Press Democrat honors 2018 All-Empire athletes, scholar-athletes

The Press Democrat on Wednesday night presented its All-Empire awards to high school athletes from across Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

Get to know the winners:

ATHLETES

Large School

Kirsten Carter

Santa Rosa

Kirsten Carter literally hit the ground running in her high school sports career and never slowed down. She was named the outstanding female performer as a freshman at the Twilight Meet and is the defending North Coast Section champ in the 100-meter dash. With the big track competitions still to come, she already was clocked this season in the 300-meter hurdles with what was at the time the fastest time of any female high school runner in the country. Her interests start with music - she plays saxophone and guitar and also sings - and she is fluent in English and Spanish (and says she's making progress on Italian and Portuguese). She did volunteer work to aid fire victims and worked at a camp for girls who are interested in sports.

Large School

Beau Barrington

Cardinal Newman

Beau Barrington was the quarterback and a team leader for the Cardinal Newman football squad that earned national attention for putting together a remarkable season in the wake of the tragic October fires that devastated the region and ripped through the school campus. He led the Cardinals to the North Coast Section championship game and was named by Cal-Hi Sports as the quarterback of the year. He's also a baseball player of note, a first-team all-league performer as a junior who was named a player to watch in Northern California at the Scott Boras Classic. He has been working with second graders at St. Rose and mentoring students whose homes - like his - were destroyed in the fire.

Small School

Alyssa Ferguson

Middletown

Alyssa Ferguson is a standout soccer and softball player who won all-league recognition all four years at Middletown. This past soccer season, her 36 goals were the most scored in all of California in the fall leagues. She made her mark early, winning freshman of the year laurels in soccer and rookie of the year in softball that same year. Away from athletics, she has been a team captain and event coordinator for the Relay For Life, coached youth soccer and softball teams, and worked as a counselor at softball and soccer youth camps. She's the editor of the school yearbook, president of the Associted Student Body and president of the senior class. She has worked as a lifeguard and spends whatever free time she can find reading.

Small School

Kheva Mann

Sonoma Academy

Kheva Mann has been one of the most impactful runners on the regional cross country and track scene. He's a three-time qualifier for the CIF state cross country meet, a two-time league MVP and team captain in cross country. In track this year, he has the leading times in the Redwood Empire for the 800 and 1,600-meter runs. And three times he has earned All-Empire recognition. He has been involved in student government at the school and done volunteer work at the Ceres Community Project, preparing meals for cancer victims. He has started his own business by developing an app that allowed users to discover new music and is currently working as a contract software developer for the state of Montana in developing a retirement system for state-employed teachers.

SCHOLAR-ATHLETES

Large School

Amy Stanfield

Sonoma Valley

Amy Stanfield has been a stellar multisport athlete at Sonoma Valley. Although her track career was cut short by a knee injury, she still was the team MVP and a two-time Meet of Champions qualifier. She led the Dragons soccer team in scoring for three consecutive seasons, started at point guard on the basketball team as a sophomore and qualified for the CIF state cross country meet. She has been president of the Seeds of Learning Club, for which she traveled to Nicaragua the past three years to help build schools. She has done an internship with Tracking Mountain Lions through Audubon Canyon Ranch, and she's president of the Wolf Club, leading the recycling effort at Jack London State Park.

Large School

Riley O'Neil

Montgomery

An all-league performer on the school's basketball team who won the tournament MVP award at the Brett Callan event, Riley O'Neil also had a big impact on the tennis court. As a sophomore, he placed fourth in the North Bay League doubles tournament. He has been a North Coast Section scholar athlete in both sports for each of his seasons at Montgomery. He has worked at Camp Revolution, which serves mentally handicapped teens and young adults. He calls himself an incurable competitor and sometimes gets his “competing fix” by playing video games. He has posted a 5.0 grade point average this school year and plans to study mechanical and aerospace engineering beginning next fall at the California Institute of Technology.

Small School

Amy Herrmann

Middletown

Amy Herrmann has been an outstanding track and field competitor at Middletown. Last spring, she qualified for the North Coast Section meet in four events. She is the school record holder in the high jump. She also played volleyball and was the team's most valuable player as a senior and an all-league selection. She's a four-year member of the school's Leadership Club, was president of her sophomore class, student government secretary as a junior and senior class secretary this year. She's a member of the Drama Club, the prom-planning committee and the school's Circle of Friends Club, connecting the school to special-needs students. And she's a dancer, trained in classical ballet, modern, jazz and tap.

Small School

James Carlin

Anderson Valley

There wasn't much James Carlin didn't do in his years at Anderson Valley, in sports and elsewhere. He played football, basketball and baseball all four years, earning all-league recognition in each of those sports. Away from athletics, he was the Anderson Valley student body president and has been the class president each of his four years in high school. He has worked on the school newspaper and school yearbook, served as vice president of the Leadership Council as a junior and president as a senior, and created for his senior project a graduation video for all the seniors. The 10-minute video, for which he collected footage through the school year, will be shown at the graduation ceremony.