Hansen, Lopez, Garcia share girls cross-country MVP

The Fallbrook High School cross-country awards banquet November 29 at the Bob Burton Performing Arts Center was an enjoyable event, but not everything about it was easy.

“I had a problem with the Most Valuable,” said girls head coach Troy Hamlin. “There were three girls who had each run #1 for us on four different occasions.”

Fortunately for Hamlin, the banquet didn’t have official rules other than adherence to school district policy and thus there was no requirement for a single Most Valuable award. Hamlin’s problem was solved by selecting senior Amy Hansen, junior Briana Lopez, and sophomore Noelle Garcia to share the award for the girls varsity squad.

The Most Inspirational award for the varsity went to senior Alex Nygren. Hansen and Nygren were co-captains for the 2006 team. “They did an excellent job all season long,” Hamlin said.

Leslie Grantham, a junior who did not run cross-country as a freshman, received the Most Improved award for the varsity.

The Coaches’ Award went to Cassie Mulkey, a junior who made her Fallbrook High School debut on the 2006 team. Mulkey, a military dependent, transferred from a North Carolina school.

Awards for the junior varsity team were also presented at the banquet. The Most Valuable award went to Jade Lawrence, and the Most Improved award was given to Carrie Jercinovich, who spent most of the season as a junior varsity runner before finishing on the varsity team.

The awards banquet also saw 13 letters given to Fallbrook girls runners, and nine Union-Tribune scholar-athlete awards were presented to the girls. The banquet involved both the boys and girls cross-country teams, and a 15-minute, 587-slide presentation covering both squads was also part of the banquet.

“It was a pretty nice banquet,” Hamlin said. “It was just a nice way to cap off the end of the season.”