High school athletes sign up to continue careers in college

The top high school athletes of today are a step closer to becoming perhaps the top collegians of the future. For a handful of area athletes, their journey and careers moved forward on Tuesday when they officially committed to the colleges and universities of their choice.

One such athlete was Gunn High senior Sunny Margerum, who began the day with a workout at the school’s track. She then moved indoors and signed a national letter of intent to continue her track and field career at the University of California this fall.

Margerum reached the CIF State Track and Field Championships last spring in the long jump after winning the Central Coast Section title at 18-1 1/4. She also set school records in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles, but did not advance in those events.

Margerum, who will receive a scholarship, is the third generation of Upshaws to compete athletically at Cal. Her grandfather, Monte Upshaw, was a nationally known long jumper who once broke the national record held by the legendary Jesse Owens. Sunny’s mother, Joy (Upshaw) Margerum, also coached track and field at Cal. Sunny’s father, Ken, was a football/track standout at Stanford.

On the non-scholarship side (but still planning on running for the team), Gunn’s Alex Johann has already been accepted to Pomona and Lisa Fawcett has been accepted to Cornell.

Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, will have 13 athletes continuing their respective careers in college.

Three recruited football players will continue on the next level — running backs Chris Gaertner and Matt Walter (both recruited walk-ons at Stanford) and lineman John Oppenheimer will play next season at Yale.

The SHP boys’ water polo team also has three recruited athletes. Ben Dearborn and Connor Still will be playing at Princeton in the fall and David Culpan will be playing at UCLA. The SHP girls will send recruited Heather Smith to Bucknell.

Dearborn, Still and Culpan helped the Gators win three straight WCAL and CCS Division II championships. Culpan and Dearborn were the CCS Division II co-Players of the Year. Culpan led the team in scoring and was a first-team All-American this past season, while Dearborn was the defensive backbone in goal. Still was a three-year varsity member. Both he and Dearborn also were named to All-American teams.

Two players off the SHP girls’ volleyball team that won the CCS Division IV championship also have been recruited — Kira Whitehouse (Columbia University) and Margot Roux (Bowdoin College).

“There are a few more of our SHP student athletes who were also recruited and have committed to various other collegiate programs,” said Frank Rodriguez, the SHP athletic director.

Those athletes include: soccer standout Lizzy Weisman (Harvard), lacrosse standout Victoria (Tory) Wilkinson (Louisville University), golfer Dalan Refioglu (St. Mary’s) and swimmer Katie Howard (Duke).

“We couldn’t be prouder of these student athletes,” Rodriguez said. “This is the fourth year in a row (2006-2007 through 2009-2010) where we’ve had at least a dozen student athletes from SHP who have gone on to complete at least one season of their respective sport at the next level.”

Palo Alto senior Jenner Fox reportedly committed to play soccer at Yale University next year. On the Paly girls’ soccer team, Kelly Jenks will play at Santa Clara, Erika Hoglund at Princeton, Maeve Stewart will continue at Tufts and Claire Skrabutenas at Vassar.

Menlo School’s record-breaking wide receiver Clay Robbins will continue his football career at Dartmouth.

Menlo-Atherton water polo players Jed Springer (UCLA) and Eric Wright (Stanford) will continue their careers in the Pac-10.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

— Palo Alto Online Sports

— Palo Alto Online Sports