Faoa, Marquand Honored as County Athletes of Year

A Polynesian dancer and a running prodigy have been named the male and female athletes of the year by the Orange County Athletic Directors Assn.

Asi Faoa, who is the Polynesian Club/Samoan Dance captain and Magnolia High student body president, was named male athlete of the year for his accomplishments in football, basketball and track and field.

Allyson Marquand of University, a Parade Magazine All-American in soccer and the county’s premier distance runner in cross-country and track, was named the county’s outstanding female athlete.

Chosen from among seniors nominated by each league in Orange County, they were honored Wednesday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Faoa was named to the Southern Section’s Division IX all-section team. A 6-foot-4, 235-pound tight end, Faoa has signed with UCLA.

He was also a first-team All-Orange League post player for the Sentinels, and had the second- and third-best efforts in Orange County in the shot put and discus, respectively. He finished second in the discus in the section’s Division II finals and seventh at the Masters.

Marquand, a member of the U.S. national 18-and-under soccer team, has a 4.1 grade-point average and will attend Stanford. She twice was a first-team all-county performer.

She won the Division III 3,200 title, with the section’s third-fastest time, despite a concussion suffered in a soccer game earlier in the day, and ran the third-best time in the event at the Masters.

She was The Times Orange County’s runner of the year in cross-country as a freshman, sophomore and senior--she dropped out of cross-country during her junior year because of a conflict with soccer--and was the county’s only runner, male or female, to qualify for the national championship.