Porras, Mortensen named 2023 WVC Athletes of the Year

West Valley swimmer/water polo player Alec Mortensen and indoor/beach volleyball's Flor Porras were named the 2023 West Valley Male and Female Athletes of the Year last night at the annual WVC Scarf athletic graduation ceremony.

Mortensen won a pair of swimming state championships earlier this month at the CCCAA state champioinship meet at East LA. He staged a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the 200 IM May 4 and then followed that up with a wire-to-wire win in the 200 Free on May 5. He was the Coast Conference champion in three events and earned Performer of the Meet and High Scorer at the Coast championships at Las Positas in April. Mortensen joins Sayeh Faridnia as the only swimmer in Viking history to claim two championships in the same year. In the fall of 2022, he was a member of the Viking water polo squad that claimed its 32nd consecutive Coast Conference championship, roared through the NorCal playoffs and finished 2nd in the state for the 2nd straight season.

Porras was also a multi-sport Viking. She was the libero on the the 2022 WVC indoor squad that won its 2nd straight Coast title, a team that lost seven players to four-year schools after a 2021 state runner-up finish. She was the 2022 Coast Conference MVP and 1st team selection.

In the sand in the spring, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) named her as a pre-season 2023 Beach Volleyball Player to Watch. She lived up to that potenial, teaming with Kiana Manson, to qualify for the Coast, NorCal and state championship tournaments. After Porras and Katie Kishton finished as state pairs runners-up in 2022, she and Manson finished 5th in 2023 in a tournament widely hailed as the most talented in California beach volleyball history. Porras and Manson recieved the prestigous AVCA Top Flight Award for playing excellence, one of only two California pairs to be recognized in Flight One, the highest category. 

Porras has accepted an athletic scholarship to continue her beach and academic career at Cal. St. Northridge.

West Valley began awarding the Male and Female Athletes of the Year in 2018, with a break in 2021. Past recipients are:

2018: Sayeh Faridnia (women's swimming)

2019: Mapuhola Sekona (beach/indoor volleyball), Rodolfo Castro (men's soccer)

2020: Raquel de Pinho (women's water polo), Ben Fleming (men's water polo/swimming)

2022: Johanna Scheer (women's water polo/swimming), Adam Afifi and Ben Baker (men's basketball)