Paloma Valley High Athletes of the Week: Sept. 28

Menifee 24/7 is pleased to honor outstanding athletes at area high schools. Each coach of a sport in season is allowed to select one athlete per week as Athlete of the Week. Here are this week's honorees from Paloma Valley High School:

Sophomore Jess Briney ran a personal best time of 20:15 in the Wayne Walker Invitational cross country meet at Craig Park in Fullerton last week. Her time was almost two minutes faster than her time on the same course a year ago. She was the No. 3 runner for the Wildcats in that meet and helped the team to an eighth-place finish out of 32 teams.

"Jess really impressed us," said coach Joe Ellett. "She was in a therapeutic boot about three weeks ago, but kept her spirits up and has come back like a girl on fire! This past week of training she was looking good, but I didn't know she was going to be such a beast. It will be really great to see her take this new-found race mentality and build on it at next week's league meet."

Quarterback Chance Nolan passed for 241 yards and 3 touchdowns for the football team in the Wildcats' 42-12 victory over Temecula Valley last Friday. Nolan has thrown for 1,279 yards and 13 touchdowns this season for Paloma, which is 4-1 with a bye this week before opening league play.

Jayde Shelton had 17 kills and 5 blocks for the girls volleyball team in a league win over Temescal Canyon last week. The Wildcats headed into this week 11-4 overall.

"She has matured a bunch since the beginning of the season and is playing with more composure, learning to take what the opponent gives her," said her coach, Stephen Kaas. "We had a tough week, losing two starters to injury. We should be at full strength by the Heritage match on Oct. 3."

Freshman tennis player Akira Maclin had a big performance in a win over Chaparral.

"Akira is a very impressive competitor," said coach David McCoy. "She was key in a team effort win against Chaparral. We needed a win to tie 9-9 and go ahead in games for the win, and her No. 2 doubles team got us what we needed for the victory. I can't wait to see how good she is going to be."