Athletes of the Week: Cheroke Cunningham and Mattea Kilstofte

Mattea Kilstofte
Mattea Kilstofte
Cheroke Cunningham
Cheroke Cunningham

Breakout performances during a big week of competition earned Santa Barbara High’s Cheroke Cunningham and Mattea Kilstofte Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Athlete of the Week honors.

Cunningham broke out with a huge performance in the 54th annual Big Game football rivalry between Santa Barbara and San Marcos. Relatively quiet this season on offense, the senior erupted for five touchdowns and rushed for 159 yards in the Dons’ 42-28 win, their fourth straight in the series. Among his touchdowns was an 82-yard punt return.

Kilstofte, the Santa Barbara girls tennis team’s No. 1 player, won her first Channel League singles title after being the runner-up the previous two years. The junior defeated teammate and good friend Madison Hale in the final at Tennis Club of Santa Barbara.

Kilstofte has a season record of 29-6. She leads her team into the CIF Division 1 playoffs this week.

Athletes named honorable mention for this week’s awards are:

Max Vasquez (Cate football), Quentin Tedesco (Laguna Blanca football), Blake Parrish (Dos Pueblos water polo), Peter Ramos (Carpinteria football), Morgan Nevin (SBCC football).

The female honorable mention picks are: Kelsie Bryant (Carpinteria tennis), Katie Yang and KC Egger (Dos Pueblos tennis), Jenna Anderson (SBCC volleyball) and Addi Zerrenner (Dos Pueblos cross country).