samuelson, now at UConn.
The dinner also honored the boys and girls athletes of the year from each league in the county.
They were: Emily Eastin (Crean Lutheran), Chance Kuehnel (Sage Hill), Rieli Richardson (Brea), Austin Tamagno (Brea), Jenna Dages (Cypress), Rodrigo Baca (Kennedy), Carley Malatskey (Tarbut), Edgar Chin (Fairmont), Ceili Tuttle (Fullerton), Eric Barriere (La Habra), Brianna Lewis (Los Amigos), Victor Lopez (Rancho Alamitos), Stephanie Ortega (Segerstrom), Anthony Arellano (Santa Ana), Daria Petredes (El Dorado), Cole Smith (El Dorado), Kristin Worley (Savanna), Abraham Mansaray (Savanna), Cameron Dorn (Laguna Beach), Mason Tufuga (Costa Mesa), Natalia Bruening (Corona del Mar), Alex Young (Woodbridge), Casey Cunningham (Saddleback Valley Christian), Noah Dyer (Saddleback Valley Christian), Allison Kantor (Trabuco Hills), Cole Fotheringham (San Clemente), McCullough, Devon Modster (Tesoro), Ashley Willingham (Los Alamitos), Garrett White (Edison), Kelsey Tyler (Orange Lutheran) and Shoults.
The night also included an announcemnet that Newport Harbor athletic director Michael Zimmerman, the OCADA president, will be retiring and moving to Florida. Corona del Mar’s Don Grable will serve as the next president.
