By Pete Borello
College Kudos
Here’s an update on some former high school athletes from the area who excelled at the college level this past spring:
Melissa Roja recently capped an outstanding softball career at Amherst College by being named first-team all-NESCAC conference.
The Los Altos Hills native batted .333 as the leadoff hitter and topped the team in stolen bases. Her batting average was third-best on the Lady Jeffs, who finished 22-8-1.
Roja, a graduate of Menlo School in Atherton, started every game for Amherst during her college career.
This year, she anchored the Amherst outfield and had 35 hits in 105 at bats. Roja, who also earned letters in basketball as a point guard, received third-team All-New England and NESCAC All-Academic Team (3.7 grade point average) honors as a junior.
Roja graduated from Amherst last month with degrees in English and Psychology, Magna Cum Laude.
Vincent Tsai, a 1999 St. Francis High graduate, competed on the Princeton University freshmen crew team this spring.
The team wound up winning the Eastern Sprints, which Tsai said is basically the national title of freshmen crews.
Tsai first went out for men’s tennis at Princeton, then decided to pursue crew instead.
“I wanted to play a team sport, so some of my friends convinced me to give (crew) a shot,” Tsai said. “Little did I know that Princeton has hands down the best collegiate rowing program in the country. I quickly grew to love the sport and after months of hard work, made the first freshmen lightweight boat.”
John Gall, a 1996 graduate of St. Francis, last month concluded a stellar career with the Stanford University baseball team.
The third baseman helped the Cardinal to the College World Series, where the team finished second, and he moved into third place on the CWS hit list.
Gall, who just signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, leaves Stanford as the team’s all-time leader in hits (368), RBI (263), doubles (80) and at bats (1,027).
Brooke Rea, a 1998 graduate of Los Altos High, played a major role on the Bucknell University women’s water polo team, which turned in a third-place finish at the recent Allegheny Championships.
Rea scored three goals in the Bison’s 17-6 opening-round rout of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In the game for third place, Rea scored four goals in a 15-8 victory over Penn State.
